The Last Thing He Told Me – Season 1 Episode 3 Recap & Review

Keep Austin Weird

Hannah recalls an important parenting lesson that she learnt from Owen as episode 3 of The Last Thing He Told Me begins: making tough choices for your child when they cannot see it is the right one.

Hannah and Bailey land in Austin but she isn’t any closer to breaking through Bailey’s emotional firewalls. Hannah finds out she is being followed and Jake, through voicemail, tells her that the FBI has requested an official meeting. If she does not comply, they might treat her as a hostile witness. The two start off at the stadium, as Hannah wants Bailey to try and remember little details that will give them the next clue.

Bailey is sceptical but actually remembers some important details. That day, she was wearing a dress and Own had a suit on, which is odd considering they were going to watch football. Maybe they were returning from an event of some sort? Bailey thinks it is a wedding, but Hannah calls Jules and asks her to send Hannah a list of churches nearby in a 2-mile radius of the stadium. She also thinks the year Bailey is remembering was 2011. While on the phone, Max tells her the story is getting worse.

Hannah suddenly notices Bailey is missing and hurriedly runs around. She goes into a bass concert hall and finds her there. Hannah tells her never to disappear like that and stay by her side given the circumstances. Bailey ruefully recalls that she was supposed to be blocking her own bass concert the present day at school. Jules and Max do not feel it is going to get better for the family.

Avett calls Hannah and asks Owen to contact him. His tone is threatening and he implies that Hannah “skipped town” due to “Owen’s history.” Avett calls the fraud an “accounting mishap.” There is definitely some secret of Owen that he knows.

Bobby drops off an apology basked outside the house for Bailey. Grady is sitting nearby and takes notes of everyone who drops in. The mysterious bald guy seen earlier is here too. Hannah and Bailey visit different churches to figure out where Owen and Bailey were in the past. When the bells toll at the third church they visit, Bailey remembers something. She confirms it as the church where they visited.

Hannah asks the manager to help them with the marriages during the home games in 2011. When she is reluctant, Hannah pleads to her conscience to convince her to help them. Jake calls Hannah and tells her that Jordan, The Shop’s COO, has been arrested. The worsening circumstances must make Hannah more alert to dangers to herself than Owen at this point. He says she needs to talk to the FBI soon, given what Avett might have on Owen.

The manager reveals that the church was closed for construction during that home season. Hannah leaves her number in case anything came up later. Grady confronts the bald man when he shows up again. He introduces himself as Eric Cousins, head of security for The Shop. Grady warns him to tell Avett that he should not send anyone else or he will be back in jail.

Grady himself breaks into the house after Eric leaves, and he finds the bag full of money under the bed. Hannah tries to convince Bailey to keep looking for reasons why Owen left.

Bailey is genuinely angry at him and is losing trust. She says continuing their search would be a waste of time and they should head back home. Hannah remembers how possessive and emotionally attached Owen was to Bailey’s piggy bank that her grandmother gifted her when she was born. Hannah asks Jules to check out the piggy bank for any clues to the file on Owen’s computer that was titled “L. Paul.” This was also plastered on the piggy bank, so Bailey calls Bobby and gets some perspective on her life.

Jules goes into Hannah’s house and finds someone that has already been there. She finds a key in the piggybank but the noise from downstairs distracts her. It is Jake, who wants to tell Hannah something. It’s something huge that potentially changes everything. Jake’s private investigator could not find public records of Owen Michaels or Bailey Michaels anywhere. It is almost as if they do not exist. Owen had been lying about his identity until now and has taken Bailey down with him.

The Episode Review

Episode 3 was starting to feel like a filler episode until the final moments. The whole “people aren’t really who they say they are” trope has intriguingly made its way into the story. Given everything, Jake and Jules seem to be the only ones Hannah can trust. There is no way Bailey knows about this, but she becomes a liability for Hannah in the light of new information.

Grady has found the bag of money and that does not look good for Hannah. We saw that in episode 1 Bailey and Hannah were still in the hotel in Austin. So it is possible they did not go back home and the entire story shifts to Austin. The developments were weakly written though, with Hannah and Bailey’s “remembering” exercise in particular missing a trick given it could have been much more solidly conceived.

The show has failed to stand on its own yet. Neither the story nor the acting is speaking to us right now and there seems to be some creative spark missing that the upcoming episodes have to reach out to – and find soon.