Who is Erin Carter? – Season 1 Episode 5 Recap & Review

Episode 5

Episode 5 of Who is Erin Carter begins with Erin regaining consciousness in a hospital in Tarragona. She is far from home – roughly 100 km for an approximation. Her cell battery is dead and Jordi grows worried with every passing second. Harper is unhappy that she won’t be with her for the doctor’s appointment. Jordi does his best to ensure Harper isn’t alarmed and lies to her that Erin has gone to attend a course.

Erin phones Emilio for help, who agrees to pick her up midway. For now, Erin’s task is to successfully evade the oncoming horde of officers.

Since she was brought in without an ID and in dire straits, it is a routine police follow-up. Erin puts on the uniform of a nurse attendant and tries to slip out of the hospital. A cop, who rides down the elevator with her, gets suspicious, forcing Erin to play along. She calls Jordi when she has a second but the call cannot go on for long as her cell battery dies. The officer spots her and Erin is on the move. She steals a police car and is involved in a chase as multiple patrol cars converge on her location.

Using her deft motoring skills, Erin is able to manoeuvre her way from the situation and meets Jordi, who has brought a change of clothes. Before he drops her off at her car, Emilio tells Erin that she must make up a convincing lie if she wants to keep Jordi in her life. Lena is informed that she will be moved to a higher security prison and her probation is being cancelled. She assaulted the homeowner in episode 3 and now has to face the consequences.

While using the computer in the library, she reads up on the news piece about Margot and finds Erin’s photo attached to it. Erin heeds Emilio’s advice and lies to Jordi about her fictitious drinking problem. He seems to buy it and even arranges an AA meeting for her to attend. Harper confides in Erin that she thought Erin would not come back for her. Erin embraces her tightly and alleviates her fears. But Erin is alerted to Harper’s drawings which mention Lena as an aunt. She has also drawn from memory the masked faces of the gang from the day of the robbery. 

Emilio cracks a big case using the feed he got from Benecio’s computer. However, he cannot use it since the evidence was obtained illegally. Erin’s lie at the AA meeting is caught by an older lady, who advises her to consider if she really wants to be with Jordi.

When Erin learns about the drug bust, she confronts Emilio. If he decides to use the feed, all of it would be traced back to her. She will be in huge trouble – and Emilio as well.

Erin has taken up a job to tutor Dylan after school. Daniel confides in her that he has seen a remarkable improvement in Dylan’s behaviour and habits. As a gratuitous gesture, he has given her a good reference at the school. To Erin’s surprise, Daniel reveals that it was Olivia who gave her a bad reference, not Penelope.

Emilio is assigned Margot’s case for now and when he goes through the files, he connects the dots. He gives Erin veiled threats to do another job for him so that he can bust the drug ring. Erin isn’t sure about it and walks away.

Harper overhears Emilio referring to her as Kate, which brings back a lot of memories. She confronts Erin with the truth about her biological mother and she has no option but to confess.

Harper isn’t upset with Erin as she has always been a good mother. They go with Jordi to the prom, where Antonio has asked her out. To mend her marriage, Erin finally comes clean to Jordi using the old trick – 60 seconds where he can ask her anything. When she tells her the truth about Harper, Jordi gets upset and walks away.

Meanwhile, Lena uses a paper clip to free herself en route to her transfer. She would be coming straight for Erin and Harper now. Just as things seemed to be getting better between Jordi and Erin, he pulled away from her and expressed his intention to separate. She calls Emilio, who has gone on the job all by himself.

Erin rushes to the location and we see Jordi getting knifed by a thug. It turns out that Daniel Lang is Benecio’s boss and the mastermind behind the drug operation. Daniel asks Emilio about his partner but he chooses to sacrifice himself. As Daniel delivers the final blow, Erin lets out an agonizing shout from the background, sending Daniel’s men chasing after her. On her way out, she bumps into Daniel, who is as stunned to see her as she is to see him.

The Episode Review

Our suspension of disbelief reached its saturation point in episode 5. It is bonkers how far the creators of the show will go to hide their lack of competency. They have conveniently hidden behind the cloak of artistic license for far too long. Erin Carter’s frailties are for all to see. The leads have no connection, Evin Ahmad’s believability as Erin, especially in the action scenes, has gone awry,  and the story literally has no direction.

The showrunners had one opportunity to infuse some sort of tension in episode 5 where Jordi revisited the background check Emilio did for him. But that opportunity came and went by in a whizz. Emilio was the only other outlet that could have achieved the same level of energy but he was too easily discarded.

The show continues to struggle with continuity problems in episode 5. The execution from paper to screen is poor. The most embarrassing moment in this episode was Lena’s escape from the police vehicle. It embodied everything that went wrong in this episode- and I am afraid – the show overall.