Summary
The penultimate episode of the freshman season of Rabbit Hole is a wild ride.
Rabbit Hole is hard to recap because the series can change immediately after watching one scene. Nevermore apparent in Season 1 Episode 7 “Gilgamesh,” which has Weir’s paranoia go into hyperdrive, and we are unsure what is real and what is not.
The penultimate episode of the freshman season is a wild ride.
Rabbit Hole Season 1 Episode 7 Recap
The Shared Data Act has now been changed to memorialize the late Senator to Norah Evers’s American Protection Act and will be voted on early. This will now allow the select companies chosen by Congress access to the data. And, of course, one of them is Arda Analytics: An Intaverse Media Company.
Is John hallucinating?
John is hallucinating, and he hypothesizes several scenarios until he reaches the most logical conclusion. So, as he explains to Hailey, it’s hard for him to decipher what is real. For example, they open the Evers’ briefcase, and John sees it in his head with multiple and slight variations.
John sees Ben saying that the Evers operation was a distraction. Another scene expands on this when Ben reveals that the briefcase retrieval distracted passing the data bill. John is upset when Homm tells him they may not decipher the data in time for the fast-tracked bill signing tomorrow. He rants about not giving up, accuses Ben of lying for five years, and wants the bill to pass.
The team is taken aback, as Ben never said that.
What was in Evers’s briefcase?
Ever’s briefcase only has sheets of data and no incriminating photos. What does this mean? They think Evers may have been playing them because she initially insinuated that the case held something pornographic that would damage her Presidential run.
Homm, though, manages to decipher the endless sheets of data. He thinks the data is a roadmap to Crowley’s operation. The data has shell companies, bank accounts, routing numbers, and social security numbers of politicians, journalists, and even two supreme court justices.
Evers most likely wanted the briefcase for herself to become President or for when she entered the office as insurance.
The issue is that Weir’s team cannot turn the briefcase into the authorities. That’s because whoever that is may be on the list and keep it hidden for their own personal protection.
Is Valence messaging John?
We don’t know if Valence is messaging John under the handle “Eye-See-You4728.” but it appears Valence is alive and well. He is seen walking down the street right after a scene where the team discovers John snuck out of the safe house. We later see Valence walking into a poorly lit apartment with a man questioning why he was late.
Meanwhile, John left because he was told the chat was burned and to leave. He manages to enter an electronics store and, under the handle John83429, receives a message from Anon043872, sending John a code to decipher. He breaks down “0205014 0210190504 021019,” which translates to “Ben Used Us.” John then has to go before he can solve a second message.
What does Hailey give Maddie?
Hailey gives Maddie a file on a USB drive, telling her that this proves John is innocent. When Maddie opens the file, she cannot believe it and approaches her boss. Maddie tells him he should read it because he wouldn’t believe it if she told him. After Maddie’s boss reviews the information, he tells her it’s a game changer.
However, he wants her to write her ticket so the file disappears. Maddie requests a transfer back to the criminal division. She also asks to be put in charge of the Weir case. We never learn what is on the file, but we can only assume it was the information in Evers’s briefcase.
Why is Crowley not Crowley?
We discover that the man we thought was Crowley is actually a stooge who is fed lines through an earpiece. Kyle brings John to the fake Crowley at gunpoint. He leaves, and then the stooge accuses Ben of being behind the shared data act so he could buy up Arda’s shares and become rich. However, John punches him, then exposes him as a fraud and puts on the earpiece.
John then hears the real Crowley introduce himself. He tells him that Ben has been living near him for over a decade as Dr. Ben Wolf when his father told John he was chasing Crowley near the Aero Dehli flight disaster.
Crowley even tells John Ben was behind Valence’s suicide. John then confronts Ben and hallucinates shooting his father.
However, Homm finds a computer chip in the tablet Valence sent to John.
Rabbit Hole Season 1 Episode 7 Ending Explained
Valence sends John the Gilgamesh tablet that was in his office and hid a computer chip inside. This tablet is unique to John because back in grade school, while studying the ancient figure, Valence was always able to calm down John’s paranoia. Homm sees the chip when John accidentally breaks the tablet on the table when he confronts Ben.
When Homm puts the chip on his computer, it’s a message from Valence. H explains that Crowley told him to kill John, but he won’t. Since refusing Crowley will make him a dead man anyway, he gives John a chance to escape by killing himself. He apologizes to John, telling him he thought he could play Crowley and still work for their operation.
The episode ends with Ben telling the team they must end this now and can no longer wait to stop Crowley.
