TV Recap: "Furious" Episode 3 —Alice Faces Her Abuser Again
A serial killer has claimed another victim. While Alice Black has been trying to make sense of two suspicious deaths, both ruled a drug overdose, a young woman who was sex trafficked as a teen has killed a prominent lawyer who abused her in the past. Episode 3 of Hulu’s Furious picks up with that man’s daughter left in the middle of the killer’s mess.
Episode 3: “Memory Distortion” — Written by Alexa Derman
Long brown hair is strewn all over Oliver Charles’ bedroom floor, his teenage daughter Mira (Riley Vinson) holding the scissors in shock. FBI Agent Alice Black (Emmy Rossum) arrives, crouching down with the scared girl and wrapping a blanket around her. She gets Mira to hand over the scissors, and Black applauds her bravery. “She took my backpack,” Mira sniffles, saying she wants it back. Black promises to do what they can. Mira’s Mom (Elizabeth Stahlman) rushes in to pick up her daughter. When Alice Black turns around, her abusive ex, Detective Marshall Connelly (Jake Lacy), is standing behind her with an open evidence bag for the scissors. She gives him a cold look as she puts them inside and walks away.
In the penthouse apartment’s entryway, Frank Choi (Rob Yang) congratulates Black for lucking out with a big case for a “baby agent.” Marshall rushes in to talk to Alice. She makes introductions: Choi is from the FBI’s sex crimes division, and Connelly is the lead detective on this homicide for the NYPD. Choi senses the tension between them, asking how they know each other. Black rushes to the bathroom, seemingly on the verge of a panic attack.
In C20 in the FBI’s basement, Choi tells Nora Washington (Quincy Tyler Bernstine) that Alice and Marshall were high school sweethearts whose love was rekindled when they were both at the NYPD. He worries that Black is too inexperienced for this case, but Washington holds firm on her assignment.
“You have to tell me right now that you can handle this,” Washington confronts Black in the bathroom. Alice swears she can. “You do not let Frank take over your case,” she warns her.
Danny Kelly (Scoot McNairy) finds himself in an elevator with Marshall Connelly at the FBI. Connelly asks if he’s ever worked a joint initiative with the feds before. “It would be good to work together again,” Marshall says.
Becky (Chloe Troast) anxiously waits in Central Park with a brown paper bag. “Jinny” (Lola Petticrew) finally arrives, wearing her signature face mask, plus sunglasses. “I can’t do this anymore,” Becky tells Jinny, having gotten everything she asked for, including a wig and a new phone. But when Jinny invites Becky to get high with her, the shelter worker follows her through the park, seemingly excited.
In an FBI conference room, Nora leads the first joint initiative meeting. Danny Kelly is the lead on the Easton homicide, and Marshall Connelly is the lead on Oliver Charles. Her team, meanwhile, is the lead on Adrian Murado. She shows a slide revealing the connections that Black made: Caleb and Oliver were friends from law school, while security footage shows Caleb and Adrian together. The footage of the teen in the bodega video matches a description of Caleb’s girlfriend, tattoo and all. Choi is shocked that there aren’t any pics of the girl’s face, and Black points out how smart the killer has been, even destroying Oliver’s security system. The leading theory is that the killer was trafficked as a child and was trained to blend into a crowd. All of the men on the team assume her motive is money, but Black thinks it’s payback. When Washington suggests speaking with Mira, Connelly says she’s in shock after being forced to cut her hair off. Black believes the daughter did that herself. When Marshall says he contacted the catering company to speak to the hiring manager, Choi praises his initiative while ignoring all of Black’s research.
Jinny gets off a city bus in a residential area outside of the city. Once on the street, we see her ditch the wig as she approaches a house. Yuti (Regina Ohashi), a private nurse, welcomes “Vanessa” back after covering her shifts. Vanessa said she was helping her grandmother through chemo. Yuti mentioned that she noticed quite a few of Vanessa’s belongings in the mother’s room, questioning if she has her own place to stay. “I don’t know what stuff you’re talking about,” Vanessa says, heading inside.
Vanessa’s patient is Aidan (Steve Way), a flirtatious man with physical impairments that leave him wheelchair bound and reliant on help for basic necessities. He can tell that she’s lying about where she’s been, but he doesn’t care, saying he’s missed her. She promised him a gift when she returns, delivered in the form of helping him topless. “You’re priceless,” he tells her
Choi and Connelly have quickly become buddies on the case. From the catering company, they got an ID for Jinny Allen, and a woman with that same name checked into a homeless shelter. They head out, inviting Kelly, who lies about his sciatica acting up. With them gone, Black tells Kelly that she’s confident the killer didn’t use her real name. She tasks Danny with getting Mira’s mom to agree to an interview since he has a disarming way with women, a quality he doesn’t seem sure he has.
