Summary
There’s plenty of promise in this story, but “Someone Worse Than Me” continues to mark it with an imbalance of choppy exposition and obvious dialogue.
This recap of Amazon’s Tell Me Your Secrets season 1, episode 3, “Someone Worse Than Me” contains spoilers.
One of the main issues with this series is that it is way too plotty for its own good. With the characters established and the end goal in sight, it’s surprising how choppy the script is.
Tell Me Your Secrets season 1, episode 3 shows Emma reimagining the last day she was with Parker. It was her birthday, and he got her a kitten. Emma explains that he is the man she fell in love with, and she didn’t see the side of Parker that abducted girls and inflicted violence on them. In the present day, Emma is annoyed at Pete for not going inside St Jerome’s house. Pete said there’s no police report about Jess, so by logic, Jess is okay as there’s no missing person statement. He’s adamant that Emma hallucinated. Emma tells Pete that the man she saw at the cabin had a good and was his height. If this was a hint that Pete killed Jess, then this is too on-the-nose.
Parker only abducted white women
At the foundation, a father meets Mary and Jake; he believes his daughter is linked to the Parker case. However, Jake raises a significant point — Parker only abducted white women. Mary looks at her son with a shocked expression. He clearly chose the less diplomatic route. The wife of the same (Kamala Parker) daughter visits later, and she tells Mary that she needs to tell her husband that there’s no connection to Parker. She references a recording she has with Parker in prison, and Mary requests it, however, Kamala only gives her a snippet of it.
Mary listens to the Parker recording; he’s describing how hard he hit a young woman. Mary agrees to tell her husband that there’s no connection. Later on, Mary steals the full recording and hears Parker tell Kamala that he didn’t kill her daughter.
Apparently, Jess returned to her father’s
Emma snoops around St Jerome’s House looking for Jess. She shows a young boy Jess’s necklace. The young boy says that the staff has told him that she’s returned to her father’s home, but he doesn’t believe them.
It’s career day at the House, and Rose arrives with her mother. The mother has a go at Emma for making her daughter’s hair look gothic. When she walks off, Emma looks at portraits on the wall, and one of them is Pete Guillory. All suspicions are now aimed at Pete.
Giving Tom a shave
Emma lacks friends to help her in Tell Me Your Secrets season 1, episode 3, so she uses her haircut skills to recruit.
Emma wants to thank police officer Tom for helping her with that needle. As she sorts his facial hair, Pete keeps ringing Emma and Tom finds it strange. Emma says that Pete is her landlord, who has no boundaries. She says that Pete Guillory used to work at St Jerome’s House and asks Tom to look into it.
John talks to a woman who deals with foster children
John joins a woman named Gail at the bar. This woman works with foster children. Gail tells John that she placed Karen Miller, the woman that helped her serial killer. As John walks Gail home, she suddenly gets the sense that something is off about him and wants to walk on her own. John kisses her hand and Gail walks off. With Mary sending John on his own mission means there are risks he’ll slip back into his former life.
Rose’s mother is obsessed with St Jerome’s House
In the middle of the night, Rose confronts Emma, stating she’s confused — one minute Emma is busting her nose, the next minute she’s calling her beautiful in front of her mother. Rose tells Emma that her mother is obsessed with St Jerome’s House. She then tells Emma that she knows Jess is gone. Emma reminds Rose that she is beautiful and must feel loved and not alone — she believes her mother should give her that comfort.
Pete has a lot of questions
When Emma returns home, Pete is in her house with a kitten which scares the life out of her. He asks her where’s she been and who the girl is outside. Pete insists that the next time he calls her, he expects an answer. Emma tells him that she’s entitled to a private life and raises how she knows nothing about him. Pete states that Jess went to go live with her father, and then asks if he can check Emma’s medication.
Tom rings Emma, and he tells her that Pete is a psychiatrist and that he used to work at St Jerome’s. There’s a record of bad behavior, but the file is sealed — he raises how it’s strange that the file is locked when Pete used to work with minors. This isn’t a good chapter for the character.
Kamala walker feels betrayed
In the middle of the night, Kamala Walker confronts Mary about the recording — she’s annoyed she took the whole conversation that is private. Mary says the recording will help them with Karen Miller, and that it proves that he didn’t murder their daughter. Mary has uploaded the recording to the internet, and Walker feels betrayed, as it will put her in jeopardy with her husband.
The ending
As the episode draws near to the end, an older woman and patient named Esther Moses gets a call from Emma in the hospital. Emma calls her “ma”, indicating it’s her grandma, and tells her she’s in a new place but everything feels the same. Esther tells Emma that her secret is safe. Emma puts the phone down, sobs, and then cuddles the kitten. However, as Esther settles back into the room, it’s revealed that John is there. He’s getting closer to finding Emma.
There’s plenty of promise in this story, but Tell Me Your Secrets season 1, episode 3 continues to mark it with an imbalance of choppy exposition and obvious dialogue.
