S01.E02: The Missing

[formerlyfreedom]

After seeking refuge at her father’s house, Grace finds herself on the receiving end of detectives’ probing questions.

Airing Sunday, November 1, 2020.

[Ashforth]

This was a good episode! Some secrets revealed, some suspense, a look at how "friends" can turn on you in a heartbeat. 

I have to wonder why Jonathan was planning his fake trip to Cleveland. He announced it well before the murder - it isn't as if he came home from killing Elena (if he did) and suddenly said oh, whoops, forgot to tell you, I gotta go to a conference at 5 am tomorrow. I also wonder how much Viagra he must have been taking. Not many men that age are getting it on multiple times a day, LOL.

Big plot hole - no way Grace's extremely wealthy father would have had her go the the mansion on the water a/k/a "beach house" without some kind of security or bodyguards.

[HollyG]

1 minute ago, Ashforth said:

Big plot hole - no way Grace's extremely wealthy father would have had her go the the mansion on the water a/k/a "beach house" without some kind of security or bodyguards.

I also thought it was strange that there wasn't any security at the beach house. Good episode.

[Miss Slay]

Great episode. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.

Hugh Grant is really great at playing F-boys. 

[MCMLXXVII]

27 minutes ago, Ashforth said:

This was a good episode! Some secrets revealed, some suspense, a look at how "friends" can turn on you in a heartbeat. 

I have to wonder why Jonathan was planning his fake trip to Cleveland. He announced it well before the murder - it isn't as if he came home from killing Elena (if he did) and suddenly said oh, whoops, forgot to tell you, I gotta go to a conference at 5 am tomorrow. 

If Elena's murder was pre-meditated, he might have been clever enough to know that another Jonathan Fraser would be attending the same conference to provide an alibi. I would assume pediatric oncology is a small enough field to know that there's another guy with your same fairly common name.

[buckboard]

29 minutes ago, MCMLXXVII said:

If Elena's murder was pre-meditated, he might have been clever enough to know that another Jonathan Fraser would be attending the same conference to provide an alibi. I would assume pediatric oncology is a small enough field to know that there's another guy with your same fairly common name.

Or it's just a coincidence that someone with the same name is a guest at the third hotel in that chain in Cleveland that she called.  Doesn't have to be connected to the conference.

I was surprised she didn't call his office and check with his secretary.  I guess if she had, she would have found out sooner that he no longer worked at the hospital, but it wouldn't have been as dramatic as finding out from the police and her lawyer friend.

  

[txhorns79]

17 minutes ago, buckboard said:

I was surprised she didn't call his office and check with his secretary.  I guess if she had, she would have found out sooner that he no longer worked at the hospital, but it wouldn't have been as dramatic as finding out from the police and her lawyer friend.

I had a similar thought.  If I knew my spouse was on a business trip and wasn't responding to my calls, the first thing I would do would be to contact their office to see if they had a way to reach them. 

[SourK]

This show frustrates me so much. Grace makes every conversation she has needlessly mysterious and confusing, and then the detectives do a bunch of stuff that's not going to help them solve the crime.

I think the most frustrating part was the interrogation scene, where they were like, "Did you know your husband was fired?" and she says no, and then they're like, "Do you know why he was fired?" and she says no, and then they're like, "Do you know which specific patient he touched when he got fired?" and WTF do you think the answer will be at that point? Like, whether she's lying or not, she's denied any knowledge of the situation, so she's going to keep denying any knowledge of the details. Asking more and more specific questions about a topic someone has already said they don't know anything about is not a great technique.

On top of that, they revealed that they believed Jonathan was in her apartment so... why wasn't their first move to go to the apartment? Why did they lead into it by warning her that that was what they were working up to?

That's also the scene where I put my finger on what I don't like about the dialogue -- the characters are all acting like they already know they're in a thriller. The detective's acting like he knows his only purpose in life is to give exposition. Grace is acting like she knows her husband's a murder suspect before anyone has accused him. Even the news reporters frame the murder in the way that's most personally relevant to Grace instead of framing it in a way that would be relevant to their general viewers. It's just so weird.

[peach]

8 minutes ago, SourK said:

This show frustrates me so much. Grace makes every conversation she has needlessly mysterious and confusing, and then the detectives do a bunch of stuff that's not going to help them solve the crime.

