Tell Me Your Secrets – Season 1 Episode 3 Recap & Review

Someone Worse Than Me

Episode 3 of Tell Me Your Secrets begins in the past as we see Kit and Karen together, preparing for the day ahead. Kit surprises her with a new kitten; a gesture from the man she fell in love with.

This also happens to be the day he abducted another girl, breaking her feet and hands mercilessly while she was dying in her van. Karen claims not to have seen this side of him, as we’re left with more questions hanging over this series.

Back in the present, Emma learns that there’s no police report for Jess’ disappearance. Peter believes she’s projecting her fears and thoughts onto this girl but Emma is not so sure.

She decides to go off investigating alone, and this brings her to Saint Jerome’s, a children’s home. She begins rooting around Jess’ room but fails to find anything. Her one friend there. Jay, arrives and admits that Jess’ disappearance was brushed over by the staff there, claiming she went home to visit her Farther. This causes Emma to spiral, unsure what to trust.

As she heads downstairs, Emma runs into Rose, whose Mother is not best pleased with Emma’s Gothic look and dyed hair. She’s told to stay away from her daughter, as Emma notices a picture of Pete Guillory up on the wall.

This certainly rattles Emma who ignores a call from Pete and instead fingers the scrawled up card for the police officer, Tom Johnston. She invites him into the salon and offers to shave his face. She questions him about Pete, asking if he can investigate the man and see if he’s safe. If he’s not, then she’s definitely going to need her help.

On the way home, Rose happens to be waiting for her at her cabin. She invites Emma out for a beer. Instead, Emma rejects the offer and decides to head inside alone after probing for information about Saint Jerome.

Only, Pete happens to be there sitting at the table. Apparently he has a key and unnervingly sits with her cat on his lap. He questions her over what she’s been doing and shows disdain when Emma reveals she’s making friends.

Pete demands she pick up the phone next time he rings as Emma scoffs at the notion. She tells him she knows nothing about the officer or his past. Pete matter-of-factly declares that Jess went home with her Father, reinforcing that same message we heard before.

Anyway, Tom rings and updates Emma on what’s going on. He’s learned that Pete is a psychiatrist but his license was suspended. His records are hidden but this could be because of a pretty major offence. Given Saint Jerome is home to minors, could this be sexual in nature?

Meanwhile, Mary speaks to a concerned Father about his missing daughter. Only, Jake matter-of-factly points out that Parker only chose white women for his victims so by definition, he doesn’t fit the profile.

Mary is not so sure, until she speaks to the Mother, Kamala. She has a confession from Parker himself, which Mary requests and begins listening to. It’s a graphic assessment of how Parker treats his victims and pretty tough to listen to in truth.

The original video is a lot longer but Emma has only listened to a fraction of this. Eventually she listens to the rest, without Kamala’s permission, as we jump back and see this play out for itself in real-time within the prison.

Kamala confronts Mary that evening, unhappy that she’s taken the recording. Mary ignores her concerns and mentions how there was someone else involved and they need to go after Karen. She eventually slaps Mary across the face, telling her she needs to check herself over why Theresa has gone. Jake too is not happy with her betraying Kamala’s trust and walks away.

Elsewhere, we cut to see John meeting a woman called Gayle in the bar. She’s a social worker who used to be involved with Karen Miller – which explains why John is sniffing around. It’s a bit of a convoluted way to find information but we get there in the end. Apparently Karen stole a cat, which contradicts her earlier dreamy story about Parker gifting her the feline, as Gayle senses danger and walks away.

As the episode closes out, Emma rings Esther Moses at the hospital, who tells her that the secret she’s keeping is safe. In the room with her however, happens to be John who tells the orderly that he’ll wait to talk to Esther.

The Episode Review

The latest episode of Tell Me Your Secrets ends with two parallel cases going on at the same time. Emma draws closer to finding out the truth about Pete while Mary and John close in on Karen’s location.

One can’t help but feel this thriller has been drawn out with little in the way of thrills and more of a noir feel to it. Even worse, the structure of this show lends itself to a lot of contrivance for what could otherwise be resolved very quickly. Why hasn’t Mary actually hired someone who knows the law to go after Karen? Or investigated Theresa more thoroughly?

On the same note too, how did John manage to find a way into Esther’s room? Surely it’s past visiting hours? Anyway, besides that the show continues to deliver okay drama, although there are far better thrillers out there tackling this subject material.