Danny’s Story
Danny Wheeler is in a juvenile detention centre as Accused episode 3 begins. His story starts sometime back in his lavish house. He sits with his dying mother who has stage IV cancer. Isabel Wheeler’s nurse, Alison, is not liked by Danny. His brother Matthew is neutral toward her and their father too takes well after Alison.
Danny suspects that Alison is enjoying his mother’s circumstances and works against her. When leaving with Matthew for bowling, he notices Alison closing the drapes in Isabel’s room, after she specifically told her not to.
At Jenny’s, Brittany, a former classmate of Danny’s, offers her condolences. But Danny perceives them to be feigned, as she does not even know that Isabel is still alive. Danny meets Leanna, who works behind the counter. She too goes to Spalding, their high school, and mentions that she herself lost her parents before moving here. It seems the two strike a genuine connection and vow to meet after. Leanna also jokingly calls people like Brittany and Alison “death tourists”, as they do not respect death and enjoy other people’s plight sadistically.
Isabel’s time comes way sooner than the doctors initially anticipated. She bids goodbye to her sons. Danny is absolutely heartbroken and cannot get over the suspicion that the early demise of his mother had something to do with Alison’s involvement. At school, Danny’s teacher lets his father know that Danny’s grades have fallen. He has lagged in other activities too. While his recent deterioration can be associated with Isabel’s passing away, the teacher mentions that his problematic behaviour started even before the illness. Isabel did not tell her husband this reality.
Danny sees his father kissing Alison in the car while walking Chester, the family dog. When he asks Danny to consult a psychiatrist to see if there is something wrong with him, he brings up Alison. He then goes on to explain to Danny and Matthew that the thing with Alison is serious and that his marriage with Isabel was already failing. Alison starts living with the family. Leanna asks Danny to cut his father and Alison some slack, as everyone has their own temperament to grieve the loss. Danny sees merit in the suggestion and tries to be more cordial.
At lunch, Alison takes Chester for a walk. Danny has stomach cramps after eating lunch and then the family hears screams from Alison. To their utter shock, they find the dead body of Chester at Alison’s feet. Danny immediately suspects Alison did it intentionally but has a severe cramp that takes him to the hospital. The bloodwork comes back normal. Danny’s father then suggests that perhaps all the issues with Danny are connected. The allegations against Alison, the fictional stomach cramps, and the behavioral issues in school all hint toward the fact that he might be schizophrenic.
Julian, Isabel’s brother, too suffered from the disease and committed suicide by drowning himself. He believed there were spirits inside him and he needed to be baptized. Alison brings up nutritional food for Danny after he gets back from the hospital. He is suspicious and takes the lunch to Leanna. She is hesitant to accept the food item that Danny presses her to send to the lab under her own name.
Danny believes that Alison must have been poisoning him with something that she knew could not be traced in routine bloodwork tests. Leanna throws away the food and asks Danny never to see her again when Danny starts shouting and gets violent.
The boy is now fed up with how Alison is getting away with everything. He grabs a knife from the countertop and rushes up to the master bedroom to go through Alison’s stuff. As he is about to start his ordeal, Alison asks her partner to break down the door. His father requests Danny to stop but he instead uses the knife to stab Alison. The police come in soon after and arrest him. In prison, Danny’s attorney says they cannot use the “Alison was poisoning Danny” angle in court.
To have any chance for acquittal, Danny must submit to a psychological evaluation. H is not ready at first but when a tearful Matthew requests him to do it, Danny agrees.
Six months later, we find Danny in a mental institute. He looks miserable and gets a visit from Alison. She informs him that his father died right after their honeymoon, owing to some sort of heart attack. When Danny asks why his brother has not been able to see him, Alison says Matthew has been getting “stomach aches”, indicating that she has been poisoning him too. He gets violent and tries to attack Alison but the guards tranquillize him. It seems that Danny’s suspicions were right and that Alison had planned all of this from the start.
The Episode Review
There was a drastic change in the story format in episode 3. Until now, we always had a conclusive end, given that the story never repeats in the next episode. But in Danny’s Story, we had an open-ended conclusion to things, which makes looking back at the recap even more interesting. In all honesty, Alison seemed like a villain from the start.