I think the most frustrating part was the interrogation scene, where they were like, "Did you know your husband was fired?" and she says no, and then they're like, "Do you know why he was fired?" and she says no, and then they're like, "Do you know which specific patient he touched when he got fired?" and WTF do you think the answer will be at that point? Like, whether she's lying or not, she's denied any knowledge of the situation, so she's going to keep denying any knowledge of the details. Asking more and more specific questions about a topic someone has already said they don't know anything about is not a great technique.

On top of that, they revealed that they believed Jonathan was in her apartment so... why wasn't their first move to go to the apartment? Why did they lead into it by warning her that that was what they were working up to?

That's also the scene where I put my finger on what I don't like about the dialogue -- the characters are all acting like they already know they're in a thriller. The detective's acting like he knows his only purpose in life is to give exposition. Grace is acting like she knows her husband's a murder suspect before anyone has accused him. Even the news reporters frame the murder in the way that's most personally relevant to Grace instead of framing it in a way that would be relevant to their general viewers. It's just so weird.

The show started losing me when she refused to consult a lawyer and went off with them in their cop car.  Wealthy people just do.not.do.this.   She hasn't consulted a lawyer about ANYTHING.  I think most women would be scouring his phone, scouring their bank accounts, googling the shit out of all these people including her own husband, getting a lawyer or investigator to find out wtf has been going on with him.  But she just floats around in a naive manner and puts herself in the hands of the cops.  

But I'm still kind of intrigued by the blonde friend, and various other aspects of the mystery. Maybe Grace acts like she does because she does have some kind of psychosis.

[Armchair Critic]

So did she do it and has blocked it out?

[Dminches]

Meh. Could the storyline be more cookie cutter?  “Everything in my life is not what I thought it was.” “All the facts leading up to the murder are true and I saw her the night she was murdered but I didn’t do it.”

Come on. 
 

[Mellowyellow]

Sooooo good!!!

I found Grace infuriating in the way she reacted to things. Agreeing to go with the cops and then acting super shady. I've always got this preconception I guess that psychologists should be controlled and here she is, supposedly great in her field, a total basket case. She's so shifty!!!

That said it doesn't present a problem for me because no one really knows how someone would react given these set of events so whilst I think she's a twit I can believe it.

Hugh Grant plays a very charming scumbag. Great casting choice. Jonathan is without a doubt a complete scumbag however HG is able to convey why people would fall for this scumbag.

Total random guess: I think Grace did it based on all the images we're given. It's like she did it and has created this weird narrative. Would explain the totally shifty behavior too.

I can't decide if she's imagining what happened or if she's replaying what happened.

[SuzWhat]

Plot twist: I’m guessing Henry did it. 

[Chaos Theory]

I am really liking this show flaws and all.  My biggest gripe is that Grace let the police take her to the police station without a lawyer.  Which was incredibly stupid.   If the police wanted to talk to her she could have met them there in the morning with her attorney or called her attorney in the car instead of dad.     Yeah not having security at the lake house was a little weird but not having an attorney present when police are questioning you inside a police station is catastrophicly stupid.......that being said the whole scene was also necessary for the plot so probably a lot easier to write sans lawyers present.  
 

Grace continues to act really shady though.  Even more shady then her husband which has me thinking that she might not be....well.   That maybe she did followed her husband and saw him having an affair.  
 

Either way I still find this interesting enough.    Plus I like that Lily Rabe’s character wasn’t among the bitchy moms that turned on Grace.  I thought they were painfully realistic for upper class mothers.   Asking for free advice one moment then the next gossiping a person in trouble.  

Edited November 2, 2020 by Chaos Theory

[Armchair Critic]

3 hours ago, SuzWhat said:

Plot twist: I’m guessing Henry did it. 

I was suspicious of him because he was so curious when the cops came to their house. I also wonder about Grace’s father because you don’t usually cast an actor like Donald Sutherland for a minor character. I will say it’s a good mystery because I suspect Grace too.

[Ashforth]

11 hours ago, buckboard said:

Or it's just a coincidence that someone with the same name is a guest at the third hotel in that chain in Cleveland that she called.  Doesn't have to be connected to the conference.

I was surprised she didn't call his office and check with his secretary.  I guess if she had, she would have found out sooner that he no longer worked at the hospital, but it wouldn't have been as dramatic as finding out from the police and her lawyer friend.  

There may not have been a conference at all.

