Forever S01E03 Recap: The Fountain of Youth

Abe closes up shop for the day, watching a boy do some tricks on his skateboard. He longs for the youth to do it, though Henry laughs. Even in youth Abe wasn't as dexterous as he remembers. It's the weekend, and Henry continues to work. He hasn't discovered a way to pass on his youth, but maybe achieve his death. He's noticed that depending on the method of death he stays dead longer. Abe finds the conversation depressing, eventually on of his experiments will work and he'll be gone. He doesn't want to die immediately, but experience growing old, and eventually dying. If Abe had his curse, he'd be out living, seeing and doing everything.

A man has his briefcase snatched. He goes off after the boy who stole it, tackling the kid to the ground. As he whales on the kid, he has a heart attack, and falls over in death.

The man Bill winds up on Henry's table. Henry dissects his life based on clues, and sees that he fought back against the mugger. He cuts away Bill's shirt, and the man is ripped, surprising Henry and Lucas. His body doesn't look like that of a 67 year old. The mugger checked himself into a hospital for his injuries, Jo asks if they should arrest him for murder. Henry isn't so sure, he was 67, but had the body of a 30 year old and the brain of a 100 year old. Something doesn't add up. The son of the deceased comes in, and they show him a picture,  but he says that it isn't his father. It's him, but not the man who raised him. His father was different before his mother passed from cancer 2 years ago. After he became a different person. With the son's permission they open the briefcase. Inside they find a picture of his mother, but more importantly a business card with Youth, Vitality, Vigor and an ouroburos on it, and a whole lot of money. His body was recovered downtown, a place he hated going. They have to find out why he was down there.

They head to where his body was found, and Henry notes the skid marks on the street, signaling where Bill and the mugger had come from. Henry finds more clues to the direction from which they came, and eventually finds where Bill had started before the pickpocket made a grab for his briefcase. Bill certainly didn't fit into the neighborhood,and Jo and Henry have to figure out why he was there. They see a wealthy looking woman exit a car in very high heels. She doesn't fit in either, and they follow her into an alley, to a door with a ouroboros. Behind the door is a day spa looking place. They're selling Youth, Vitality and Vigor, offering eternity. They speak with the doctor running the place, Dr. Garner. He's marketing a new drug, Eterna, that costs thousands of dollars a week, but it works. Henry points out that it may have killed Bill, but they don't offer long life, just youthfulness while you're alive and taking it.  Dr. Garner himself takes the drug which has been deemed safe by the FDA. Henry asks about its ingredients. The Dr tries to talk fast, and speaks of body chemistry reacting different for everyone. Jo wants a sample, but the Dr. tells her the wait list is a mile long. She doesn't want it for herself, but for the case. The Dr. asks for a warrant. He's taken away by another doctor. Henry notices that the Dr. has had 2 very different plastic surgeries, which he finds odd. Jo sweet talks the Dr. to get some personal information. Henry is left on his own, and he flirts a bit with the woman they followed in and swipes one of her packages of Eterna. Jo grabbed the Dr.'s prints.

Henry remembers another offering of forever in 1906.One doctor thought that even Henry would want forever. The sanatarium worker Henry felt was offering something he couldn't actually deliver on, depriving people of the help that they needed. But Henry's colleague reminded him that breakthroughs happen all the time.

Abe finds Henry down in his lab. He's working on the fountain of youth, and Abe is interested to know if it really works. Henry cautions him to avoid it, noting what it did to Bill.

Lucas seems to have lost a second body.

Henry gives Jo the chemical breakdown of Eterna, but its all gibberish to her. Dr Garner gave them some of the big components of the drug when they were speaking with him, but he's swapped out the premium ones for a cheaper substitute, that may be causing harm. Jo tells him that she found that Dr. Garner's real name is Harrold Price and he has no medical training. He worked at a wellness clinic in Miami where two patients died, and he disappeared. Jo tells Henry to pack his swimsuit, they're headed to the Hamptons.

Jo and Henry arrive at the pool party, neither dressed for it. Conversation turns to Jo's hotness, statistically speaking only of course. Henry overly observant and odd manner continues to be somehow charming. He appreciates the efforts to conceal her looks, but its not working. Dr. Garner is surprised to see them, and they allude to taking him downtown. He can't leave though he has house guests. Jo asks if he has guests or if Dr. Garner does pointing out his real name. His colleague Ms. Kennedy asks what they're talking about, and Henry suggests she stay out of it. Garner wants to clear up everything after he gets dressed. Jo and Henry wait for him, when Henry spots the woman he flirted with at the clinic. She doesn't recognize him, and seems a little tipsy. As she stumbles, and Henry catches her he suggests that maybe she's had enough to drink, but she doesn't drink alcohol. She was drinking sparkling water. They hear what sounds like a man falling upstairs and rush up to find Garner dead in a pool of his own blood.

