Kiss the Girls

The Gentleman Caller’s father was an army colonel and stubborn “asshole” who abused him. Nevertheless, the Gentleman Caller excelled in high school as a student and athlete. He then graduated with “high honors” from Duke’s medical school. Now, the Gentleman Caller is a “human monster.”

On the run, the Gentleman Caller stops in Arizona to prey on a woman, Juliette Montgomery. Once her husband leaves, the Gentleman Caller invades her home. He removes her underwear and cuts her with a cleaver.

Back in her North Carolina apartment, Kate considers her “crush” on Cross and their compatibility. She’s an assertive “white woman,” and he’s a determined “black man.” Cross makes her happy.

Kate admits that she’s not fine, but she doesn’t want to worry people. Her house scares her, and she hears creepy noises. She feels like she’s in an Alfred Hitchcock movie, and she has visions of Casanova. At seven o’clock in the morning, Cross calls: He claims he was in Casanova’s house.

Cross thinks Dr. Wick Sachs is Casanova, and he jokingly believes he’s the first Black person to enter Sachs’s affluent estate without wearing worker overalls. Sachs’s house confirms Cross’s contention that monsters can live anywhere and everywhere. Cross believes there’s an “epidemic” of monsters in the US. Breaking a small window in a door, he enters Sach’s house.

In Sachs’s basement, there’s a heavy door that leads to the furnace room, which contains another door that leads to a room filled with pornographic and erotic literature. A few of the titles focus on the exploits of the real Casanova.

Cross wonders where Sachs keeps the girls. He considers Sachs’s wife—who’s a nurse—and Sachs’s two children. Cross wants to hurt Sachs, but he hears a noise, so he leaves and returns to his hotel.

Cross and Kate surveil Sachs. They watch him get the newspaper from his porch and read the headline about Casanova. He takes his two kids to school but skips his tutorial at 10 o’clock. Cross wonders if he’s going to visit the captive women.

Cross and Kate follow Sachs in his Jaguar near the University of North Carolina campus. Kate says Sachs looks like Casanova: They share the same hair color. The FBI believes Sachs and Rudolph were classmates at Duke, but Cross can’t say for sure when the “twinning” occurred.

Sachs stops in front of a retro movie theater. He stands near the signs for the missing women, and Cross thinks Sachs is engaging in “mind games.” Another poster encourages people to change their attitude and help women and children who can’t afford food. Cross thinks this is another subliminal message.

Sachs meets Suzanne Wellesley—an English professor whom the students call Runaround Sue due to her alleged number of sexual partners. Cross says they could make a similar joke about Sachs. Suzanne and Sachs kiss and then go inside and watch the Italian comedy Johnny Stecchino.

Kate dresses up for dinner with Cross. She believes they’re each too scared of becoming attached again. Cross remembers Maria and how much he loved her. Kate fears loss and dying of cancer like her sisters.

Cross tries to convince Kate to stay at a hotel, but she insists on her apartment. Cross calls her “stubborn” and joins her. They drink wine and kiss. Cross stays over, and they sleep in the same bed, but they don’t have sex. Cross says they’re “best friends.”

Naomi has visions of Cross killing Casanova. She also speculates that Casanova has been caught since she hasn’t seen him for days. Gathering her courage, she calls out for Kirsten, who replies. Naomi thinks they and the other women should attack him at once. Suddenly, Rudolph appears in her room.

Cross has Dr. Louis Freed help him locate the so-called “disappearing house.” Freed taught Seth Samuel, and Freed’s area of expertise is the Civil War and the Underground Railroad—a network of places that helped Black people escape the South’s system of enslavement.

People in Chapel Hill seem fearful, reminding Cross of the way people act in New York City and Washington, DC. Sampson returns to North Carolina, and they discuss Casanova as a “territorial” killer like New York City’s Son of Sam. Cross admits that he’s unsure that Sachs is Casanova. Suddenly, a Chapel Hill police officer aims their gun at Sampson and Cross.

Sampson is angered and amused by the racist police officer and his partner. Cross tries to explain, but the police officer curses at him. Cross screams who he is before he and Sampson disarm the police officer and his partner. One of the officers tries to explain their actions, but Sampson silences them. Sampson is proud of how quickly they neutralized the police officers and believes the officers give him an “edge.”

Sampson and Cross talk to Lowell at the faculty gym, where Whitney Houston plays. Lowell says Sachs is known as Doctor Dirt, but he has tenure and has never faced serious accusations like murder and abduction. Lowell mentions the murders of Roe Tierney and Tom Hutchinson. Sachs was an undergraduate at the time, but authorities cleared him.

Casanova worries Cross and the police are getting too close to him. He doesn’t want to become a “territorial” killer and thinks about going to New York, Florida, or Europe with Rudolph. Nevertheless, Casanova is happy that Rudolph is back in North Carolina.

