Secrets and Lies - S1E5 - The Jacket
Previously on Secrets and Lies, ‘The Sister’
This episode opens, as all things should, on a topless Ryan Phillippe lying in bed. I take back what I said about him not being attractive. That boy is alllllright. His wife strokes his face and kisses him, like I was doing in my mind. In the middle of rolling around together in their marital bed, she says, “I can’t! I can’t!” and runs away like this was his idea. That bitch woke HIM up. Ben looks baffled. But that’s women for you. Sometimes we don’t know if we’re coming or going.
Ben calls Dave to find out whether he remembers him making a call to Jess that night, which he does not. But they were both so drunk, who knows who really did what. Dave is mad because Ben is disturbing his sleep and if he doesn’t get his full 14 hours, he gets cranky.
Ben asks Kristy what that was about in the bedroom. Again, she acts like he’s the one who did something weird. And she’s not wearing her wedding ring. I don’t know about this woman. She’s still on my list of suspects.
Ben and his youngest daughter head out to the store, and on the way they find their neighbor’s autistic kid, Mattie, wandering around on his own. He shouldn’t be, so Ben tries to get him in the truck to take him home, but he runs away. Ben chases him through those damn murder woods. People die in there! Stay out of there! Mattie keeps running until he falls. He gets up and runs off, leaving behind a bloody, blue jacket. Ben finally catches up to him and tries to calm him down, but he breaks down hysterically. His mom, the fantastic Laura Ingalls, shows up in time to help him into the house. Ben asks her if Mattie has a blue jacket, she says he does not, but that he likes to collect things. Ben runs make into the woods to get the jacket, but it is gone.
What does this autistic kid have to do with anything? See, for me, when there’s a character or a plot point or a scene that has nothing to do with the story, or if the story could go on just fine without its existence, then I get suspicious. I am suspicious. Either of him or someone close to him.
Ben goes to the police station to tell Cornell about the jacket. When he gets there a lady is yelling at Cornell, “You destroyed my husband! How do you sleep?!” Oooh, more secrets and lies. I want to know more, but they don’t want to tell me more. Cornell says she’s very interested in the jacket, but still seems super suspicious of Ben. She doesn’t believe he ever saw the jacket. By the time he gets back home, rumors have already spread around the neighborhood about what happened with Matt. It sounds like everybody thinks he was trying to kill him too.
Ben goes back into the woods and finds Laura Ingalls’ other son Tyler smoking. Ben thought he was supposed to be away at school, but he says he came home for the holidays. Hmmm. Or did he? He’s got a cut on his hand. I’m suspicious! Dave reveals Tyler’s been in and out of rehab. Ben is suspicious that maybe he was using again, and got violent and killed Tom and that’s why Mattie has his jacket. I second this suspicion.
On his way home, Tom’s mom is outside crying over a box. She had ordered something for Tom, perhaps a bike, and had forgotten about it until it had arrived that day. I’m still suspicious of her!
Ben goes over to Matt’s house to ask his mother why Tyler was home when she told them he was supposed to be away at school. She tries to lie and then gets angry when he calls her out. Since she won’t tell him anything, he asks his daughter if Tyler is violent. She says he’s a nice guy who’s really good with his brother. But Momma Half Pint is nursing a bloody lip there, so likely story.
Out in the driveway, Ben finds a trail of something… blood, ketchup, paint. Not quite sure. But he follows it into the garage where someone has laid out dozens of flashlights. Oh crap. I hope he doesn’t try to wrap them all and put them under the Christmas tree like he did with the real one. Cornell happens to show up just as he finds them. She claims he sent her a text telling her to come over. He claims he did no such thing. So, someone with access to his phone must have done it. The killer is one of the Crawfords! But ya know, it should be easy to find the store that sold somebody 40 flashlights. You can’t make that kind of purchase and go unnoticed. Unless you ordered it online and had it shipped in a box that looks like a bike box! I’m on to you, Jess!!
Cornell tells Ben the neighbors didn’t see anything and the techs found no fingerprints. But also, the information about the flashlight had never been made public. Whoever did this is definitely the killer. And they’re more than happy to frame Ben for it. Again, someone close to him who had access to his phone and could get in his garage with dozens of flashlights without being seen. For the first time in the series, she isn’t looking at him like a suspect. She tells him, in all genuineness, to watch his back.
Dave, who is typically an idiot, makes a suggestion that Ben should talk to Matt, even though he’s completely non-verbal, because he’s really good at using computers. Half Pint won’t let him in to talk to Matt. While they’re outside arguing, someone inside breaks a mirror with a lamp. Ben runs inside to look for Tyler, but all he finds his a terrified Matt. Matt freaks out when Ben touches his stuff and starts hitting himself. Tyler runs in and settles him down like a magician. He accuses Matt of killing Tom. But his mom says it’s just because Matt likes order and all of the crazy stuff going on in the neighborhood is making him act out. Laura Ingalls makes excuses for Tyler until Tyler tells her to stop and admits he was involved in a hit-and-run while he was drunk. She’s letting him hide there. She begs Ben not to call the police. But Tyler has already called them.
Cornell’s proof that Matt is innocent is that A) it was raining the night Tom died and he has issues with rain and would never have purposely been out in it. B) His GPS watch has him in bed at the time of the murder. There’s such a thing as a GPS watch?! I want one!! She tells Ben to leave things alone and to stop sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong or him and his family are gonna get hurt. She tells him it took a very skilled person to break into the garage and send an untraceable text from his number. He doesn’t seem all that concerned. He just sort of shrugs her off. I expect nothing less from someone who went jogging in the rain in the woods in the dark.
In the last scene of the episode, Ben is sitting in his truck in a parking garage when he gets a text from an unknown sender that reads “You Will Pay For Your Sins.” Then his radio and his car go dead. Then the lights in the garage go out. I’m confused now. This is someone who is smart and judging from next week’s previews, they’re also going to stalk, kidnap, and torture Ben. This looks like it goes way beyond the accidental killing of a kid. I don’t even know who the killer is anymore!! But that’s exactly what they want. I’ll figure out the truth. Mark my words!
Oh, and also, I’m pretty sure Ben’s hussy of a wife is having an affair.
