‘I'll Be Gone In The Dark’ Episode 4: What haunted Michelle McNamara and did her obsession with EAR kill her?
Did Michelle McNamara's investigation into the dark world of a violent predator she dubbed the Golden State Killer ever get so bleak that it affected her mental well-being? As ‘I'll Be Gone In The Dark’ dives into its fourth episode, it leads to a bunch of unanswered questions.
The last episode ended on a cliffhanger and left many viewers puzzled: Did Patton Oswalt know Michelle McNamara had a mental breakdown? That was the one thing on most minds and shockingly it builds a palpable tension towards her untimely death. Titled ‘The Motherlode’, the hour-long episode delves deeper into Michelle McNamara's investigation into East Area Rapist's (EAR) real identity as she stumbles upon a room with 37 boxes and over 15,000 files from EAR cases.
At the same time, the deadline for her book submission hovers over her head. The pressure mounts on her as she confesses to her friend, Kera Bolonik: "The book has become this bottomless monster of never-ending information and new leads and that's taking its toll on me somewhat." Thankfully, her publishers understand and push the deadline of the book. But does the EAR haunt Michelle every night and does her obsession to identify him prove fatal?
In a new promo, glimpses are shown as to how Michelle got her hands on a treasure trove of vital information and pictures. The 40-second video ends with the words: “When you see something that you’re looking for, I can’t even tell you how far down the rabbit hole you go.” After watching the clip, one fan said, "This makes it out like she's ultimately some big contributor to his arrest. He went dormant many many years until reverse DNA science was used by police and let to his arrest two years ago. He's already taken a deal and will serve a life sentence....he's in his mid-70s and nobody broke this case except ingenious police work."
The official summary of the episode reads: "Michelle and her editors agree to push her book deadline after being granted access to the Orange County Sheriff's Department's East Area Rapist / Original Night Stalker (EAR/ONS) room. Poring over 37 boxes of files now occupying her daughter's playroom, Michelle and her researcher Paul Haynes explore the case of the Visalia Ransacker, the perpetrator of a string of burglaries in the early '70s bearing striking similarities to the EAR."
It further says, "Overwhelmed by the amount of material and the graphic nature of the crimes she is investigating, Michelle struggles to balance the demands of her self-described addiction to her work with her family life. Painful personal memories, combined with her pressure to solve the case and finish the book leads to a string of sleepless nights and harrowing nightmares, as she becomes increasingly reliant upon prescription drugs to manage her mounting anxieties."
The beautiful narration of the six-part docuseries pulls you in but you can't escape the circumstances around her tragic death. "The beauty of #IllBeGoneInTheDark is that it’s not just a compelling true crime story or even primarily that, it’s the story of Michelle McNamara & her amazing life’s work & she was so outstanding at what she did that she solved a 44-year-old case & death itself didn’t stop her," one fan said and another posted, "Like your Michelle, I have vivid dreams. I call them stress dreams bc they're stressful as hell and I don't rest."
Will the next episode answer the question about her death? As we ponder that thought, wait until you can finally catch the fourth episode as it airs on Sunday at 10 pm ET on HBO.