Secrets and Lies Season 2 Episode 8 Review: The Racket
Jasmine Blu
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Whaaatt?!!
There were a few surprises on Secrets and Lies Season 2 Episode 8. There were also a few things that weren't much a surprise. That reveal at the end for instance.
We've all been pretty much super suspicious of John Warner, so that ending was more like confirmation than anything else. The real question is whether he is really the blackmailer. If he is the blackmailer than why?
The rest of the episode revolved around Eric, Patrick, Melanie, and flashbacks.
Things I'm not a fan of? Unnecessary flashbacks. There were so many of them in the episode, and to be honest, most of them served no real purpose for the plot or the narrative so it felt like a filler episode before the finale.
Did we need to see a flashback of Danny with his daughter when she was 10? No. Did we really need the flashback to up the young Warner children to up the angst? Nope. The only one I actually didn't mind all that much was Kate and Eric exchanging "I love yous" for the first time because it was sweet.
So our favorite detective was back. Ha, you thought I was talking about Cornell? No, I'm talking about Danny. Oh Danny.
Danny has grown on me and I typically like when he and Eric work together, I just don't really care about the search for his daughter or anything. For the most part, his entire purpose in this episode was to serve as Eric's personal investigator of sorts.
I'm not crazy about this prostitution/escort thing. Even though they have found a way to really tie it in, with how it's connected to Melanie, it still feels like a storyline that was shoehorned in.
As outlandish as that may sound, I think the show could have did just find focusing on the murder investigation, instead of going off on multiple tangents with prostitution rings, fraud, secret babies, missing girls, and everything else they've thrown at us.
But back to the prostitution. I wasn't invested enough in the story and honestly I got the impression that Rachel was just a girl who took off and fell into escorting for the money. I didn't think of it as some nefarious thing that needed to involve sex crimes units.
That bun seems really painful.
Felicia
That's right, there's a new detective.
Don't groan. I know there are already too many characters, but Felicia was kind of funny. I can't knock a character whose job is to combat sex crimes, and can make funny quips about Cornell's hair and remind people that Prostitution isn't always a victimless crime.
Anyway, she was there to take down Melanie and the lawyer that Melanie was working with. Not as surprising as one would have hoped. Neither was finding out that Melanie used to be an escort herself.
I wasn't a big fan of Melanie, but she sure made things interesting in the past couple of episodes. I definitely have to give that to her. I loved how cool, calm, and collected she was in interrogation even though all hell was pretty much breaking loose.
I didn't kill Kate. You want to make a deal? I know who did.
Melanie
Do you really think she knows who killed Kate, or do you think she's lying about it just to get a deal? She's a conniving little something so I wouldn't put the latter past her one bit. Despite the John reveal, I'm hesitant to believe he's actually behind Kate's death, so I wonder what all Melanie knows.
The other half of the problematic couple from hell, had Eric and the rest of the bigwigs having a think tank trying to figure out just how screwed the company was because of Patrick and Melanie.
The answer? Pretty damn screwed.
I loved just how thorough the lawyer was breaking it down too. He went into a whole discussion on commerce that gave me flashbacks to a Constitutional Law class. And trust me, there is nothing sexy or fun about a Con Law course.
You got Patrick arrested?!
Amanda
Anyway, in a move that was unfathomably impulsive on his part, Eric got Patrick arrested. Did Patrick deserve to be arrested? Hell yes. Did Patrick deserve to be thrown under the bus for blackmailing Eric and killing Kate when there wasn't significant evidence that he did either? No.
I mean did he really miss how guilty his father was looking when he told him about the blackmail letter? The man went pale, his whole demeanor changed, and he damn near passed out. C'mon Eric, wake up!
I don't understand what Eric was doing with that move. Firing Patrick made sense. He was a liability to the company and honestly did he actually do anything other than screw things up and drink excessively?
It's just, and I'm not the biggest fan of Patrick, but even I didn't believe the kid would blackmail his own brother for the dough like that. I didn't think he'd murder Kate either. But hey, this family is so beyond needing therapy it's not even funny.
Eric: Who are you now?
Patrick: I don't know, but I'm going to be forced to figure it out without any of you...and you know what? I'm really looking forward to that.
But my being slightly defensive of Patrick aside. I was soooo over him sitting in prison finding a way to blame Eric and make him feel guilty.
The sob story about wanting to be like his brother and wanting to impress him was just absurd. He sounded like a brat, completely incapable of taking responsibility for his own actions. None of it justified all the crap he constantly did.
I was uninterested, unimpressed, and un-bothered.
So what did you guys think of the episode? Do you really think that John killed Kate? Were you surprised that Patrick turned on Melanie or that Eric turned on Patrick? Hit up the comments below and tell us what you think.
Don't forget to check out our interview with Secrets and Lies star McNally Sagal.
Also you can watch Secrets and Lies online right here at TV Fanatic, and catch up before the two part finale.
Secrets and Lies Season 2 Episode 9 and Secrets and Lies Season 2 Episode 10 air on December. 4.
Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is an insomniac who spends late nights and early mornings binge-watching way too many shows and binge-drinking way too much tea. Her eclectic taste makes her an unpredictable viewer with an appreciation for complex characters, diverse representation, dynamic duos, compelling stories, and guilty pleasures. You'll definitely find her obsessively live-tweeting, waxing poetic, and chatting up fellow Fanatics and readers. Follow her on X.
