The penultimate episode to the Apple TV thriller miniseries The Last Thing He Told Me premiered today, and we got to meet the infamous mob lawyer to the Campano family, Nicholas Bell, played by the talented David Morse. We also have an answer to where Bailey went in the previous episode when Grady Bradford from the US Marshal’s office showed up at Hannah’s hotel. A lot of the mysteries are finally unwinding, and we’re getting closer to the answer. Here’s what happened in this week’s episode.
Spoilers Ahead
1999
Ethan Young, aka Owen Michaels, steps out of a restaurant to go on a car ride with his girlfriend Katherine Smith, and the two are truly deeply in love. In the middle of nowhere, though, a tire goes flat, and they swerve to the side of the road. Ethan considers calling AAA, but Katherine has contacted her dad, the mob lawyer Nicholas Bell. She assures Ethan he’s nothing to be concerned about her father, and they wait for Mr. Bell to show up. Bell arrives in a fancy Porsche and shakes hands with Ethan before hugging his daughter and getting to work to change the flat tire. It’s already night by the time Bell removes the tire while narrating how he became a lawyer to ensure everyone received proper representation and asks Ethan if he truly loves Katherine. Quickly, Bell makes Ethan see his future father-in-law as a charismatic Robin Hood with a grey moral compass who helps impoverished people in need of representation. Bell learned from Ethan that he plans to travel the world and look for opportunities everywhere.
Back To The Present
US Marshal Grady Bradford constantly warns Hannah just how dangerous Nicholas Bell, Hannah’s husband’s father-in-law from the previous marriage, is and adds that Bell acted as a consigliere to the Campano family. Grady is bent on getting Hannah on the same page about how much of a terror Bell is and adds that the evidence Owen had provided helped send 8 Campano members to jail, along with Bell. Apparently, Owen had escaped without a trace and would’ve lived out his life peacefully had The Shop not been caught in the software fraud, and Hannah recalled how The Shop’s CEO, Avett, had threatened her that he knew things about Owen’s past. Grady shows her Owen’s phone and informs her that her husband had kept note of all the misdoings in the software company, and he couldn’t go to the FBI either because the Campano family has people in the deepest places. As Hannah worries about her stepdaughter Bailey, Grady says his men are looking for the teenager, but meanwhile, he can’t allow Hannah to be outside, lest she’s kidnaped as well. He adds that Hannah and Bailey can’t return to Sausalito because Nicholas Bell and the others know everything about the women.
Ethan’s Revenge
Grady brings out a box with evidence regarding Bell and the Campano family, with newspaper cuttings detailing just how merciless and monstrous the organization is. Hannah is convinced that the organization is evil and asks if Ethan was a part of it, and Grady says such an organization always drags anyone who orbits too close to them into their muck. He explains that although Ethan didn’t work for Bell, he helped encrypt the messages that Bell was tasked with delivering from imprisoned bosses to their family members. Ethan would’ve not bothered about the messages until his wife Kate was killed in an intentional hit-and-run because Nicholas refused to accept a case for the Campanos. They argued it was their rivals who did it to strain Bell’s loyalty, but Ethan was certain that Kate was murdered because of Bell and handed all the encrypted messages to the FBI. This took down some major players in the business and destroyed a large portion of their drug business, and the FBI tried to get Bell to confess, but he refused and did 6 years for the Campano family, which didn’t go unappreciated.
A New Life
Hannah needs to get into WITSEC, but she doesn’t agree with it saying her husband and stepdaughter should’ve also been in the program, which has protected them. However, Grady says a leak happened which exposed the FBI’s secrets to the outside, and Ethan had to take off on his own, although he kept in touch with Grady because of mutual trust. Hannah calls her friend Jules using Grady’s phone and finds Bobby’s location because only he might know where Bailey is. When being explained the details about WITSEC, Hannah learns that other than her, Bailey too would’ve to give up her entire life to become someone completely new, and she can’t agree to it. Grady says Bailey wouldn’t have to start from scratch and brings out the duffel bag with $500k in cash, and adds that it’s clean, so there won’t be any trouble either. Hannah is upset that her husband didn’t share his past life with her, but Grady says Owen did all that to protect his family, and Hannah needed to do the same for Bailey. Jules calls back to say she found Bobby, but he’s not helping, so Hannah speaks to the boy and says Bailey’s life is in danger, and soon enough, Grady has the location for Andrea’s house.
Rediscovering Her Family
After receiving the directions to her aunt’s place from her boyfriend Bobby in the previous episode, Bailey makes her way to Andrea Reyes’s home but turns away when the twin cousins come out. Andrea comes out soon after and pleads with Bailey to come inside, as a car parked outside notices the teenager going inside and calls Nicholas Bell to alert that it could be his granddaughter. Inside, Andrea slowly starts breaking down what happened between Nicholas and Owen and adds that after Nicholas went to jail, Bailey’s grandmother became sick. When Bailey questioned having memories about her family, Andrea showed her albums full of several pictures that captured moments they spent as a family before Kate was killed as Bell’s car sped up to reach Andrea’s house faster.
Bailey asks if Andrea and the others hate Owen or not, but the aunt says that they loved her dad and her, but they believed Owen could’ve taken a different route. Andrea added that the family had helped Owen escape so that Bailey would remain safe and then played videos where Bailey could watch her entire family laughing and talking and marveling at the bond her father and granddad shared.
Hannah calls Jules and asks if Owen mentioned who’d be entrusted to care for Bailey in his absence, and Jules responds that other than Hannah, it’d be Charles Smith and Andrea. Before Nicholas can show up at Andrea’s house, Grady arrives with force and safely extracts Bailey, and connects her to Hannah. She asks if Bailey trusts her, and upon her agreement, she says there’s something she needs to do. As Bailey gets into the police car, Nicholas watches from afar with disappointment.
Why Did Hannah Return To The Never Dry?
Hannah pretends to go to the washroom and locks it from the inside but sneaks out of the Marshal building and gets in a taxi. She arrives at The Never Dry bar and, while walking inside, comes across Charles Smith. He can’t believe that the woman from the morning would return, but before he can string a sentence, Hannah demands to be taken to Charles’s father, Nicholas Bell, because she must speak to him.
Upon realizing that Hannah can’t allow Bailey to have her entire life scrapped only to get a fake name and identity, she takes a different route. She learns from Jules that Charles and Andrea are supposed to be Bailey’s guardians, meaning Owen trusts them with Bailey’s safety. Hannah understands Nicholas still cares about his granddaughter and the only way to guarantee Bailey’s safety would be to strike a deal with the lawyer. Probably Hannah can convince Nicholas can be in Bailey’s life; he’ll stop hunting them. To find out what happens, we need to tune in for the miniseries finale next week.