It's definitely another plot hole that Grace didn't try to contact Jonathan's staff. A pediatric oncologist would have someone running his schedule, even if the hospital provided all the medical personnel. But as you said, if she had tried to call his office, she would have learned he didn't work there, which would mean the detective didn't get to drop the bomb, so... at this point I'm willing to roll with it.

4 hours ago, Mellowyellow said:

Total random guess: I think Grace did it based on all the images we're given. It's like she did it and has created this weird narrative. Would explain the totally shifty behavior too.

As I reflected on this episode, I also decided that I think Grace did it. It would make Jonathan's cockamamie story of following Elena, fighting, fucking, leaving, and going back to find her murdered body make sense.

Also, when he got home that night it didn't appear that he got rid of a blood-soaked tux or showered to wash away the evidence. That was a bloody crime. Whoever did it would have a lot of blood on their clothes and body. I watch too many crime shows, because I was wondering where the forensics team was - they should have been there swabbing the shower drain for traces of blood.

The couple in the therapy sessions is definitely a stand-in for Jonathan and Grace. The cheater and the controller.

Edited November 2, 2020 by Ashforth

[Pop Tart]

3 hours ago, Ashforth said:

It's definitely another plot hole that Grace didn't try to contact Jonathan's staff. A pediatric oncologist would have someone running his schedule, even if the hospital provided all the medical personnel. But as you said, if she had tried to call his office, she would have learned he didn't work there, which would mean the detective didn't get to drop the bomb, so... at this point I'm willing to roll with it.

I thought she hadn't contacted anyone because by the time she realized he wasn't in Cleveland she already knew about the murder and Jonathan's disappearance coming on top of that made her start to question things. Not that she jumped right to he killed Elena, but the oddness of it on top of the murder and police coming to question her, made her a bit paranoid. As we saw. So it made sense to me that she didn't jump right to calling people to let them know she couldn't find Jonathan. 

I'm enjoying this a lot and thought the pacing of this second episode was well done as Grace's knowledge and dread increased, I could feel her losing her grip a little bit. And I genuinely jumped when Jonathan appeared at the beach house. I had it in my head that we might not actually see him in real time (just in flashbacks) for a few more episodes, so that was a surprise. And that she immediately called the police and reported him? Also a nice surprise.

 

[buttersister]

Quote

So did she do it and has blocked it out?

That was my thought last night. Otherwise, why is she seeing all this stuff? Imagining? Meh. 

My only thought about Donald Sutherland is that with Nicole and Hugh, they needed another big name for a major character. Why major? We'll see, I guess. He does like to look around like he's thinking about something!

The director/DP can lose their fascination with the back of Nicole's head/hair any time now.

[AryasMum]

9 hours ago, SuzWhat said:

Plot twist: I’m guessing Henry did it. 

Is Henry supposed to be a little odd?  There has to be a reason they cast a boy who looked nothing like his “parents”, and that makes me suspect him. 

[Rickster]

3 hours ago, buttersister said:

The director/DP can lose their fascination with the back of Nicole's head/hair any time now.

I wish they would lose their fascination with shooting Nicole’s eye movements from 2 inches away.

So how did Jonathan know she was at the beach house? Or was he just coincidentally hiding out there himself?

[Ms Blue Jay]

22 hours ago, Ashforth said:

I have to wonder why Jonathan was planning his fake trip to Cleveland. He announced it well before the murder - it isn't as if he came home from killing Elena (if he did) and suddenly said oh, whoops, forgot to tell you, I gotta go to a conference at 5 am tomorrow. I also wonder how much Viagra he must have been taking. Not many men that age are getting it on multiple times a day, LOL.

I think Hugh Grant is.  He had 5 children with two different women in the past decade, bouncing back between them all the while!

I'm loving this show so far!  Except for Nicole's really blank expressions 😞.   Of course, this could be a choice, who knows.

It really suspends disbelief and makes me really upset to watch somebody on a 2020 show being questioned about a murder and not hire a lawyer.  It's too , too, too, too, too, too stupid.

Edited November 3, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[txhorns79]

4 hours ago, AryasMum said:

Is Henry supposed to be a little odd?  There has to be a reason they cast a boy who looked nothing like his “parents”, and that makes me suspect him. 

I thought he was a little too aggressive in the way he questioned his mother about his father, but I also thought Grace probably had panicked him with the way she was acting.

And seriously, unless you are being arrested, do not go off with the police back to the station.  I don't believe for a moment that someone of Grace's social class or educational level would ever have gone off with the police without a lawyer.  

