In front of Josepho Litvinov?

This judge? Once again?

Zack looks over to Litvinov. Did he notice Karloff enter? Does he have any inkling who it is?

The possibilities, the permutations, run through Zack’s head immediately.

Karloff is here, risking being seen and identified.

Is he here to somehow frighten Joey into doing it? Into following through? Presumably, he doesn’t yet know Joey can’t do it.

Or is he carrying a cell phone detonator of his own? To use when? Where? How?

If Zack got into this courtroom with his altered phone, then no problem, certainly Karloff could too.

Are both Zack and Karloff equally empowered? Equally destructive?

Or has the code been changed? And Joey’s phone in Zack’s pocket is as powerless now as Zack’s phone is in Joey’s pocket. And only Karloff can detonate and destroy.

Now Litvinov can see Karloff. A figure materializing out of the past. Litvinov presumably wouldn’t recognize him. If Zack is guessing correctly about their shared past, Litvinov hasn’t laid eyes on him since Karloff was a child. He might know of Karloff’s presence in the city. Maybe the small Bulgarian expatriate community has made them aware of each other, too few degrees of separation. Or has Karloff stayed so invisible, so underground, that Litvinov has no idea? “Karloff” is a criminal whose real name only surfaced through research, after all. And Litvinov is a civil court judge, nothing higher.

Maybe Litvinov didn’t know until this moment? Until looking past the white hair, catching something familiar, something dimly recognizable, from across the world, from across time? Zack doesn’t know. But nobody in the courtroom is physically closer to Judge Litvinov than Zack, here on the witness stand. He looks for a flickering light of recognition to cross Litvinov’s eyes, but sees nothing.

Zack has continually wrestled with it: if Karloff—Demetri Calunius—wanted vengeance on Litvinov, why not hire an assassin like Joey to simply kill him?

But from up here on the witness stand, looking out over the courtroom, Zack understands vividly. It makes a certain sense.

Because Karloff wanted this.

A courtroom. Justice. Coming full circle.

And now, even more than that. Even better. Worth the risk to Karloff. To see Litvinov. To have Litvinov see him.

Which only the courtroom could provide. For both of them, for others, to bear witness.

To make the justice system—at last, for one final, compelling, overwhelming moment—work for him. For Karloff.

Before the old judge leaves the bench. Before it is too late.

Obviously he’s planned for it to happen anonymously, to just have Joey set the whole place ablaze, but maybe Joey’s failure has offered Karloff a glimpse of what he really wants. To be face-to-face for some kind of settlement, some kind of accounting, with his past. To have Litvinov see him, to have Litvinov know, in his final moments.