TV Recap: "Furious" Season Finale — The Truth About Isabel

Hulu’s Furious has been building up to this moment. Catherine Grace has arrived outside of the Easton estate to find out what happened to Isabel, while the FBI and NYPD are on their way with probable cause to search his home. Here is a recap of the exciting conclusion. 

Episode 8: "Hart Island" — Written by Elizabeth Meriwether & Ron Bass

Emma Easton (Hope Davis) helps her father Jay Easton (Peter McRobbie) into bed, administering morphine to help him sleep. Jay cries about Caleb, confused why one of the girls is out for blood since he always paid them. “I don’t even remember this girl,” he complains. “I do,” Emma responds, removing a gun from Jay’s bedside safe.

Danny Kelly (Scoot McNairy) drives Alice Black (Emmy Rossum) and Nora Washington (Quincy Tyler Bernstine) to the Easton estate, explaining that the DNA under Isabel’s fingernails belonged to Emma. The medical examiner shared that the deceased appeared to have died of a heroin overdose. Nora reminds Alice that anything she does before handcuffing Catherine is a gray area, hinting that seeking a stash of child pornography should be their first priority.

Nora fills Danny in on Ed’s collusion with Jay Easton, who was the source of Ed’s breakthrough case in 2011 that secured his big promotion. She believes that Ed has been quietly cleaning up Jay’s messes. “He thinks I took a piece of evidence,” Danny tells her about why they fought. Nora asks what it was.

Ed George (Danny McCarthy) talks Emma through the degausser procedures over the phone as she stares at the pile of hard drives and VHS tapes in her greenhouse. He is placing a call to the local police, which should buy her some time. The call is interrupted when Emma hears someone else in the greenhouse. 

“I know you,” Catherine Grace (Lola Petticrew) says as she sees Emma. “You’re his daughter,” she continues, unlocking more of her repressed memory. Emma asks her to leave. “I just want to look at you,” Catherine says, remembering that Emma welcomed them into the house the night Isabel died. Emma showed off her flowers that night, asking the girls to smell their fragrance. Catherine shows Emma her poppy tattoo and asks if she grows poppies. Emma says she only grows fragrant flowers. “I’m a victim here, too,” Emma reasons, saying her job was to make the place nice for the girls and to provide drugs. She offers Catherine her gun to kill get father, telling him where he is upstairs, but Catherine is more interested in answers, asking if this greenhouse is where Emma hid while her father was hurting little girls. “You weren’t a little girl, you were a teenager, and there’s a big difference,” Emma tells her. Catherine moves closer, and Emma warns that she will shoot. Catherine asks her to do it.

Having just arrived outside, Alice hears a gunshot and rushes to the sound’s origin in the greenhouse. She finds Emma on the ground, shaken. “She attacked me, and I shot her,” Emma confesses, adding that Catherine took her gun and ran into the house. Alice warns Emma not to move as she rushes into the home. Emma gets back to work destroying evidence.

Alice calls for Catherine, following a trail of blood from her chest wound. “I just want to know what happened to her,” Catherine pleads, “I’m remembering things.” Alice asks her to keep talking as she follows the sound of her voice. “Isabel was crying, and it was close to here,” Catherine says as she finds a painting that acts as a door. Alice warns Catherine that if she’s holding a gun when the police arrive, they will shoot her. “Why did you ask me to come here?” Catherine asks. “So I could get in this house,” Alice confesses. Catherine thinks Alice wants her to kill Jay. She talks about the thrill of killing someone, describing a peaceful moment just before they slip away. Alice finally catches up to Catherine in the secret room, which Emma returned to. Catherine holds Emma at gunpoint.

Danny and Nora are outside the house when the local police arrive, accompanied by the FBI. Officers Ronny (Alvin Christmas) and Bob (John Ford-Dunker) ask Nora and Danny for their IDs, and Ed refuses to vouch for them. 

Emma shares what she knows, and we see it all in flashback. Jay had hit Isabel (Larissa Campos), who was still bleeding in the aftermath of giving birth. Emma was trying to comfort Isabel, who scratched Emma’s back while in pain. She couldn’t figure out how to stop Isabel’s bleeding, but also refused to call a doctor. Catherine remembers being with Oliver when Emma interrupted to tell her that Isabel needed her.

Catherine remembers Isabel’s final moments. Isabel was in horrible pain, squeezing Catherine’s hand. “I couldn’t feel my hand,” Catherine remembers. Emma left the girls alone; she asks why she left. “I called Hal,” Emma reveals. Catherine realizes that Emma is who Hal was trying to protect. Emma tells Catherine that she killed the wrong people. Catherine seems ready to shoot her in response. Alice begs Catherine not to kill Emma.

