'The Girl Before' Episode 3: Emma reveals a shocking secret about her assault
With Episode 2 of HBO Max's 'The Girl Before' ending on quite the cliffhanger, Episode 3 certainly provides a few more answers. After finding a sleeping bag and a few other belongings in the service closet, Jane (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) decides to go to Carol (Amanda Drew), Emma's (Jessica Plummer) therapist.
Carol tells Jane about how Edward (David Oyelowo) possibly has repetition compulsion, where he acts out the same trauma with new 'players'. She implies that if Edward is forced to change, he might even become violent. Jane even points out that she and Emma had trauma before 'selecting' them. Jane has a hard time believing this and states that he is too charming, to which Carol says that controlling men often are.
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Spoilers for 'The Girl Before' Episode 3
Jane later confronts Edward about the service cabinet and Emma. He apologizes for not telling her sooner that he was in a relationship with Emma, and the two reconciled. However, Jane soon finds out she's pregnant, while she grapples with the loss of Isabel, as she continues to blame herself for her daughter's death.
Concerning her relationship with Edward, he gifts her a pearl necklace as he did with Emma and suggests moving in. However, Jane seems to be uncovering small secrets, such as there are microphones all over the house. Edward brushes it off, but Jane is wary about it and investigates Emma's death. She meets with Simon (Ben Hardy), who outright tells her that Edward killed Emma. He talks about how killers have an MO and mentions that Edward had an outburst days before her death, which terrified Emma. He also states that Edward filled her mind with strange ideas and brainwashed her. Jane then gets in touch with D.I. Clarke (Ian Conningham) to make sense of what happened. Here, he reveals that Emma was raped, but not by Nelson. But seeing that they could not identify the assailant in the video, the case was dropped. Although there were claims that Simon was abusive, Clarke stated that he didn't come across that way. She even meets with Amanda, who refuses to tell her anything. Jane goes back to Carol, who urges her to walk away, but Jane is determined to get Emma justice, seeing that everyone else in her life failed her.
Emma's POV
In Emma's point of view, she is seen dealing with the rape case trials. The officers coax her into identifying Nelson and writing a witness statement, even though she is reluctant to do any of it. A parallel is seen here between Emma and Jane, as Edward gifts them a similar necklace while suggesting he moves in with them. They both are elated at the idea, Emma more so than Jane. However, things go sour between Emma and Edward when she goes out with Amanda and sends Edward a tattoo photo.
He immediately rushes home and demands to see it, but she jokes that it was Amanda's. Edward also realizes that Emma has broken his house rules and breaks up with her, demanding that she pack up and leave the house. When it came down to her trial, she is confronted by a detective chief, who pointed out that the video was five days old and that Nelson had an alibi on that day. Emma breaks down and admits she wasn't assaulted by Nelson but was, in fact, raped. She stated that she couldn't tell the truth because Simon was there and said the same thing to her solicitor later on. Emma is later attacked with paint for lying, causing her to break down even further.
Episode 3 also sees Emma and Jane have a 'looking glass moment', where they both seem tethered to the house, unable to make any sense of it.
All four episodes of 'The Girl Before' are available to stream on HBO Max.
