Fool Me Once – Episode 5 Recap & Review

Theo Mora

Fool Me Once episode 5 starts with Maya waking up from a nightmare about Joe. She hears a knock on the door and finds a frantic Eva crying outside her house. She is scared that her stalker ex has hacked her nanny camera to spy on her. She worries that the same thing might happen to Maya and is there to warn her. 

This is a blessing in disguise as Maya learns that someone can hack the camera. She wonders if someone can plan footage or upload something to the camera. She thinks maybe someone planted Joe’s footage in her nanny camera, but why? She calls Shane and asks for his help. He looks for evidence that someone hacked into her Wi-Fi and finds nothing suspicious. 

Kierce interrupts them and updates Maya on the case. Maya finds it disappointing that the police arrested and then released someone. Kierce asks more questions about the men who attacked her and Joe, but Maya says it was dark and didn’t see their faces. She is unable to give any identification. She notes that Kierce’s hands are shaking, but he insists he is okay. Shane decides to take Maya and Lily out to distract them. Maya then gets a call from Judith, begging her to bring Lily around the estate. 

Elsewhere, Marty finally meets Molly and realises Kierce has yet to tell her about his blackouts. He confronts Kierce and asks him to tell Molly before the wedding.

Meanwhile, Alexa joins the DNA site hoping to learn more about her half-brother and gets a message. However, she decides to keep this from Dan and investigate more independently. She is surprised to learn that her half-brother is Louis, the young man who works at their school. He confesses he took the job to be close to them and Claire. 

He and Claire had started meeting to learn more about each other, but she died before they could spend more time together. He also reveals that Claire took him to a posh school days before her death and asked him to pretend he wanted to be a student there. Alexa calls Maya, who is at Judith’s house and tells her everything. Alexa finishes up her conversation with Louis and is quite rude to him. Understandably, she just found out the truth and asks for time to think things over.

After the call, Maya spots Caroline, who runs away, and Maya tries to follow her. She ends up in a hallway upstairs and sees old family photos. She notes the name of Joe’s school and decides to investigate further. She leaves Lily with he grandmother and drives to the school. There, she sneaks into the principal’s office and is caught.

The principal agrees to talk to her after she explains she is Joe’s wife and threatens to ask Judith to withdraw her financial support from the school. We finally learn what happened that fateful day in 1996 and that Claire was investigating the death of a student named Theo Mora. Theo and Joe were friends, and the former died due to alcohol poisoning. 

Apparently,  a few boys went wild in their celebrations after winning a game, and one thing led to another. The headmaster sums up the incident as an unfortunate accident and boys being boys. He asks Maya not to disturb the boy’s family. However, the headmaster thinks that Andrew’s death was caused by the grief of losing his best friend Theo. Maya asks who else was on the yacht when Andrew died, and the headmaster names a boy – Christopher Swain. 

At Eddie’s home, their dad reveals some truth about what he was doing the night Joe died. He lied about his alibi, and after pressure from the detectives, he comes clean about almost having an affair with a random woman, and it seems there is no evidence he did something wrong.

In the meantime, Kierce visits the hospital to get tested, and Nicole escorts him. She tries to encourage him and hope for the best. The doctors explain to Kierce that he has a degenerative condition, but they have yet to learn more. However, his condition is escalating quickly, and he worries that his alcoholism led to this. The doctors are unsure but try to explain as much as possible.

Kierce heads to his appointment with Molly at the church and tells her that he can’t go through with the marriage. He runs off and ends up on a bridge. He seems to be on his end wits, and he calls Nicole to help him through this crisis. He is scared to burden Molly with his condition and blames himself for everything. Kierce ignores Marty’s numerous calls and messages. This leaves Marty to continue investigating the case on his own. Marty is looking into the coach’s son as he is suspicious. 

As Maya continues her investigation into Theo, she gets a call from Eddie that Alexa is missing. Maya updates him on what Alexa has been up to, and Eddie gets angry at her for keeping him in the dark. He goes to Alexander’s place to ask if he has seen Alexa again. He explains why he punched him the other day and suggests Alexander tries to get close to his son. As they talk, Alexa calls back and says she is fine. 

Maya visits Theo’s home and talks to his mom. The mom believes that something terrible happened to her son, and the rich folks at the school hid the truth. She and her husband couldn’t do much as they come from humble beginnings, and Theo was a scholarship student. She tells Maya that Andrew probably committed suicide out of guilt.

After talking to Theo’s mom, Maya receives a signal from Corey, implying they need to meet at the arcade club. Corey found a lead in Tommy’s recent activities. Tommy is MIA, but it seems he was renting a storage place, and they decide to investigate why and what Tommy was hiding. 

They drive to the storage unit, and Corey reveals that Claire found out that Burkett’s pharmaceutical company produced antibiotics that caused addiction and numerous deaths across the globe. However, the Burketts refuse to recall the drug and are trying to hide the truth and pass the blame. Corey thinks Claire found out more about this and was killed. They arrive at the storage unit and find Tommy’s body stashed in a freezer. 

The Episode Review

The web continues to get thicker as the story develops. Did Claire possibly discover another dark secret, and the Burketts killed her to hide the truth? Did Joe kill his sister-in-law to protect his company? Then we have Caroline, and the fact that she is not in a mental hospital like Judith said. Why lie about something like that? 

We also don’t know why Tommy was killed. After all these years of paying him, why kill him now? What could the old man possibly say or do that would harm the Burketts? There is also the coach’s son, who is acting suspiciously. Was he involved in Joe’s murder and hiding Tommy’s body? Maybe if we learn more about Tommy’s death, we can fit some pieces of the puzzle together.

It was sad to see Louis trying to reconnect with his family. I don’t think he was involved in Claire’s murder. He seems to genuinely want to learn his identity and means no harm. However, in this show, we can’t trust anyone. 

On the other hand, after learning about Theo, we can’t help but wonder if his death has anything to do with everything happening recently. There seems to be more at play here, and the headmaster might be covering up the truth. Were Andrew and Theo more than friends? What drove Theo to take his life allegedly? 

Lastly, Kierce’s situation had us in our feelings. He must be dealing with a lot and is understandably not in the mental space to work just yet. He just learned he is dying, and that is bound to turn his world on its feet. Thankfully, Nicole is there for him and will help him through this crisis.