'In the Dark' Season 2 Episode 8 Review: As Dean closes in on Murphy, is her friendship with Jess over?
Spoilers for 'In the Dark' Season 2 Episode 8: 'Codependence Day'
One of the coolest relationships to see on TV is that of female friendships and the friendship of Murphy Mason (Perry Mattfeld) and Jess Damon (Brooke Markham) in 'In the Dark' is one of the purest ones we have seen on television. However, that friendship hit an obstacle over the past two weeks as Murphy chose to keep Jess in the dark (pun unintended) about the fact that she was now dealing drugs for Chicago crime boss Nia Bailey (Nicki Micheaux) with Felix Bell's (Morgan Krantz) help.
This came about because Murphy wanted to keep her love interest, Max Parrish (Casey Deidrick), safe from Nia's people. All this while, Murphy's ex-boyfriend and the real killer of her best friend Tyson, Dean Riley (Rich Sommer) has been trying to find ways to bust Nia for her crimes along with his new partner, Gene Clemens (Matt Murray). Without further ado, let's get into this week's episode which features an arrest, multiple lucky escapes and a main character potentially going away.
Felix is kinda... cool
That is an odd statement — Felix is never cool — but when he gets arrested in this week's episode for the murder of Jeremy Davis, we get to see a side of him that we haven't before this season. Who is Jeremy Davis, you ask? Remember when Felix and Murphy snuck into a compound lot to retrieve the drugs from Max's van (which is now the grooming van for Guiding Hope) and they got into an open van to sneak in? When Felix noticed all the blood inside the van, he nearly threw up in there. Unfortunately, he left his fingerprints behind — and the back of that van is where Jeremy Davis was killed.
Felix's alibi is that he was at work very late, however, he does not elaborate. He calls Jess and Murphy for help, however, they are at a loss on what to do. Jess tells of the situation to her former flame, Sterling (Natalie Liconti), who had recorded Guiding Hope when she was surveilling Murphy and her friends. Sterling drops off a video that shows Felix going in and out of the bathroom for two hours straight, including right through the murder.
This is enough for an alibi, but the cops still want to make him sweat, especially after he points out that if they arrest him on trespassing, they will have to admit that the Jeremy Davis murder van is tampered evidence, thereby forcing them to drop their biggest evidence. Meanwhile, cops at the station have a laugh at Felix's situation in the video when Dean sees it himself.
He then decides to question Felix himself over why he was in Max's van along with Murphy. Felix then says that he was retrieving his "hidden shrooms" without a beat and we have got to say, Felix seems to do well under pressure sometimes. However, Dean's partner, Gene realizes that the Klingon note left in Max's truck about a drop-off was in Felix's handwriting and this helps Dean realize that Murphy is in on it, which brings us to...
Dean may finally have a one-up
At the beginning of the season, Dean was able to get the police chief's help in destroying Murphy's recording of him confessing to Tyson's murder, in exchange for finally arresting Nia Bailey. As Dean had worked with Nia, he felt he would know her ins and outs, but so far, Dean has not had a bit of luck in getting closer to arresting the crime lord.
In this week's episode, with the breakthrough that Murphy is in on it, he looks at video surveillance from Murphy's visit to Max in the prison, which we saw in a previous episode. He then sees both Max and Murphy put their hands under the table when Murphy had smuggled in the drugs using her cane. Dean then realizes that Max has a scheduled visit from Murphy the same day and decides to catch Murphy in the act.
Murphy — who has been scrambling to get the drugs for the week (more on this later) — visits Max to talk to him, but does so on the pretext of giving him the drugs. Before she heads out, Dean's daughter, Chloe (Calle Walton) comes to Guiding Hope to talk to Murphy about her calling Dean a murderer in the previous episode. Chloe demands an apology on her father's behalf, but Murphy just says that she is tired of Dean's lies. Chloe then leaves in a hurry to get away from Murphy.
When Murphy heads to meet Max and as she's just about to give him the cane, Dean busts in. But when Dean checks the cane, he realizes that the drugs are not there — and we realize, Murphy's and Chloe's canes got exchanged. Later, Chloe is on a train, but she misses her stop and has a panic attack. She doesn't have a phone because she is grounded.
When a co-passenger calls Dean in, he at first berates her for taking the train and for not taking care of her cane, which he had just got for her the previous week. However, when she says that she thinks her cane might have been exchanged with Murphy's, he checks the cane, and lo and behold, the drugs are there. At this point, is Murphy's cane still a piece of admissible evidence? With Chloe's fingerprints all over it, will it help? Moreover, unless they find Murphy's fingerprints on it. Whatever the case, it is clear that Murphy needs all the support she can get, however...
Jess leaves Chicago
With everything going on, Jess is overwhelmed and wants a fresh start. After a day with Murphy in which she tries to help the latter buy some drugs using their own money when Nia's stash gets stolen, Jess is beyond stressed out. But before she leaves, she goes to meet Sterling and asks her if she wants to come. Sterling agrees and the two leave Chicago, throwing away their phones and therefore severing any links they have with those that they leave behind.
At this point in the season, it was clear something major had to happen, otherwise, it's the same old story over and over again. When the show returns, we will have more of the action that has been characteristic of this season. For those who wish to see Dean pay for his crimes, it might take some more time. Another thing Dean might do with the discovered drugs is selling it himself seeing has he is short on money now that he no longer works for Nia.
Can we also say that Gene does all of the work that has led to Dean's breakthroughs and therefore needs to be treated better by Dean? If not, Dean might lose the one ally he has at the moment. 'In the Dark' airs on The CW on Thursday nights at 9/8c.
