Summary
“The Bad Reader” delves into Alice’s assumptions and her theories on the script, which oddly give her more answers about her than Sophie — this is an engaging, yet antagonising chapter.
This recap of Apple TV+ series Losing Alice season 1, episode 6, “The Bad Reader” contains spoilers.
One of the main strengths of Losing Alice is that it manages to replicate Alice’s conscience in the viewer’s mind. We have no idea where this is going to end up, and neither does Alice. After what she learned in the last episode, the truth has never become so important.
“The Bad Reader” opens with the following text:
“We live two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one”.
“The Bad Reader” begins with Alice at the hotel she has scouted. She believes she sees Sophie, but she mistakes her for another woman. When she sits down on her hotel bed, she replays the homeless woman’s words in her head; how the woman described Naomi and Sophie as friends, and her family at the dinner table; it is extremely similar to the script. The homeless woman insists that Sophie murdered Naomi.
But who do we believe? That’s one of the main questions in “The Bad Reader”.
The homeless woman has disappeared
The next day, Alice speaks to a member of the production team and questions whether Hilik committed suicide — remember, he was the director initially destined for the script that Alice has taken on. When Alice returns to the car park, she cannot find her car and initially panics — she then realizes she was dropped off. When Alice returns home, David checks on her as she seems off — he brings up the story with Tamir and how he believes he crossed the line with Sophie. This is the most on edge we’ve seen Alice since the series began; she’s losing her mind.
Alice has an imaginative bath
And that is further proven in the bath scene:
While in the bath, Alice hears something in the corridor and believes it’s her family. It turns out to be Sophie, and she makes Alice jump. Sophie wonders why she hasn’t returned her calls, so strips naked and joins her in the bath. The conversation turns to Tamir and then Pnina (the homeless woman); she asks Alice what she thinks about the story that she murdered her daughter and then pushes Alice underwater. This turns out to be part of Alice’s imagination — she returns to the surface of the water and David gives her a hot drink. Alice tells him she’s not sure what she’s doing anymore, but David reassures her that she’s doing the project she wants.
Visiting the boyfriend
With Alice a day away from shooting the film, rather than prepare, she investigates, which takes a strange turn.
Alice visits Sophie’s partner Ami. She wants to know his side of the story regarding Pnina and Naomi. Alice thought Ami was Naomi’s father, but he denies having children. He does state that Naomi came around a lot and that her mother was mentally ill and depressed. Alice brings up the story that Sophie murdered Naomi, but Ami questions what Pnini would rather believe — that her daughter ran away, making it her responsibility, or that she was murdered. Ami states that all Sophie did was write a script. When Ami puts it bluntly like that, it makes Alice look crazy to the viewer, and it’s directed that way — it’s purposeful to throw the audience off.
Linking the script to reality
Ami then brings up “the bad reader”, and that it reminds him of Alice. And then Alice ponders the possibility that Sophie didn’t steal Naomi’s father either, another assumption she came to. Ami believes there was no father, and that Pnini was a single mother. Alice laughs hysterically and uncontrollably — she blames it on the joint she’s smoked with him. She heads outside for fresh air on the balcony. Ami asks her to breathe and focus on one spot while slowly caressing her inappropriately. It then turns sexual, and Alice lets him in, however as she’s in the moment and beginning to moan, Sophie is stood behind them, her eyes filled with tears.
Apologies and takeaway food
But the strange thing about Alice and Sophie is that they appear to have a strange understanding; despite Sophie witnessing her boyfriend touch up Alice, there’s an unspoken connection between them both that goes beyond the strangeness that lurks in the series.
Alice chases after Sophie and apologizes. She brings up the homeless woman Pnina and how she was checking things out. Sophie is upset that Alice believed a woman with mental problems. She tells Alice that none of it is her business and storms off. Later on, Alice brings Sophie takeaway food and sits next to her.
Sophie tells Alice that Tamir attacked her after playing a bit and broke the rules. Sophie then asks her how she felt with Ami. Alice explains she has no idea up until that moment that she needed to be awakened — and that she’s been asleep for a long time, deeply; the audience has felt that Alice has needed a sexual awakening for a long time — it’s disturbed her mind since episode 1. The pair laugh, stating that Alice’s awakening is timely; a day before she shoots the script. Alice wants to keep what happened between her and Ami a secret, and Sophie agrees.
The ending
Alice gets an email from the university in the middle of the night — they’ve found Naomi’s directing assignment scene. The scene is called “The Meal”. The scene is very familiar to Sophie’s script — it shows a family arguing amongst themselves, and Eleanor is there. It’s word for word from one of the scenes. Alice is in total shock — who does she believe now? Rather than keep the footage, Alice deletes it. She then excitedly tells members of the production team that they are about to shoot a film. Alice is antagonizing the audience now; it’s tough to gauge her — we are losing her.
Losing Alice season 1, episode 6 delves into Alice’s assumptions and her theories on the script, which oddly give her more answers about her than Sophie — this is an engaging, yet antagonizing chapter.
Additional points
- Alice bumps into Tamir’s wife Karen; the wife is furious and knows about Sophie and Tamir and tells her that Sophie is not good news.