And am I the only one who had a mini-heart attack when the unknown man suddenly appeared at the beach house and grabbed Grace?  I know it was revealed to be Hugh Grant, but that freaked me out for a minute.        

 

[susannot]

Forget her social class-- as everyone has said it was really stupid of Grace to go with the police without a lawyer.

 

I wonder what is really going on.  At one point her wealthy, powerful father said "this is bigger than you.  It's even bigger than me."

[One Imaginary Girl]

It's nothing important, but it grated on me that she didn't have a purse when she left the police station. She still had a phone, and then her keys when she got back home, but I think a woman like her would carry stuff in an expensive bag, not just her coat pockets.

[Vella]

This episode was just ridiculous. Overly dramatic directing, overly dramatic acting and I just don't buy who Grace is in this.  She's a wealthy woman and has been her entire life due to her family so she would understand power and privilege and status better than most. The fact that she began to unravel almost immediately and made one seriously bizarre choice after another is mystifying. Rich, powerful women do not behave this way.  Their lawyers are on speed dial, they do no hesitate to pull up shields if they get a whiff of scandal. That school would have never surprised her at the school entrance, embarrassing her in front of everyone, they would have made arrangements long before. Hell, SHE would have made arrangements long before that.  I get why Nicole Kidman was brought on board for this, she projects the "beautiful, wealthy woman who's half a blink from hysteria" very well, but this feels wildly lazy in terms of writing and storytelling.  Nothing has surprised me and I'm guessing nothing will.

[Bluesky]

1 hour ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

I'm loving this show so far!  Except for Nicole's really blank expressions 😞.   Of course, this could be a choice, who knows.

Her face doesn’t move.  It was fascinating watching her at the diner with the blonde friend.  Lily rabe is in her 30’s and Nicole is in her 50’s. But Nicole’s face was like a baby’s, chubby cheeks and newborn skin.  Lily’s was more natural and alive. 

[buttersister]

1 hour ago, Bluesky said:

3 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

I'm loving this show so far!  Except for Nicole's really blank expressions 😞.   Of course, this could be a choice, who knows.

Her face doesn’t move.  

Can’t move, from the look of it.

[SourK]

16 hours ago, Mellowyellow said:

Hugh Grant plays a very charming scumbag. Great casting choice. Jonathan is without a doubt a complete scumbag however HG is able to convey why people would fall for this scumbag.

In the first episode, when he was being all cute with his son, I thought, "Look at Hugh Grant, breaking out of the mold where he plays a handsome jerk," and then, you know...

7 hours ago, buttersister said:

My only thought about Donald Sutherland is that with Nicole and Hugh, they needed another big name for a major character. Why major? We'll see, I guess. He does like to look around like he's thinking about something!

Can I just say that I appreciate the energy Donald Sutherland brought to those scenes -- like he was just kind of tired and exasperated with Grace's need to turn everything into a riddle? I felt that.

On a more serious note, it brought to mind the dynamic she had with her lady patient last week, where she was just like, "OMG, you always repeat this pattern with men, and every time it's the same story." Makes me wonder if Grace also has a pattern of ending up with guys like Jonathan.

2 hours ago, txhorns79 said:

And seriously, unless you are being arrested, do not go off with the police back to the station.  I don't believe for a moment that someone of Grace's social class or educational level would ever have gone off with the police without a lawyer.  

See, this is what bugs me. I can believe that a reasonable person -- especially a wealthy person, who's generally had positive experiences with the police -- would talk to the police without a lawyer, if that person believed they had nothing to fear and nothing to hide, and they intended to be completely transparent and tell the truth. But Grace is the opposite of that -- she seems to think she does have something to hide, and she's never transparent with anyone. If her plan going in is to be super defensive, why do that alone?

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I need to go back and check, but when Grace was walking up to the hospital, Jonathan's boss was talking to three or four people. It looked like one of them turned and saw her and then hurried off before she got close enough to ask his boss if he'd heard from her husband. That combined with her couple in therapy made me think that she'd had an affair with one of her husband's coworkers.

[endure]

9 hours ago, AryasMum said:

Is Henry supposed to be a little odd?  There has to be a reason they cast a boy who looked nothing like his “parents”, and that makes me suspect him. 

He does have his mum’s curly hair though.

