Truth Be Told – Apple+ Season 2 Episode 8 Recap & Review

The Untold Story

Episode 8 of Truth Be Told Season 2 begins with Rose being rushed into hospital. While her life hangs in the balance, Poppy does her latest podcast session, breaking the news about Micah stealing Rose’s stories for herself. As she continues to update her audience (and ourselves) on what’s happened, Poppy turns her attention to Holt and how he could be working on Micah’s orders.

Off-air though, Poppy believes she should wait for Rose to be healthy again so she can tell this story in her own words. For now, she decides to try and see Holt and get him to spill the truth, given there’s no way Micah will talk.

Micah however, has come under fire with Shelter. With a board meeting coming up in a few days and her leadership called into question, Micah deliberates over whether to slap Poppy with another lawsuit or not. When Markus shows up at work, she immediately tries to find out what Poppy is planning. Instead, Markus scoffs incredulously and walks away.

Poppy meets Detective Aames who confirms that they’re bringing Rose into custody. They believe Rose told Josh her truth but when he stopped her from going public, she killed him. Poppy shakes her head, struggling to hold her tongue as Aames wrestles with whether this is the right thing to do.

On the back of this, Markus meets up with Aames and decides to press charges against the police officer who shot him. He’s decided to stand up for what he believes in… will Aames?

This serves as a brief respite in truth as Poppy deals with the Warren Cave lawsuit. Alana is there to oversee proceedings as Poppy’s motion for a continuance is denied. In fact, it turns out Micah has hired lawyers to work with Alana on the Cave case. That evening Micah rings and confirms as much, boasting to Poppy about it.

It doesn’t take long though for Aames to ring, admitting that he was wrong and he’s going to work with her after all. To try and make it up to her, he allows Poppy access to Rose. She welcomes this with open arms, immediately heading to the hospital where Rose is awake and conscious.

While Poppy sits across from her, Rose admits that she was invited to Josh’s party. Josh promised that Micah would open up and admit the truth, telling everyone there that she was the one who stole Rose;s life. However, Josh ended up getting cold feet and changed his mind. Could it be that Micah said something to trigger this? Well, given Josh was debating about leaving her, it would make sense.

Their conversation is broken up by Micah herself though, who shows up and apologizes to Rose for what’s happened. She claims she wanted to help people but Rose refuses to listen. Instead, she tells her to leave.

Micah realizes what sort of trouble she’s in and immediately goes to Holt, imploring him not to say anything. This meeting however, interferes with the board meeting scheduled for Shelter. With Micah as a no-show, Ivy puts herself forward as a worthy successor to take over. The board decide they’re happy to go ahead with this too.

In prison, Poppy heads in to question Holt. He admits Rose is innocent and confirms that he’s the one who killed Josh. Despite the confession, Poppy wants to dig deeper. However, she has bigger problems to deal with as Alana and her lawyers go hard against Poppy and her podcast. Specifically, they discuss slander against Warren Cave. She does apologize for what’s happened in the past but it doesn’t stop the notion that this is going to trial.

After Poppy gives a heartfelt podcast session about her past, she receives a call from Aames, confirming that Holt didn’t kill Josh. So if he didn’t kill him then…who? Surely it’s got to be Micah, right? As the episode closes out, we see her sneak into Rose’s room and shut the door behind her.

The Episode Review

This season is a mess. From the first few episodes, Truth Be Told has struggled to actually justify its second season renewal and now, as we near the end, it’s clear that it’s not warranted.

This show has meandered around a lackluster murder mystery, with absolutely no intrigue, red herrings or interesting clues for us to follow. Y’know, the hallmarks of a good mystery. Instead, we’re left with a Holt/Micah team-up with everything hinting toward Micah being the main suspect and the one responsible. However, this show then blends that in with a mishmash of different ideas that just do not work.

The whole Markus/racist cop story is crow barred into this plot too for no other reason than to show the current issues plaguing the US and the world at large. But is it really necessary?

Meanwhile, we have Poppy’s sisters who have just disappeared, Leander’s memory loss that comes and goes when the script calls for it and the messy Warren Cave trial that feels like padding at this point. Ultimately, this second season has been a real disappointment.