Summary
“Count to Three” raises several intriguing possibilities about what’s really going on as things get much more complicated for Raquel.
This recap of The Mess You Leave Behind episode 3, “Count to Three”, contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
Check out our spoiler-free season review.
One of the first things we learn in “Count to Three” is the nature of Raquel’s affair with German’s best friend Simon, which she invites her friend Tere to town to discuss. Apparently, it was common knowledge that they slept together and it was understandably difficult for her and German to move past, but the reality is that the affair went on for three months and Raquel has harbored the guilt of it ever since. Whatever the reasoning, though, and however far in the past it might be, Raquel’s infidelity is threatening to resurface now thanks to the mysterious number that also interacted with Viruca in the past.
Speaking of things Viruca interacted with in the past – Iago, who’s a personal trainer at the gym, and Iago’s father, who the end of the episode reveals Viruca was sleeping with. She was a prolific woman, it seems. In the present day, Raquel remains determined to sort out who’s behind the blackmail by antagonizing the students with threats of the impending test and looking up their computer science scores – a field in which Roi stands out.
Raquel meets with Roi in “Count to Three” in the hope of getting to the truth, but her stern questioning soon turns to desperate begging as she pleads with him to figure out who’s responsible. There are already plenty of suspects, and it doesn’t seem like the list is going to get any smaller as we go on. One of the students seems the obvious choice, but you just never know.
There’s probably a better than average chance that whatever happened relates in some way to German’s history with the town, and this connection is reinforced by his buddy Gabriel having a picture of Viruca up on the wall, which Raquel spots after Gabriel invites them both to a party after interrupting their romantic getaway at the hot springs. Very odd.
There’s also the matter of German planning to buy a stake of his mother’s restaurant, which Raquel selling her mother’s house should enable him to do. It isn’t immediately obvious why any of this matters, but it’s being included for a reason. German is also directly brought into the blackmail when he’s sent a weird message asking him if he’d like to see a porno, which forces Raquel to change the exam questions, ceding the only bit of power she had over the students.
A conversation with Mauro suggests that Viruca might have gone through a similar thing with Iago, though flashbacks seem to show her egging him on a little, rather than the contrary. Either way, he has something to do with what’s happening, but at this point The Mess You Leave Behind seemingly has no intention of providing any concrete answers. On we go.
Thanks for reading our recap of The Mess You Leave Behind season 1, episode 3.
