'In the Dark' Season 2 Episode 7: Ben finds out about the drugs as Murphy gets deeper into Nia's business
Spoilers for 'In the Dark' Season 2 Episode 7 'The Straw That Broke the Camel's Back'
In last week's episode of 'In the Dark', we saw Murphy Mason (Perry Mattfeld) finally agree to work with Darnell James (Keston John) to take down Nia Bailey (Nicki Micheaux), the drug lord and money launderer Murphy found herself working with after her colleagues and friends, Felix Bell (Morgan Krantz) and Jess Damon (Brooke Markham) stole Nia's money.
To recap, Darnell decided to work with Nia's rival Josiah, behind her back, to take her down because she killed Darnell's girlfriend, Jules Becker (Saycon Sengbloh), who was also Dean Riley's (Rich Sommer) partner. In last week's episode, we also saw that Jess finally found out about Felix and Murphy dealing drugs for Nia. She would have been killed if Nia wasn't shot; Jess then had to use her medical skills to save Nia's life.
In this week's episode, we see that Jess still has not forgiven Felix or Murphy for hiding the truth from her. Moreover, she is dealing with PTSD over what happened with Nia and the shooting. Things were made worse when Sterling (Natalie Liconti) broke up with her. Sterling is actually one of Nia's people and was dating Jess at her girlfriend, Sam's (Cortni Vaughn Joyner) request.
Murphy gets more entangled in Nia's business
With Nia's prison contact behind bars thanks to Dean, she has no way to get more product to Max Parish (Casey Deidrick), whom she has got dealing drugs inside the prison. When Murphy tries to get in touch with Max, she learns that he was attacked. Knowing that Nia has no other way to get the drugs in, Murphy decides to take them in herself, going against what she agreed with Darnell earlier -- that she would try to refuse Nia's requests for drop-offs.
While her plan is to smuggle the drugs in using Pretzel (Levi), her seeing-eye dog, some quick last-minute thinking leads her to hide the products in her cane. When she meets Max, she tells him that she would do anything to keep him alive and Max realizes that he is alive now because of what Murphy did. While not much happens, Max and Murphy may be on the road to recovery, although with Dean on his tail, things could get worse.
Meanwhile, Nia was almost convinced by Darnell to move the stash house from Guiding Hope where Murphy works, but her plans change when she learns about Murphy dropping product off at Max's. She also tells Murphy to start delivering to the women's prison.
Ben finds the hidden drugs
Ben (Chris Perfetti) has always been a pain in the neck for Murphy and the others. At the beginning of the season, Felix gave him a job at the request of Ben's sister, Chelsea (Lindsey Broad). This week, we learn that Ben was an addict as Chelsea told Felix that Ben would steal their mother's pain medications and replace them with Vitamin C tablets. While Chelsea seems to think her brother is reformed, we soon learn that he is not.
Jess informs Felix that the dogs' pain medications have been stolen from her cabinet and while Felix initially suspects Ben, he soon lets it go. We really wish Felix would be brave enough to stand up for what he believes in. But that's not the case this week.
Ben rats out to his sister that Felix questioned him about the stolen drugs leading to a fight between Felix and Chelsea. What's worse is that when Murphy and Felix are hiding the stash in the hidden locker in the bathroom, they didn't check for anyone else -- Ben was in there using the loo as well. Ben now knows about the heroin and threatens to call the cops on Felix unless he keeps Ben on the payroll and increases his pay.
In previous flashforwards, we saw Ben lying dead and Felix and Murphy frantically cleaning his blood up. Now it makes sense how Ben got embroiled in all of this. While we wish each week for Murphy to get free of Nia, it seems like that might not be possible.
'In the Dark' airs on The CW on Thursday nights at 9/8c.