Mmm.
So that's what the stove is for.
- Good morning. - Morning.
- Mm, coffee. - Yes.
I got an early lecture this morning.
We were up pretty late.
Mm.
By the way, is the flat too cold?
It's great. Why?
You've spent the night here a few times.
I've never really seen you without a shirt on.
- Oh. - Oh, it's not...
No, no, no, no.
I hadn't realized I've been doing that.
Next time, I promise.
- But first... - Mm.
The Trick Door.
It's D.C.'s top magic club.
You're into magic?
Good magicians are like practitioners of social science.
They manipulate us using our own irrationality...
a lot like our casework, just more rabbits.
These are for tonight.
Yeah, a friend of mine is headlining the main stage
for the first time, invited us.
These are sold-out shows.
So what do you say?
Mm, it's a date.
All right.
Are you sure you don't want to, um, stay around for brunch?
I make a mean mimosa.
Mm, tempting, but my folks are in town.
I'm going to take 'em to the Washington Monument.
- But I'll text you after. - Sounds good.
- Dinner? - Mm-hmm.
- Okay, I got to go. - Mm. Okay.
- Ooh, Joyce. - Hi, hi.
- Hey. - Okay, bye.
Uh...
So good date?
Whatever.
Um, hey, you, um... you want me to throw away these pamphlets
for scar surgery?
- You're done with them, right? - Hold on to them.
I haven't made my final decision yet.
And don't deflect from your date.
- You're into her. - Okay, so?
We've only hung out a couple of times.
Don't make it a thing.
But it is sort of a thing.
I'm just saying,
if, um, you want to spend extra time at Rose's,
I'm not complaining.
We have a date tonight, in fact.
I'm here for my suit.
Ah, fancy. Where you going?
The Trick Door.
You're taking her to the magic club?
She's going to love it.
Just, uh, try to play it cool, okay?
Take a lesson from your little sis.
Don't go around listing your favorite magic tricks.
Mm.
There's the death saw, metamorphosis,
that's a classic one.
But I got to say, I am a sucker
for just a great sleight of hand.
I've never been to a magic club.
And it's hard to believe they fool you.
Magic is less about being fooled
and more about being surprised.
- Alec. - Helena.
Rose, meet Helena Jansen, tonight's headliner.
- So nice to finally meet you. - Likewise.
It's your big night.
- How's it feel? - Surreal.
You earned it.
No one's worked harder than you.
Your mother would be so proud.
Oh, I wish she could be here to see this.
My mother was an amateur magician.
These, in fact, belong to her.
That's a lovely way to honor her.
Thank you.
I should head to my dressing room.
Enjoy the show.
Break a leg.
Welcome to The Trick Door.
A Rose... by any other name.
Why, thank you.
Stewie, the usual.
I'm sorry, sir. We don't accept that card.
Very good.
Cheers.
Don't you know what trick he's using?
I do, but it doesn't matter.
My brain makes the same mistake as everyone else's.
Ladies and gentlemen, your attention, please.
They're twins. That one's got a neck injury.
Ooh, Ben's here.
This is Benjamin Franklin's study.
That glass harmonica is one of his inventions.
They say his ghost visits just to play it.
He even takes requests.
Ben Franklin lived in Philadelphia, not D.C.
He died before the city was ever built.
Wonder who's playing his ghost here.
Wow!
It's a big deal for a magician to headline the main stage.
Helena's the first woman to ever do it.
Her show sold out in four minutes.
- So she's good? - She's great.
And there's some heavy hitters here to see her.
Collins Key.
He performed at the Magic Castle when he was 15.
Kendra Harvey...
she owns Toil and Trouble, a new magic club
on the other side of town.
Oh, I got to take this.
Would you get our seats?
I'll be right back.
Synced & corrected by -robtor- www.addic7ed.com
As some of you might have guessed,
I am not Helena Jansen.
Helena wants me to give you a little primer
on something called choice architecture.
Do we have any volunteers?
Would you choose any card?
Now...
your card should be
- the 8 of diamonds. - Yeah.
I'll tell you how I knew that.
All of the other cards are blank.
So how did you know to pick this one?
Choice architecture.
