First things first, Joe’s obsession with Bronte is escalating. We hear Joe narrating that the word “affair” has been ping-ponging around his head – “You are trouble.” And Joe lies to himself by saying that he won’t jeopardise his stable life for her – and we know he will, it’s Joe Goldberg.
For this recap of Season 5, Episode 4, I wanted to focus on Maddie and Reagan because their performances are amazing and deserve to be the centre of this episode.
In Season 5, Episode 3, we left Maddie and Joe in Mooney’s basement, with Maddie locked up in the cage. He expresses to her that she needs to pretend to be Reagan, to switch places while “she’s away on a spa excursion,” and by spa excursion, Joe means dead. So Maddie practises but fails quite miserably.
Joe is then abruptly distracted by Bronte upstairs. Not helping his obsession.
Meanwhile, Kate meets with Reagan to convince her to leave the company quietly. A bit stupid if you ask me – doesn’t she know who her sister is? Reagan retorts that she knows the whole story of what happened to Uncle Bob, but also admits that she knows more about Joe. “Is Joe your little assassin?” – and then threatens that she is getting Uncle Bob’s body exhumed to find out the truth about his death.
“Resign. And your secrets, they will stay just that. But if you don’t…Oh. Who is going to take care of poor, little psycho child when mommy and daddy are in prison?”
Kate states that Joe was right about her being a monster. But when they later discuss this revelation Kate has had about her sister, she insists that they can’t kill her, but Joe has plans of his own, as per usual.
Joe tries to kidnap Reagan later on in the episode and quite frankly gets his ass whooped. Reagan puts up quite the fight for herself – very impressive. But lastly, as they run out into the yard together, Joe whacks her head with a pinball pin. And takes her to the cage.
By putting them in the cage, Joe explains that the only way for her to get out of the cell is to kill Reagan.
“The guilty don’t go running to the authorities. If you refuse, I’ll have to kill you both.”
Later, we return to Maddie and Reagan in the cage, and Reagan goes absolutely feral on Maddie. She says some incredibly awful and vindictive things. Maddie quickly loses it and snaps. When Joe returns, Reagan is dead, and Maddie has configured herself perfectly to be Reagan.
The next day comes, and they’re all in Lockwood’s having a vote—the perfect opportunity for her first act as Reagan. Kate is about to resign, but Maddie/”Reagan” interrupts and announces that she’s taking a step back before Kate can do so. Kate is a little confused and knows Joe’s done something.
Joe admits that his marriage is officially broken and goes to Mooney’s. Bronte is packing up and looking to leave, but Joe asks her to stay. “You could destroy me, Bronte. But right now I’d rather burn the entire world down than let you walk out that door.” And then things get spicy.
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