'The Third Day' Episode 5: Why did Jess try to kill Sam and Helen's daughter?
Spoilers for 'The Third Day' Episode 5 titled 'Tuesday – The Daughter'
When Helen (Naomie Harris) sees her daughters in Episode 5 of the HBO miniseries 'The Third Day', she warns them to stay put and not to make any revelations about themselves. She is leaving her daughters Ellie (Nico Parker) and Tallulah (Charlotte Gairdner-Mihell) to look after Jess (Katherine Waterston) who had just delivered her baby. Helen helped her with the delivery and the identity of the father was revealed to her shortly afterwards.
Jess tells Helen that the father of the baby girl is Sam (Jude Law) and that he is still present on the island. So far, the locals had iterated and reiterated that the man had never visited the island and that Helen should take her daughters and leave for London. Actually, one too many warnings were sent her way so Helen returns. But Harris' headstrong character is not going back without a fight. And so, towards the end of the penultimate episode of the series, she comes face to face with her husband who has been missing for a year - the same man who had once travelled to Osea to pay homage to his dead son, and now stands as the leader of the place.
All of this Helen and her daughters aren't privy to. And so, when Jess asks Tallulah aka Lulu about her brother, she gives away the name Nathan. Now it doesn't take Jess a minute to join the dots. Realising that Helen is Sam's wife and that the 9-year-old in her company is his younger daughter, she jumps into action.
She keeps Ellie's phone in her custody and pulls out a knife to try and kill the girl. Jess says that her daughter is special and that she has a purpose in the world, which is obviously being an heir to being the leader of the cult. While Lulu manages to escape, it is in this scene that we realise that the islanders will stop at nothing to see their mission to fulfilment. After all, they do believe that Osea Island is the soul of the world and to keep the world working fine and balanced, Osea needs to be balanced. Jess might say that this child is something she did not want or expect but with Sam's lineage, the infant adds incomparable value to her life. And so now, she won't stop for anything.
When we last see Lulu on the episode, she is running along the shoreline, trying to escape Jess and her knife. Will she succeed?
'The Third Day' airs 9 to 10 pm EST on HBO. The episodes will be available to stream on HBO Max following the airing.