Season one, episode two of Lady in the Lake, entitled “It Has to Do With the Search for the Marvelous,” follows Maddie’s(Natalie Portman) next steps after leaving her husband and Cleo’s( Moses Ingram) crisis. Maddie deals with the newfound tasks that come with a single woman living alone, while Cleo gets involved in a dangerous situation she will later regret. Maddie pays her respects to Tessie’s ( Bianca Berry) parents; she fixates on the death of Tessie in order to ignore her marital issues. Cleo gets her husband, Slappy,( Byron Bowers) a gig to do his stand-up comedy at the club where she works. Things turn south when an acquaintance, Reggie, (Josiah Cross) asks her to run an errand.
Maddie and Judith(Mikey Madison) get questioned by the police about Tessie after finding her body. The officer who initially arrives makes antisemitic remarks once he realizes both Maddie and Judith are Jewish. From that moment on, his demeanor slightly changes, and he takes them into the station for more questioning. After the questioning, the officer lets them both go and gives Maddie a ride home. The next morning, Maddie is forced to face her husband Milton, (Brett Gelman) whom she abruptly leaves because she has to go home for clothes to wear to the funeral.
Maddie and her family arrive at the funeral, and Tessie’s mother runs up to Maddie and thanks her. Tessie’s mother quickly begins questioning Maddie and sobbing; she breaks down in Maddie’s arms, causing a scene while Maddie is visibly uncomfortable. After a very emotional funeral, Maddie returns to her new apartment and falsely reports a break-in to receive insurance money. The officer that arrives this time is African American, and there is instantly a distinct difference in the way he treats Maddie versus the white officer from the night before. The officer catches on that Maddie lied about the break-in but decides not to report her. He and Maddie have a great conversation, and he leaves. Later in the night, he returns, and Maddie sleeps with him.
Meanwhile, Cleo continues working for a well-known troublemaker named Shell Gordon (Wood Harris) at a jazz club. Cleo has to help take care of the club’s main singer, Dora Carter(Jennifer Mogblock), who is drunk. While this happens, we also see the pet store owner, Stephan,(played by Dylan Arnold) climb into a bath naked with fish from the store. We can tell something is wrong with him. Later, Cleo is at the jazz club while her husband is on stage doing his stand-up comedy. Reggie asks her to drop something off at a mystery address. She agrees and leaves in the middle of her husband’s show.
The police decide to arrest Stephan at the pet store. Stephan holds his mother hostage at gunpoint in the store as he hallucinates him, his mother, and Tessie dancing together. His mother is terrified for him, and when he finally walks outside of the store with her, she yells for the police to hold their fire and that he is mentally ill. The police arrest Stephan for the murder of Tessie. The news quickly spread that an arrest was made.
When Cleo arrives at the mystery address, it is clear she is in danger. Cleo is the only woman in the room, and everyone else is armed with their guns out in the open. The men all appear sketchy and then block her from leaving. They tell her they know she works for Shell’s Myrtle Summer( Angela Robinson) in addition to working for him. They force Cleo into a car and make her drive to Myrtle’s house. When they get there, the man jumps out of the car, knocks on the door, and shoots the person who answers. We don’t see who it is but infer it’s Myrtle. Cleo runs out of the car and away from the house.
This episode does a great job of having unexpected twists; none of the new information or incidents were predictable. The cinematography was pleasing to the eye. Maddie’s character development is moving fairly quickly; she’s changing things about herself now that she’s a single woman. The pacing of this episode is very tricky; multiple big events happen, yet it doesn’t feel like a fast-paced episode. Overall, the episode keeps the viewer surprised and curious.
Rating: 6.5/10