Summary
“The Obsession” reveals Alice’s desires, as she becomes more sensitive to the film she’s directing.
This recap of Apple TV+ series Losing Alice season 1, episode 4, “The Obsession” contains spoilers.
“The Obsession” opens with the following text:
We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are”. – Anaïs Nin.
And that quote can certainly be true of this series so far — observing Alice and her viewpoints, subconscious and overreactive imagination has been a teaser so far, but “The Obsession” teases out her deep dive into a new world further. Episode 4 flits to Alice carrying out auditions after agreeing to be the director of the new film. Sophie tries to watch the latest audition, but Alice tells her she needs to wait. Ironically, after how the last chapter ended, it’s part of the script where the lead female talks about sucking a toe. Alice looks for Sophie as she wants to introduce the latest audition to her. But as we have learned since the start of this series, Sophie’s actions are erratic, and she has suddenly disappeared.
Sophie returns home, and she’s noticed Sophie hasn’t responded to her yet
But while Sophie is erratic, Alice is becoming more and more obsessed. When Alice returns home, her daughter misses her, and the grandma makes it known, stating that making a movie changes things. Alice spends time with her daughter in bed. Meanwhile, David is out for a run. Alice checks her phone to see that Sophie has not responded. She obsessively checks out her Instagram stories and shakes her head. It’s almost like she’s become obsessed with Sophie’s youth — she desires it, but at the same time, she’s irritated.
While out running, David runs into Tamir. His neighbour tells him he is giving Sophie free clinic time to check out a mole she’s worried about. David seems amused by it, but at the same time, irked. Tamir then gives David advice on his knee that’s hurting. It’s truly established at this point that Sophie has a unique way of embedding herself in many people’s lives, in different ways.
From a phonecall with Sophie, Alice has sex with David
Late in the night, Alice and Sophie have a conversation. Sophie apologises for not getting back to her as she’s had a crazy day. She confirms she likes the audition and asks if they can talk the next day. Sophie seems to be in a rush. After David has his run, he and Alice talk to each other about the “sucking toe” scene and sex in the motel — Alice finds it kinky imagining David doing that scene. This leads to them both having sex in the bathroom. This scene demonstrates how she has missed being desired; sexually, something has been missing from her life, remaining dormant; the film is fulfilling that dormant part of her life, and it’s beginning to activate, which is why the thought of her husband having sex in the film turns her on.
Practising a scene
The next day, Alice introduces Sophie to Daniella, the young actress who auditioned and everyone is impressed with. Daniella is troubled by Sophie’s presence. Daniella and David play out the restaurant scene, and Sophie watches from the back, smiling — Daniella seems on edge and nervous. Sophie tells David and Alice that Daniella didn’t really hit what she wanted and that it’s hard to explain. Alice asks Sophie to do the scene with David to show how it’s meant to work as an example. As Sophie does the scene, Alice looks intently, her eyes prying. It’s becoming a fetish for her now — it’s more than just directing a film.
How Sophie met Daniela
Losing Alice season 1, episode 4 then reveals the lengths Sophie will go to in order to manipulate and be involved. In a flashback, Sophie met Daniella the night before the practice scene — Daniella works behind a bar. They flirt with each other almost immediately. Tamir joins Sophie at the bar, and they drink together — Tamir calls her cute. She gets Tamir to take videos of her; these are the same stories Alice saw on Instagram. Daniella takes cocaine in the back, and Sophie watches and strokes her back. As they are about to kiss, Tamir walks in and watches both girls kiss before he says goodbye.
Daniela’s experience
Daniela tells her story to Alice and the casting director. She explains how she ended up in an apartment with Sophie and her boyfriend, and when she got there, the drugs kicked in. Scenes show Daniella and Sophie kissing, and the boyfriend Ami watching before proceeding to touch Daniella himself. As Daniella explains her story, she gets more anxious, and scenes show she didn’t want to continue and went to the bathroom. Daniella states that when she returned from the bathroom, Sophie and Ami were playing out the script uncannily, and she thought she was tripping. This is why Daniella was irked when she saw Sophie at the second audition. Daniella believed Sophie wanted her to fail.
Alice says that this all sounds extreme, but she’d like her to come back and try again. Daniela says she will think about it. The casting director calls Sophie a “little b*tch” and needs to be put in her place.
Alice approaches Sophie about Daniella
But this puts Alice in a precarious position, and now has to confront Sophie, who has helped untap areas of her mind that were long hidden. Alice heads over to Sophie’s place to talk to her about Daniella’s experience. Sophie claims she didn’t do anything, but Alice keeps pressing her. Sophie states she found her on Facebook and Instagram and was curious about her as an actress and that they really hit it off. Alice tells her to stay away from other actresses who attend the audition and walks off.
The ending
But it felt like a half-threat, and the end of “The Obsession” shows Alice’s state of mind and how she is thickly in the deep. Alice sits in a bar and imagines the waitress scene with David as the lead male character — Sophie is the waitress Eleanor, who purposefully drops a knife, kneels on the floor and licks it. The lead male tells Eleanor that he misses her. Eleanor walks off. The scene then flits back to Alice back at the bar, and she imagines Sophie dancing in the distance in her waitress outfit.
Losing Alice season 1, episode 4 reveals Alice’s desires, as she becomes more sensitive to the film she’s directing. At this stage, it isn’t easy to understand where this story is going to lead, leaving the audience with many questions to ask.
