It's the Indians fault.

Well, at least, indirectly.

The origin of the child killer seemed to lie in the American West on The Alienist Season 1 Episode 7.

And it actually took Roosevelt to make the connection, based on his exposure to the victims of Indian massacres during his time as a rancher.

Roosevelt's observation that Rosie, the latest victim, appeared to have been scalped sent Kreizler's team on a new line of inquiry. Kreizler and Moore talked to an expert at the Museum of National History, who cleared Indians in general but who agreed that the M.O. could be that of someone who had been exposed to Indian atrocities.

Then Sara, aided by the Isaacson brothers, found a likely suspect after sifting through the correspondence of mental patients for a connection to the West. She tracked Rudoph Bunz, first to Blackwell Island, then to St. Elizabeth's in Washington, D.C., the government's asylum for military members.

Sara's emotional reaction to being at Blackwell suggests that she had spent some time there, or someplace similar, probably following her father's suicide. So now Sara plans to head to St. Elizabeth's, as does Kreizler, so we'll see how that works out in the future.

But identifying a new suspect to replace Willem, who was slain during The Alienist Season 1 Episode 6, was almost secondary to everything else that occurred.

The Isaacsons didn't have much to do other than performing a rather graphic autopsy and offending Sara by trying to not offend her "delicate sensibilities." When will they learn?

Speaking of not learning, there's Moore.

Early on, he served as Kreizler's punching bag while using his only marketable skills, drawing, to compile a sketch of the killer from Stevie's description. Then he got chloroformed while continuing said sketch. Finally, he fell off the wagon after another dressing down from Kreizler, then followed Connor into a beat-down.

His face won't be so pretty the next time we see him.

I think Kreizler was right when he told Moore that Sara would never fall for him. Despite her falling into his arms when distressed, I don't expect anything romantic to develop between them. She's still looking for a manly man to replace her late father, and that's not Moore. He's more of what was referred to as a dandy in those times.

Kreizler also got called on his behavior for his actions throughout this investigation.

It's tough being the smartest guy in the room, especially when you know it and don't hesitate to tell everybody. He has no governor. Still, he means well, even if he does a terrible job expressing himself. Watching him with Ezra, it was clear that he's so much better with children than adults.

First, Cyrus's niece Joanna chastised him for putting Cyrus in danger and keeping him, essentially, as a slave. Fortunately, neither Cyrus nor Stevie saw their service with Kreizler that way.

This led him to believe he should allow Mary to go find her own way. Then he pulled a 180 after Moore warned him that he was going to end up alone. So instead, he invited Mary to dinner and the feelings between the two of them finally boiled over.

Perhaps if he worked with rather than talked down to his team, they would have less friction and get more accomplished.

Excepting Roosevelt, the general attitude among the powers that be seemed to be that a few murdered immigrant children are an acceptable cost of doing business.

It's the same old story, one that continues to play out today.

America is a nation of immigrants. One group of nationalities comes here and becomes assimilated. Then they look down on the next generation of immigrants as lesser beings who are causing any problems they perceive.

In his soliloquy, Byrnes did an admirable job of summing up how things were in 1896 New York City. The Irish cops protect the rich from the consequences of their foibles so that the Irish can enjoy their standard of living. If the fallout lands on newer immigrants, so what?

Then there were the immigrants who have become business owners, such as brothel owner Paul Kelly, who feed off the rich. Still, they could whip the immigrants into a mob, since their own are the victims of the killer.

Finally, there is J.P. Morgan, who got super-rich by being able to see the big picture. He cared nothing for the individual victims, but he needed a stable labor pool, not civil unrest. He was fine with Kreizler's trying to get the killer off the streets.

So is this the stamp of approval Kreizler's team needs to come out of the shadows? Or will Byrnes and company continue to run unnecessary interference, which will slow down Kreizler? Only time will tell.