Summary
An arty penultimate episode spends a little more time than is wise on Maddie’s interiority, largely reiterating things we could already intuit and leaving the overarching mystery underexplored.
The penultimate episode of Lady in the Lake is easily the most formally daring, devoting most of its runtime to elaborate dream sequences in which Maddie grapples with her most deep-seated anxieties and neuroses. But the fact she spends the entirety of Episode 6 in a hospital bed recovering from the cliffhanger ending of Episode 5 feels like a bizarre choice for a murder mystery to make at this late stage, and for all its striking visual design it is mostly reiterating internal conflicts that we were already privy to in the first place.
There are some clear answers and some important suggestions that’ll presumably be unpacked by the finale, but for the most part, “I know who killed Cleo Johnson” is a bit needlessly show-offy. Mileage will vary, as it’s impressively and handsomely constructed all the same, but I, for one, wasn’t keen.
Allan Durst Is Seth’s Father
At least we can finally stop going on about Seth’s parentage. Given the ambiguity of some of the flashback sequences I’ve been forced to ponder the timelines more than I’d like, but Episode 6 finally makes it clear that Allan is Seth’s biological father.
Allan is the man Maddie journalled about cheating on Milton with. As we see, they run into each other at a function, as adults. Allan is drunk and tells Maddie that he knew about her relationship with his father. He implies that she wasn’t the only younger girl he took to his bed and apologizes rather half-heartedly for trying to force himself on her by the lake that time.
Somewhat inexplicably, Maddie is quite turned on by this, and the two have sex. This means that Seth was Tessie’s half-brother, explaining why Maddie was so profoundly affected by the little girl’s death.
Bad Dreams
“I know who killed Cleo Johnson” features multiple extended dream sequences in which Maddie works through her inner anxieties and internal contradictions, everything from Seth’s parentage and her relative — for a well-to-do Jewish woman at the time — promiscuity, to her relationship with Ferdie, her career ambitions, her desire to be freed from her husband’s name, and the sad reality that she might care more about her byline than the people whose stories she claims to be fighting to tell.
The first of these nightmare sequences — and the most horror-adjacent — comes right after the flashback. Maddie dreams that Seth meets Allan — Seth’s line, “I am your son, not all the men who came before me,” is such on-brand nasty work that I didn’t even realize Maddie was dreaming at first — and that she gives birth to a wailing bundle of bloody newspaper, delivered by Cleo in her tell-tale baby-blue coat.
Whatever could it mean?
The fact we know exactly what it means doesn’t sap any of the visual artistry — the “baby” is a brilliantly horrible image — but it does sap some of the pacing. These sequences are quite long, and they remind us of things we already know. We’ve known ever since it was revealed that Milton wasn’t Seth’s father that Maddie’s relationship with her son has suffered because of him being a living reminder of her infidelity. We know Maddie has put her career above her family. We know she’s guilty about Cleo’s death.
Later dream sequences are similarly pointless. A sultry dance number with a topless Ferdie is well-orchestrated, but we already know their relationship is “forbidden”, and for good measure, we’re reminded of it more overtly elsewhere in the episode. Maddie eulogizing herself at her own funeral, extolling her virtues as a noble truth-teller, speaks to a grandiose idea of herself that we already know she has.
Kasia Killed Tessie Durst
The attempted murder-suicide that capped off the previous episode made it clear that Kasia was involved in the disposal of Tessie Durst’s body, but the implication — to my mind, anyway — was that Stephan killed her and his mother helped him cover it up. When Maddie wakes up to find Beau’s moony face hovering above her, he explains that Kasia was actually the one who killed Tessie after discovering that Stephan had attempted to rape her in the basement.
Beau is trying to pump Maddie for information to steal her story, which she recognizes immediately. Where the dream sequences do come in handy is adding some complexity to Maddie’s refusal to allow him to do so. Ordinarily, we’d be on her side anyway. After all, she did the legwork and almost died — she deserves to tell the story. But since we know from Maddie’s nightmares that she cares about her byline arguably more than she cares about Tessie or Cleo, her insistence on receiving credit for the story takes on a slightly sinister undertone.
Race Relations
Lady in the Lake hasn’t been shy about addressing race relations in mid-60s Baltimore, but it takes a more sinister and explicit form in Episode 6, which features a literal Ku Klux Klan rally.
Against this backdrop, Ferdie is also racially abused and blackmailed by a fellow officer, with snarling invective bookending threats to expose his relationship with Maddie if he doesn’t resign. This attack on Ferdie is seemingly for its own sake, which makes it even more stinging when Ferdie’s earlier confrontation with Shell and Reggie highlights that he isn’t above seeking justice even against those who look — and are treated — like him. To others, there is no meaningful difference between Shell, a criminal, and Ferdie, a police officer. They’re both Black, and that’s enough.
But despite her being used as a threat against his career, Ferdie seems to commit himself to Maddie. This is a shame since I don’t foresee a romantic future for them, and, given her innermost thoughts, I don’t buy the idea that Maddie feels much about Ferdie one way or the other.
Lady in the Lake Episode 6 ends with Maddie being woken, seemingly for real, by Cleo, who is apparently still alive. The show is deliberately unclear about whether Maddie is imagining this or not, but it’s a compelling place for the finale to pick up from. One can’t help but worry, though, that there might be a little too much for that finale to do after spending so much of this episode exploring Maddie’s psyche.
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