Summary
Missing You puts the focus on Kat’s friends and family in Episode 4, once again delivering a bevy of twists and revelations.
Missing You shows some of its strengths in Episode 4, which is appropriately titled “Don’t You Forget About Me” after the Simple Minds hit. It’s another dense chapter with a flurry of important revelations, but it also expands its focus to look deeper at Kat’s friends and family, giving the entire cast some welcome texture.
As obvious as it is that everyone is lying, it’s also equally obvious that almost everyone seems to have pretty good reasons for it, and that’s the basis of a fairly intriguing narrative. Remember, every character is the hero of their own story, and their personal viewpoint should make sense to them. Incidentally, this is also why a figure like Titus, who just seems to be uncomplicatedly awful for no good reason, doesn’t feel especially interesting.
But no matter. Let’s proceed.
Friends Like These Pt. 2
Since the previous episode ended with the revelation that Aqua had assaulted Brendan, it’s nice of “Don’t You Forget About Me” to start there, at least after a brief flashback showing Josh preparing to propose to Kat. This is really a direct continuation of some of Aqua’s comments in the previous episode about how close she and Josh were. Her justification for attacking Brendan is that Stacey told her he was besmirching Josh’s good name. She followed him and heard him slagging Josh off to Arthur, so she just shoved Brendan over and took his phone.
This was Aqua trying to look out for Josh, like he always looked out for her, which is a very loaded statement. And you can tell Aqua’s hiding something else since she keeps having flashbacks to a red door being violently brayed upon by someone as yet unknown.
Stacey isn’t much help either. She comes around to reveal that she also saw Josh during that yoga class, followed him, and warned him off Kat. Crucially, Stacey wasn’t friends with Kat while she was with Josh, so she’s basing everything she knows about him on second-hand information from Kat herself. She thought she was just being a loyal friend. But either way, Kat doesn’t take it too well.
The Reality Of Melody Cupid Is Revealed
Charlie tells Kat that a financial advisor named Ashkan Chubak filed a suspicious activity claim against Dana Fell’s Swiss account, so they both chase the lead up and find the guy – who calls himself Chewie – running a dodgy operation out of his mother’s garage. His client was – all together now – Rishi Magari.
Chewie claims that Rishi had become rather obsessed with a woman he had met on – again, all together now – Melody Cupid, and then suddenly sent half of his portfolio to a Swiss account. How convenient! Chewie rightly found this suspicious and looked up the object of Rishi’s affection, Vanessa, who turned out to be a cam girl selling herself online to foot fetishists. Hence the suspicious activity claim.
It’s all coming together now. Melody Cupid is a catfish operation being run from Titus’s farm. They’re using images – like Vanessa’s and Josh’s, neither of whom are any the wiser – to entrap wealthy people, kidnap them, and extort them. This is doubly confirmed when we see the banks of computers and monitors back on the farm, and also see Titus trying to force Dana Fell to empty Brendan’s trust fund.
Kat Investigates
With this new revelation seemingly proving Josh’s innocence, Kat resolves to track him down using his writing style. Charlie recommends some AI software that’ll detect similarities in his published works and throw up similar articles, even those written under a pseudonym. This leads Kat to discover a newsletter written under the alias “The Honest Aspect”, though she barely needs the AI, since the newsletter features a specific line that, in flashback, we see Josh said out loud to Kat. It’s very silly.
Nevertheless, The Honest Aspect has a lot of paying subscribers, so Stacey – the magical P.I. strikes again – can trace the money. She does, to a PO box under the name of – you guessed it – Reggie Cross.
Before Kat can go and investigate that lead, she goes to see her mother’s friend about Clint’s mistress and turns up the name Parker, with whom Clint supposedly had many liaisons in what is now Kat’s flat. Yuck! But nevertheless, that name will prove to be important as we go.
More Big Turns
As is becoming a trend, Missing You Episode 4 ends with a veritable flurry of new twists and turns, all in service of setting up a dramatic finale. So, let’s briefly go over those.
For one thing, Titus, after learning his Swiss account is frozen, pushes Reynaldo to reveal any recent “issues”. He mentions a small one the previous week when someone recognized one of the catfish photos. This, obviously, was when Kat messaged Josh. Since Kat’s a detective who obviously has a personal connection to the person in the photo, not the identity that Melody Cupid invented for him, Titus wants to target and eliminate her. He also tells his other goon, Clem, to “cull” – an interesting choice of word – “number 6”, which happens to be Dana, though she manages to escape.
When Kat goes to investigate that PO box she follows the guy collecting from it back to a very idyllic seaside property, but he won’t speak to Kat. She does see the little girl we now know to be Sadie outside, though, but Kat is promptly jumped from behind and has a bag pulled over her head. Titus? No, not quite. Instead, she’s taken to meet Calligan, who we haven’t seen since he was stood at Monte Leburne’s grave.
Calligan – who’s a fun and interesting character; I wish he had more screen time – tells Kat that he didn’t kill Clint. But he strongly suspects a policeman did, since that was the only way the crime could have been covered up and Monte could have been compelled to take the fall for it. Kat also asks him about Parker, and while Calligan warns Kat that she’s opening a Pandora’s Box of personal revelations that she’ll never be able to seal, he does agree to find out where Parker is for her.
Side note: My assumption here was that Calligan himself was Parker and that he and Clint were in a relationship that blurred the lines of their professional arrangement. This turns out not to be the case, though it’s fairly close, and I think in hindsight it might have been a better twist.
Anyway, Missing You Episode 4 ends – after a brief snippet of Stagger watching Aqua – with Kat being dropped back at the seaside property, where she approaches Sadie. Sadie wants to know why Kat is asking about her dad, right as Josh himself turns up out of nowhere.
Reunited at last!
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