Choice architecture is the idea that while we believe
our decisions are made with free will,
our decisions are often actually made for us
by factors that we are not conscious of.
We must believe the choice is our own.
The truth is, the choice is made before we ever arrive.
But don't take my word for it. Take an expert's.
Ladies and gentlemen,
the woman you all came here to see,
Helena Jansen.
You trickster.
I don't think she's in there.
D.C., how you doing?
Welcome to my opening night.
Collins, buddy, you dropped your wallet.
So you got some money to burn?
I'll tell you a little secret.
There are two kinds of magic.
There's the kind I do onstage,
and then there's the kind you feel
with the person sitting next to you.
That's real magic.
I can't give you that, but I can give you a show.
You've all been staring at that disappearing box back there,
so let's get to it.
Can I get a volunteer?
Right here.
Let's see.
Ooh, right over there. Come on up.
Big round of applause to our very, very brave guest.
- What is your name? - Adelaide MacDonald.
Adelaide MacDonald, everybody.
Beautiful dress, by the way.
Would you like a little getaway?
- Why not? - Why not?
Step into my very disappearing box.
Goodbye, Adelaide McDonald.
Don't worry about Adelaide.
She's on a beach in Thailand.
We kind of miss her, though, right?
She seemed fun, and her friend over there is maybe lonely.
All right.
Come on back, Adelaide.
Whoo!
What happened?
- State your name please. - Fred Marshall.
I've owned the place 30 years.
I've never seen anything like it.
Everything was going fine,
and there was so much smoke, and...
Helena Jansen. Detective Russell, D.C. Metro.
I am so sorry. I don't know what happened.
I have a few questions about this trick of yours.
- Where are they taking that? - Police evidence.
We don't yet understand how Ms. MacDonald died,
but it's pretty clear something inside your box killed her.
No, that's not possible.
There's nothing in that box that could do that.
- I can show you. - Ma'am, ma'am, ma'am.
A woman died in there, okay?
So, until we have a specialized team
examine it safely, no one touches that box.
Please, there must be something that I can do. I...
You could come to the station, answer a few questions.
Is she being charged with something?
That's for the DA to decide.
Helena, do you have any other family I can call?
The closest thing I got to family now is Charles.
He can explain the box to you.
Charles?
Uh, Charles Earl Raclette.
He's Helena's mentor.
He's a legendary magician around here.
Maybe he can help us.
How do you kill someone by magic?
These vision-board worksheets are extensive.
Can Raina really make us do all this?
She's the S.A.C.
She can make us do whatever she wants.
Never thought I'd miss regular paperwork.
What's up?
Mm, nothing.
You have checked your phone three times
in the last five minutes.
Mm, I went on some dates with this girl,
and she said she was going to text, but she never did.
Oh, I'm so sorry.
Yeah, I just hope she's okay.
I hate to break it to you...
but is it possible that you were just ghosted?
No!
Our dates are amazing.
I am hilarious.
I guess it happens, to other people, but not me.
I mean, this face card does not decline.
Well, in that case, um...
something's definitely wrong.
I'll put out a BOLO. We can talk to Raina.
We can put a full squad on this.
Wait, really?
No. Girl, you were ghosted.
I can't believe someone died at the magic club.
Historically, it's the magician who dies,
not the volunteer.
"Historically"?
Charles Rowan, Balabrega,
William Ellsworth Robinson, AKA "Chung Ling Soo."
Wait, you're into magic, too?
Does that surprise you?
I picked it up as a hobby when I was a kid.
Finally. I've been waiting to find a flaw on you.
What flaw? I was great at magic.
I don't think you're hearing that like I hear that.
Pick a card.
Okay.
Put it back in the deck.
Was that your card?
- How'd you do that? - That's enough.
We should get back to working on the case.
Right.
No, but seriously, how'd you do it?
I just couldn't believe it when I heard.
A disappearing box killing a girl?
No, it's not possible.
We were hoping you'd help us figure out what happened.
Helena says you taught her everything she knows.
Helena's incredibly talented.
I just offered the occasional tip.
You got her her start at the club.
Charles was the main-stage act at The Trick Door.
I've seen your show half a dozen times.
You are a fantastic magician.
I was...
until my arthritis got the better of me last year.
I'm surprised you weren't there last night.
