Krendler is finally back on Team Clarice. Well, as much as he ever was.

Sadly, it took him too long to do the right thing on Clarice Season 1 Episode 8.

Not that he was much of an impediment since he was busy ducking team members and his lawyer Hudlin alike.

That left Clarke in charge of ViCAP. Now, Clarke may be at the "you kids get off my lawn" level of crotchetiness.

However, Clarke could be counted on to make the proper choice. Especially after listening to his longtime friend Krendler be evasive about why ViCAP was no longer investigating Hudlin.

Clarice has succeeded in corrupting straight-arrow Esquivel, who feels a kinship to Clarice as the other outsider on the team.

So it was no surprise that they continued to investigate Hudlin against Krendler's expressed orders, which seemed suspicious to everyone on the squad.

Esquivel took her to meet Benita Sage, the reluctant Justice Department attorney who had pursued Big Pharma for years and was last seen on Clarice Season 1 Episode 6.

Benita didn't want to be involved with their investigation but did offer up the skimpiest of leads, a foreign medical student who had mentioned Hudlin and later turned up dead of a supposed suicide.

Clarice felt a connection to Carolina, which didn't make sense at first. But her session with Dr. Li helped to fill in the blanks.

We learned more about Clarice's sad childhood in this session. The necklace she kept fondling had been given to her by her beloved father. She had lost a bead from it when it broke after his death.

Clarice's mother couldn't afford to keep four children. So she shipped off Clarice to a relative, and she later ended up in the foster-care system.

This made Clarice a very lonely little girl, something with which she has yet to deal.

Of course, in the midst of this breakthrough, Clarice's phone rang, and she ran off, shortly after promising Li she was ready to "do the work" and avoid the trauma of her job. The unhappy look on Li's face was evident.

"Do the work" is looking more like "Show up occasionally because I know I should." Clarice's empathy may yet be the death of her.

Carolina's sponsor Tyson painted her as an equally tortured soul. The husband for whom she was trying to get a visa got killed in Yugoslavia's civil war. Her attempt to gain asylum was going nowhere.

Clarice forged on through her sadness while Carolina opted for suicide. This meant Clarice had to delve further into Carolina's life to determine how she ended up there.

Unfortunately, in the end, Carolina was, as she seemed, a person who ended her lonely existence.

The quiet autopsy performed by Esquivel's girlfriend didn't answer all questions, however. Who was the father of her baby (maybe Hudlin?), and what was her connection to the clinical trials which led to the River Murders?

Krendler got back on the Hudlin conspiracy investigation just in time, it seems.

It was obvious that Krendler was wrestling with his conscience. He couldn't even look his people in their faces.

At that painful lunch, during which Hudlin savors a homebrew in front of the recovering alcoholic, Krendler must have realized Hudlin was odious and unreliable, even for a lawyer.

That was why Krendler grabbed the pen with Hudlin's DNA on it. That likely wouldn't stand up in court, but at least a positive result would give Krendler peace of mind.

But Krendler's heart-to-heart talk with his son should have pushed him in the opposite direction. Jason blamed him for moving out and for not protecting them from their alcoholic mother.

Still, Krendler had to know whether Hudlin being at Woodhaven was just the product of Clarice's overmedicated psyche. So he had Clarke run the DNA test with no explanation.

Finally, he left the direction of the River Murders investigation in Clarice's hands. After all, it was Clarice who had been most damaged during it.

Krenlder was right about keeping the investigation inside ViCAP itself, with no outside involvement. Can you imagine what someone such as Anthony Herman would do with that information?

After all, look at how that smarmy bureaucrat screwed over Ardelia.

Poor Ardelia. She went from being an FBI cover girl to getting passed over for a DNA task force that her actions helped get funded and launched. Apparently, her being black and a woman disqualified her from being selected.

Herman's condescending talk with Ardelia essentially amounted to telling her, "Be a good girl, go back to your office, and wait your turn." 

Little wonder Ardelia found herself sitting outside a Black Coalition meeting and allowed herself to get talked into attending by Haynes. She has figured out that she's not going to change things from inside as long as dinosaurs such as Herman remain in power.

Now, what will the fallout for Ardelia be?

And will she get invited into ViCAP's secret investigation of Hudlin? I can't imagine Clarice keeping that private from her roomie, who she tells everything.

To revisit Clarice's childhood, watch Clarice online.

What is Carolina's connection to the trials?

What took Krendler so long to come around?

Did you feel sorry for Ardelia?

Comment below.

Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on X.