Truth Be Told – Season 3 Episode 5 “Freedom Is Never Given; It Is Won” Recap & Review

Freedom Is Never Given; It Is Won

Trey is dead. Markus is rattled and Trini is still nowhere to be found. Episode 5 of Truth be Told starts with Poppy pointing out that Andrew Finney could be responsible for everything, given the gold chains purchased on his order. Poppy suggests they lay low and play this safe and catch him in the act rather than spooking him.

Markus huffs before eventually conceding, deciding to follow her lead and use his guys to look into this link. “I just want this nightmare to end.”

Poppy reveals to Eva everything she’s found so far, including the 8 symbol she’s found. Eva shows off a photo of herself from the past, revealing that this is actually a brand for the “best girls” before being sent on to Finney. That’s their thinking anyway.

Eva visits Alicia and tries to figure out what’s going on, probing her over the trafficking link. She struggles to say it but when she does, the floodgates open and Eva reveals what a crook Andrew Finney is. Alicia immediately starts to spiral, as Eva decides that she should work as the insider and serve as a mole, bringing Eva any information that can be used against Finney. She encourages her to look through the records and send anything incriminating over.

Markus shows up hot-headed ready to blow open this whole investigation. Eva manages to calm him down though as they head off for a ride together, watching Finney from afar. They notice him being given another box – presumably with a chain inside – and decide to use this as a way of questioning him in private when they get an opportunity. Only… it turns out it’s actually a gift for his wife, which he gives to her at a restaurant in the middle of the day. Markus bails out while Eva continues to watch from afar.

Poppy is not happy when she learns from Aames that Rochelle has been let out of lock-up. That obviously allows her to go and eavesdrop (silver linings and all that!), where she hears her bossing about the other girls in the diner, along with finding crucial intel to use against her.

Aames receives word that he can search Victor’s cabin, with the higher-ups fast-tracking this. Within the cabin, he finds drugs and he confronts Victor about it, demanding to know where Emily Mills is. Victor cracks when the handcuffs come out, as Aames learns that Peter is actually his “drug buddy” and in exchange for some hook-ups, Peter used Victor to sort out complicated accounts off-shore in the Cayman Islands.

Aames forces him to write down everything he knows, while at the same time, Trini’s mum checks through her daughter’s social media and notices that Drea was following her.

Poppy and Eva meet again and relay the information they’ve obtained. Poppy points out she overheard Rochelle discussing a mixer in Claremont Hills (before she went over and disrupted their chat) while Alicia sends over some files that could help crack this whole case wide open.

Aubrey suddenly rings and claims he’s at the “big ass house up on the hill”, which seems to be another nod toward Claremont. If that wasn’t enough, they also trace through Finney’s files and find a guy called Roger Errons who donated 300k to Finney’s campaign, giving them their location.

Poppy informs Leander and Aames exactly what’s happening, although the former is struggling to be much use given he’s been stripped of men thanks to the OPD coming down hard on them, busting the guys for “bullshit charges”.

Poppy decides to use the police’s own methods against them, claiming on her podcast that Emily Mills is at the Claremont address too, in a bid to try and rally the police to their cause.

This works a treat as police show up in their numbers, with armed guards heading through the entire house and arresting men left, right and center. The various different girls are taken out the house, including Melanie Sanchez, one of the girls who went missing a while back. Trini wakes up and is taken out too, reunited with her parents, wile each of these girls happen to sport the familiar 8 symbol on their forearm.

Unfortunately we’re not out the woods yet. A woman called Peggy from Child Protective Services claims that Trini needs to be put in their care until the pair of them have been cleared of child negligence. They watch in shock as Trini is taken away.

The Episode Review

So where is Emily Mills? It seems way too easy how this whole case was wrapped up and given we’re only halfway through the season, Truth Be Told has given us absolutely no reason to care about this part of the story.

The momentum has pretty much dissipated now and I was almost convinced that Trini would wake up and we’d learn she’s in a different location, setting up a cat and mouse chase for the rest of the show. Alas, that’s not the case.

It would seem that all roads now lead to Andrew Finney and unless there’s another twist in the tale, the most obvious antagonist, leaning into the tired old trope of evil, corrupt politicians, is going to see the second half of this series break down into a desperate struggle to get him arrested and charged for his actions.

Truth Be Told has a knack of dragging out its story a little too much, which is becoming a horrible trend on Apple at the moment. Hopefully the episodes ahead pick up the pace.