Lady in the Lake – Episode 6 Recap & Review

I know who killed Cleo Johnson

Episode 6 of Lady in the Lake begins with Maddie hosting a big party. Allan is there and he approaches her, uneasily apologizing for how he behaved that fateful night at the lake. He saw the painting of her and blamed himself for what happened when she was sexually assaulted. Even worse, it turns out she wasn’t the only girl that he victimized. Maddie, in her downward spiral, kisses Allan after he initially kisses her and apologizes, and the pair end up having sex.

Back in the present, Seth speaks to Maddie while she’s in hospital. He explains that he knew there was something going on with her, especially over the way she looked at him. However, while he’s talking Allan shows up with flowers.

Now, there’s a whole bunch of trippy visuals here, which bleed into one another, blending fact and fiction together. And while Maddie takes a trip down nightmare memory lane, news breaks that Stephan Zawadzkie has been cleared of Cleo Johnson’s murdeR, and police are now looking for new suspects.

The first person to be grabbed off the streets happens to be Slappy, given his ties with Cleo. Reggie shows Up at the house not long after and hands over some money and food to Teddy. Teddy is no fool and he knows this is a gift for paying him off to keep quiet. Shell though is certainly happy that Slappy is taking the fall for this, but Detective Platt is not. Reggie almost talks himself into trouble when he points out how knowledgeable he is on fish (and remember the first murder was inside a fish shop) but Platt doesn’t take the bait. No pun intended.

When Maddie wakes up, Bob is there. She mumbles that she knows who killed Cleo Johnson and wants to set out and confirm this. However, it soon becomes apparent that the whole incident sees Maddie slip back into her hallucinations again, this time with her in another dance number and then testifying in court.

At the station, Ferdie Platt is confronted by his sleazy partner, who points out that he knows about the affair he’s having with Maddie. It doesn’t look good, especially as he’s threatened with being put behind bars.

And as the episode closes out, we get further visions with Maddie, as this little musical number crescendos with Cleo Johnson diving into a lake, Maddie saving her and then waking up to see Cleo as one of the nurses uttering “I am Cleo Johnson”. Whether this is real or not though remains to be seen.

The Episode Review

The age old adage of style over substance rears its head here and it’s undoubtedly going to grab all the critics who will undoubtedly love this one. There’s a lot of symbology and visual references to race, along with some pretty slick camera work and dance numbers.

From a visual perspective, yes the episode looks great, but in a series that’s been plagued with slow, dull plotting, the fact that we get an entire episode of visions with absolutely zero plot development aside from Slappy getting arrested, just feels like a chore to get through.

It’s a show that, for some reason highlights an awful main character as the protagonist, given Maddie is super unlikable and not a particularly nice person. And with Cleo gone, there’s no other focal point so the whole thing just feels lackadaisical and dull.

With the finale up next, hopefully this one can actually pick up and deliver some compelling drama to close things out.