Tell Me Your Secrets season 1, episode 9 recap – what happened in “Gotcha”?

This recap of Amazon’s Tell Me Your Secrets season 1, episode 9, “Gotcha” contains spoilers.

It’s predictable that Emma’s memories flood back in the penultimate chapter, the key question is — was the twist worth it?

“Gotcha” begins with Emma looking through old photos of tattoos from Parker with Peter — she explains how everything had meaning for him. She remembers a woman lying on the floor with a tattoo — it’s a question mark. That woman is Amy Walker. Emma says in the dream, she’s holding the hammer. Peter tells Emma that Parker fell in love with her, which saved her. Flashbacks show Emma telling Pete not to be alone. This is a sobering statement from Peter, highlighting that Emma could have been one of the victims.

Peter keeps pressing Emma to remember the trauma; he knows Amy Walker was a triggered memory. Emma then brings up that another girl has been hurt at St Jerome’s House, but Pete thinks she’s deflecting.

Lisa tells her story

Bubbling in the background is Lisa, and she also has questions for the St Jerome’s House storyline.

Peter’s wife Lisa visits Emma; she knows Emma has memory loss and asks her if she’s sleeping with her husband. Emma insists that she’s only here until she can get out; she then makes Lisa aware that two girls from St Jerome’s House are dead; Lisa has a connection to that place as that’s where she met Peter. She doesn’t trust Emma despite the issues at the House. Lisa has flashbacks back at the House where a man injects her; she rings Emma and tells her that they were removing their eggs. Some got infected, some got sterile. It was all in the “Lord’s work”. The man doing it is Rose’s father.

John updates Mary

John rings Mary and tells her that he’s found Emma; he explains how she has a good life, has a boyfriend and cuts hair and that she’s not suffering. Mary is in shock, but she’s also got to deal with the fact that her son Jake has seen CCTV footage of John in relation to a rape; he has no idea that Mary has been working with him. It will be awkward when he finds out.

Rose is in love with Emma

We always knew Rose had an infatuation for Emma, but we didn’t know how deep. “Gotcha” answers that question.

Emma visits the basement that Lisa was referring to in her memories. Rose finds Emma in the basement and tells her that she’s been watching her. She makes her aware that the cop Tom has gone. She then tells Emma that she loves her and then kisses her. As she does, Emma remembers Theresa kissing her and Parker watching in the background. In the present, Emma tells Rose that she cares about her, but not like that. Emma then tells Rose what her father is doing, and Rose gets increasingly angry. Rose calls Emma the “darkness”, suggesting that bad things only happened when she arrived.

Audiences are going to start to think that Emma is cursed.

Emma did not kill Amy Walker

Memories keep flooding back to Emma in “Gotcha”. She remembers walking into her house and seeing a bloody hammer on the bathroom floor. She picks it up and then sees Amy Walker in front of her, slowly dying. Out of shock, she drops the hammer. Parker tells her to calm down, and Theresa asks her for help; Theresa hits Parker with a hammer, and both women run away.

Playing pool with John

Tell Me Your Secrets season 1, episode 9 reveals how far John has gone in the series; the mission set to him by Mary has made him back into the person he was trying to prevent.

Mary rings John, and he’s furious at her. He calls her a murderer and then throws the phone into the river. He’s furious because Jake called the police linking John to a rape case, so they are on the alert to find him. He thinks Mary rang the police. After, John has drinks with Emma at the bar; he tells her that Tom doesn’t trust her, and the two enjoy games of pool together. Emma takes John’s hat off to see he has shaved his hair. He makes a wager — whoever loses has to have drinks at their house.

John has completely infiltrated but also reverted to his previous, predatory, and evil life.

Drinks at Emma’s

The pair return to Emma’s house and they dance together. John sees a chair painted with “Freya” on and he asks about her. He asks Emma what has she done wrong — he twists words and tells her that Tom told him that she’d hurt someone. Emma cries and says she wants her daughter back. John is overwhelmed by the conversation and heads into the bathroom to contain himself.

Meanwhile, Mary heads into town and meets Rose. She tells Mary that she’s old enough to be Karen Miller’s type. Rose asks for money to get out of this town in exchange for giving away Karen’s location. This is leading so all the main characters will be in the finale, together.

John tries to hurt Emma

As John is in the bathroom, Emma checks out his case and sees Tom’s phone. John comes out of the bathroom and tells her that he’s raped many women but only got caught for two. As Emma tries to get away, John taunts her and asks about Theresa. Emma locks herself in a bedroom. John tries his hardest to get in as Emma sobs and holds the bed against the door. She remembers Parker telling her that he will kill her as she runs away with Theresa. Her water then breaks.

The ending

And then the twist is delivered…

The flashback continues, and Theresa drives her away to make her safe, but Emma notices that it isn’t the way to the hospital. Theresa laughs and says “oops”; Emma’s eyes divert to the hammer on Theresa’s lap and Theresa says “I guess I did a bad thing too”, suggesting she hurt Amy. Emma begins panicking, and she throws herself out of the car. Theresa follows her in the woods with the hammer. She tells Emma, “It will always be him and me”, referring to Parker — she wanted the killer to herself. In the present day, John gets into her bedroom, and he grabs her by the face and says “gotcha”.

In the flashback, as Theresa tries to kill Emma with the hammer, Emma grabs a rock and hits her clean. Emma is way more innocent in all this than we thought. It’s a self-defense story.

Tell Me Your Secrets season 1, episode 9 mumbles along the plot to get to the twist. Unfortunately, this is a choppy chapter that has shocking reveals, but they do not feel impactful due to the delivery.