Everything that happened to allow her to step inside the Wheeler household looks like a calculated conspiracy by her. Danny’s unfortunate mental diagnosis gave her a free pass to do anything she pleases. Her arc brought some faint elements of horror too to the show.
Just imagine yourself in Danny’s shoes and the world would look quite terrifying from there! The writers have made a great effort to differentiate the show from standard police procedural dramas. This unique storytelling might just pick up the pace and we cannot wait to see what they will bring next.
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Episode Rating
(4)
Didn’t like this episode.This is not an Alfred Hitchcock show.
Felt the story line was too over the top.
Not sure I’ll be watching I the future.
I believe the focus of Danny’s story is the delusions that one can have with certain mental disorders. I work in the mental health arena and these are the behaviors and symptoms I see and experience daily. Especially individuals diagnosed with untreated schizophrenia which affects the ability for you to think, act, and behave properly. I’ve seen those who become fixated on a person and are paranoid and a storyline is created. It’s very real to whoever is experiencing it. It can be hard for them to come away from what they truly believe is happening because it’s happening for them.
A lot of people are upset with Danny’s unhappy ending. I am just unhappy with these reviews. I understand but there are so many lousy shows on tv but “Accused” is very good compared to the rest of TV and this episode was good though we all wanted a happier ending. What is wrong with all you critics? What are the shows you like because there is so much bad TV. I love suspense and this is a great show to satisfy that need. “Scott’s Story” was good, but I decided not to watch the second one, sensing it might lack suspense (ha). I know it was pretty obvious from the start that the woman was no good. If only Danny has switched meals with his dad and his dad got sick or the woman did something more to alert us.
Episode 3 ending truly was reprehensible. Then watched episode 4. Done with this show.
While not every episode has to end in a happy/sad ending (the show advertises the question to be lingering throughout the episode whether the person is guilty or not, obviously the main character of the episode could in the end be guilty and sad ending), it’s supposed to be steeped and based in realism; not throw some cheap horror twist at the end — it’s not like these things don’t happen in real life, but come on, they go through the whole episode showing and expanding Danny devolving into his psychiatric condition just to turn it around in the last second in a cheap attempt to be clever. Yes, let’s undo, in some cheap way, all the investment in time and attachment the viewer had watching Danny the whole episode. And he’s hardly “accused”, he’s definitely guilty of stabbing her and is obviously mentally ill (maybe not to the point of full schizophrenia, but you don’t have to have that psychiatric illness to be dangerously paranoid or deluded).
I wasn’t totally invested in the series watching the first 2 episodes as I didn’t really connect with them, but I was very interested in the premise and expected the show to simply be ramping up; but if they aren’t going to be grounded in (better) realism or be against cheap ploys, I’m out.
Just watched #3. I felt like I got to know Danny. It was evident he was right about everything. I hated the lack of justice. I felt bad for the brother too. Danny lost his mom, dad, maybe his brother……..but she just keeps on being evil? Yes, maybe it is true to life…….but life is harsh enough. Let justice prevail. Ugh. Not satisfying.
I was trying to like this show, but after watching episode 3, I think it’s a wrap for me. How can you think this is a satisfactory ending for viewers when nobody (father, friend or even lawyer) tried to even consider that what Danny was saying could be a possibility? 🤔
This show is no longer in my “continue watching” list.
Well, regarding Danny’s story I thought the station I was watching it on had cut off the ending for another show. Now I know that did not happen and feel cheated. I wanted to see Danny exonerated and the awful smirking killer nurse get her due. Awful ending shame on the writers.😖Of note this is not a duplicate comment??
Really wanted to love this new show, and somehow missed setting my DVR for the first two episodes. Very disappointing on episode 3 to be left hanging.
I watch TV to escape reality
not to be left hanging by the TV show with an ambiguous ending
I watch TV to see good story lines then seeing a conclusion that is in line with the court. Life is unfair but TV should show some kind of hope that the truth will prevail. I will watch the next episode but if leaves me sad because of no truth prevailing no more
I with most everyone else. What a horrible ending. The first two episodes were great, but there was no justice here.
