Tell Me Your Secrets – Season 1 Episode 8 Recap & Review

Be Mine

Episode 8 of Tell Me Your Secrets begins with Christmas celebrations in the past. Karen asks to come in late as she has a birthday on the horizon. She’s allowed to leave early as the others shut off the lights and sing happy birthday to her, complete with a cake.

Only, this fragment of the past dissolves out of Emma’s memory as Pete mentions how she’s repressing memories and forgetting what the real chain of events are. We then jump back to the present as Pete drives away from Emma, losing patience with her. In the wake of this, Emma decides to reactivate Karen’s social media profile; a ploy to try and remember more of the past.

It seems to work too, as a flashback reveals that Kit hated Theresa and wanted Emma to get rid of her. He gave Emma a choice, telling her to get rid of the girl. Just as she enters the apartment, we jump back to the present where Emma receives a number of nasty messages on social media. She hurriedly decides to deactivate her account again.

John visits the fortune teller, who reveals Emma’s past and how it was filled with violence. Well, Emma heads out and speaks to Jay down by the river, asking for his help in unlocking Jess’ phone. She also tasks him with keeping an eye on those inside Saint Jerome. When Jay returns from a brief trip, he tells Emma that his only other friend, Tina, is apparently dead with appendicitis.

After, he gives Emma a possible pass-code and it works, allowing the girl to break into Jess’ phone. There, she sees numerous searches on google relating to pregnancy. On the back of this revelation, Emma visits Tom and reveals the truth. Jess was stabbed in the stomach, presumably as a way of getting rid of this baby, but whether it was self-inflicted or by the hooded figure in the woods remains to be seen.

Tom then shows what real investigative work is, as he mentions Emma being in witness protection after doing some research. With no social media or tags online, he got suspicious and did some digging around. Emma eventually comes clean and breaks the news that she’s actually Karen and admits that she can’t remember the truth. She really doesn’t know if she’s responsible for what happened to the two girls but hopes that she’s not.

This then brings her to her old friend Marnie. Apparently she saw Kit with Theresa a month before Emma’s birthday, making love. Emma is confused, especially given Kit mentioned he didn’t know the girl then, as Marnie tells her she needs to tell the truth; she owes Mary that much.

Tom checks out the Motel and does some research of his own. The receptionist is incredibly shifty, especially after mentioning how Room 308 is under “special arrangements.” Well, he heads up the Motel and notices a cleaner injecting herself with a needle while doing the rounds. This seems like the same needle we’ve been seeing from the taxidermy office.

While chasing her upstairs, he notices John who tells the cop that he’s staying there for the time being. Tom rushes past and enters Room 313, determined to speak to the girl. Instead, John follows him in silently, where Tom notices an entire wall with clippings, post-its and information about Emma. John grabs the cop and knocks him out. He ties him down, keeping him in the bath for the time being.

John speaks to Tom and tells him that Emma is a bad person. He then goes on to nonchalantly admit she’d be better off alone, turning off the lights in the bathroom and leaving him tied up.

Meanwhile, Mary decides to move on and sells her house without telling the family. In fact, she even decides to stay with her lover. This woman is literally the worst. Anyway, she rings John and asks what he’s going to do now that Theresa is dead. Given what they share together, Mary finds out that she’s part of John’s circle and begins chuckling. Given she’s high at the time of this call, he tells her not to do drugs and decides to talk when she’s sober.

Well, instead of John she speaks to her lover, Adam, and tries to break the news about the murder. He’s incredulous when he asks whether she hurt someone, so she drops the subject completely and heads back to her car.

Emma eventually visits Pete at his home but Lisa is not happy with this turn of events. Emma breaks the news that she smashed Theresa’s head with a rock because she was jealous. Pete is certain this isn’t true, especially when he reveals that the remains found on the mountain aren’t actually Theresa’s after all, it’s another girl. This happens to be the same one we’ve been seeing flashes of while Emma was holding a hammer in the past.

When Mary finds out, she heads back to her family like nothing has happened and chuckles, telling them their daughter is still alive.

The Episode Review

I’m not sure who’s more incompetent here, the characters or the police. If someone goes into witness protection with a new identity, wouldn’t it make sense to set up a brand new social media profile for that person? If a random girl rocks up in town, naturally people are going to search online for her, and undoubtedly her outfit isn’t even that convincing either.

And what of Mary too? The woman is having an affair, she’s a murderer and right now, exhibiting selfishness in deciding to turn her back on the foundation and other women leaning on her. All of this leads to an incredibly unlikable woman with absolutely no redeeming features.

In fact, that can be said for a lot of this drama and after 8 episodes, the twists and turns are about the only stand-out feature of this one, as the show fails to really add any likable characters to the mix.