'Gaslit' Episode 4: Will Martha spill the truth and turn against her husband and President Nixon?
At first glance, 'Gaslit,' starring Julia Roberts and Sean Penn, is a story about those involved in the Watergate scandal. However, it also unveils some relatively unknown figures who dared to oppose President Nixon, like Martha Mitchell (Julia Roberts), the wife of John N. Mitchell (Sean Penn), Nixon’s attorney general and close personal friend.
The Starz drama depicts how Martha was truly a hidden figure of the Watergate era. Despite the Nixon administration’s attempts to silence her, “the mouth of the South,” as she was called, would not shut up. When we last saw Martha in episode 3 'King George', she was being held captive by security man Peter upon her husband's order.
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In the previous episode, Martha sees a newspaper piece on Watergate, and realizes it involved her bodyguard McCord. Working out why she was held captive, she tries to alert her reporter friend Winnie McLendon (Allison Tolman), also to gather more information. But before she can finish the call, Peter yanks the phone from the wall and physically assaults Martha in the hotel room. Her struggle with the bodyguard eventually sends her crashing through a glass table, and the guard roughly pins her onto the couch and sticks a needle in her backside to sedate her.
In Episode 4, titled ‘Malum in Se,’ we see Martha suffering from PTSD following Peter’s brutal treatment of her. Meanwhile, her husband John pretends like he knew nothing about the situation and showers upon her declarations of devotion while scheming behind her back. He even decides to take her to a hospital and makes an appointment with Dr. Feldman. He also indirectly warns her not to answer any questions from the press about the situation. In the next scene, the reporters ask her about the rumors of her altercation with Peter. Martha lies and tells them it was just a misunderstanding.
Later in the episode, Martha and Winnie meet for lunch where the latter shows a newspaper with Peter on the front page, calling Martha a liar. Winnie persuades Martha to tell her side of the story or else ‘other people will do the talking’. Will Martha openly turn against Richard Nixon as well as her husband and spill the truth about her kidnapping and Watergate scandal? Stay tuned to 'Gaslit'.
The new episode of 'Gaslit' is available on Starz.