Rabbit Hole Season 1 Episode 8 Recap
Rabbit Hole Season 1 Episode 8 (Credit – Paramount+)
Hailey and John talk about their feelings, with Hailey prying into John’s thoughts about whether he’s still in love with his wife. John cuts to the chase and tells her he couldn’t go on if something happened to Hailey, but she responds that she knows she couldn’t.
He’s about to kiss her when Hailey stops him and tells John that she went to Maddie because he was “out of his mind.” John forgives Hailey, saying she took her one shot to protect him. They then kiss.
Who does Crowley take hostage?
It appears that someone, we assume Crowley, takes Maddie’s wife hostage. At the beginning of the episode, we see an adult woman get into her car complaining to her spouse about her career. A man then puts a gun to her cheek from the backseat.
Later, a man appears to cut off her finger when tied to a chair in an abandoned building to offer her spouse proof of life. We think the spouse is Maddie, and we assume the kidnappers sent evidence of life to her FBI email.
Who is Debra Wyman-Massey?
John meets with a respected local newscaster, Debra Wyman-Massey, who has kept her integrity on The Pulse of the Nation. He informs her that someone is trying to overthrow the government, and Homm is alive.
John will present Edward Homm on her program (we later learn Hailey drives Homm to the studio). However, after Debra leaves, Maddie shows up and arrests John. She takes him back to the FBI headquarters and interrogates John, with her boss watching. The boos call someone and have them listen to the interrogation on his cell phone (could this be Crowley?).
Who takes Ben and John’s ex-wife hostage?
John asks if he can call his ex-wife to ensure she and his son are okay, and then he will tell Maddie everything she needs to know. Maddie is brilliant, says no, and means to her boss that this could be a trick to send someone a warning about his arrest or whereabouts. Of course, we know Ben is there, so Maddie has good instincts.
However, Ben has John’s ex-wife call her son because he never shows. Ben insists they go searching for him when he doesn’t pick up. As they leave, they are taken by gunpoint and delivered to Crowley.
Who sent Maddie the email?
The email to Maddie was from John, not the kidnappers. Weir sent her a picture of him and Homm, with the current date and contact information, which they use to hatch a plan. John steals Rasche’s security badge and escapes while Maddie distracts Rasche.
Hailey picks John up with Homm in the passenger seat. As Maddie tries to leave for the studio, Rasche stops her and demands to know what’s going on. A fake U.S. Marshal team serves a warrant to shut down the Homm interview, distracting to get Kyle inside. Weir punches him at the elevator, Kyle pulls a knife, but Hailey stops him with a clothesline.
Studio security arrests Crowley’s assassin but is let go when Crowley calls him on the cell phone in Kyles’s bag. It turns out that Crowley has dirt on the guard for sleeping with minors, which is his father, a district judge. The guard then releases Kyle.
Who is the woman pretending to be John’s ex-wife?
We now know John’s ex-wife is not his ex-wife but an operative he hired to play her. While Homm is prepping for his interview, Crowley calls and blackmails a producer into handing the phone to Weir. He tells John he has Ben and his ex-wife hostage. He asks Crowley to let her go, but he says no.
However, Crowley is suspicious of why he even asks because he knows the answer. John reveals this is not his ex-wife but the professional operative he hired to play his wife for months. John explains this is the same woman he hired to retrieve his ex-wife when kidnapped years prior, and she no longer talks to him.
Who is the woman taken hostage?
We then see a flashback of who we thought was Maddie’s wife crying, but we now know it was John’s wife at the time. The masked gunman is the operative John hired to save her. The assassin does the same thing to Crowley’s men, freeing herself of her handcuffs, killing all of them, saving Ben, and disarming Crowley with his weapon and oxygen tank.
Who kills Crowley?
Ben kills Crowley by shooting him in the head, and Kyle hears this over the microphone in his ear. Kyle knows he’s free of Crowley’s control and leaves, not shooting Homm. Ed is then free to testify to the corruption of the wealthy and high-ranking political officials. John and Hailey leave holding hands, and after saying goodbye to Maddie.
Hailey then reveals to Weir that she made a deal for the FBI to arrest her old boss and keep the money she stole.
Rabbit Hole Season 1 Ending Explained – Is Crowley Really Dead?
I think Crowley is dead, but the final scene has us questioning everything. Before leaving, Ben hears a muffled voice coming from Crowley’s ear. He takes it out, places it in his ear, and asks, “Who is this?”
Ben then makes a face as if he was given bad news, suggesting that perhaps “Crowley” isn’t finished yet.
What did you think of Rabbit Hole Season 1 Episodes 7 and 8, and the ending? Comment below.
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