Ten Days In the Valley Season 1 Episode 3 Review: Day 3: Day Out of Days
Jasmine Blu
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What just happened?!
The twists and turns that were promised have finally picked it up a notch on Ten Days In the Valley Season 1 Episode 3. Things just got interesting and all the more complicated.
If the latest installment is any indicator, no one will escape this investigation unscathed.
Casey, sweet, not so innocent, Casey. I could practically kick myself for falling for the "naive young girl" thing she had going on. It was so easy to hone in on Pete being shady and his treatment towards her. Not enough time was spent questioning her authenticity.
She's not the most endearing character, far from it, but she is the type of character you dismiss. The way she was dodging the police or lying to Jane made her unlikable, but it didn't put her at the top of the suspect board.
What is her motivation? What's her plan? Is Pete in on it?
The ending was quite a bombshell because it appears as if Casey is playing Pete, too. Pete fluctuates between coming across as if he knows more than he's letting on and being genuinely out of the loop. That is why he has been the most suspicious of the bunch.
Pete's violent reaction to the random guy putting a flyer up over Lake's flyer, however, was genuine. That was the action of a man who is not only terrified about his daughter's whereabouts but feeling guilty because he may be responsible for it.
It's interesting how everyone is interconnected. Pete and Jane have the same dealer, PJ, who works for the same man, Sheldon. Jane doesn't know that Pete owes Sheldon money. Does Sheldon know that Jane is Pete's ex-wife? He didn't seem fazed by Jane waltzing into his place during Ten Days In the Valley Season 1 Episode 2.
It's safe to say that Pete thinks Sheldon is responsible for Lake's disappearance as payback. All that time he has been shifting the blame to Jane has largely been because of his own guilt.
So now we know that Pete no longer has the black BMW because he sold it for some quick cash. So much for him being the person idling outside of Jane's house the night of the disappearance. Where was he though?
Casey: If I'm covering for you, I need to know why. Were you really alone?
Pete: Can we not go over this right now?
Casey kept pushing for more information on his whereabouts. She needed to know why she was covering for him, and he still wouldn't be honest with her. He got a bit snippy as he was being hauled away for assault, and that was that.
Is it possible that Pete told Casey something, and that's what led her to the house where Lake is being kept? Is it possible that Pete is still involved?
The shocking ending with Casey speaking to a mysterious woman, Lynn (?), was tailor-made for the audience to shift their suspicions to Casey, with good reason too, but the red hoodie is what has me not wanting to completely write Pete off just yet.
Casey: It'll be over soon.
Lynn: When?
Casey: Tomorrow. Tomorrow we end it.
At no point whatsoever did Matt come across as anything other than a red herring. He was shifty the entire hour, with deleting video footage, calling his husband for help, and trying to switch out laptops.
Yes, he loathes working with Jane. She's an awful boss, in his mind, and a pain in the ass. She doesn't let people in, and he's too ambitious (and family-oriented) to be under her thumb. That was a decent enough motive for him, it just didn't seem like something he would go through the trouble of doing.
The guy is married with three kids of his own. By his own words, he works almost as much as Jane. Matt's issues with Jane were on a professional level, and if he were going to lash out at her, it would be professional.
It was still shocking and a total violation that made me shudder, finding out that he cloned Jane's computer system and had access to all of her e-mails.
It also makes me wonder just how much he has learned through them. Does Matt know about Gus? Does he know about Jane's inspiration being linked to the police department and multiple cases?
There was nothing said in that regard, but Matt had to notice something, right? If he was interested in what made Jane tick, wouldn't he have stumbled across the exchanges between Jane and Gus?
Matt: I'm not a kidnapper. I got three kids of my own.
Bird: What's the video doing on your hard drive? Listen, you are S1 right now. You have any idea what that means?
Matt: Suspect one?
Bird: It means you're going to sit here until somebody knocks your black ass off my list, or you're going to crawl down yourself. Either way, I have all night.
