The Law According to Lidia Poet – Season 1 Episode 5 Recap & Review

Episode 5

A woman conducts a séance at a party surrounded by masked people as episode 5 of The Law According to Lidia Poet. The spirit sounds a warning to Achille Castelnuovo. Lidia confronts Jacopo head-on in the morning but she is perturbed by the weapons.

Jacopo explains that his friend needs money and he is selling the guns for her. Lidia feels threatened as it puts her family in the line of danger. He retaliates by shouting and calling her “lonely.” Lidia visits the prison and we see Margherita there. None of the other alleged perps has been brought back in further episodes and hence, seeing her is a surprise. She introduces Lidia to her next client, Azzurra.

She is charged with murdering one of her clients. She is an escort and explains that she uses a Mickey Finn to put her clients to sleep. She stole a watch and some money from this dead client. His name is Achille Castelnuovo. Enrico, like always, is not convinced that she is innocent. Achille made a synagogue, won a tender for the telephone company, and is then killed by a prostitute? Something does not add up. Marianna is at the table but seems distracted. Teresa keeps looking in her direction, nervously. Enrico counters that the construction of the synagogue has stalled and that he won the tender owing to Massimo Chiaia’s benevolence.

It is the day of the ball. Enrico and Teresa both know about Lorenzo and have dismissed him. Marianna is unhappy and angrily leaves the table. Teresa requests Lidia to make Marianna understand. Guiditta Ancelli, Achille’s sister-in-law, tried to kill him three years ago. She said Achille killed her sister, i.e., his wife. Lidia meets her in a mental hospital. Guiditta says she knows Achille is dead because she killed him. Lidia is in disbelief. She asks how and Guiditta points in the direction of the young male attendant. He lets her out at night for certain favours. But the next moment she says she is not capable of killing anyone.

And then, Guiditta knows who killed him. Perhaps she is just a madwoman after all. Andrea knows Massimo through his trades with him and agrees to take Lidia to the party Massimo is throwing. Lidia asks Marianna to be more courteous to her parents and heed their advice for now, if she wants to be with Lorenzo. Andrea and Lidia go to the party, that we saw in the opening moments of the episode. She meets Massimo. But he says that he was not friends with Achille. The dead man had too much entitlement and for Massimo, who made his way to the top from the bottom, it was a deal-breaker.

Andrea tells Lidia about the woman from the opening minutes of the episode. Her name is Madame Crespal and she claims she can talk to spirits. She summoned Achille’s wife that night, who warned her husband. Lidia meets her. Crespal says she did not summon the wife; the spirit chose to pass through her. Lidia asks her to do it again and Crespal agrees. Enrico is unimpressed with Lidia when she mentions the meeting. Jacopo supports her in the argument. Enrico accompanies Lidia to Crespal.

He is unwilling to participate but is forced into it by Lidia. The séance begins and the glass starts moving. The spirit is Lidia’s father. He says he has forgiven Lidia. She breaks down and stops the séance. We even see blood coming out of her nose. Andrea concedes to his friends that he has not told Lidia that he is leaving for America in 10 days. He also admits he loves her but Lidia does not love him back. Lidia is not convinced by Crespal’s play. She reads about ventriloquism in a book and feels Crespal was hired by someone to threaten Achille.

In the meantime, Marianna is missing from the house. Her parents rush to look for her around town. Andrea comes to Lidia to inform her that Marianna is with him at his hotel. The little child hugs her aunt and says she got scared and is not as brave as Lidia. But Lidia tells her own story and how she did not want to turn back to her home when she left. She asks Marianna to talk with Enrico about Lorenzo. Jacopo is with Maya, the girl in her bathtub from episode 1. But it seems like he is distracted.

While talking to Marianna, Lidia gets an idea about how to convince Enrico about the case. Lidia goes to Crespal and discusses Sangilles with her. Crespal defends herself. But Lidia theorizes that Massimo asked her to frighten Achille since he did not want to share in the profits with him. Lidia plays a ruse again and says Guiditta saw Massimo that night. Crespal looks tense after she leaves. That night, Massimo visits Guiditta. She lures him into a room, where Lidia welcomes him. She alleges that Massimo killed Achille. She asks for the job but Massimo tries to kill her. And then, when he is convinced no one else is there in the room, Enrico appears with the police.

Massimo is arrested. Crespal sends a note to Lidia calling her “princess”, something her father used to call her by. But Lidia believes it to be false and moves past it. Enrico remembers he hasn’t filed the appeal yet and goes to court. Jacopo confesses her love for Lidia and comes clean about Nicole. Before she can ask him anything else, Jacopo starts kissing her. But he is called away on an urgent matter. Outside, the police are waiting for him and he is arrested for murder.

The Episode Review

It seems like Lidia has finally moved past her unresolved issues with her father. Marianna’s character has been cleverly used by makers to allow a look at Lidia’s past through the present. The big discussion point in this episode was the ending, where Jacopo is arrested and now Lidia must fight to get him exonerated. Is Nicole dead? Or is it Maya, whom he saw last?

The dynamic between Jacopo and Lidia has been unclear from minute one. It seems like she cannot make up her mind about Jacopo. He clearly has some baggage but is trying to move on. The finale will also reveal whether Lidia’s appeal is successful. Marianna’s big talk with her parents also remains and Lidia will surely have a keen eye on it.