TV Recap: “Phony” Series Premiere — Sonny Cooke Wakes Up to a Stranger Wearing His Mother’s Face
Hulu’s new series Phony opens on a teenager’s worst night and builds to an unsettling question: what if the woman who brought you home from the hospital isn’t actually your mother? Sam Nivola stars as Sonny Cooke, a high schooler whose close bond with his mom cracks after an embarrassing discovery, a heated argument, and a car crash into a pond. When he wakes up nearly a week later, everyone insists nothing has changed. Sonny can’t shake the feeling that his real mom is still out there. Here’s everything that happens in the series premiere.
Episode 1: "Pilot” - Written by Nick Paley
The series opens with Sonny Cooke (Sam Nivola) meeting private investigator Sharla (Meera Syal), sharing flashbacks of his life with his single mother, Ellen (Connie Britton), reminiscing about birthdays, and explaining that she’s the principal at his high school, which works well for them. They have a unique way of silently saying “I love you”: they squeeze each other’s shoulders twice when they hug. “I need to find her,” he says, before we see what’s going on.
Nine days ago, Sonny was planning to have sex for the first time with his girlfriend, buying her a vibrating toy themed to a dolphin, which made dolphin noises when powered on. He hid it in his backpack, one of the first times he ever remembers hiding something from his mom.
That theme of hiding something carries over to the car, where Sonny tries to text the perfect thing to his girlfriend while his mom scrapes frost off the windows and complains about the noisy drive belt. Ellen isn’t a big fan of Chloe, as shown when she tells Sonny that Mallory Russel is coming back to class after being homeschooled for years. Sonny thinks his mom doesn’t like Mallory because her parents are Jesus freaks who don’t celebrate birthdays, but she insists that’s not true. Sonny shakes up hard-boiled eggs in a container of spices for their breakfast on the drive.
At Delby High School, Sonny kisses his girlfriend, Chloe (Mahaela Park), and they exchange “Bobos” before talking about their big night. She made a playlist; he made her a star necklace in pottery class. She warns him that she told Vogel, and he was disappointed not to hear the news from Sonny himself.
Vogel (Maliq Johnson) has one foot in a boot, and Sonny walks with him in gym class while the rest of the class jogs. Sonny tells Vogel about the dolphin vibrator, which Vogel thinks is sad. He can’t believe Sonny didn’t tell his mom since their codependent relationship includes tracking each other's steps. Sonny tries to persuade Vogel to be the school’s mascot, Mr. Highlander, at the upcoming school dance, promising to do the waltz with him if he takes the gig. On his way to showing Vogel the new mascot head, he gets his first glimpse of Mallory (Grace Brennan) at school, and it stops him in his tracks. He tried texting her from the car on the way to school when he learned she would be back today.
Sonny notices a student, Weldon (Colter Lee), struggling to open his locker and starts to help him, but then realizes Weldon is Mallory’s cousin. As he explains how he and Mallory used to hang out, she appears at her cousin’s side. She does not seem happy to see Sonny, forcing a greeting as she drags Weldon away.
After school, Sonny sees Mallory struggling to start her van outside. He offers them a ride, but Mallory says her brother is on his way to help. Noticing her coldness again, Sonny asks if they’re good, wondering if he messed something up when he kissed her by the lake during a class camping trip three years ago. Mallory tells him she went to his house the next day, and his mom said he wasn’t home, but she knows he was. Sonny is confused, and Ellen pulls up to take him home.
On the drive home, Ellen doesn’t remember the encounter Mallory described. She asks how Sonny’s meeting with his guidance counselor went, hoping he can help him get into Lewis & Clark College in nearby Portland. She seems disappointed when Sonny reveals he is also applying to Berkeley. As they drive by the lake, a busy beaver is almost done chopping down a tree. It falls across the road seconds after they clear it, and neither of them notices.
As they pull into the driveway, Sonny gets a text from Chloe: A picture of the couch they will make love on. Ellen asks if he’s ok as Sonny rushes to the couch to grab a book to bring to “Vogel’s to study.” He leaves his backpack in the car, and when he slams the door, something starts shaking in it, making dolphin sounds.
When Sonny runs downstairs, he finds Ellen at the kitchen table looking upset, the sex toy out in the open. He lies, saying it’s Vogel's and he’s holding it for him, but she knows he’s lying, describing the volume of students who come to the office with concerns after making these kinds of mistakes. She doesn’t think Sonny knows Chloe well enough to go through with this. The fight escalates when Sonny starts to use therapy speak, asking his mom if she’s happy, pointing out how she sometimes goes to the basement in the middle of the night to do jumping jacks to Joni Mitchell music, and how she hid the fact that her father died from him last summer. She calls him reckless; he snaps that she’s scared of losing control over him. That comment sends her upstairs upset. For a moment, it seems like Sonny will stay, but when Chloe texts him a picture of a chair as a second place for their tryst, he grabs the vibrator and heads out the door.
