Summary
It’s Jen’s dead husband’s 50th birthday in Dead to Me Episode 3, “It’s All My Fault”, as we are introduced to another significant character.
This recap of Dead to Me Episode 3, “It’s All My Fault” contains spoilers. You can read the recap of the previous episode by clicking these words.
It’s the big 50 in Episode 3, “It’s All My Fault”. The younger of Jen’s two kids, Henry, believes the bird that latches on his window sill is his dead father; we get a sense of differences between Jen (Christina Applegate) and Judy (Linda Cardellini); Jen does not believe in spirits, Judy does.
With Ted’s 50th birthday coming up, it gives a chance for Dead to Me to introduce Ted’s mother to the fold. The two have a tense relationship, and the performances make it look wholly convincing. Trying to outplay the mother, Jen makes up a birthday event on the spot, and the mother agrees to attend, much to Jen’s displeasure.
While Jen is fretting over birthday plans, Steve visits Judy in the old people’s home, and they argue about the night they ran over Ted. Steve is frustrated that Judy is staying too close to the situation, and it’s difficult to disagree with him. By Episode 3, it seems Judy likes to live way too close to the danger.
Judy is consumed by guilt in “It’s All My Fault” and offers to organize Ted’s 50th. At the party, they all have to write down what they wish they said to Ted and then stuff the note in a balloon that will float away. Judy apologizes in her note, saying it’s all her fault.
The mother is suspicious of Judy, confronting her outside the bathroom; it’s clear that Judy has met her match in covering up that night. But then the police turn up about the car that Jen vandalized, who is turning it around on the cops asking for the murderer who killed her husband. Judy, in her guilt, covers for Jen and confesses to destroying the car.
There’s no party with no argument, and that’s exactly what Jen and Ted’s mother do. There’s plenty of bitterness between them, so much so that Jen punches the cake that the mother made for the party, which amusingly has her christening photo with Ted as the icing. Jen encourages her kids to punch the cake with her.
Episode 3 ends with Jen slightly drunk, talking to the bird that keeps appearing. One of the balloons returns and Jen reads the message, which reveals her son Charlie’s note that shows he misses playing video games with his dad. She decides to try out the game and join her son, but in the chat, a “Bambi88” messages her, thinking she is Ted, saying she misses him, and his cock. It seems Ted wasn’t the ideal husband he is made out to be.
You can read the recap of the fourth episode by clicking these words.
