Diksha Sundriyal
In its fifth episode, Peacock’s ‘Mrs. Davis’ demystifies almost all the mysteries it had teased in its first four episodes. We get a lot of answers about the red-headed lady the commercial starred in, the cat that was stranded on the island for a decade before being rescued, and the ways to destroy the infamous grail. This episode puts the finishing touches on the mythology that the show has built since its premiere. With only three more episodes left in the season, this was the much-needed bridge to get reveal the connections so that, in the future, the show can focus on how these connections come into play and what it means for the future of the protagonists. Here’s what it all adds up to. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Mrs. Davis Episode 5 Recap
After seeing the tape, Simone and Wiley track down Schrodinger, whose feet and cat appeared in the video alongside Clara. Before telling them where she is, he starts by telling them who Clara is. She belonged to a secret society called Sisters of the Coin, whose only purpose was to keep the Holy Grail safe. It turns out that maintaining the grail was a colossal task. There were a set of rules that one needed to follow to make sure the grail was taken care of and its temper was contained. One of the rules was that the grail must be seen by at least one percent of the world’s population in a year.
Clara grew up under the tutelage of her mother, Mathilda, who was cold and distant. She longed for her attention, and so did Hans Ziegler, who was treated as nothing more than an errand boy by Mathilda. Years later, with the population explosion, the Sisters realized they needed 75 million people to see the grail. Mathilda came up with the idea of making a commercial and airing it during the Super Bowl, which would unprecedentedly expand their reach.
Despite Mathilda’s wishes, Clara stars in the commercial. To fund it, Ziegler is tasked with becoming a priest in the Vatican, from where he embezzles money, and after more than three years, the commercial is made. During its making, Ziegler proposes to Clara that they should steal the grail. She rebuffs him but then uses his plan to steal the grail for herself. The commercial never aired because Mathilda never really contacted anyone in the shoe company to finalize the thing. With the grail in her possession, Clara finds her father, Dr. Schrodinger, and asks for his help to figure out a way to destroy the grail.
Mrs. Davis Episode 5 Ending: How Can the Holy Grail be Destroyed?
When the algorithm approached Simone to find and destroy the Holy Grail, it mentioned that she was literally the only person in the world who could accomplish it. Simone didn’t understand why that was back then, but it becomes clear when Schrodinger tells them all about Clara and her quest to destroy the grail. After spending over a decade trying to figure out how to destroy the thing, Clara and Schrodinger seem to be running out of options.
On October 31, 2001, they met again, hoping to destroy the grail from the ignition fire of a rocket ship about to be launched by NASA. They chat about how all of their ideas have failed all this while, including the whole myth of rituals created by the Sisters of the Coin. Clara wonders if the rule of not drinking from it is also just another ridiculous superstition concocted by the sisters. Or, more importantly, if the rule is not to protect the one who drinks but the grail because this is the only way to destroy it.
Deciding to test the theory, Clara drinks from it, but it ends with her head exploding. Schrodinger says that just before she died, she had a tranquil expression as if she had gone somewhere. Simone realizes that this is when Clara met Jay. The professor continues to tell Simone and Wiley about how the grail was left unattended years ago, and a mouse drank from it and died. His cat, Apollo, ate the mouse and, instead of dying, got only better and is currently in its thirties.
Schrodinger theorizes that the grail has some toxins, which might be the reason behind its foul smell and why people who drink from it die. However, if someone eats or takes part of the dead one’s body, they might develop an immunity against the toxin, like the cat might have done after it ate the rat. When Clara died, he decided to test this theory and gave her liver for transplant. The reason he chose the liver was because of its detoxifying quality. The liver was transplanted to Wiley and Simone when they were kids. In a way, they have consumed Clara, which should make them immune to the grail’s toxins. So, if they drink from it, they should be safe, and the grail must get destroyed.
While it seems sound in theory, it cannot be confirmed until it is tested. This means that either Simone or Wiley will have to drink from the grail. If the theory is correct, they should be safe, and the grail would be destroyed. However, if the theory is wrong, it would mean that whoever drinks from it will die. Because Simone and Wiley are the only people qualified for this experiment, one of them will have to take this chance and put themselves at risk of having their head explode.
While Wiley doesn’t feel ready for that, Simone seems to have made up her mind. She is prepared to do whatever it takes to destroy the grail, even if it means her death. But first, they have to find the grail. Following the liver transplant, Schrodinger decided to get rid of the thing because he’d become too invested. He boards a ship with his marine biologist friends and feeds the grail to a sperm whale, which loses its mind and destroys the ship, leading Schrodinger stranded on the island for the next decade. He finds it best to stay away from the world, but now that Simone and Wiley have come to him, he believes it must be a sign that they can finally finish what Clara started.
Read More: Mrs. Davis: Who is Jay? Is He Jesus? Is He Real or Does Simone Imagine Him?
