'In the Dark' Season 2 Episode 5: Murphy and Felix bond as Jess is set up for major heartbreak
Spoilers for 'In the Dark' Season 2 Episode 5 'The Unusual Suspects'
In last week's episode of 'In the Dark', Murphy Mason (Perry Mattfeld) took a major decision when she agreed to store Nia Bailey's (Nicki Micheaux) drugs at Guiding Hope, the school for training guide dogs that Murphy works at. She did so to strike a deal with Nia who would then spare Max Parish's (Casey Deidrick) life.
In this week's episode, the consequences of Murphy's decision play out as Nia tasks her with delivering drugs. Of course, Murphy cannot do this alone, so she ropes in Felix Bell (Morgan Krantz) to help. When the episode started, Felix had other ideas.
Spooked from being beaten up by one of Nia's guys for skimming a bit of her cash, Felix tells Murphy and Jess Damon (Brooke Markham) — the vet at Guiding Hope and Murphy's best friend — that he plans to go to the feds and that he will talk to a friend of his, a defense attorney, to figure out how to go about this.
Jess is relieved to hear this – she's had enough of the thug life — so when Murphy opens up about her decision to help Nia move drugs, she only does so to Felix and hides the truth from Jess.
Meanwhile, there are multiple parties who are upset with Nia having moved her drugs. There is Dean Riley (Rich Sommer) and the cops on one hand and then there is Darnell James (Keston John) on the other.
Murphy and Felix find common ground
Since Murphy has just asked Felix to help her out as Nia orders them to deliver drugs, this week's episode sees the two of them spending some quality time together. Of course, both of their ineptitudes in the trade is revealed when they mistake what Nia told them to deliver and carried way more than was necessary.
But hey, at least the person they delivered to had some morals so she corrected them. This would, of course, play spoilsport later.
Since Felix didn't want to carry the drugs in during working hours, he hides the stash in the food truck's seat — remember, the trio had taken Max's food truck and converted it into a grooming truck to cloak the money laundering they are doing for Nia.
Unfortunately, when Dean's daughter, Chloe (Calle Walton) skips school, he thinks she might be with Murphy. When he goes over to Guiding Hope, he notices the chipped off paint on the grooming truck and realizes that it is Max's truck.
Dean is desperate to make a break in the case, so he gets the truck towed. Now, Murphy and Felix must find a way to the impound where the truck is being taken and get back the drugs that are stashed. But this is where the cracks start to appear.
When Felix tells Murphy off for treating him badly, she, in turn, tells him that he's not so great either. He's been condescending since the moment they met and even tried to get Murphy's parents to fire her.
Felix and Murphy eventually manage to get the drugs, in spite of being caught by Dean, and bond in their moment of victory. They talk their issues through and hopefully, we will see a better friendship between them from here on.
Jess is set up for heartbreak
Throughout the episode, Jess notices Murphy and Felix spending a lot of time together behind closed doors and she grows suspicious. Murphy's lame excuses don't help either and Jess begins to lose focus as she tries to figure out what was going on.
In the midst of this, she gets Ben (Chris Perfetti), their new receptionist, to look after a dog she was examining as she tries to get some snooping done. When she gets back, the dog is gone and thus begins her frantic search.
She is later joined by Sterling (Natalie Liconti), her love interest, and the two finally find the dog. However, Jess has a breakdown and we can't help but feel really bad for her. We know Jess wants to tell Sterling what's bothering her, but she doesn't.
And that may be a good thing because as it turns out, Jess's new girlfriend, the one she is growing very close to, is one of Nia's guys as well, and worse, Sterling kisses Sam (Cortni Vaughn Joyner) — Nia's second-in-command.
It looks like Jess is going to be in for a double dose of heartbreak this season. In the flashforward, we see Felix and Murphy clean up Ben's blood with bleach. As Felix says that he can't believe Ben would do this to them, Murphy says she does.
This week's episode was a fun ride and it was good to see Murphy and Felix spend time together. Both Krantz and Mattfeld do well in playing off of each other and as a pair, they serve as a decent comic relief. We just hope that Jess comes out okay from all of this because she certainly deserves better.