Summary
The finale is fast approaching, and Episode 6 of Fool Me Once delivers plenty more twists and turns to make the wait for the climax as agonizing as possible.
There’s good news and bad news at the start of Fool Me Once Episode 6. The good news is that Kierce is alive, though not necessarily well, but at the very least he didn’t pitch himself from a bridge. The bad news is that Maya has been discovered with Tommy Dark’s dead body and, while she has kept Corey out of it, she has left enough holes in her story that she qualifies as a suspect.
Michelle Keegan does a tremendous job of portraying a woman at her wit’s end here. She’s so frustrated that she accuses Kierce of being bribed by the Burketts, so he takes her to his home and shows her his bank statements to prove that he isn’t. And I, for one, believe him. However, why would Caroline, of all people, implicate him?
Fool Me Once Season 1 Episode 6 Recap
Maya goes to pick Lily up from Eddie’s — she had him pick her up from Farnwood — and they discuss what’s going on with Abby, Daniel, and their half-brother Louis since they didn’t exactly leave the conversations on good terms last time. Maya also fills Eddie in on the Tommy Dark situation, and the fact that Claire was looking into Theo Mora’s death. She tells him the name Christopher Swain keeps coming up — he was one of the other kids along with Joe and Andrew who were involved — and while Eddie doesn’t recognize it, he does recognize the view in the background of adult Swain’s social media profile picture. It’s a place called Crawmond Place, where he once attended a Christmas Party.
Maya heads there and very conspicuously finds Swain’s apartment. A neighbor tells her that he tends to throw wild parties and then disappear to what rich people would call “a retreat” and that everyone else would call a loony bin. Since he hasn’t been seen since the last party, it’s safe to assume that’s where he is now.
Kierce opens up to Molly
We also learn in Fool Me Once Episode 6 that Kierce’s alcoholism began after the murder of his first fiance. She was a fellow officer and was killed in the line of duty. He put the killer behind bars himself, but he never got over it and turned to drink. He finally attends an AA meeting with Nicole in this episode and gives everyone present a very honest account of his deepest fear — dying, though not losing his life specifically but leaving behind people who love him and have to deal with his death. The context we now have about the loss of his first fiance explains why he feels so strongly about this — he has experienced it the other way around.
Nicole makes the point that talking to strangers is the easiest bit, and Kierce gets it, finally telling Molly about what’s going on. And, predictably, she completely understands and supports him. It’s a nice moment.
Caroline’s Cold Call
Maya gets a call from Caroline out of the blue. She claims she saw Joe, and that he told her to tell Maya something, but the call cuts off before she can say anymore. When Maya calls back, she hears heavy (male) breathing on the other end. Given Caroline’s track record, this is somewhat hard to believe, but it’s easy to understand why Maya would be inclined to believe it.
It’s also becoming increasingly unclear how much of what is going on around Maya — such as the hooded figure standing in shadow outside — is real or imagined. Maya doesn’t see him, so it’s easy to assume it’s just Shane, but since we already know Shane has been up to no good, why would his identity suddenly be obscured?
What do the police find in Maya’s car?
When Kierce finally gets back to the station, he gets given the results from the analysis of Maya’s car. We don’t learn immediately what they say, but Kierce isn’t pleased to read it, and Mcgregor, who has also dug up footage of Maya and Corey at a petrol station en route to Tommy Dark’s storage unit, is excited by the news and the prospect of bringing Maya in as a suspect.
When Kierce and McGregor pick Maya up, they show her the CCTV and explain that blood was found in the boot of her car. Not just blood, but AB+ blood, a type so rare that only 4% of the population have it. Conveniently, Tommy Dark is among that 4%. Maya is being set up here, and I think it stands to reason that Shane is doing it, but we have to start thinking about motives at this point. What does Shane have to gain by tormenting Maya? Is he in love with her? That’d be too obvious, no?
Either way, Maya rats Corey out and explains that Claire was working with him. She suspects he set her up since she’s not going to consider Shane. She even gets him to pick her up from the station, though she wants to know what he’s dug up about Christopher Swain. He’s the classic rich kid — he acts out periodically and is protected from all legal recourse, instead locked away in a posh boys’s rehab until the cycle repeats. Maya knows someone who can help find out the particulars — Judith.
For once, Judith and Maya have a nice, honest, open conversation. Judith gives Maya the address of the most exclusive rehab she knows of, and Maya tells her the truth about who she’s looking for. When Judith tells Maya to be safe, and that she doesn’t want to lose her, I for one almost believe her.
Extended Family
Elsewhere in Fool Me Once Episode 6, Eddie takes the big step of inviting Louis around to meet himself, Abby, and Daniel properly, which was especially necessary since Dan had refused to speak to his sister ever since he overheard earlier that she had met Louis without him.
Maybe it’s just me, but I find Louis quite well-intentioned and charming, and Abby seems to see that in him too. Maybe Eddie does also, as he offers to get in touch with his biological father if that’s something Louis would like. He says it is.
Kierce discovers something he missed before — one of the bullets used to kill Claire was checked out by a duty detective at the request of the military police (Shane). At that moment, though, the police’s entire network goes down. Proctor put out an online memo that tipped Corey off, and he hacked the entire system in response. He knows the police are onto him. Corey tries to warn McGregor, who is already at the arcade asking questions, but he doesn’t pick up straight away so Kierce sets off to the woodland hideout despite McGregor having insisted earlier that he didn’t drive anywhere.
How does Fool Me Once Season 1 Episode 6 end?
Fool Me Once Episode 6 ends with Kierce arriving in the general location of Corey’s forest lair, having survived the drive at least. He pops a few pills while Corey watches him on CCTV.
But the bigger cliffhanger is that Maya goes to see Christopher Swain, introduces herself, and asks him what happened on the yacht the night Andrew died. Christopher’s a little jittery, but his response is clear enough — he says Joe killed him.
What did you think of Fool Me Once Season 1 Episode 6? Let us know in the comments.
