Tell Me Your Secrets – Season 1 Episode 6 Recap & Review

I’m A Good Person

Episode 6 of Tell Me Your Secrets begins in the past, as Karen’s alcoholic Mother mumbles incoherently while Karen drives their car. Unfortunately she crashes, prompting the authorities to arrive and tell her she needs to stay elsewhere for the night.

This cuts us back to the present as Karen watches Freya from afar while out on her morning run. She leaves a note for Tom on his police car too, and eventually heads back to the cabin. There, Rose happens to be waiting.

Emma tells Rose that her grandmother has died as Rose confronts her over the lies she’s been telling. On Rose’s phone happens to be news of Karen’s arrest so it seems like she’s clocked on to what’s happening. She threatens to tell her Dad about Emma breaking her nose. This is enough for Emma to admit something bad has happened in town, as she reveals the theory that Jess is dead and those inside Saint Jerome are lying.

Emma asks Rose to trust her, just while she investigates the case and tries to find the truth. As she hugs the young girl, Rose tells Emma that she does trust her.

When Rose leaves, Tom arrives and helps paint as she admits that her daughter is coming home soon. Emma tells him her name is Freya and she wants to make a new life in town. Leaning forward, she kisses him. The day draws to a close and Tom tells her he feels like they’re being watched. Well, it turns out they are given Rose happens to be outside the door.

As Tom kisses her, we flash back to see Theresa drinking with Emma and telling her that she doesn’t want to go home. Midway through talking, Emma flashes back to the present, as she takes the deer head off the wall and notices a taxidermy needle; the same sort of needle that was inside her leg.

This presumed clue sends her to the deceased Andrew Bellvue’s workshop, where she begins looking around. Those clues are soon found with bloodied rags, needles and a hooded figure hiding in the shadows. The latter, Emma doesn’t notice. Grabbing one of the needles, she takes off while whispering “I’m onto you.”

John phones Mary and tells her that he’s “closer than ever” to solving this case. Mary claims she knows what he’s done and tells him to turn himself in for Andrea Black before she does. John ignores this though and gets back in his car.

He instead shows up to see his sister at her wedding. It’s been 7 years since they’ve been together and John tells her he needs to talk as he doesn’t have anyone else to go to.

He tells her she looks beautiful and admits that he’s looking for someone. She breaks the news that he can’t be in her daughter’s life and apologizes, with a wavering voice, that she can’t forgive him for breaking the two ladies he raped. There’s no way back from that. Even worse, John finds out his card has been by cancelled by Mary, making his job considerably more difficult.

Mary shows up at school and greets the parents but the coach there is not best pleased to see her. After sharing the video and blog post about Kamara, her actions are coming back to bite her. Mary claims that her intentions were misinterpreted but he tells her it’s done. The board have already voted and she has to leave.

Outside, Mary eventually rings John and apologizes for what happened beforehand. She admits that he scared her about the Andrea Black incident. John retorts that he feels alone and asks her to apologize first.

Here, he outright admits that she’s a murderer and isn’t happy that he made him walk down that dark path again. It pains Mary to say it but she eventually strains that she’s happy he’s helping and doing a good job.

Mary shows up at confession next and calls John her dog, reciting what’s happened to her and questioning the life choices she’s made. At the same time, John manages to find where Emma is staying, thanks to the cat collar.

While he drives off, Detective Samuelson shows up to talk to Mary. The officers break the news that they’ve found a grave holding human remains, and it also held a necklace too. Theresa’s necklace. It looks like Mary’s intuition was wrong after all, as it seems like Theresa is dead.

When Emma finds out, flashes of the past come back as we see Emma with blood over her hands. Was she responsible? As we cut back to the present, John shows up before Emma.

The Episode Review

“I’m a Good Person” is probably the most ironic name for this episode given we’ve just learned that really, there are no good people in this show. The only difference is the mystery surrounding Theresa seems to have been solved and this cat and mouse game between killers continues.

John continues to search for Emma, despite not knowing what Mary is going to do when when she finds her, while Emma continues to embrace the amnesia trope. It’s such a tired and cliched plot trope now and the way it’s used here, to deliver convenient drip-fed bits of information, only reinforces the disappointing nature of this thriller.

While the first half of this show helped to establish characters and set things up for a possible thrilling second half, the illogical plot beats and inconsistent characterization shackle this show to the ground and prevent it from flying. Even worse, none of these characters are particularly likable, making it very difficult to warm to any of these people.

I know I said this in the previous recap but honestly, who are we supposed to be rooting for here?