In “American Gigolo” Episode 1, Julian Kaye was exonerated after he was found not guilty of Janet Holmes’ murder. However, the episode also revealed that the mastermind behind the murder was Olga Desnain, the very woman who had introduced Julian to the escort business. “American Gigolo” Episode 2 shows the void that Julian finds himself in after coming out of jail with no work or a place to stay, and he is troubled by memories. But unbeknownst to him, he is being followed.
Spoilers Ahead
Episode 2: Recap Summary
In the flashback, we see that some time has passed since Olga introduced Julian to her escort business. It is Julian’s birthday, and Olga has thrown a huge pool party at her mansion. Everyone is having a good time, and Julian and Isabelle are playing Operation when Olga comes and takes Julian to show him his present inside the mansion. Isabelle appears sad and, after some time, goes inside too, only to find out that Julian is in bed with a woman and Olga is teaching him the art of seduction, so to speak.
The present timeline connects with the end of “American Gigolo” Episode 1, where Isabelle had compelled Julian to sleep with her. Episode 2 continues from that very moment. She tries to dominate Julian in bed, but Julian’s mind is wandering places, and he isn’t interested at all. Ultimately, he gets out of bed, dresses up, and leaves. As he comes out of the mansion, he sees Olga leave the compound in her car. Julian then asks Lorenzo, who has also followed him out, that why wasn’t he informed of Olga’s sickness. Lorenzo replies that Isabelle had instructed him not to tell him. Julian leaves without saying a word.
As he walks out of the compound and onto the highway, he hears detective officer Joan Sunday. She has been tracking him. She tries to persuade him to help her find out the reason why Olga got Janet Holmes killed by Finnegan. But it seems that Julian has moved on from his past and is less interested in digging old graves. As he walks away from Sunday, he thinks about the first time he had met her and how she was the one who made him confess to a murder he didn’t commit; he thinks about how his mother had sold him off to Olga and how it affected his life and the love of his life, Michelle.
Michelle Stratton has been trying to reach her son Colin but hasn’t been successful. She sends him a voicemail asking him to tell her his location so that she can come and pick him up, and they will leave. Her husband, Richard, has sent one of his men, McGregor, to bring their son back. Michelle fears that McGregor will hurt Colin and makes her husband Richard promise that McGregor won’t hurt either their son or his teacher, whom he ran away with, Elizabeth Shannonhouse.
Elizabeth ShannonHouse unlocks the door of a hotel room and enters it, followed by Colin Stratton. A distance from the hotel, McGregor waits in his car for his partner to arrive. Meanwhile, Sunday arrives at the hospital where Kevin Finnegan, Janet’s killer, has been admitted. She finds that Finnegan has passed away, which means she has lost a crucial piece of the puzzle of Janet Holmes’ murder. Her only clue is the word “keen.”
As Julian wanders along the Venice beach, he finds himself followed by a dog. With the dog along, he comes across a glass-walled apparel store. On the other side of the glass is a suit. The suit reminds him of the occasion when he and Michelle were in a restaurant, and she wanted to hire him as a friend of hers. He is brought back to the present by the dog’s whining and smiles at it.
Sunday arrives outside Olga’s residence and finds a man named Guy. She tells him that she wants to talk to Olga, but he says that “that’s not possible.” She threatens him with a warrant, but Guy remains unaffected. Sunday is irritated but leaves nevertheless. A bedridden Olga calls Guy, who tells her that the police have come. “It’s time,” says Olga. “I’ll take care of everything,” replies Guy. They have probably been planning something, anticipating that the truth about Janet Holmes’ murder will bring the police to their doorstep. Sunday goes and asks her colleague, Judge Wettick, for a search warrant.
Julian finds a room for rent, but the landlady tells him that he has to get a job first. He then goes and meets his friend from prison, Bojangles, AKA Bo, and asks him for a job. Bo refers to him as a guy named Luther, who works at a restaurant. When he arrives at the restaurant, he finds that it is the same place where he and Michelle used to visit often. He goes around the back of the restaurant and meets Luther, who takes him in. Julian gets a job in the restaurant kitchen.
Michelle visits Elizabeth ShannonHouse’s husband, Chris, asking him if he knows where his wife is. But Chris remains quiet, stating that his lawyer has told him to not talk to her. This means that he has filed a case against the ShannonHouse family. Meanwhile, Elizabeth and Colin enjoy their private moments with each other in the hotel room.
As Julian comes out the back door of the restaurant to throw the garbage away, he notices a woman taking the dog, which was following him, away on a leash. When he tries to ask her about it, she gets rather angry and walks away, telling him to stay away from them. Julian backs off too. After his shift gets over, he returns to the landlady, Lizzy, whom he had met earlier for the room. Satisfied with the job documents, she lets him in. That’s when Julian tells her about his time in prison and that he was exonerated of his charges. Lizzy doesn’t have any issues with that. She lives upstairs, and she likes things to be nice and quiet. Julian has found a new place he can call home.
‘American Gigolo’ Episode 2: Ending – Who Is Lisa Beck?
Guy arrives at a school, the Glenn Hewitt House, as a part of a tour group and sneaks his way inside. He makes his way to a locker room, where he searches and gets his hands on the file of a student, Lisa Beck. He takes it and leaves without being seen.
Lizzie finds out about Julian’s escort job from the daily newspaper. Meanwhile, Julian has been cleaning his new room downstairs of the stuff of its previous owner, who was a friend of Lizzy. She comes down and tells Julian that he cannot use the room to do what he used to do earlier (escort service). Julian tells her that he doesn’t do that anymore. He then shows the stuff he found from Lizzy’s friend, but she isn’t interested in them and tells him to toss them away. Later on, as Julian walks towards his car to go someplace, he sees a stranger (Guy) place something inside it. Julian calls out, and as soon as the guy sees him, he hurries off on his scooter. Julian finds a file in the front seat. The name on the top of the file is Lisa Beck. There is also a picture of the girl inside, along with other information that a school usually keeps about its students.
It is nighttime. Julian sees Lizzy going somewhere and asks if she would like to eat with him. She agrees. Both of them spend some time eating, drinking, and having deep conversations. Later on, Julian reads the file of Lisa Beck. She was his girlfriend when he was a young boy. He finds a number on the back of the file and dials it.
A phone rings at Olga’s residence. But there is no one to pick it up. Sunday, along with a coworker, had already breached into the seemingly empty house with a warrant. They can hear the ringing clearly, but there are other things that need their attention. Both Guy and Olga have been shot dead. The call reaches voicemail. Julian disconnects the line.
Why did Guy leave Lisa Beck’s file with Julian? How is Lisa connected to Olga? And who killed Guy and Olga? Is Isabelle behind all this? Did Olga somehow anticipate her death and tell Guy to get Lisa Beck’s file to Julian? Maybe she believed that only Julian would be able to find her murderer. Does any of this have something to do with Janet Holmes? It seems that Julian has been unwillingly dragged into the middle of a dark conspiracy. And his only clue, for the time being, is the file of Lisa Beck.
See more: ‘American Gigolo’ Episode 1: Recap And Ending – Did Julian Kaye Kill Janet Holmes?