Edited November 3, 2020 by endure

[Mellowyellow]

4 hours ago, Vella said:

I get why Nicole Kidman was brought on board for this, she projects the "beautiful, wealthy woman who's half a blink from hysteria" very well

Hehe I love this!!!!! Perfect description of Grace that made me giggle.

[Haleth]

I could see Grace being in enough denial and shock that she'd think she didn't need a lawyer, but her dad should have sent one to the police station anyway.  A father, even of a competent grown up woman, wouldn't let his daughter walk into that situation given the circumstances of her husband's lies.

Am I remembering correctly that in the previouslies Jonathan said something to Grace in the limo on the way to the event about going to the conference?  If so, the trip was planned before the murder.  So where was he going and why?  Maybe something innocent like a job interview?  

If it turns out Grace committed the murder but is blacking it out I will be disappointed.

[Milburn Stone]

When the mystery call came in on Jonathan's phone, it didn't occur to Grace or Henry to look at the phone to see what number it was coming from?

[Ashforth]

12 hours ago, txhorns79 said:

And am I the only one who had a mini-heart attack when the unknown man suddenly appeared at the beach house and grabbed Grace?  I know it was revealed to be Hugh Grant, but that freaked me out for a minute.    

I knew it was coming after Grace saw the person on the beach and then someone was watching her and Henry eat dinner. It was still a well done "boo!" moment. I had suspected that Jonathan might be hiding out at the beach house - no credit card charges to be traced. I can't think too much about all of the details, like how did he get there? What about groceries? How was there no indication at all that someone had been in the house? Because I am enjoying this show a lot so far and I don't want to shoot it full of holes. Yet. Haha.

8 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I need to go back and check, but when Grace was walking up to the hospital, Jonathan's boss was talking to three or four people. It looked like one of them turned and saw her and then hurried off before she got close enough to ask his boss if he'd heard from her husband. That combined with her couple in therapy made me think that she'd had an affair with one of her husband's coworkers.

That man looked like Jonathan from the back and she thought it was him, but when he turned around, it wasn't.

Viewing this through my current pure speculation lens of "Grace is the killah!" I can theorize that she went to the station without a lawyer because she is controlling and arrogant enough to think that she can manipulate the detectives by being shady about Jonathan in order to throw suspicion on him, but finding out that she has been deceived threw her for a loop. Her declaration of being terrified in her call to 911 seemed to be manipulative, as well. Time to throw Jonathan to the wolves! Even though she knows he didn't do it - because she did. Bwaaahahahahaha. 

[Maisiesmom]

Please someone give Nicole some Visine! All those close-ups of her bloodshot eyes were making me nuts! And what supposed well-educated person would just go with the cops without a lawyer? She should have listened to Daddy on that one .I think her husband is guilty of the affair but I don't think he is the killer.I always thought New York was a huge city-why does Grace walk everywhere? Get an Uber or something, woman, you can afford it.

[heatherchandler]

10 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I need to go back and check, but when Grace was walking up to the hospital, Jonathan's boss was talking to three or four people. It looked like one of them turned and saw her and then hurried off before she got close enough to ask his boss if he'd heard from her husband. That combined with her couple in therapy made me think that she'd had an affair with one of her husband's coworkers.

Who is playing Dr. Rosenfeld??  I thought maybe it was Taub from House but it is not listed on IMDB, and I know I recognize him from something...

Add me to the list of people who can't really help but get distracted by Nicole's very obvious plastic surgery, injectables, botox, etc.  I get it, she doesn't want to look old.  Well now she looks freaky - her eyes are getting too puffy and now look too close together.  Her mouth is so overly injected, she can't make normal faces.  I think wrinkles would be better than freaky puffiness.

[Milburn Stone]

I keep wondering if the super-close eye shots are actually an eye-model. Something about them looks just a tad different from Nicole's eyes to me. Plus they look like wide angle lens, not tele, which means the camera has to be incredibly close, and I don't know if a big star would need to put up with that.

[ahpny]

Quote

Forget her social class-- as everyone has said it was really stupid of Grace to go with the police without a lawyer.

13 hours ago, SourK said:

I can believe that a reasonable person -- especially a wealthy person, who's generally had positive experiences with the police -- would talk to the police without a lawyer, if that person believed they had nothing to fear and nothing to hide, and they intended to be completely transparent and tell the truth. But Grace is the opposite of that -- she seems to think she does have something to hide, and she's never transparent with anyone. If her plan going in is to be super defensive, why do that alone?