I was teaching at the Potomac Magic Academy.
And now you have to teach us about the disappearing box.
Do you have the blueprints?
I can do you one better.
This was...
my original prototype.
I can show you.
Would you mind?
You seem to be exactly the right size.
And now we just have to trigger the box,
like so.
Volunteer spins to the back, waits outside,
and then we spin her back at the right time.
The audience can't see any of it.
The ME hasn't identified what slashed Adelaide's neck,
but they assume that something came loose,
like a spring or a piston.
No, there's nothing like that in the box.
This did release less smoke than what we saw onstage.
How do you change that?
There's a compartment hidden in the back wall.
One of the principles of magic is,
the closer you look, the less you see.
I don't feel anything sharp here.
How did you get there?
We have been thinking inside the box for answers.
Uh, maybe what killed Adelaide wasn't inside the box at all.
You think the smoke covered something.
Someone.
Snuck onstage, stabbed her, and then disappeared.
Without the audience seeing?
It wouldn't be easy, but I suppose
if someone knew what they were doing.
There's one way to know for sure.
That smoke mechanism is intricate.
You can't use gloves.
You need bare hands, which means
if someone tampered with it, they would have left prints.
We just need to show these investigators where to look.
Just went up in flames? The whole box?
- Purple flames. - Of course it's a trick.
That actually makes a lot more sense than the box malfunctioning.
Exactly. We're up against a magician, and a skilled one.
I can't believe I didn't see it.
Everyone has a blind spot, even when it's your job to see them.
So, if somebody was hiding in the smoke,
can't they let me go?
They're holding me for gross negligence.
Now they know that it was an accident.
Someone could have hidden in the smoke.
Unfortunately, the police don't see it that way.
You were the only one visible near the box.
And after you're arrested,
their only piece of evidence exploded.
So they think I blew it up to hide evidence?
Helena, we're going to figure this out.
Rose found you an attorney.
They're meeting with the prosecutor now.
In the meantime, do you have any enemies?
What, you think that somebody tried to sabotage me
and killed this innocent girl in the process?
It was your opening night.
If you get convicted of manslaughter,
you'll never perform magic again.
I guess if it was anybody, but, no, that'd be crazy, even for her.
Helena, who?
Kendra Harvey.
We were friends back in the day.
When she opened Toil and Trouble,
I agreed to be her headliner,
but then Fred offered me The Trick Door,
and it had been my dream for a decade,
so I bailed on Kendra.
She had to cancel shows, took a big financial hit.
She was pissed.
And for a magician...
This would be the ultimate revenge.
I told you I wasn't ghosted.
A bunch of tourists got their phones
and wallets stolen
at the Washington Monument yesterday.
This is the list of our victims.
That's my boo,
and I believe those are her parents.
You just happened to be looking up crime reports
at the Washington Monument.
Uh, I care about my city...
like Batman, you know, but better dressed.
Try not to look so happy about this.
Why? I was right.
Joyce didn't text because someone stole her phone.
A crime was committed.
On federal land,
which makes it officially FBI jurisdiction.
We can trace the pickpockets.
We have a full caseload right now.
Not to mention these damn worksheets.
And D.C. Metro usually handles pickpocketing,
not the FBI,
but if you want to take on extracurriculars,
be my guest.
Extracurriculars are what I'ma be doing with Joyce
once I get her phone back.
Ms. Harvey?
I'm Alec Mercer. This is Rose Dinshaw.
I remember, from The Trick Door.
You're the one who didn't kill someone onstage.
Ye... We're actually trying to sort through
the events from last night.
You working with the police?
- Not this time, no. - Helena said you were friends.
We used to be.
Came up together on the circuit.
There aren't a lot of women in magic.
Is that why you founded Toil and Trouble?
I noticed all your performers are female or nonbinary.
See, everyone thinks magic is a cis-male thing.
Women have always been here...
being ogled, sliced up, vanished,
doing the real trick while the magician takes the bow.
This place, that wall, is to make sure
we don't disappear anymore.
I helped with an experiment where we asked people
to watch a trick without seeing the magician
and asked them to rate how good they were.
When we said the hands
belonged to a woman named Josephine,
they said that the magician wasn't very skilled.
