‘R.J. Decker’ Season 2 finale recap: Does Jessica’s final call spell tragedy for Mel?
‘R.J. Decker’ has made a habit of mixing murder investigations with laughs, but its Season 2 finale leaves the jokes behind. The October 27 episode, ‘Before You Accuse Me,’ makes Mel revisit a case she thought was closed. Finding the killer, however, brings another problem. Jessica’s final call threatens Mel’s family, and the episode ends before revealing whether she follows through.
Emi (Jaina Lee Ortiz) hires R.J. (Scott Speedman) to investigate Bobby Werner’s murder after Gabriel Romero recants his confession. He has served 10 years of a life sentence, but his admission came during withdrawal and 32 hours of questioning. Mel (Bevin Bru) refuses to believe Gabriel could be innocent. She was on the phone with her fellow officer when he was shot and has spent years supporting his widow, Jessica, and daughter, Danielle.
R.J.’s investigation raises questions about a hoodie used against Gabriel and a gun connected to Bobby’s former partner, Flynn. Flynn had taken the weapon from his uncle’s gun locker without reporting it missing, and Bobby had confronted him about it. R.J. even suspects Mel might have planted evidence, which she denies. Trudy (Shantel VanSanten) eventually runs fingerprints that help identify the killer, taking her findings to Mel. The answer is Jessica, whose history points to a pattern of suspicious marriages, deaths, and financial gain.
Mel must now confront both Gabriel’s wrongful conviction and the woman who deceived her for a decade. Although investigators still need enough evidence to charge Jessica, Danielle is placed in her grandparents’ emergency custody. “I wonder who you’ll be without your family,” she says before getting out of her car.
Mel and R.J. are at a trailer park, too far away to intervene immediately. The finale ends without revealing what happens to Catherine and Sofia. Catherine is also R.J.’s ex-wife, giving him a stake in stopping Jessica. After spending the episode at odds, he and Mel face a crisis that requires them to work together.
Bevin Bru has an idea for how that partnership could play out, though it remains her suggestion. “What would be fun is having two episodes to explore it [next season]. They get kidnapped or something where it’s still dangerous but they’re safe,” she told Us Weekly. Bru’s confidence that Catherine and Sofia could survive comes from the show airing on ABC. “I don’t think they’re gonna kill them,” she added. “If it was HBO or some other network, I would be like, ‘Oh, this could go really badly.’”
Showrunner Rob Doherty also left the resolution open in his TV Insider interview. “I think everything is on the table, to be honest,” he said when asked whether the threat would be resolved in one episode or continue across several. He acknowledged the potential to keep Jessica around as a threat. His comments leave room for her retaliation to become an ongoing storyline if the show returns.
For Mel, the consequences could extend beyond stopping Jessica. Bru told PEOPLE, “She’s going to lock in, she’s going to figure it out. But I imagine once the dust settles that it’s going to overwhelm her emotionally and that’s going to need to come out and heal.” That points toward a possible aftermath exploring the toll of Jessica’s betrayal. A third season could follow Mel through both the effort to protect her family and the aftermath, but those developments remain possibilities rather than confirmed plotlines.
