Losing Alice – AppleTV+ Season 1 Episode 6 Recap & Review

The Bad Reader

Episode 6 of Losing Alice begins with Alice arriving at the hotel, heading inside room 710. Once there, she rings David but struggles to get through to him. Instead, she leaves a message telling him she wants to talk.

Ripples of the past continues to bleed through though, thanks to the big revelations we found out last episode. As Alice sifts through the screenplay, piecing together the different scenes and how they could correlate with Sophie’s past, a whole stack of fragmented visions blur together.

In the morning Alice wakes up late, hurrying to the office after being picked up. It’s clear Alice is struggling, but she manages to speak to her daughter on the way, smiling through the pain.

Alice continues to have doubts over Sophie’s credibility, heading back to the office and wondering whether Hilik’s death was really a suicide. There’s no answers, of course, but it’s enough to get her thinking. Down in the parking lot, she receives a message from Sophie telling her to ring. After pacing back and forth, spinning out and losing control, Alice gets enough signal to ring Kobi, asking for help as she breathes heavily.

Eventually Alice returns home from her work trip. She continues to avoid Sophie’s calls though, especially after what Pnina told her, but David encourages his partner to hear her out and understand Sophie’s way of thinking. Well, for now she decides to mull it over in the bath.

Psychological slow burn tonally shifts to horror as strange creaking and whispers unnerve Alice. Eventually that materializes in the form of Sophie, who shows up while she’s in the bath. Sophie nonchalantly strips down and gets in the bath with her.

Alice is clearly uncomfortable, and after dancing around the situation, Sophie asks outright about Pnina and Tamir. She mentions the murder as Sophie suddenly grabs her head and plunges Alice underwater. This, as we soon find out, was all a bad dream as Alice awakens, sputtering and afraid.

That night, Alice struggles to sleep as a slick shot of her tossing and turning is obscured by a ceiling fan. Anyway, night turns to day and Alice receives a frosty welcome from Karen who claims that she knows what’s going on. She admits that Sophie is not a good person and warns Alice, telling her to keep her eyes open.

Alice decides to get some answers and heads over to visit Ami, who eventually buzzes her in. Ami is indifferent to her presence though, rocking leopard print boxers and making himself an espresso. Alice is bemused but sits with him, wanting to hear his side of the story.

Apparently he doesn’t know Pnina and has never been married. This causes her to question everything, as he admits that he’s not Amir. Given Alice is convinced Sophie’s script is based on true events, this latest development casts serious doubts in her mind. After taking a hit on Ami’s joint, she begins giggling uncontrollably after he calls her a bad reader.

It’s hard to tell whether it’s the weed or her own mental state cracking but it’s enough for Alice to eventually head out onto the balcony for some air. Laughing turns to heavy breathing and sobbing, as Ami comforts her, stroking the woman’s arms. Well, he soon begins stroking other parts of her body too.

And just like David, Alice allows herself to be seduced. Only this time, Sophie shows up and notices what’s going on. She races outside as Alice charges after her, wanting to explain. Eventually Sophie opens up and admits she didn’t tell Alice anything because, quite frankly, it’s n0ne of her business.

That evening Alice tries to make amends, heading over to Sophie’s apartment with food; a much welcome peace offering. She asks about Ami, as Alice shrugs her shoulders and tells her she has no idea why she did what she did. A part of her realized that she’d been deeply asleep for a long time, sleepwalking through life. Something that day seemed to wake Alice up.

The two share a laugh and food, as Sophie agrees to keep her misdemeanour with Ami a secret. Of course, she’s keeping secrets of her own with David.

That night, Alice sits at her desk ready to work. She has an email from Sergio, detailing that she wasn’t able to find Naomi’s first-year short film but did find her directing assignment scene.

As Alice plays the video, the dialogue and moments during the film mirror exactly what’s inside Sophie’s script. Has she planarized this? Well ignore is bliss as Alice decides to delete the video and carry on like everything is fine. Only, it very clearly is not.

The Episode Review

Secrets continue to spill out as Losing Alice sees a shit in our protagonist’s mindset. She’s decided to push the truth out of her mind and live the lie instead. This brings her revelation about now being awake into question, ironically seeing her sleep away any indiscretions surrounding Sophie.

Most of this episode though revels in its slow pace and artistic shots, which make up the bulk of the run-time here. For the first 30 minutes or so, there’s very little substance and most of what we see is Alice wandering around trying to make sense of what she was told last episode.

While there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, given Apple TV are releasing this one weekly, it does make it feel like padding and more meandering than it perhaps should.

In fact, that’s been the case for much of this season in truth, as Losing Alice seems to have lost its early season momentum and turned into a bit of a slog. Hopefully things pick up next week.