In Furious, The Serial Killer Is Not The Real Villain

In the new Hulu show, both the killer on the loose and the detectives pursuing her are righteously angry women.

In the first episode of Hulu’s mesmerizing new detective series, Furious, Nora Washington (Quincy Tyler Bernstine), the head of the FBI’s sex crimes unit, relates the story of Medusa to a young agent. The monster with snakes for hair who can turn men to stone with a glance, Medusa was not always that way. Medusa was raped by Poseidon in Athena’s temple, and Athena, deeming this Medusa’s fault, transformed her into the monster we know. It’s an apt tale to serve as prologue to a detective series about a female serial killer tracking down all the men who’ve wronged her, but it also resonates with the women who are hunting her. “Victims of violence are the most violent,” Nora says. “Don’t you think so?”

Alice Black (Emmy Rossum), the young agent listening to Nora’s story, was formerly a Brooklyn homicide detective in an abusive relationship with Marshall (Jake Lacy), a colleague in the precinct and her childhood sweetheart. On one occasion, he beat her so badly she ended up in the hospital. She told her commanding officer, and rumors spread, but the department did not reprimand or discipline Marshall; instead Alice was shunned as disloyal, as a liar. Doubly traumatized by the abuse and by the department’s rejection of her, Alice has started a new life as a fed, aspiring to become an agent for the sex crimes unit.

When she and Marshall cross paths on a case—they’re working a PD-FBI collaboration on a string of murders—he is apologetic, cowed, even meek in his interactions with her. He invites her to come see his sick mother. He seems, to all outward appearances, like a good guy. She agrees, but the sentimental scene quickly turns sour. His mother berates Alice for lying to try to ruin her son’s career, and Alice storms to the door. “She just wants to know that I’m gonna be okay,” Marshall pleads in the soft, chastened tones we’ve come to expect from him, “and she wants you to know that I’ve changed.” Alice, enraged, replies, “You changed things? What’d you change? You got a new coat? What? You got new pants? New haircut?”

And then Marshall really does change. “Please stop for a second,” he whisper-shouts. His hands raise to the sides of his head, his fingers tensed, grabbing air. “Stop making jokes!” Things unravel from there, Marshall’s pretense of friendly détente vanishes, he chases her, she pulls a gun on him. He tried to play it cool, but in that moment, Alice........

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