Summary
The first episode without Cleo gathers some real momentum and also brings Tessie’s subplot to a close.
It was only a matter of time before Maddie’s attempts at being a reporter got her into serious trouble, and that finally happens in Lady in the Lake Episode 5, “Every time someone turns up dead in that lake, it does seem to lead to you.”
But aside from Maddie inadvertently finding herself on the wrong end of a butter knife, there’s a lot going on in other areas, including more clues about Seth’s parentage, the immediate repercussions of Cleo’s death in Episode 4, and some fracturing in the relationship between Maddie and Ferdie.
This is the first episode to not feature Cleo outside of her ghostly voiceover – for obvious reasons – so it feels, in an odd sense, freed from the gradual build-up to her demise. Letting the focus settle solely on Maddie leads to a more coherent and pacey installment, even though it lacks Cleo’s compelling perspective.
Is Hal Durst Seth’s Father?
In an opening flashback, we see that Maddie was indeed having an affair with Allan’s father, Hal. Where I had previously assumed he had assaulted her – as seemed to be implied by that scene of him scrubbing blood from his awful-colored office couch – their relationship seems consensual, though given the obvious age and power imbalance, “consensual” is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.
Either way, they’re having an affair. While he’s working on furthering Maddie’s writing career – or more accurately using promises of that to keep her on the hook – she’s cooking the product of their union. Yes, she’s pregnant, which I guess means Hal is Seth’s biological father.
Or does it? I’ve pondered this a few times now but I guess I’m just not sure of the timelines. Seth seems like quite a young kid to me, and given Maddie is high-school age when she’s with Hal, I didn’t imagine him being conceived that far back. But since we have no evidence to the contrary here, I suppose Hal must be the father. This also means that Tessie was Seth’s niece.
Cleo’s Body Is Discovered
Almost as soon as Cleo’s body is discovered, Maddie pushes Bob to let her investigate the case. She recognizes the name as the woman who went missing on the night Stephan was captured, but she predictably misunderstands the racial component of sticking her nose in. With few allies, she goes about trying to solve the case herself, with mixed results.
The bit that Maddie doesn’t quite get is that nobody cared about Cleo’s death on its own terms, and Maddie only cares insofar as it connects to Tessie’s murder (and even then, only because, as we now understand, she’s personally involved.) Maddie naively thinks that her choice to move into a Black neighborhood has somehow conferred freedom fighter rights upon her, so she’s surprised when the African-American newsroom at the Star treats her accordingly.
Her outsider status at least gives her a good view of things at Cleo’s funeral. From her vantage point, she gets to deduce the dynamics immediately. Cleo’s mother blames Slappy for Cleo’s death, and Slappy (rightly) blames Shell and Reggie, though Myrtle isn’t immune from blame either. Seeing that Slappy is her best chance of an actionable lead, Maddie chases him outside to tell him that she doesn’t think he or Stephan killed Cleo. He points her in the direction of Lucille, the beautician who Cleo tipped off about the rigged numbers game.
Maddie Burns Some Bridges
Maddie’s inquisitiveness continues to damage her relationships and reputation – as well as potentially creating problems for her down the line.
For one thing, she takes some of her suspicions directly to Shell Gordon, who is far too clued up and inured for that to be an effective move. She does notice, though, that Reggie, who now walks with a very heavy limp, procures tropical fish for Shell, which means he’s the likeliest fit for the fella who was supposedly in the fish store on the night Tessie went missing.
This also creates a rift between Maddie and Ferdie. For the first time, him hopping through her still-unlatched window doesn’t lead to intimacy, but friction. She overheard at the funeral that he would try it on with Cleo on a regular basis, and she accuses him of keeping details of the case from her. He accuses her of using the case – and by extension him – to her own ends.
Lady in the Lake | Image via Apple TV+
Lady in the Lake Episode 5 Brings The Tessie Subplot To A Close
Towards the end of the episode, Maddie goes to see Stephan’s mother, Kasia. Maddie wants more information, especially after figuring out that Reggie is the guy Kasia described, but she makes an error – she had convinced herself that Stephan was innocent of the murder of Tessie, but it turns out he wasn’t.
This becomes obvious when Maddie keeps pushing with her questioning and Kasia eventually lashes out, stabbing Maddie in the gut with a knife. Kasia believes that Stephan might have told Maddie something when he visited her at home. Putting the pieces together, it becomes clear that Kasia helped Stephan dispose of Tessie’s body, and that’s what she thinks he might have revealed.
He didn’t, of course, and if she’d kept that to herself, Maddie would have probably left her alone. But here we are. A badly injured Maddie is able to lock herself in the bathroom, and by the time she emerges, Kasia has slit her own throat.
Additional Notes
Some other things worthy of interest in Lady in the Lake Episode 5:
- Milton meets with Maddie to tell her that Seth feels scared at her place and doesn’t want to stay with her – he also hands her divorce papers. Luckily for Maddie, it seems like Seth is keeping his parentage quiet. Unluckily for her, Milton has met another woman who will soon hit the ripe old age of 25. Yuck.
- Further to the above, I’m really not buying into this show’s repeated attempts to depict Maddie as some kind of frumpy past-her-prime housewife. I mean, she’s still Natalie Portman? Being improperly groped in the Baltimore Star newsroom is the most attention she gets, which is weird.
- Slappy tends to be written off as a burnout, but he’s clearly much more observant than he gets credit for. When he speaks to Maddie, his theory about what might have happened to Cleo is basically spot-on, including the fact the numbers were rigged and that Lucille knew in advance (he knew Cleo wouldn’t bet herself because of what happened to her father.)
Read more: Lady in the Lake Episode 6 Explained