When we said they belonged to a man named Joseph,
they said the magician was very skilled.
It was the same performer both times.
I know that study. You were involved?
I was a co-author.
If you're asking about Helena's bona fides,
she's a good magician...
really good and safe.
I don't know what happened up there.
That spot on the wall...
that was for Helena.
She wanted to headline a mainstream club.
We all know that's code.
How you going to work in illusions
and not know male approval is the biggest illusion of all?
- Well... - Hmm.
She failed spectacularly.
Must have felt good.
Her loss is not my gain.
People see one woman as a bad magician,
they think we all are.
I haven't sold a ticket to my club since.
What time would you say you arrived
at The Trick Door last night?
Hey, wait a minute. All these questions.
You think it wasn't an accident,
that I had something to do with it?
Forgive us, but a skilled magician
sabotaged her.
You had a bone to pick with Helena,
and you were at the show.
A woman died.
I'm not a fan of us
getting chopped up onstage for fake or real.
I was at the show because, despite everything,
I was rooting for Helena... I still am.
So who would you say could be responsible?
Look inside the house.
The Trick Door is a cesspool.
Helena beat out three other guys for that spot,
and I know they weren't happy.
I could give you names,
but good luck getting them to talk to you about it
because they know you're her opening act.
But I'm not.
I remember you...
From the club.
I wasn't there just as a patron.
I'm recruiting for a top-tier magic club in London.
Fred said you were the best magician
- at The Trick Door. - And?
I say you're one of the best I've ever seen.
Yeah, I know.
You were up for the headliner spot, correct?
But it went to Helena.
- Uh-huh. - Hmm.
Look, I get it.
Magic is full of dudes, and we need to diversify.
I support that.
But if you're going to pick a woman,
at least pick a good one, you know?
She just wasn't ready.
Fred said you're the best magicians
- at The Trick Door. - Yeah.
'Cause we're not afraid to put skin in the game.
Look.
This one's even bigger.
Impressive.
So why do you think Helena got
the headliner spot instead of you?
- 'Cause she's a woman. No offense. - None taken.
I'm sure Charles tipped the scales for her, too.
It's a bummer. She's not even that good.
- You grew up in Oregon. - Your favorite color is green.
- You like defying authority. - You're a bleeding heart.
You rolled your ankle in bocce ball.
Your favorite person is your mother,
who died when you were 18.
Fred did say you're the best magician at The Trick Door.
We both know the same tricks.
BS-er to BS-er, cut the act.
Fine.
I want to know about Helena's show.
Felt sort of inevitable
someone was going to take that girl down.
- It was just a question of when. - Because she was a headliner?
Helena... you said someone wanted to take her down.
I wasn't talking about Helena.
Adelaide?
You think this is about her?
She pissed off a lot of people.
How?
The videos are anonymous, but I figured out it was her.
I couldn't have been the only one.
And that's how Stewie does his three-drink trick.
Tune in next Monday to see who we go after next,
The Trick Door's newest headliner,
Helena Jansen.
Adelaide had a huge following,
all for revealing magician's tricks online.
She did it anonymously.
Even her best friend didn't know.
But that won't look good for Helena.
The most recent video mentions Helena,
but there are hundreds of others,
including some of the magicians from The Trick Door.
It's sampling bias.
Magicians take pride in their tricks.
They work for years to build gimmicks, patterns,
protecting their secrets fiercely.
And she was threatening all of that.
It could have been any one of these people.
The magicians I spoke to were arrogant, self-absorbed,
but I didn't get anything actionable on any of them yet.
We're missing something,
and it's another principle of magic.
If you ask the wrong questions,
you'll never get the right answers.
Then we need to start asking the right ones,
because the DA just upped Helena's charges.
Murder in the first degree?
D.C. Metro found the videos a few hours after we did.
They now think that you targeted Adelaide on purpose.
I didn't.
Of all the people in the audience,
you chose the one who made a hobby
of discrediting magicians.
Helena, I have to ask.
Did you pick her for a reason?
Why would I kill somebody onstage during my own act?
Yeah, I picked her for a reason,
but not for the reason you think.
The box is designed for a petite person.
She was the smallest guest to raise her hand.
I had no idea she was a magic vigilante.
