So we’re back to see Emma Averill’s insomnia sinking her life inch by inch, just like it did to her mother. The last episode ended when two detectives showed up at Emma’s doorstep, telling her about Patricia possibly being murdered. Emma obviously feels guilty because she smothered her mother to death. It’s not easy to deal with the aftermath of a murder, but in the third episode of Paramount Plus’ Insomnia, Emma actually handles things pretty well considering what she’s done. So here are a few important questions you might’ve had after finishing the episode.
Spoilers Ahead
What does Emma do after the cops leave?
The detectives tell Emma and Robert that Patricia died by suffocation, and somebody used the pillow to do it. Emma refuses to admit she knows anything. After the detectives leave, Robert asks her if she needs to come clean about anything, but Emma doesn’t tell him anything at all. She scrapes the candles which she keeps lighting up every night off the counter and tries to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Chloe asks Emma and Robert about the grandmother she thought she never had, but Emma doesn’t tell her anything either. Chloe uses this as an excuse to put the cocaine incident behind her, and throws a tantrum at her parents for being shady.
Why is Will sketching a scary woman?
We get a peek at Emma’s childhood once again, and she once found Patricia calling an imaginary baby out from under the staircase to put him to bed. When Emma followed Patricia upstairs, she saw Patricia trying to suffocate Phoebe with a pillow. Back to the present, Will’s playschool teacher shows his sketchbook to Robert, and Will has been obsessively sketching a scary woman in his book. When Robert asks him about it, Will says it’s a scary woman that comes into his nightmares. But Will is clearly lying, and the scary woman is his mother, who’s been driving him crazy every night. Will doesn’t have the courage to tell his father about it, and he’s diverting the blame to his nightmares.
Why does Caroline visit Emma?
Emma’s mind is all over the place over everything that’s happening to her at once. She goes to visit Phoebe and blames her for telling the cops that she visited Patricia. Phoebe had no reason to lie, and she stood her ground. Caroline Mitchel comes to Emma’s office to ask for her help. Caroline needs to get the power of attorney over her mother, but her mother has gone mentally ill. She never had the heart to do it when she was okay, and now she’s regretting it. Emma tells Caroline that she’d love to help her after office hours, and they decide to meet over a glass of wine later.
Why does Emma install security cameras in her house?
Robert is getting worried about Emma’s condition, and he is having trouble handling the kids too. Emma tries to reason with Chloe, but she acts like her usual self, and that makes Emma angry. Chloe receives a text from ‘Amy,’ the girl Robert suspects of being the bad influence. Amy’s text has an I love you at the end, and you’d think that Chloe is simply gay and there’s not much to it. However, Emma warns her not to bring drugs into the house and leaves. Robert tries to talk to Emma about her problems, and we need to talk about how amazing a husband this guy is. He’s extremely sensible and explains that it’s not that one big lie Emma told him when they met that’s hurting him, but the small little lies she’s telling him now. Later in the night, Will sees Emma calling out to an imaginary baby just like Emma saw Patricia doing, and Will calls her out. This wakes Emma up, and she tries to cover it up by telling him that’s her secret hiding spot. Will is obviously spooked by her again, and he runs off when Emma asks him to come to her. Emma then finds she did the same nighttime rituals again: the candles are lit, the bathtub is full, and the song “A Child’s Question, August” is playing on the vinyl record player. She then decides to keep track of how she does all these things while being unconscious and orders multiple security cameras for the house. The next morning, after Robert and Will leave, Emma installs the cameras all over the house, hoping this will work.
Who is Amy?
While cleaning out the laundry, Emma finds a jewelry box on Chloe’s table, and she remembers it’s the same box she saw in Julian’s car a few days ago. She immediately drives up to his bar to confront him, but Julian immediately denies he has anything to do with Chloe. Julian tells Emma that Chloe is a teenager, and her actions shouldn’t come as a surprise to her. Emma tells him that ever since she’s worked for him, she’s been distant, and her personality has changed. Julian plays innocent so well that Emma doesn’t get the confirmation she needs. He is indeed Amy. Soon we see Chloe talking to Phoebe in her car, and she just told her aunt that she’s seeing an older man who needs time to figure out how to get out of his current relationship. Phoebe is supportive of Chloe and tries to give her good advice on how to handle it. But when she tells Chloe to get out of the car and watch Will’s performance inside the playschool, Chloe’s silence tells her that Chloe is dating one of the fathers. In the playschool, Emma finds Michelle who’s come to watch her son perform with Will and the rest of the kids. Michelle tells Emma that Julian is being shady and their marriage is not going well. Emma sneakily asks her what Julian got her for their anniversary, and when Michelle tells her it’s an air fryer, Emma gets the confirmation she needed. Emma takes Chloe to a room and asks her if it’s Julian, and Chloe accidentally admits it.
Why did Emma slap Chloe?
Emma lashes out at Chloe for romancing a man who’s in no way a match for her, and it’s obviously wrong. Julian is Emma’s best friend’s husband, and he himself is Robert’s best friend. Emma tries to make Chloe understand how wrong all of it is on so many levels, but Chloe says that she’s only looking at the negatives. Chloe is clearly a victim here without knowing it herself, but she’s in love. Chloe tells Emma that she shouldn’t lecture her when half of her life is based on a lie. The shouting between mother and daughter goes far outside the room they’re in, and Robert goes to check on the situation. Emma slaps Chloe, and Robert intervenes and takes all of them home. Emma doesn’t tell Robert about what actually happened, and Chloe apologizes to her. Chloe requests Emma not tell Robert anything about it, and what she had with Julian is over. Robert is mad at Emma for hitting Chloe, and he once again explains how wrong it is to hit Chloe, no matter how much she gets on their nerves.
How does Robert find out about Emma’s condition?
Robert wakes up earlier than Emma for the first time in the show, and you know it’s not a coincidence or a random thing. A notification on Emma’s tablet makes him curious, and he finds out that it’s a clip from the security camera. He looks up and finds out that Emma has put up cameras around the house. When he starts to check the footage, he sees Emma lighting candles and rattling the doorknobs. You know what she does. Meanwhile, Emma wakes up and notices Robert isn’t in bed, and she freaks out. She notices that her pajamas are muddy and realizes that she went to the pond again. Emma rushes downstairs, and Robert sees Emma going to Will while he’s asleep with a pillow in her hand. He runs to check if he’s okay, and Emma is still in shock when she sees the video. Robert comes back to say Will is okay, but he finally loses his calm. Emma not telling him about any of this has hurt him, and now the couple have their biggest issue to discuss, on top of the pile of existing problems that were nowhere near being resolved. The episode ends with another flashback of little Emma telling Phoebe that she’s scared of Mummy, similar to how Will is scared of her in the present. The next episode will probably present us with a lot more events, as Robert now knows about what’s happening to Emma, and honestly, she couldn’t ask for a more capable partner to help her through it.
