If you would like to read my review of the last episode, click here.
Synopsis: Camille crosses a line in her investigation of the prime suspect. Richard coaxes Jackie to offer up info about Marian Preaker’s death. Adora takes pains to keep an ailing Amma under her roof and in her care. (HBO)
Writers: Gillian Flynn and Scott Brown
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée
Rating: TV-MA
Running Time: 52mins
Airs: Sundays at 9pm on HBO Canada (Canada)/HBO (United States)
This episode started slowly but definitely picked up steam until the not so shocking reveal at the end. While the killer may not be Amma, it was always going to be someone close to Preaker. Perhaps more episodes would have helped but the pacing of the series has been the biggest issue and it reared its ugly head here. The reveal was still impactful, however, its emotional impact was lessened because of this. This episode was titled “Falling” since that was pretty much what happened here for several characters.
Preaker and Amma had a rough night at the end of the last episode so this episode started with Adora picking up the pieces, being her usual over-caring self. Preaker wanted none of Adora’s attention seeing that she had important work to do. Adora loves (more like is obsessed with) to take care of her children, maybe trying to fill the void with Marian gone.
Richard was out looking into Marian’s death by meeting a shunned nurse who accused Adora of suffering from munchausen by proxy, causing Marian’s death. The story had since been buried but it was clear now that she was exercising the same behavior with Amma.
After the big discovery from last week’s episode, the police were pursuing John Keene as a suspect in the girls’ murder. However, the witness to that discovery wasn’t the most reliable. While the police were executing a search warrant on his house, Ashley was willing to sell him out so she could become famous. While looking for a new place to drink, Preaker ran into John Keene who had been missing since the night before. He did not exactly have the demeanour of a murderer. He gave up for the most part and wanted to die. He refused to say that he didn’t kill his sister.
Preaker believed John Keene didn’t kill his sister so she wanted to help him get sober before turning himself in. When they got to a motel room, she resisted his advances until she finally connected with him in a way that she swore she never would. John Keene read all the words scarred on her body until they really connected. Afterwards, he shared stories about both girls’ contentious times with Adora. As soon as that ended, Richard and the rest of the police came to arrest John Keene. Before they left, Richard shared that he was investigating her as well as his overall disappointment with her and that he had enough.
From there, Preaker took the baton and continued to look into Marian’s death. A visit with Jackie led to the discovery that Marian was cremated shortly after her funeral which was something that was kept from her. Preaker was very upset with this and somehow she connected Adora with The Woman in White. She called her editor Frank Curry (Miguel Sandoval) to share her suspicions that Adora was “doing it again” and that she had to stop her.
As Preaker was driving back home, everyone seemed to be getting ready for something. Alan was taking a trip down memory lane with Amma while Adora and Amma were a little unclear.
Overall, this was a good episode that started off slow but definitely picked up at the end by revealing Adora to be the killer. Another misdirect may be possible, however, it seems a little too late for that. While the pacing and the balance between all elements in the narrative have been the biggest issues so far, the technical side of the series as well as the performances have mostly made up for this. Though Amy Adams has been great throughout the series, this was her best episode so far and it will be exciting to see what looks to be a showdown between her and Patricia Clarkson’s Adora in next week’s series finale.
Score: 8.5/10
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The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.