“I never feel it when you do it,” Aidan tells Vanessa as she administers his nightly medication by needle. After saying goodnight, she crosses the hall to a bedroom that used to belong to Aidan’s mom. She puts on loud music, lights a candle, lets out a scream, and then starts to explore the contents of Mira’s red backpack, finding a well-loved stuffed animal and a retainer inside, plus the curling iron, which she kept.
Later, we see the killer with black hair and a mask on, doing some live calming for money under the name “Miss *Mask*.” In between one-on-one sessions, she watches a web therapist (Diane Dehn) suggest affirmations to help with trauma healing. We see her open a decorated keepsake box full of photos of men, all of them with doodles and stickers. We see Murado, Easton, Charles, and another man, her next target. She sends a DM to a client named Blanchard, but then she gets a DM that freaks her out from “Ell,” which reads: “New family sucked!! Back with him. I’m in luuuv.” Looking panicked, Vanessa rushes out of the house and gets in Aidan’s van, rushing off.
Choi and Connelly return from the shelter, having discovered that their Jinny Allen was in holding while the suspect was with Oliver Charles. Adding to their disillusionment, the real Jinny puked on them while they questioned her. Black, on the other hand, was able to track down a domestic violence shelter that had a Jinny Allen in residence up until a week ago. It’s a thread she picked up on from the Emma Easton interview, since Caleb’s girlfriend had reportedly been in an abusive relationship before him. If that were the case, she would’ve called a domestic violence hotline and been referred to such a safe house. Choi rounds them all up to head there together, Black included this time.
“This is not what we discussed,” Sarah (Donna Winfield) at the undisclosed shelter protests when the three officers arrive. Black calms her down and convinces her to let them question some of the women who knew Jinny. They speak with Maddie (Jasmine Rafael), who slept in the bed next to her. Connelly is distracted by Maddie’s black eye, excusing himself to get a drink of water.
Shortly after, Alice finds Marshall in a hallway, having been sent to find him by Frank. In his absence, they learned that Jinny may have been having an affair with a shelter employee named Becky, who hasn’t been at work in a few days. “Did I ever do that to you?” he asks, unable to focus on the case. His memory is fuzzy, having been drinking a lot before Alice left him. She confirms that he did. “I’m sorry I hurt you like that,” he breaks down. “I’m really sorry.” Tears in her eyes, Alice turns to leave when Marshall tells her that his mother moved back in from the hospital. She’s dying, and they don’t know how much time she has left. He begs her to come visit her. “You’re like her kid, all those years, her daughter,” he says. “She never stopped thinking of you like that.” Moving closer, Marshall whispers in Alice’s ear that he still loves her. “I don’t wanna talk about that,” she protests, shaking her head. Frank interrupts just in time, saying they’ve tracked Becky’s cell phone to Central Park.
Vanessa parks at a motel, asking the clerk (Robert Bryson) if “Big Man” is in tonight, saying she lost her phone. He directs her to room 7, warning that he’s calling him to let him know she’s there. Vanessa runs upstairs with the red backpack, knocking on the door. Elena (Chloe Carrillo) opens, greeting her as Catherine, introducing her to the other girls in the room as her sister’s friend. Catherine is upset with Elena, who was never supposed to come back here. She begs her to come stay with her. “We tried that; you didn’t have a place to stay, and you got so sad and weird,” Elena responds. Catherine insists she’s getting better, handing Elena the red backpack and begging her to take it, saying it’s full of essentials, including some money hidden in a scrunchie. Elena brags about splitting her shifts now with “him” and how she’s saving up to get her own place and become a health aide too. Catherine reminds Elena that Isabel didn’t want this for her. Catherine previously told Elena that Isabel is alive and she’s looking for her, but Elena is pretty sure her sister is dead.
The reunion is crashed by Big Man (Jeremy Sample) himself. Catherine ducked under the bed just in time to avoid being seen. He asks the girls who was there, and starts beating them when they say nobody. He notices their red backpack and demands answers. As Catherine hides, she has a vision of a bloody Isabel (Larissa Campos) lying on the floor, looking at her as she hides under a bed. When she sees the path to the door is clear, Catherine bolts out the door.
Becky’s body has been found in Central Park. On her person was a SNAP card for Jinny Allen. Her body had multiple needle marks, all of which suggest she didn’t take it willingly. The find reaffirms Black’s desire to question Mira, and thankfully Kelly has good news: Her mother has agreed to let her talk. She thanks him, applauding his ability to make women trust him.
When Catherine returns to Aidan’s as Vanessa, she finds that her patient woke up and looked in her room, where he found a shoepox full of prescription vials, a roll of money, an ID for a “Rebecca Brooks” with her face on it, and photos of men with their faces crossed out. “You never come in here,” she tells him, looking different with black hair. He assumes she’s been scamming the men in the photos, and she laughs about it as if he’s right. She offers to take the day shift from Yuti, which excites him. Aidan tells her he loves the black hair.