After parking in an area for doctors, Casanova walks through the Duke University Medical Center, and some of the doctors and nurses smile at him. The narrator doesn’t say what Casanova does in the hospital, but once he leaves it, he plans to visit Kate.

Casanova won’t let Rudolph wander the streets. Rudolph remembers his lonely childhood and meeting Casanova, who appeared in Rudolph’s dorm room early in the morning. Casanova knew Rudolph killed Roe and Thomas, and he was sure Rudolph would get away with it. Casanova confessed to Rudolph that he had killed people, too. He believed that he and Rudolph had much in common. In the present, Rudolph drives to Kate’s house, and he sees two Black men standing on the porch.

Cross introduces Sampson to Kate, and the three discuss the case. Kate links it to an essay she read on masculine desire. The work argues that contemporary society represses men. Kate believes Rudolph and Sachs reject society by demonstrating their masculinity to the extreme. Sampson thinks Kate should stay at a hotel, but Kate won’t let the killers scare her from her home. At the hotel, Cross calls Craig, who assures him that Sachs is asleep.

After Cross and Sampson leave, Kate checks the locks on the windows and doors. She still feels like she’s in a Hitchcock movie, and she also wishes Cross was holding her. After speaking to God, she falls asleep. She doesn’t hear “him” enter her house.

Kate now hears a noise and sits up at the edge of her bed. When she sees the outline of a body, she attacks him, and he falls. However, someone else hits her in the back. She realizes there are two people in her room.

Kate hears two men: Casanova and Rudolph. Casanova says Rudolph shouldn’t be here, and Rudolph says he should be here because he doesn’t care about Kate. Relenting, Casanova asks what Rudolph wants to do with Kate. Rudolph wants to eat her. The men laugh. Rudolph mentions that he bought Kate flowers, causing them to laugh again. As they brutally assault her, Kate passes out.

Shaking and crying, Cross drives to Kate’s house. He feels out of control—like he’s not behaving like a professional. Outside Kate’s home there are TV trucks, police, and EMS vehicles. Casanova has brought “madness” and “chaos” to Chapel Hill.

While walking toward Kate’s house, Cross yells at members of the media. Kyle tells Cross that Kate isn’t doing well, but she’s alive. Kyle confirms that Sachs was at home during the attack.

Cross convinces an EMS doctor to let him ride in the ambulance. The doctor believes Kate “tricked” her attackers into thinking she was dead. Cross realizes that Rudolph and Casanova are now working together.

The FBI and Durham police question Sachs. Ruskin claims they don’t have any incriminating information; he thinks the chief of police is just being an “asshole.” Kyle claims they discovered that Sachs owns an escort service. At the very least, Sachs will now have problems with the IRS. Though Sampson tries to dissuade him, Cross insists on questioning Sachs.

Sachs notes that he has no history of violence. Cross mentions his “erotic book” collection, which Sachs defends as a way to understand Western culture’s “fantasy life.” Sachs hasn’t broken any laws, but Cross broke a law by entering his home without a warrant.

Cross notes Sachs’s relationships with students. Sachs says the relationships are consensual and healthy. He helps free them from their inhibitions. Triggered, Cross attacks Sachs. He realizes Sachs isn’t strong, so he’s not Casanova.

Sampson and Cross have dinner, and Cross tells Sampson that he’s as comfortable around Kate as he was around Maria. Cross’s beeper interrupts the dinner. Cross calls Kyle, who says they’re arresting Sachs for Casanova’s crimes. Kyle claims they have physical evidence. The FBI and the Durham police will arrest him together.

Sampson and Cross drive to Sachs’s house, and Kyle says the local police surprised them. Due to political pressure, the chief of police chose to arrest Sachs. Kyle is suspicious. The police received an anonymous tip and searched Sachs’s house with dogs. They found women’s clothes hidden in the house, including one of Kate’s shirts. Cross is livid at the Durham police. He thinks they have the “wrong man” and put fame before justice.

The Durham police chief, Robby Hatfield, looks like he could’ve played football. Cross wonders if he’s Casanova. As Ruskin and Sikes joke around, Hatfield thanks Cross for his support. Cross tells Hatfield that Sachs isn’t Casanova, but Hatfield only smiles condescendingly. Sachs is sweating and softly declares his innocence. Cross thinks of Sachs as a victim. Casanova set him up, and whoever called in the tip is Casanova.

Casanova informs the seven abducted women that the authorities have captured Casanova, who turned out to be a “crazed” Duke professor. The Gentleman Caller is with Casanova, and he touches Naomi before moving on to a woman named Christa. Christa tries to smile, but she can’t, and the Gentleman Caller likes her fearful eyes.