She has thousands of followers.
- Her latest video targeted you. - I didn't know.
I stopped Googling myself after my first show
so that I wouldn't go insane.
My name is literally blocked on search terms.
Go into my dressing room, grab my laptop,
and show them my browser history.
I've never seen her before.
I've never even heard of her before.
Please, Alec, you have to believe me... I didn't do this.
Hey, Quinn.
There's a section on Raina's worksheet
that your team has to fill out.
Yeah, could I get to that later?
- I'm heading out. - Hey, you ready?
- Yeah. - Where y'all going?
I turned on Joyce's dad's cell phone remotely,
traced it to a storage facility in Baltimore.
- And you agreed to help her? - Of course.
I'm known for my generosity of spirit.
Let's bust a larceny ring.
Let's go.
You may need backup.
I'll come, too, just in case.
So no one wanting to do those worksheets, huh?
Okay, here's the full list of magicians who Adelaide
made videos about and who also were at the club when she died.
Uh, I have to lead a seminar,
but can you send this to the professor?
Sure.
Wanted to look at my cards, huh?
That's what you get for trying to cheat.
This place is even eerier when it's empty.
Fred said he's shut down until the case is closed.
We're the only ones here.
For what it's worth, I believe Helena.
That's my instinct as well.
If she wanted to kill someone,
a magician as skilled as she is
would have hatched a far better plan.
There's the laptop.
Adelaide was in the audience, desperate to be chosen.
That shiny silver dress probably caught Helena's eye.
Unless...
she didn't choose Adelaide.
What do you mean?
This silver scarf is a match
for the dress Adelaide was wearing.
Notice anything else?
That wig looks just like Adelaide's hair.
All these things were placed here,
influencing Helena without her realizing it.
Choice architecture.
Helena didn't choose Adelaide of her own free will.
Someone else decided it for her.
Someone who was inside this room.
I thought you said we were the only ones here.
- Who are you? - No one.
Ben Franklin?
Wait, just talk to us.
- I can't. - We can help you.
The last person who said that ended up dead.
You mean Adelaide?
It's okay. Nobody's going to hurt you.
What's your name?
You know, Benjamin Franklin was always
my favorite part of this place.
You know, D.C. wasn't even a city until after he died.
So I heard.
I'm Hannah.
Hannah.
I'm Alec. This is Rose.
I know. I was watching you earlier.
That's two-way glass.
That's how you take song requests.
You see everything that happens in here.
Is that how you met Adelaide?
Please, I-I can't.
Hannah!
Adelaide found out about you and never made a video.
Why?
She wasn't a bad person.
She was trying to help me.
- All this, it's my fault. - It's not.
We know that.
Someone snuck into that dressing room
and manipulated Helena,
someone you saw behind that wall.
That's what he does, manipulate people.
He?
Who?
I signed an NDA. He'll come after people.
I'm ex-MI6.
We can handle ourselves.
And if you won't tell us, you will eventually
have to tell the police.
Look, it wasn't just me.
There were other women, guests at the club.
This man took advantage of them...
Of you?
Everyone knew he could get handsy,
but I thought he was harmless,
until he wasn't.
And that's what you told Adelaide.
She was going to make a different kind of video...
not for me,
for everyone else who couldn't talk.
And...
that's why he killed her?
I think so.
The man who did this...
does he work at the club?
Not anymore.
Well, what is it? What's going on?
You said there's a way I can help Helena.
Yes, Charles.
I was thinking about the disappearing box
at your warehouse.
Those latches were hard to square
with arthritis that was so debilitating, you had to retire.
Arthritis comes and goes.
True, but I've also been thinking
about the illusion of choice and how you chose to retire,
- but you were really forced out. - Well, I didn't.
I-I wasn't.
Charles, we already know everything.
Fred covered for you.
It was easy enough with guests.
Magic trick of its own, make it go away,
which he did with envelopes of cash.
But then you went after an employee.
Even for Fred, that was too much.
If you left quietly,
he'd go with the "arthritis" cover story
and protect your reputation.
But then came Adelaide with her videos,
snooping around,
and, suddenly, she had a real story.
This club's greatest magician was a predator.
You'd already lost your position,
but she was threatening your legacy.
So you planned one last trick.
