Bellevue: The (hidden) “Truth” may bite you in the ass

Spoiler alert! Do not read until you’ve watched Episode 6 of Bellevue.

Welcome back Bellevue-ites! We meet again to go over what we learned in this week’s episode of Bellevue, “The Problem with the Truth.” The pace is picking up, so a lot of information is parsed during this episode, on many different fronts. And, as the title suggests, the truths uncovered may have unsavoury consequences.

We pick up where we left off, Eddie (Allan Leech) is staying the night at Annie’s (Anna Paquin) following his statement to Peter (Shawn Doyle). Annie is discussing her theories with Eddie and feels if she combines the information she has now gathered with the information that would be contained within her father’s old memo books she could solve Sandy Driver’s murder. Annie puts in the request, much to Peter’s objection. However, with Annie’s reminder that Peter burned down the shed at the New Horizon’s property, Peter reluctantly backs down and agrees to sign off on Clarence Ryder’s last notebook.

Annie revisits the witness statements in her father’s notes. First, Randy Olding (Kent McQuaid) who discovered Sandy’s body, and then Helen Spencer (Laura Mitchell), the pageant organizer. Upon questioning, it is Helen who reveals Sandy had always been unkempt and lacked friends. But for her brief moments as Mary, Sandy Driver never felt love. She also reveals Lily Mansfield (Janine Theriault) was not very “biblical.” Later, in a follow-up visit, Annie questions her directly. Helen reveals Lily “Mother” Mansfield had an abortion, and the father was rumoured to be an older man. But how much older, is the question!

Annie works through the notebook and discovers that the last page for March 23, 1995, is missing. It has been cut out. Using the all too reliable pencil shading technique, it reveals her father received a 911 call. Now, WHY would he rip that out?

Next, we turn to the audio tapes of the 911 calls of March 23 and discover it was none other than Lily Mansfield who made the emergency call. She knows there was an intruder in her home because he or she left fingernails. The 911 operator notifies Lily that an officer is on the way. Further investigation by Annie reveals the 911 call was never officially recorded. There is no file.

The trouble with cold cases is technology has evolved and the old interview videotapes are still on VHS instead of digital. And, it seems, the station’s VCR is not in good working order. Ever the problem solver, Annie calls Brady (Billy MacLellan) and invites herself over to watch Sandy Driver interview tapes. Included in the interviews was a statement by none other than Lily Mansfield in which she is clearly flirting with the officer questioning her, and the officer, from his tone, is totally “into it.”

Annie believes she has pieced it together: her father was somehow involved with Lily Mansfield and Peter did not want her to know about it. She approaches Peter and questions him, explaining her theory and he does not deny her hypotheses, letting her believe that not only did her father respond to the 911 call made by Lily Mansfield, but that her father was having an affair with a 16-year-old Lily.

Annie then travels to her father’s cabin where she discovers an active pager with the same numerical message her father had written on the outside of his notepad. This has to be another clue from The Riddler because that pager would not still be active after 20 years out in a hunting cabin. Not to mention, who would pay to keep the account active for that long? (and presumably her father’s pager, if he had one, would be collected as evidence at the time of his suicide). Turns out the number is a coded message, “Horizon,” referencing back to the old and now derelict New Horizons Psychiatric Hospital. Annie places a requisition for a patient list.

Going over her materials one more time Annie spots an inconsistency. It was Peter who mentioned the fingernails were found on Lily’s bed, not the 911 call. How did Peter know? OK, cue the “Don’t trust the guy with the fire in his eyes,” moment. It was Peter who took the 911 call out, and it was Peter who tore out the last page of her father’s notepad. Another stellar performance by Ms. Paquin, this time with Shawn Doyle. The two rip into each other, with accusations flying. When faced with the truth, Peter admits to some complicity but not yet everything, as we will find out shortly, and Annie is pissed. How dare Peter let her believe her father was having an affair or that he screwed up the case? He does not seem to understand how this affects her life. And what was all that nonsense about being there for her?

“HE’S DEAD! HE’S DEAD and I AM ALIVE! I MADE A JUDGMENT CALL BECAUSE I THOUGHT YOU NEEDED SOMEBODY!”

Essentially, Peter has been lying to Annie all of her life.

While all of this back and forth with Peter is going on, Virginia (Sharon Taylor) is running down Jackie Edmonds’ (Marianne Farley) alibi because of her presence at the Rave from the other night. Witnesses state she attends every week, so this has effectively ruined Coach Tom’s (Vincent Leclerc) alibi. Jackie’s claim that she was home with her husband the night Jesse died is a lie.

This week’s instalment on the Eddie-Annie relationship front takes place at the community family barbecue. Eddie is there with Daisy and Briana (Amber Goldfarb). Annie begs Eddie to come home, to be a family again. Eddie, however, is done with crazy. He has to say no for his own well-being. He needs calm and simple and no longer believes that “you have to feel pain to be with someone.” Annie is not ready to not be crazy, and she proves it by running to the arms of Brady. That leads to a brawl between Eddie and Brady. In the end, Annie leaves by herself, Daisy (Madison Ferguson) insists on leaving with her dad, and Brady is left with a bloody nose.

Peter pays a visit to Mother Mansfield demanding information about the fingernails, but she swears she does not know who planted them in her room so many years ago. And it appears that these two have a secret history. Lily thinks he is an adrenaline junkie but Peter claims it is self-punishment for Clarence Ryder’s death, “I deserve to feel this fuckin’ low.”

The closing moments return to the hunting cabin where we find Annie drinking. I think it is safe to say, she has hit bottom and loses it. Annie, in a maniacal fever pitched rage, heads out into the woods and a hooded stranger appears, stopping her from self harm! Is THIS The Riddler? Following a brief search she returns to the cabin and finds another clue.

“Adam 16”.

WHEW! So Tom has no alibi, and Peter and Mother Mansfield are keeping secrets. Who killed Sandy Driver? Who killed Jesse? We still don’t know what the connection is between these murders. Who do you suspect? Let me know in the comments below!

Bellevue airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on CBC.

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