Outside, Nora follows Ed when he steps away from the group, watching him pull out a personal phone. She asks if that’s the one he used to call Jay to warn them they were coming. “Jay Easton gave me intel that saved lives,” Ed scoffs. “You never see the big picture.” Nora guilts him about covering up Jay’s crimes. “It was one dead girl!” he screams at her. She asks to see his phone. “Or what?” he asks

Trying to save Emma’s life, Alice asks more questions to keep her talking. When she left the room to call Hal, Isabel was alive. When she returned, she was dead. She thinks it may have been complications from giving birth. Catherine sits on the floor, dropping the gun. Alice realizes Catherine just remembered everything, sitting with her as Emma runs out of the room. “It was you,” Alice says, having put the pieces together. “She asked me to,” Catherine cries, remembering how Isabel begged Catherine to end her suffering with an injection. “You didn’t want her to be in any more pain,” Alice confirms as she slowly handcuffs Catherine.

Emma bursts outside, telling the authorities that Catherine is inside with a gun. They rush in, and Danny clears the scene, warning the officers not to touch anything. EMTs begin treating Catherine’s wounds.

Alice heads upstairs, finding Jay asleep in his bed. She wakes him up, and he looks at her, bewildered. “I know you,” he says, recognizing her. “You’re the movie star! I like your video. It was always one of my favorites.” He starts to cough. The monitor next to his bed starts beeping. Alice calls for help.

The next thing we know, Jay has been pronounced dead. No hard drives or evidence were found in the home. Ed smirks at Nora victoriously.

Some time later, Marshall Connelly (Jake Lacy) is awarded a medal for being injured in the line of duty, even though he was off duty and stalking his ex when he was injured. Nora is in attendance, and she finds Danny, asking for the evidence. He tells her he threw it in the ocean. She asks if he’s heard from Alice, who isn’t returning her calls since getting suspended. He lies again. She sees his duffel bag, asking if he’s going on a trip. He tells her it’s just dirty laundry.d

Alice visits Catherine in prison with an update: They found Isabel’s body and are in the process of moving her off Hart Island and giving her a marked grave in a proper cemetery. Catherine senses that Alice has something else she wants to say. “You have a secret,” Catherine realizes.

The next time we see Alice, she is on the beach in New Jersey. Danny meets up with her, kissing her before they go into his friend’s beach house for a romantic getaway. Amidst the romantic scene, we see Danny protectively guarding the shower while Alice freshens up. 

Later, Alice stares at the flash drive. She tells Danny she wants to turn it in and will disclose that she didn’t know about the video featuring her. Danny thinks Alice did know about it. Now that Danny is no longer an officer, he says he no longer has to look at what nobody wants to see. 

Alice and Nora supervise the transfer of Isabel’s remains on Hart Island. Jean (Marcia DeBonis) from the shelter and Elena (Chloe Carrillo), Isabel’s daughter, join them, thanking them for doing this. Alice gives Nora the flash drive, saying it contains evidence that incriminates Jay Easton. “I’m on there, too,” she warns. “I was 14, and I thought I was in love. And there’s a video, and Jay Easton had it. I didn’t disclose it.” Nora is curious why Alice hasn’t seen it yet. “You want to do this job, you face it,” Nora encourages her.

We see Emma in her greenhouse, moving bags of soil. And then she tenses up, clutching her chest as if she’s having a heart attack.

Frank Choi (Rob Yang) welcomes Alice back to the FBI. She’s now officially an agent in Nora’s department. Nora gives Alice a code to the sensitive materials room. “Search Alice,” she encourages her. Later, we see Alice do just that. She cries as she watches her video.

In an elevator, Nora ends up alone with Ed. She tells him that Alice is back. “You know, she and Danny are very close, and he gave her such a nice gift to welcome her back to the office,” Nora gloats. “I think it was a flash drive, but I’m not much of a computer person. She asked me to keep it safe for her.” Ed defends his actions, saying Jay was a good source. “If we didn’t take information from criminals, we wouldn’t have jobs,” he adds.

What was Alice’s secret that Catherine picked up on? We see the rest of their conversation. Catherine saw Alice leave Jay’s room when she was being treated by the EMTs. She asked her lawyer for all of the documents from the case. She read everyone’s statements. “I just wanted to read how Jay Easton died,” Catherine explains. “He had respiratory failure,” Alice excuses, but Catherine grins. “Did you like the way it felt?” Alice pretends to be confused. “Did I like what?” “I said, did you like the way it felt?”

Alice smiles.

What we saw of Jay Easton’s death was an abridged version of the events. As he told Alice he liked her video, she pressed her foot on his oxygen tube, restricting his air. “Mr. Easton, can you breathe?” she asked, leaning in. “Let me help you.” She covered his nose and mouth with her hands. Once he was in cardiac arrest, she called for medical assistance, but stood over the monster, watching life leave his eyes in the peaceful way Catherine described. 

The season ends with Alice sitting in the sensitive material room, having just watched her video, thinking about Catherine’s way of justice. The FBI’s database can track her video across the Internet. Alice looks at the data. It has appeared in 312 FBI cases. It has been downloaded more than 50,000 times. She can access a list of usernames who downloaded it.

Hulu’s Furious has been picked up for a second season. Will Alice seek vengeance against the man who groomed her as a child? Will she target people who downloaded her video? Or will Nora put her on a new case? We’ll have to wait and see, but I’ll be back to recap whatever the second season looks like. Stay tuned.