As he drives down the dark, winding roads, Sonny tries to call Ellen. She left her phone on the kitchen table and doesn’t answer. He’s not watching the road and notices the tree at the last minute. Swerving out of the way, losing control, the SUV races over a bank and flies into the pond.
Almost a week later, Sonny wakes up in the hospital, finding Chloe and Vogel at his bedside, asking for his mom. She rushes into the room, getting close, and Sonny is alarmed by how different she looks. He questions what was in his drip.
Vogel drives them home, with Sonny resting on a pillow next to his mom in the backseat, glancing at her, remembering what she looked like before the crash. He asks for his phone, and she tells him it wasn’t found in the wreckage. Ellen whispers her regret about their last conversation and apologizes.
When they get home, Sonny rushes inside with Chloe, leaving Ellen and Vogel to bring everything in. Up in his bedroom, he asks Chloe if his mom seems different to her. She says she’s been nicer, treating her like a friend. Ellen calls Chloe to help, and Vogel takes her place in Sonny’s room, bringing a stack of get-well cards from classmates. Sonny asks Vogel about his mom, and Vogel thinks Sonny is just experiencing distortion from a head injury, having had one himself.
Locking his bedroom door, Sonny notices the first card is a retrofitted thank-you note from Mallory. He spends some time online and notices his mom’s photo on the school website has been updated to reflect how she looks now.
That night, he sneaks to the landline in the kitchen to call her house, leaving a voice message because Mallory knows his mom better from their youth, hoping she can validate his paranoia. When Ellen catches him, he hangs up, trying to avoid her efforts to put ointment on his wounds. She doesn’t want him going to school tomorrow, but he insists. “You get that from me,” she says, referring to his determination.
Everything felt off at school, and nobody else seemed to notice a change in his mom. He takes a crying infant simulator doll from another student and comforts it as he asks hall monitor Ethan (Elijah Fox) if he’s seen Mallory, learning she’s in the gym.
In the gym, he finds Vogel rehearsing for the dance as the mascot, thwarting his attempt to reach Mallory. Ellen further hinders him by asking for his Costco card so a colleague can get supplies. He fishes it out of his wallet, but notices a photo of the mom he knew on the back and panics, rushing away, keeping her card. He dodges her into the photo lab, where he sees another new picture of her and compares it to the card. “They’re different,” he says aloud. He breaks out of school through an emergency exit, setting off an alarm. Seeing Mallory and Weldon at their van, parked illegally in the faculty lot, Sonny rushes over and asks for a ride. Ethan sees them taking off as he responds to the alarm.
At his house, Sonny explains his theory that his mom is not his mom. Weldon, who is really into conspiracy theories, is the only one who takes Sonny’s side. He shows them a video on his laptop of his mom teaching him to play piano as a kid, and he feels like he’s going insane when Mallory doesn’t notice much of a difference between Ellen then and now. But when Sonny sees his mom give him the shoulder squeeze on screen, he gets an idea.
As Sonny races into school amidst the dance, Vogel tries to grab him because he’s late for the waltz. Sonny kicks him and rushes onto the dance floor. Vogel chases him, trying to grab Sonny, but Sonny knocks his best friend to the ground, stopping the dance. Ellen rushes over, and Sonny wraps his arms around her, a hand on her shoulder, and squeezes it twice. Her hand stays still on his back. He tries it again. Same effect.
Sharla stops recording the conversation and asks Sonny where he thinks his mother is if this woman isn’t her. “That’s why I’m here,” he says. “I know she’s out there.”
The episode ends with a beaver on the pond at night building a dam. Among the items it has placed is a glowing dolphin vibrator, and it makes animal noises. An SUV backs up to the opposite bank. In shadow, blinded by the taillights, it looks like someone is dragging human remains out of the marsh and into the vehicle. It drives away.
Next episode: “Crosby, Stills, and Nash.”
After hiding from his “imposter” mom all weekend, Sonny returns to school determined to find help. Sonny pursues a police officer at Career Day, who tells Sonny someone broke into his house while he was in the hospital. Weldon suggests Sharla, a private investigator who believes in the paranormal.
Songs Featured in This Episode:
- “Galileo” by Indigo Girls
- “Love in the Meantime” by Nick Delffs
- “Lose the Skin “ by The Clash