Summary
Fatal Attraction gets back on track with its best episodes of the season.
It’s the trial of Dan (Joshua Jackson) in Fatal Attraction. As each person takes the stand, every person is making Dan sound more and more guilty. While this happens, we get a backstory of the life of Alex (Lizzy Caplan). A lot of questions are answered Season 1 Episodes 7 and 8.
Fatal Attraction Season 1 Episode 7 Recap
The episode starts with Dan escaping the media and heading into the car garage to get into the car with Beth. She asks him if they have a body, and he says he has to think they do with him being arrested. Back home, they dissect her going on the stand and him not thinking that isn’t a good idea.
Dan tells her she would have to lie on the stand, and he won’t let her do that.
https://youtu.be/5D4XI66Vd3E
Why does Dan not want to reveal the affair to the jury?
Dan already knows he will be the bad guy, so if he reveals that he had an affair with Alex, the jury will already convict him without hearing the evidence. He explains to Beth that he must use Alex being a stalker, and that will be his case.
We get a flashback to Alex’s childhood, where we see her relationship with her father was good, but we also realize the manipulative games he played with her. Her mother didn’t love their relationship, and it caused a massive rift between them.
It followed by her being at law school and her classmates alienating her for her actions. Later that night, she discussed what went down with her friends with her dad, ending with them arguing.
The District Attorney is dissecting to the jury what she believes went down between Dan and Alex. Inside the courtroom, Dan’s lawyer gets a list of who is testifying, and Alex’s father is on the list, whom Dan thought was dead because Alex said he was.
The episode takes the approach of balancing the courtroom battle that Dan is facing while giving us a flashback to Alex and seeing what she went through throughout her entire life leading to Dan. Alex’s father was stern with her and dissected everything she did.
Back in the courtroom, person after person hits the stand taking down Dan’s relationship with Alex.
From Detective Booker to people in the courtroom who witnessed their relationship with his former co-workers, they either saw them make eyes at each other or talked highly of Alex’s character.
What was Alex’s cause of death?
After Alex’s body was found in Marina Del Ray they sent it to the medical examiner for autopsy. Upon receiving the body, the medical examiner saw a large crack to which he removed the brain and a huge contusion to the left hemisphere and revealed that the cause of death was blunt force trauma.
Back to Alex, who called her amid her struggles, but it’s been over seven months since she last called him. On the call, she brings up Dan and her relationship with him. Her dad criticizes their relationship but tells her to live in the moment and not have too high expectations.
All this leads to her father, Stanley, taking the stand and telling Alex’s side of her and Dan’s relationship.
What evidence did Stanley have of Alex and Dan’s relationship?
Dan’s lawyer grills Stanley, saying all of this talks about Alex and Dan, and doesn’t have a single shred of evidence to prove it. However, Stanley tells him that he does, and pulls out his phone and shows the judge and the defense lawyer a picture of Alex and Dan together on the beach.
Fatal Attraction Season 1 Episode 7 Ending Explained
In the present day, Dan brought his application to the judge about clearing his name for the murder of Alex. The judge states that he has lied in the past and denies his motion to reopen the case.
Moments later, we hear the jury announce the guilty verdict. One of the college professors walks up to Ellen and asks her if she has heard from Stella, as she hasn’t been in class and her voicemail box is full.
We see Dan head to talk to Beth about the judge denying his retrial. He mentions that he waited so long to do this to prove that her faith in him this entire time was for the good. The episode ends with Beth at a restaurant and meeting with Alex.
Fatal Attraction Season 1 Episode 8 Recap
Fatal Attraction Season 1 (Credit – Paramount+)
The episode begins where episode seven left off, with Beth and Alex meeting. Beth wants to know it all and wants her to understand that no matter what she says, none of it is real. Alex explains that she has two options, fight and make a fool out of herself or lose. She tells her she is pregnant, but Beth doesn’t believe her.
A flashback happens where Beth talks to Ellen about the day Alex took her.
Present day Ellen and Dan are at a bar together, discussing his case being denied a retrial. Of course, she asks if he will appeal, but he is uncertain of his next steps because if denied, he would have to wait another year.
A new lawyer at the firm Dan works for says he wants to use his brain to help him with the case. On his way out, he asks him to tell the real story of him and Alex one day, pissing Dan off.
Who joins Mike in the hunt for Alex’s killer?
Mike, Detective Earl, and Dan are sitting down and eating lunch. Earl informs him that he read his case file and wonders who they think did it. While thoroughly convinced that Dan did it, Earl says that if he didn’t, he needs to see it for himself, so Mike convinces him to join him on the hunt.
Stella confronts Ellen because someone leaked confidential information to the college, and now she’s been kicked out of school. So, Beth decides to have dinner inviting over Dan and Mike while Arthur is slightly uncomfortable at the table. He is a supportive husband.
While this dinner happens, we get a montage of the past of Arthur with his ex-wife, that passed away.
Arthur arrives at Alex’s apartment building to pretend he is working on something. We see him break into her apartment and snoop around. Later that night, as Arthur is taking care of his wife, he gets a call from Beth crying about the case.
Because of this, he sets off to help her. After this happens, we hear Alex freaking out on the phone to her dad over what Dan had said after he left her house. He tells her to pack her stuff and head to his house, and they will figure it out.
Who killed Alex?
As she is packing her stuff, we see Arthur enter the apartment and grab her in a chokehold. We see Alex fighting for her life, trying to get herself out of it, but ultimately, he chokes her to death, or so he thinks. We see her open her eyes and slowly crawl to her phone, but Arthur grabs a weight and hits her over the head, officially killing her. So after seven episodes of build, we find out Arthur is the one who killed Alex.
Fatal Attraction Season 1 Ending Explained
After dinner, Ellen tells Dan she never wants him to give up on his appeal. She hugs him, showing an emotion that he hasn’t gotten much from her since getting out of jail.
Present-day Ellen is editing an audio file from her professor while we see the meeting between Alex and young Ellen, where she breaks down a rule of thumb about who you should trust and who you can’t.
The season ends with her professor walking into the room, asking why Ellen is in her house. Ellen looks at him and says, “It looks like you are mad at me,” and the credits roll.
I have massively mixed feelings about this ending. While I don’t hate the reveal of the murderer, they do leave it open-ended for a second season which I’m not sure I do like. The entire Ellen story is weird to me because she is an awful lot like Alex, and that’s whatever, but why? I believe the creators are banking on a second season which I hope we get cause I got questions.
What did you think of Fatal Attraction Season 1 Episodes 7 and 8? Comment below.
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