Crystal Palace, played splendidly by Kassius Nelson, was introduced as the subject of a case brought to the titular detective duo by the ghost of a child called Emma. Since Crystal was a psychic, she was able to see Emma, and that was why the ghost had warmed up to her. But Crystal started showing signs of demonic possession. So, the Dead Boy Detectives, Edwin and Charles, had to perform an exorcism on her. The process was somewhat successful. However, Crystal ended up losing most of her memories. She didn’t know the whereabouts of her family or her friends. Hence, she joined Edwin and Charles to solve paranormal cases by using her ability to peer into the history of the person or thing she touched. In addition to that, she strived to retrieve her memories from David the Demon and reunite with her family. Did she succeed? Well, let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
Throughout the course of Dead Boy Detectives, Crystal Palace’s story echoed the themes of final girls in horror movies and shows whose bodies and minds had been tossed around by a toxic demon masquerading as a man. The fact that she didn’t have any memory of what happened to her when David was inside her underscored the use of date-rape drugs. Even though she was in love with Charles and Charles was in love with her, Crystal was unable to fully commit to the relationship because David kept haunting her, literally and figuratively. Charles’ angry outbursts reminded Crystal of the trauma that David had inflicted upon her, which caused her to lash out at Charles. That’s why Crystal’s journey wasn’t just about getting her memories back. It was also about reclaiming who she was before David ruined everything and being impervious to the attacks of abusive men and demons.
Crystal approached Tragic Mick and obtained a special kind of wishing stone to put up a wall between her mind and David the Demon. She ended up losing her powers in the process, which made her more vulnerable to David. When David tried to repossess her, Crystal actually said that since she wasn’t “special” anymore, David didn’t have any reason to take control of her mind and soul. In real life, we see abused individuals being inconspicuous or downplaying their special attributes so that they are ignored by toxic people. That’s sad because nobody should feel the need to downplay one’s characteristics because of an objectively bad entity. Thankfully, Crystal’s ancestors taught her to appreciate her own beauty and strength. That was how she regained her psychic powers. And when the time came to give David a taste of his own medicine, Crystal extracted the demon from Jenny (David momentarily possessed Jenny) and buried him in a special part of her subconscious where her ancestors and her soul (which was a glowing tree) existed.
Yes, during this whole process of burying David, Crystal did manage to get a hold of the memories that he was keeping from her. They appeared in the form of these purple marbles that Crystal consumed to fill in the gaps in her life. That wasn’t necessarily a good idea because, before meeting David, Crystal was actually a horrible person. She found out that her name was Crystal Palace Surname-Von Hoverkraft (yes, hilarious), and she was the daughter of a wealthy couple who worked as designer architects. Apparently, Crystal’s parents were unaware of the fact that Crystal had been missing for so many weeks because they were too busy with their job. They had nurtured her to be a dislikable human being. So, until Crystal lost her memories, she didn’t care that her parents hadn’t checked in on her because she was getting the money that she needed to maintain a luxurious lifestyle. That said, Crystal wasn’t thankful for her privilege. She abused her psychic powers to fool security guards and kill people she didn’t like. The bottom line is that she was atrocious way before David possessed her.
It’s tough to say the extent to which Crystal’s memories about herself have been tarnished by David the Demon. Going by Crystal’s parents’ reaction, I think most of it is true. At the end of Dead Boy Detectives, after defeating Esther Finch, Crystal was unsure if she wanted to know more about herself. She didn’t know if she’d be accepted by Charles and Edwin. She was utterly confused because she thought she was a good person, but the truth was that she had lived a life of utter debauchery. But Charles and Edwin promised to save her spot in their detective agency because, despite her shady past, Crystal had done a lot of good stuff. Crystal said that she’ll be going to London to reckon with her wrongdoings. So, if Netflix greenlights a second season of this amazing show, we’ll probably get to see the psychic dealing with some very non-paranormal issues related to her family and the friends she has harmed. On the professional front, I hope to see her solve more interesting cases with Edwin and Charles while gaining the power to permanently erase David the Demon.