If Grace is innocent, her lack of more reasoned, rational response - bring a lawyer - didn't strike me as too unrealistic. Innocent people react to startling news in various ways, many of which aren't wholly logical or ultimately in their best interest. She stated her reason for going to the police was getting more information from them - which she did. Her "sketchiness" isn't inconsistent with that stated goal.

But what didn't ring true was her lawyer-friend's representation Grace's husband. The lawyer-friend told Grace that the lawyer-friend hadn't discussed her representation with Grace before because of attorney-client privilege. So far so good. But, after setting forth the reason for her former silence, what was her basis for now betraying that still, fully-in force attorney client privilege? There isn't one that I can see. (Nothing we know suggests that the Crime-Fraud Exception could apply). What would more likely have gone down if the lawyer-friend were a true friend to Grace is the lawyer-friend would have refused to take the representation in the first place because her relationship with Grace and the unavoidable conflicts that would create. The lawyer-friend would have referred the husband to another attorney (and not merely "tried" to do so). Lawyers refuse clients all the time, and the lawyer-friend doesn't seem like she needs another client or the money that that representation would generate.

Edited November 3, 2020 by ahpny

[Kiss my mutt]

Yes, it doesn’t make sense that she would agree to represent him to me either. There are hundreds of lawyers in NYC and that wasn’t even her speciality so it seems rather odd. 

[LilaFowler]

Kidman's masklike face is so distracting. Her eyes and mouth are the only things that can move. I wonder if that's behind her ridiculous, breathy over-acting.

"Is this because of the dead mom?" The kid is really a genius.

[Bulldog]

I still don't get why everyone - the police, the media, etc - are so focused on the school the murder victim's child attended.  My kids went to a private school (although, admittedly not as toney as the one portrayed here) and if something tragic had happened to one of the parents, I can't imagine the focus of the investigation or the news coverage being the school.  Certainly not to the extent that media would be staking out the school hoping to speak with random parents, most of whom likely didn't even know the victim. 

I do love the women playing the bitchy school moms in their small roles.  "Our first school murder."  Ha!  "I think I told him we were out of paper towels in the restroom."  Double Ha!

Speaking of the school moms, I don't for a moment believe that this group would not have found out that Jonathan was fired and the gossip would have spread like wildfire.  Certainly, some of them would have some connection to the hospital or the larger medical community.  Even if it was kept quiet and an NDA was signed, I'm sure the doctors talked with their spouses and it would have taken off from there. 

So, do we now think Grace's visions of what happened are just her imagination or an actual recollection of events? 

I said last week that I was leaning towards the son being the culprit.  I'm now leaning more towards Grace's father.  Oddly, the opening credits are making me think that.  The credits show a small child that is clearly supposed to be a young Grace -- the headful of curly red hair being the giveaway.  Why would the credits feature Grace as a young child, if her father were not somehow involved?  And as someone else mentioned, you don't hire someone like Donald Sutherland for an inconsequential supportive father role.   

IANAL, but I don't think privilege ends just because the attorney thinks something is dropped. 

 

 

Edited November 3, 2020 by Bulldog

[BingeyKohan]

19 hours ago, Maisiesmom said:

 always thought New York was a huge city-why does Grace walk everywhere? Get an Uber or something, woman, you can afford it.

Didn’t she justify going with the police to her father by saying ‘I need a walk anyway.’? She said it like some people would say ‘I need a cigarette.’ The trailer even has a lot of shots of her walking. I think it might be a coping mechanism for her - and she possibly enters fugue states where she doesn’t remember where she wound up or what she did. (Maybe one reason this show is set in New York and not the suburbs since it’s a walking city.)

[Kirsty]

I've watched the first two episodes and this was great fun! My favourite moment was the reveal that the husband hasn't worked at the hospital for months. I love that shit, it cracks me up.

Nicole's character started stressing and thinking the worst very quickly. Like, you'd think she'd be relieved to find the husband's phone at home given that he hadn't answered her calls and messages all day. Oh, he forgot his phone! It all makes sense. Instead she concludes that he must have planned to be out of reach? But it works for the atmosphere of the show.

I'm basically suspecting everyone: the main character, her father, her son, her lawyer friend! Also, lovely to see Janel Moloney on my screen again.

