Summary
This series has every character investigating something, which is not a bad thing but “Burn Me When I’m Gone” feels slightly muddled with the detail.
This recap of Amazon’s Tell Me Your Secrets season 1, episode 2, “Burn Me When I’m Gone” contains spoilers.
Now that the characters are established, “Burn Me When I’m Gone” starts this peculiar love and despair story. It opens with Emma showing her witness protection officer her friend Jess who has been killed in the cabin down the river. When the officer walks in, he tells Emma to join him. It’s a dead bird, not a dead body. She’s adamant that there was a dead body. The officer is worried about Emma’s hallucinations; she’s drinking while on medication and doesn’t believe she saw a dead body. The thriller deepens already, convincing the audience that Emma has ironically found herself in the pit of a serial killer in her new town.
Mary asks John to “find the gap”
After Mary’s blackmail, John gets ready for the day by suiting up. He takes some deep breaths and self-meditates to help him not relapse. He meets Mary at a diner. Mary admits she wasn’t thinking clearly when she made the proposal, but she reiterates that he wants him to find Karen Miller. John states he isn’t a cop, but Mary reminds him of “the gap” he mentioned in her office. John explains he was on about the gap between victims and predators in a different context. Mary believes he can apply the same gap to find out what Karen Miller loved — just like he did with his victims, and in turn, find her. Mary does not give a sh*t about John, but she’s pretending to. She senses John craves company in his new life as an ex-predator.
Emma cuts Rose’s hair
At Georgia’s hairdressers, a young girl named Rose enters; the same girl Emma smashed into a mirror who was bullying Jess. Rose wants her hair done by Emma. Emma notes that she has deep indentations in her skull and asks Rose if she had a difficult birth. Rose asks why she defended Jess. It’s an awkward conversation.
As Emma walks home, a police officer pulls over, and Emma asks for a ride. The officer notices a nasty bite on her leg and wants to look at it for her. When he looks at it, it stings a lot. He takes something out of her leg, and it looks like a small needle. She rings the witness protection officer, Peter, and thinks the needle is linked to Jess. He doesn’t want to investigate it, but then Emma threatens to investigate herself. Peter gives in and offers to go to the foster home. Peter is not off the hook in this story — there’s definitely something suspicious about him.
John at AA
Tell Me Your Secrets season 1, episode 2 sees John having to be smart to help Mary.
He attends an alcoholic anonymous group. Afterward, he faints. A woman named Angela helps him on the floor. She takes him to a diner to help him recover. John claims he doesn’t like public speaking at the AA meeting and that it makes him very nervous. He tells Angela that his daughter’s name is Theresa. Angela tells John that she’s a grieving mother and traded alcohol for cigarettes. John calls her a good person, but Angela disagrees, stating she raised a monster — she explains that people decorate her house with “murderer” now and again. Angela is the mother of Karen Miller (aka Emma).
Lisa feels unloved
Lisa speaks to a counselor about her relationship with Peter. She feels she is staying because he’s a great father, but not a good husband. Meanwhile, Peter listens into the counseling session — this is a concerning level of control and breach of privacy.
A large vigil
Mary organizes an event at the church for the parents of victims who Parker killed. It’s a large vigil with plenty of parents who are in the same situation. She gives a rousing speech about her daughter and vows to not give up on Theresa. It’s strange how Mary has been framed in the story — for someone who has lost her daughter in awful circumstances, it’s surprising how it’s difficult to sympathize with her as a viewer; there’s something sinister about her. Years of grief and determination to find her daughter hasn’t made her a trusting character.
The foster home and Rose’s home life
A young girl walks home, and Peter pulls over and asks if she’s from the foster home. The girl runs away. Peter follows the girl to the foster home. Meanwhile, Rose’s mother berates her for getting new hair. She’s locked into her bedroom. Emma texts Rose, apologizing for her nose. Rose admits she does get migraines and that she was a difficult birth when she was born — Emma offers to help her.
Even though Peter has told Emma to stay with young girls, she’s drawn to them.
Mary tells John that he’s flourishing
After sleeping with a young man, Mary gets a phone call from John — he explains there’s no link between Karen’s mother and Karen, as she was in a foster home. He says the foster home is in Minnesota, but he can’t go there as he’d be breaching his parole and cannot jeopardize it. Mary offers to square it up with his parole officer. She tells John that he’s flourishing. She continues using manipulative techniques to get John to do things he doesn’t want to do. It’s understandable why she thinks lowly of him — he’s a predator after all.
The ending
While at home, Angela talks about John from the AA meetings on the phone to someone, but she isn’t “looking for anything” as she’s looking to sell her house. She doesn’t believe Karen is coming home again. Suddenly, a brick goes through her window. When she picks it up, there’s a letter that says “You are a bad mother”. John was the one who threw it.
As the episode ends, Emma leaves a voicemail for Jess; she vows to find the truth, because she’s seen this happen before — she’s struggling to make sense of it. Meanwhile, Peter checks out the cabin again, and John hits the road to Minnesota.
This series has every character investigating something, which is not a bad thing but Tell Me Your Secrets season 1, episode 2, feels slightly muddled with the detail.
Additional points
- Flashbacks show Parker tattooing a heart on Emma’s heart. It was pure love between them. In the present day, she misses him deeply.