I was very disturbed after episode three. That is not entertainment for me, therefore I will not watch again.
A lot of people dislike the ending of this episode how Danny is left in the end looking like the one who was crazy and needed help. And Alison just gets to keep on doing what she’s been doing getting away scott free a lot of people want justice in the end of a show sad to say the reality of this episode is so true to life sometimes there is no justice in the end people do sometimes get away with their crimes sometimes innocent people get blamed. People don’t want to like this episode because it was a real episode. It does happen
Ending sucked.
OMG!! I loved this third episode. I was on the edge of my seat through the entire show. Great writing and amazing acting. Without a doubt, my favorite new series.
Uhmm loved the 3rd episode,not sure why people can’t see that she was guiluty & although he may have had anger issues, he wasn’t imagining things when it came to her. Also, someone above said L&O always had conclusive or happy endings, that is not true! Someone mentioned there wasn’t enough courtroom drama like the 1st two episodes, well the show is about someone being accused of a crime, which means it doesn’t strictly have to be about the trial. I will continue to watch this show, sometimes a little variety is good for a show.
It was an unexpected ending but was fun…just kinda not in keeping with episodes 1 and 2 where it moved to the trial…but hey variety is the spice of life I say.
I hated this episode. It can’t end there. The viewers are used to a happy endings as with most other shows. Why do you think Law and Order played all these years? All stories need a climax and an ending and in this case, justice betting served. It felt more like a climax at the end and in waiting for the continuation but if this is how they end each episode from here on out, I agree with so many others that this is not the series for me and I’ll quit watching too. I’ll give it one more episode and see how that goes. I plan to read the comments here next time before watching the next episode to see if it’s worth watching. If the writers continue down a path like this episode, I’ll bet this show will be canceled instead of renewed.
My husband and I loved the first 2 episodes but hated the 3rd. We hate that that there was no conclusion. We don’t watch shows that leave the conclusions up to the viewer. Please do a two part episode, especially showing that woman getting caught and shows Danny is not crazy.
After watching the first two episodes, I thought this was going to be a great series.
But I think the writers killed them selfs with episode three.
If this is the way that they’re going to write their stories, I guess I’m going to have to take this one off my list.
The only way I will continue to watch this series is if I find they write a sequel to this episode, and finish it with the Court scenes and somehow showing evidence that Danny was right, and this bitch gets what she deserves!!!
Until that happens hasta la vista!
Loved the first two episodes… HATED the third. Not at all in character with the first two.
Thanks for commenting, John. That is a great insight. Hevn’t heard of the show, yet. Will get around to watching it!
Actually, this episode reminded me of an episode of a show from 1961 that ran only 14 episodes. It was called “’Way Out”, or sometimes “Roald Dahl’s ’Way Out”. (By the way, in England, most signs that would say “Exit” in America say “Way Out” instead.)
I enjoyed the first two episodes, but did not enjoy the last quarter of the third episode – at all. The show should have showed or told me in the end if the kid WAS mentally ill. It did allude that the nurse was bad, and that she got away with murder. Am I supposed to be a mindless stoob and like her because of her looks? I did not like her or the cheating husband and hated the ending. I already stopped recording it and will not watch it anymore.
Jim McDonald
I HATED the ending of “Danny’s Story”. Where was the courtroom drama. Please keep that aspect in the stories. This series has great potential.
I had this scheduled to record weekly on my DVR. After this episode 3 I am canceling this series recording. Danny’s Story was a waste. Sorry not my thing I guess.
This episode was trash. It read like a lifetime after school special. The first two episodes were solid in their writing and direction. This one felt campy and B grade.
That makes two of us Patty! Mentioned that in the review. But change is good, I feel. Something new for us to experience. Thanks for commenting!
I HATED the ending. I liked the first 2 episodes and thought it was going to be a great weekly series. If the stories start ending like this I will not watch anymore. I like the bad guys to get what is coming to them.