Kill the woman who threatened you
on the very stage that you were kicked off of.
Did you mean to take Helena down, too,
or was she just a convenience?
Oh, this is ridiculous.
I was teaching in Richmond that night.
You... you can check with my students.
I did talk to one of them.
He says you taught the whole time,
but from a mirror box.
I think, really, you were here.
You slipped through the trap doors on the stage,
fixed the smoking mechanism to give you cover,
and stabbed Adelaide.
The ME had so much trouble
figuring out the mystery murder weapon
because it was a swallowing sword.
Not many people have those lying around...
besides you, of course.
I have to admit, it was a great trick.
But right now Helena's getting all the credit for it.
No one will ever know it was you.
I'll know.
Charles Earl Raclette, you're under arrest.
Wha... No, this is ridiculous.
Nowhere to go, Charles.
You're trapped.
What?
Hello, Charles.
How did you...
It's just a mirror. It's a very old trick.
Helena.
- How did you know... - Where you'd go?
I chose for you.
That's why you set me up in the first place, isn't it?
Because I can beat you,
because I'm a better magician than you will ever be.
And I'm going to make sure you pay
for preying on vulnerable, young women.
It's time for you to disappear, Charles.
Hmm, will you look at that?
It looks like this one is Joyce's,
and these are her parents'.
Go on, take them to her
like the knight in shining armor that you are.
- Say it. - You weren't ghosted.
Thank you.
Helena.
How are you?
Well, all the charges were dropped.
- That's great news. - Yeah.
You're still thinking about Charles.
Everything I knew about him was an illusion.
So...
what next?
Uh, I'm working with Hannah on getting Adelaide's exposé
- out to the world. - Oh, good.
It's the least I can do.
And then?
I don't know.
Magic was my whole world.
I really loved it, but I can't see
how I'll ever go back to it now.
You remember what you said at the beginning of your show?
That real magic
isn't just about what happens onstage...
but about something else?
I'm thinking about calling Kendra.
I traded friendship for a career,
and look where that got me.
What happened...
was on Charles...
not on you.
And I have it on good authority
that Kendra will welcome you back.
- She's saving a spot for you. - Really?
Whenever you're ready.
Come here.
Beautiful, magical woman.
Mm.
Pick a card.
Put it back in the deck.
Is this your card?
No.
Still no.
I don't know why it didn't work.
No way.
You sneaky little...
How does it work?
Mm.
Oh, come on. Just show me.
Now we're even.
They had these lead pouches to block the phone signal.
Smart, but they were black market.
Stupid. They were 100% fake.
Oh, no.
Is it cool if I tell my parents
that you didn't find theirs?
I have been trying to get them to upgrade for so long.
This is my best shot.
Honestly, what you do with them is none of my business.
You know...
my friend was convinced
that you were ghosting me.
It's hilarious, right?
Mmm.
So, uh, your friend is not totally wrong.
No, I left our date feeling really good,
like, on cloud nine, and then, I don't know,
I just got all in my head.
Why?
My last relationship nearly killed me.
Mm.
So you were just...
going to disappear?
No! No, no, no, no, no.
A few hours later, I realized I was being an idiot.
You're amazing.
And I'd be foolish to walk away from this.
But then I realized my phone was gone.
Well, I can say that, um,
yeah, you would be a fool to leave me, 'cause, honey...
I should have just told you how I was feeling.
I'm sorry.
I really would love to see where this goes...
if you're still down.
I can stick around for another drink,
so as long as you're buying.
Okay, let's get a bottle.
Case is closed.
I don't have a lecture tomorrow.
I'm not jumping on a plane anytime soon.
So we finally get a little time...
to ourselves.
You all right?
I thought I was more comfortable with my scars.
You know how I told you that everyone has...
blind spots?
Maybe this is one of mine.
Forget I mentioned it.
I don't want you to do anything
that makes you feel uncomfortable.
- I'm sorry, Rose. - Don't.
Don't ever apologize for being honest with me.
I love all of you as you are.
Even if that all of you has a membership to a magic club.
In fact...
would you look at that?
You did magic?
I wanted to make you a Sunday roast.
This was easier.
You are incredible.
And now for my next trick.
Hmm.
Oh.