Of course, Detective Nickole Bilson, who kicked ass during the hour, got someone to dig up Jane's deleted emails too. With that, she found everything between Jane and Gus and turned it over to Bird.
Gomez was just pressuring Bird (after being pressured by the DA) to look into Jane's source for her show material. Bird was able to provide him information without even trying.
It's unfortunate that Jane was just reassuring Gus that his identity was safe and that he wouldn't be found out. Anyone else, not the least bit shocked that those two are a thing? There was a vibe.
It turns out that Gus is not only Jane's source, but he's feeding her information about police corruption via a gang of dirty cops, in addition to some high profile cases.
Jane: "Go home and get some sleep" is cop shorthand for piss off!
Gus: That's not true.
Jane: Yes it is. You're the one who told me that, I have it on tape.
Convoluted much? That's the name of the game while watching this show, at some point, I may need a flow-chart just to keep up with everything.
Gus is about to catch holy hell for being Jane's source. Commander Gomez already knows it's him thanks to Nickole. If anything, it's a reminder that Jane has pissed off a few people and she's on more than one person's radar.
Someone else could have figured out about Jane and Gus and Jane using the material for her show. Any of the dirty cops, for one. There's also a matter of the disgraced politician she destroyed. Anyone related to any of that could be involved with Lake's kidnapping.
If you're in debt, maybe Lake is being used to pressure you to pay?
Nickole
But, thanks to Nickole yet again, we know that Pete is up to his eyeballs in debt and that on his end, someone (like Sheldon) could be using Lake as leverage, so he has people coming for him too.
In fact, could it be that Pete is planning on leaving town, and he has Casey and the mysterious woman keeping her until he can get away?
It's the red hoodie that's tripping him up. Matt, for all of his drama and shiftiness, prompted Jane's memory.
Matt gave Lake a hoodie from the wardrobe department. It's the same hoodie that Lake had when Pete took her home one night. It's also the same hoodie in the video footage that was sent.
Matt said Pete is on set often. He could've sent the video from the set. But then again, so could Casey.
We're not even halfway through the series, so there has to be more to this than Casey having her, right? It has to be bigger. It's too bad that Jane is being side-railed because Bird knows she lied about PJ. For some reason, I didn't expect him to be so hard on her (not that she didn't deserve it).
Jane is obstructing an investigation, and it's interfering with his ability to do his job. She can't keep sharing things only when it's convenient and withholding things that could be important.
I don't work for you, I work for your daughter!
Bird
Now Jane has exactly what she feared, a CPS investigation that could jeopardize her ability to retain custody of Lake. It's interesting that Casey, after avoiding the police for days, finally showed up to "tell the truth" and she ended up throwing Jane under the bus rather than Pete.
It felt very deliberate. Casey has me intrigued now. But Casey never would have been able to do that if Jane had been honest from the beginning.
Now PJ (and eventually Sheldon) are being drawn into the investigation, and Jane has screwed herself over with the compulsive lying that now seems like she's crying wolf.
See what I mean about no one making it out of this case unscathed?
Stray Notes:
- Jane asking Ali if she's a terrible person and sister, and Ali reassuring her was a great moment.
- Ali's husband, Tom, was nowhere to be found and has no presence at all. Will he ever be relevant?
- Bird advising Jane to start with a person's guilt and work her way back to a motive was clever. It opened the door for self-exploration and awareness on Jane's part, but also made her reevaluate how she viewed the people she spends the most time with.
- Jane's relationship with Isabel is so interesting and unexpected. I dismissed Isabel as a temperamental actress and background nuisance, but that scene between her and Jane was fascinating. They have a unique bond, and it showed off a different side of Jane.
Did that Casey twist shock you? Will Jane end up paying for all of her choices? Sound off in the comments below!
You can watch Ten Days In the Valley online right here via TV Fanatic.
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.