The killer entered the room from the pool area, and delivered a precise would to Garner's chest. Henry finds a fragment of a disposable scapel.

Garner was suffering from the same brain rot as Bill, so it was only a matter of time before he bit the big one. They were both taking Eterna, but so far they've found nothing that would do that to the brain in the drug. Henry knows they'll uncover something if they keep digging.

Back in 1906, Henry walks in on his friend James receiving shock treatment. He was trying to feel better live longer. He thinks perhaps they were too harsh, but Henry thinks it madness, wants to take him out. James refuses, he coughs up blood, and is forced to admit that he has tuberculosis. There is no cure for it at that time, but Henry thinks that they can find something, both being men of science. James isn't so optimistic.

Henry puts two and two together, and runs to Jo with his hypothesis. Tuberculosis. He wonders what if Eterna is infected with something. If it wasn't bacterial or viral it wouldn't show up on the tests. Once infected with a Pryon it spreads rapidly, and you get a pryon by ingesting pryons which are found in brain tissue. The clients have been drinking brains, but where are the brains coming from.

Henry and  Jo go to Lucas. Henry knows about the missing bodies. Lucas never loses anything. There are twelve missing bodies throughout the city, not just their morgue. Henry asks him to tell him everything about the day that the body went missing. Lucas goes into detail, and Henry focuses on the donut. Lucas doesn't normally eat donuts. It came from Anton the EMS guy, who brings him a donut whenever he brings a body to distract him.

Jo calls it in. The EMS is making a delivery when he's arrested. There's a body in his ambulance, and the brain has been removed.

Jo questions Anton about his harvesting of pituitary glands. Those are some heavy charges, but nothing compared to murder. Anton's kit was missing a disposable scapel and they have proof he was at the Hampton's party. Wen Jo mentions immigration, Anton is ready to talk. He's the maker of Eterna. In the Ukraine he studied to be a chemist, but in the US he was only qualified for EMS work, and he's ready to put it all in writing. Some banging on the mirror, and Jo goes to see what Henry wants. He wants to her to ask Anton verbatim, when he extracted the peptide complex from the pituitary gland did he use the Robowski method. She asks the question, and he says he did. Henry knows he didn't do it. He may have stolen the bodies and killed Garner, but he didn't make Eterna. There is no Robowski method, he doesn't have the know how to craft the drug. An officer gives them a list of all the Eterna clients, which sends Henry running.

Abe is busy trying to close a sale on a painting, when Henry rushes in asking if Abe took the Eterna. Abe went for a consultation, but never took anything. Henry feels like he lied to him about wanting to grow old gracefully. Abe did grow old gracefully, but he went to the clinic because sometimes he worries what will happen to Henry, who will take care of him when he's gone. Abe tells him that he's a Dr's son, he didn't fall for any of the hoopla the beautiful chemist tried to sell him.

Henry takes Abe to do a police sketch of the chemist.

Anton gets a visitor from his sister. He tells her that he took the blame for everything, that she needs to hurry up, sell the rest of the drug and make a run for it.

Jo runs the picture through the data base and its Ms. Kennedy, Garner's girlfriend. Her real name is Sasha, she's a Ukrainian chemist, here on a student visa and she's Anton's sister.

Abe waits for a sub train when he spots Sasha. He calls Henry at the station, and tells him that he sees the chemist. He plans to follow her, but Henry tells him to stay put. He doesn't listen and gets on the train.

Jo and Henry try to plot where Abe would be headed, and there's plenty of police headed towards them. Abe doesn't get off on his usual stop, and tries to alert them to where they do get off. Abe tries to get an officer stop and arrest the chemist, but he thinks Abe just hasn't eaten. Jo and Henry catch up to Abe, and head off after Sasha, forced to separate at a split. Henry finds Sasha waiting for another train. Sasha recognizes Henry, and it panics her. He tells her that he's not a doctor. He knows that she was making the Eterna. She admits that she was making it. She was suppose to use stemcells, but it was too expensive. She didn't want to make the drug, but Garner was blackmailing her. Anton worried about being exposed and killed Garner Sasha tries to jump in front of a train, but Henry catches her.

All of the clients have been called, but they only wanted more Eterna. The case is closed. As sad and dreadful as death can be, it only reminds them to enjoy life more.

Henry tried to save his friend James until the end, until James called it quits. He'd had enough medical experiments, he wanted to go outside. He wasn't giving up, but giving in, seeing life as it should, the beauty of everything. Immortals have to be reminded of that, they stop seeing the beauty around them as time stretches on.

Abe rejoices over his detaining, reminding him of his college activist days. He feels 40 years younger after the experience, and Henry 40 years older. He wants to head back into his lab, but Abe has other ideas. You only live once, and Abe wants to skateboard. Poised over a ramp, Abe goes for it.