[BingeyKohan]

Sylvie's appearance to 'rescue' Grace outside the school and sweep her into a cab so she could get her alone and get ahead of her own involvement in the story will probably prove not to be the friendly gesture it seemed (this is probably obvious to everyone). I'm sure there was a kernel of truth to what she told Grace with a lot of detail conveniently left out. It seemed implausible for Grace not to be more demanding about understanding why it had to be Sylvie to work with Jonathan, or why her friend wouldn't have recused herself after Jonathan's preposterous proposal that she represent him (or at least consult him). It makes me think of the detective's suggestion that Grace already knew who the patient was with whom Jonathan had improper relations - she actually reacts to a lot of things as if she already knows but doesn't want to face the truth. 

Also agree with others it's so goofy to represent the private school as the nucleus of this story, from a media perspective. Media would be camped out outside the crime scene or Jonathan's residence (at least a scrum is shown there) .. not the school the victim's son attended. A look into the culture of the private school is the Vanity Fair-type account that would happen a year or two later!

[Kirsty]

26 minutes ago, BingeyKohan said:

It seemed implausible for Grace not to be more demanding about understanding why it had to be Sylvie to work with Jonathan, or why her friend wouldn't have recused herself

Based on these two episodes, Grace isn't assertive. She easily could have commented on Elena's nudity at the gym and, jokingly or otherwise, asked her to put some clothes on. Instead she sat there looking very uncomfortable, like she was pinned against the locker. She could have asked Elena what was up at the fundraiser. She could have reacted to Elena kissing her on the lips (WTF?). Each time she ignored her own feelings and tried to be nice. And I find that believable.

[Ashforth]

16 hours ago, Bulldog said:

IANAL, but I don't think privilege ends just because the attorney thinks something is dropped. 

You are correct.

 

Edited November 4, 2020 by Ashforth

[BingeyKohan]

6 minutes ago, Kirsty said:

Based on these two episodes, Grace isn't assertive. She easily could have commented on Elena's nudity at the gym and, jokingly or otherwise, asked her to put some clothes on. Instead she sat there looking very uncomfortable, like she was pinned against the locker. She could have asked Elena what was up at the fundraiser. She could have reacted to Elena kissing her on the lips (WTF?). Each time she ignored her own feelings and tried to be nice. And I find that believable.

it's true but she's so assertive (almost aggressive) professionally - like being way more diagnostic than we traditionally see therapists (in pop culture anyway) as being. But you're right, that is not demonstrated in her personal interactions. 

[Ashforth]

2 hours ago, Kirsty said:

I've watched the first two episodes and this was great fun! My favourite moment was the reveal that the husband hasn't worked at the hospital for months. I love that shit, it cracks me up.

Nicole's character started stressing and thinking the worst very quickly. Like, you'd think she'd be relieved to find the husband's phone at home given that he hadn't answered her calls and messages all day. Oh, he forgot his phone! It all makes sense. Instead she concludes that he must have planned to be out of reach? But it works for the atmosphere of the show.

I'm basically suspecting everyone: the main character, her father, her son, her lawyer friend! Also, lovely to see Janel Moloney on my screen again.

I think the thing with the phone is that it wasn't just forgotten on the kitchen counter, it was hidden. But even then, I didn't get that she jumped to the conclusion that he planned to be out of reach. We did, LOL.

13 minutes ago, BingeyKohan said:

it's true but she's so assertive (almost aggressive) professionally - like being way more diagnostic than we traditionally see therapists (in pop culture anyway) as being. But you're right, that is not demonstrated in her personal interactions. 

I think that control is a theme that will continue to play out in this story. In her office, Grace is in control. When Elena, with her odd combination of aggression and vulnerability, unexpectedly confronted Grace in the nude, Grace was not expecting it, was out of her comfort zone and kind of froze. She had to hate that. I think she wants to control everything around her at all times.  

[BingeyKohan]

I still want to know what kind of art Elena makes (made). Surely they will show us at some point.

ETA: Everyone take a shot if 'The Undoing' turns out to be the name of one of her pieces!

Edited November 4, 2020 by BingeyKohan
thought of a joke

[Kirsty]

8 minutes ago, Ashforth said:

But even then, I didn't get that she jumped to the conclusion that he planned to be out of reach. We did, LOL.

No, Grace actually said that.

Plus, she behaved as though she was even more worried, not less, once she found the phone.

But yeah, I take your point that the phone had been put away. She didn't just find it lying around somewhere.