Preparing for her meeting with Mira, Alice freshens up in the bathroom at the FBI. Nora comes in, and Alice asks what the girl will remember. Mira talks about how trauma will have erased half of her memory, a phenomenon known as “memory distortion.” She advises Alice to act maternal to Mira, but when Alice is unsure how to do that, Nora learns that Alice never really had a mother.
Black meets with Mira and her mother alone while the rest of the team watch via a live feed. Mira can’t remember details about Jinny’s face, or much of anything about her. “She told me that he was sick,” she says, but can’t remember who she was talking about. Alice begs for any other details. “She couldn’t feel her fingertips,” Mira says, telling how they did their hair like twins and when Jinny touched the hot metal, she couldn’t feel it. “She said she got hurt when she was my age.” Mira is concerned about her backpack, particularly getting her retainer back, but Alice presses on, going off script by telling Mira that her dad paid to have sex with Jinny when she was the same age Mira is now. Mira begins to cry as Alice says she thinks Jinny remembers more about her face than she thinks, asking if she will sit with a sketch artist. “But she didn’t kill me,” Mira sobs. Alice asks why she thinks that was. Mira pulls out a folded photo, saying she was told to give it to the police. Putting on gloves, Alice takes it and unfolds the photo, seeing three men on a couch, a teenage girl in one of their laps while a girl with lighter hair sits on her knees, her face turned away from the camera.
Vanessa gives Aidan a bath, suggesting that they clean out his mom’s old room since she isn’t using it anymore. “I could really use a place to stay,” she tells him. He agrees that it makes sense. She smiles as she tells him she’s also going to use his car. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone,” he warmly smiles back.
In a conference room, the team examines the photo that Jinny gave Mira. The men in the photo have been identified as Oliver Charles, Caleb Easton, and Jay Easton, but the girl on Jay’s lap is unknown. Black ran her face through recognition software with Child Protective Services, and it matches an Isabel Luna, who was in the foster care system until 2012, when all records of her stop at the age of 15. Alice thinks the other girl, facing away from the camera, is the killer. Choi dismisses that theory immediately, but Black notices that the dress she wears in the picture matches the bodega security footage. She thinks this may have even been taken the night before that incident. Choi argues that it’s a distraction, but Washington dismisses everyone for the day. “Well done,” she congratulates Black. Marshall lingers, pouring a cup of coffee until he and Alice are alone. “You were really good in there,” he tells her, giving her the coffee. Danny, noticing that Alice is alone with Marshall, hangs in the doorway, refusing to leave her alone with him.
That night, Alice arrives at the Connelly house, looking uneasy as Marshall invites her in. “She’s going to be so excited to see you,” he tells her. The entryway and staircase are lined with photos of Marshall and Alice, including the two ready to head to a school dance together, and them graduating from the police academy at the same time.
Marshall’s mom (Constance Shulman) is overwhelmed to see Alice again. As they hug, she keeps saying “I’ve got you.” Alice asks her what she was like as a kid. “You were never a kid,” she tells Alice, saying she had seen too much and always seemed cold and robotic. “I taught you how to feel things. To care about people the way I cared about you.” And then her demeanor shifts, saying she didn’t learn anything. She begins to yell at Alice. “Now you’re going to ruin my son’s career, and you don’t care!” She demands that Alice tell the truth, that her son was drinking too much and had a breakup, but he never abused her. Marshall rushes in when he hears his mom yelling. Alice defends herself for never reporting any of his abuse. Marshall ushers Alice into the entryway.
“How do I come back from this?” Marshall asks, wondering if Alice can ever forgive him. He suggests that she call the lieutenant and say everything is fine between them. “I’m not calling your lieutenant,” Alice says as she walks out of the house. He chases her into the street, accusing her of having feelings for Danny while they were together. She opens the door to her car to get in, but he pushes it closed to stop her. Turning around, Alice pulls her gun out of her waist, showing it to Marshall. “Get back in the house,” she orders him. When he complies, she gets in the car, sits at the wheel, and gasps for air.
Vanessa, with her black hair, looks in the mirror and tries a lower voice. She listens to an audio message from Blanchard, who wants to take her out on a date and believes they could be soul mates. Along with the new voice, she dons a new persona - Marta Dreznick. Listening to self-help mantras about creating the life you want to have, she sends Elena a message confirming that Isabel is dead, murdered. “I’m going to find out who did it,” she promises.
Hulu’s Furious returns next Monday, August 2nd, with Episode 4, “Flash Flood,” and we’ll be back with another recap, too.
Alice and Danny pursue a lead out of town. Catherine assumes a new identity.