'The Outsider' Episode 4: PI Gibney finds an eerily similar case involving innocent 'child murderers'
This article contains spoilers for the released episodes of 'The Outsider'
In this episode, titled 'Que Viene El Coco', we find Holly Gibney (Cynthia Erivo) pursuing leads of similar suspicious cases using the help of former detective Andy Katcavage(Derek Cecil). The episode also probes into the supernatural as Gibney learns of the boogeyman — 'The Grief Eater'.
Terry Maitland, who was publicly arrested in relation to the crime and murder of a young boy named Frankie Peterson claims to be an innocent man. Since he died before his innocence was proved, detective Ralph Anderson is now on the case.
In Episode 3, Gibney found an earlier case where two sisters were reported missing and were found dead and a local hospital worker was arrested for the crime. This man later committed suicide in prison after being threatened by another inmate. In this episode, we find the name of the man to be Heath Hofstadter and in flashbacks, we are introduced to his time before his untimely death where he seems to be happy with a woman and are also informed of his association with Maitland.
Gibney finds that Heath was good friends with the receptionist from the old age home where Terry Maitland's father now resides. The receptionist said that Heath was on suspension after the murders he was accused of( the two sisters). He had come back to the old age home facility to check on a patient and so had a shaky alibi. A janitor at the facility also said he saw Heath come out of Terry Maitland's father's room and that he had bumped into Terry while eyewitnesses also placed Heath a good distance away from where the murders happened - one of the witnesses included Heath's mother. Meanwhile, on the Peach Crease’s security footage, Ralph Anderson (Ben Mendelsohn) noticed "Terry Maitland" scratching Claude Bolton - Claude confirmed to Anderson that Terry had scratched him - ending the trail in the Maitland case.
Gibney contacts Andy the security guard she'd questioned in the last episode who revealed details from the Hofstadter case which have strikingly similar details to the Maitland case. He further revealed that Heath's brother and mother had committed suicide and so did the mother of the two victims. The children's grandfather also suffered a stroke that matched the victim (in the Maitland case) Frankie Peterson's mother's demise.
The receptionist also revealed that when Heath had visited New York, he had sent a postcard telling her he met a woman in the city. Gibney finds this woman to be Maria Caneles - who was serving a sentence for the murder of a child during the same time Heath was in New York. She also had intense DNA evidence against her but also had alibis and witnesses placing her away from the crime. Caneles also revealed that her father and uncle were killed by the father of the victim in the case she was serving a sentence for.
With all these revelations coming at her, Gibney is taken aback when a woman from the jail cell tells Gibney that Caneles could be the victim of the boogeyman "El Coco", who feeds off the grief of people. Even though she's hesitant, Gibney researches the concept. To add to this, the boy that stole the white van that Terry Maitland was allegedly in, admitted that the person who took that van from him was the "Green Hoodie Man." The boy drew the image, and Anderson notices that it fits the exact description of what Jessa Maitland,T Terry Maitland's daughter claims to have been seeing.
A seemingly mortal case now hints at the possibility of supernatural forces as Gibney is faced with the coincidences caused by a boogeyman man, who's name is used to discipline children. Having researched the supernatural force, it seems Gibney has her next lead, but who's going to have information on a mythical folkore?
‘The Outsider’ airs on Sundays, 9 pm EST on HBO.
