The Undoing Recap: Case Closed?
The Undoing‘s penultimate installment picks up the day after Jonathan’s live TV tête-à-tête with Connie Chung, which ended (for us, at least) with the accused murderer revealing to the retired broadcaster that he believes he knows who really killed Elena.
Oddly, the episode fails to fill us in on what, if anything, he told Chung next about the would-be suspect’s identity, although it’s clear Jonathan is growing suspicious of his wife Grace (who, as was previously established, was caught on a surveillance camera sauntering past the crime scene).
The no-good, dirty, rotten, cheating bastard has the nerve to point-blank ask the woman he betrayed 22 times over, “Why were you there that night, outside her apartment?” First off, it’s already been firmly established that THE WOMAN LOVES A GOOD STROLL. Secondly, as Grace so eloquently points out before nearly pushing his ass into the East River, “Are you f–king kidding me?”
Despite her hubby’s verbal diarrhea (which he later chalks up to “pre-trial nerves”), Grace begrudgingly agrees to stay the course and play the role of the devoted wife in the courtroom. “Under the circumstances, I think I deserve a medal,” she rightly harrumphs to Jonathan’s attorney, Haley.
The prosecution kicks the trial off by detailing the brutality of the murder, accusing Jonathan of “violently, savagely” striking Elena 11 times in the head with a still-MIA sculpting hammer, turning “her skull into mush” before going on the run. The Haley-led defense counters that detective Meanie Mendoza’s investigation was “specifically and intentionally narrow,” arguing that “evidence of other suspects” — namely Elena’s motive-rich hubby Fernando — “would compromise their one shot at a conviction.”
All the talk of bloody, boomeranging brain matter apparently made Jonathan super horny because that evening he booty-calls Grace (who is still crashing at her dad’s resplendent crib). She initially turns him down on account of it being way too soon and super gross, before quickly changing her mind when she realizes she only got halfway to her daily 100K daily step goal. And since steps count double when it’s dark and scary out and your husband is accused of murder, she throws on her green jacket a bathrobe, treks across Central Park, climbs into bed with Jonathan and does the thing she insisted to her dad she would never do.
Her attempt to quietly slip back into her dad’s apartment unnoticed the next morning is foiled by Henry, who demands to know where his mom was all night. She promptly changes the suspect and immediately regrets the pivot (not to mention her reconciliation of sorts with Jonathan) because it leads this startling admission from her son: he caught his dad and Elena fraternizing outside his school in the days (or months?) leading up to her murder. Even worse, “He saw that I saw,” Henry informs his mom. “He knew that I knew.”
Grace tears into Jonathan about Betrayal No. 23 mere moments before the commencement of Trial Day 2, during which Haley gets Det. Mendoza to basically admit on the stand that he’s terrible at his job. The kickass lawyer’s tour-de-cross does serious damage to the prosecution’s case, and the Frasers mark the rare win with an ill-conceived celebratory lunch.
At some point between the salad and warm sourdough courses, Jonathan offers his son Apology No. 19 for the aforementioned Betrayal No. 23. Henry makes it clear — at some point between the breadstick and main courses WHAT THE HELL KIND RESTAURANT IS THIS?! — that he just wants his parents to get back together so they can all be a happy family again. “We can even get a dog, and I’ll take care of it, so you don’t have to worry about what happened before,” Henry adds, unwittingly laying the groundwork for Betrayal No. 24 because, turns out, the bologna sandwich Jonathan previously fed Grace about him accidentally killing his childhood dog was — brace yourself — a big little lie. It was his kid sister he accidentally killed. Tomayto, tomahto!
Grace places her shrink hat on and begins to wonder if Jonathan’s brain chemistry was altered as a result of his sister’s death. When she subsequently puts that question to his estranged mother via a shockingly clear overseas face-time call, her mum-in-law gives her a failing grade in grammar before pretty much confirming that, yep, the tragedy turned her boy into a sociopath.
As the episode draws to a close, Grace ignores my pleas to JUST GO TO SLEEP and instead decides to canvas her dad’s 18-bedroom pad in search of the inevitable twist ending. And she finds it inside Henry’s violin case, which contains a very different kind of instrument: a sculpting hammer!
OK, riddle me this, Undoing watchers: Do you think Henry murdered Elena? And, if not, why is he in possession of the missing murder weapon? Share your theories below ahead of next week’s series finale.
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