ABC aired "The Parent" last Sunday, and I thought this was one of the best episodes of Secrets and Lies yet. This episode was absolutely crazy. Basically none of the Warners are telling the entire truth, and we learned more about Cornell's past.
At the beginning of "The Parent" Amanda tells Eric that the reason she's getting divorced is that she wants kids but Greg doesn't. We later learn that this isn't the whole truth. Greg did want kids, but Amanda had fertility problems and was obsessed with fertility treatments and having her own baby. Greg wanted her to stop the treatments and wanted them to adopt. I don't understand why Amanda lied about this. It makes me think she's hiding something else. There's definitely more to the story here.
Elsewhere, Mr. Peterson shows up to Eric's firm to meet with Kate about investments. He didn't know Kate was dead, and Eric notes that Kate didn't handle investments. Eric's assistant, May, couldn't find out the reason why Kate was meeting with him but did find that Kate had meetings with the SEC and IRS as well. Eric also gets into a fight with his brother. He doesn't want Melanie to know anything about the family business. This infuriates Patrick, and he walks away. He must have told his wife about the fight because Melanie shows up and the two have a showdown in his office. She says that if he hurts Patrick she will hurt him.
Eric sees a picture of Mark Peterson and recognizes his wife, Belinda, and pays them a visit. It turns out that the Petersons are the adoptive parents of Kate's son, Charlie. Belinda met with Kate before she died and told Kate that she was not going to meet Charlie. But Charlie received a letter from the adoption agency, and it was his decision to meet Kate. He saw Kate one day while she walked out of her office.
What I don't understand is how did Mark not know Kate was dead? It was all over the news. Maybe he didn't pay attention? I'm very suspicious of the Petersons.
Patrick is starting to look suspicious, too. May informs Eric that they received a statement from Tri Coast Bank, and whoever set up the account leveraged a twelve million dollar line of credit against the firm. Eric thinks that whoever set up the account killed Kate to keep her quiet. But there's more. May witnessed Kate having a heated argument with Neil. Kate caught Neil having sex with someone in his office, and May is pretty sure it was Melanie.
When Eric meets with Tri Coast Bank, he reads the paperwork, and Patrick's name is right there. Was Patrick stealing from the company? Did Neil know and was blackmailing Patrick? Did Melanie sleep with Neil to keep him quiet? Did Melanie kill Kate? I have a hard time believing it was Melanie because I don't think she was strong enough to push Kate off the roof. But there's definitely something going on here.
Detective Cornell had a rough episode. We learned that she has a daughter named Jennifer who has a substance abuse problem. She's been clean for 18 months, but she definitely doesn't have a good relationship with her mother. I was really surprised to learn that Cornell has a child. She also has a ex-husband. We didn't really know anything about her past, but I just assumed she didn't have a family.
Cornell also had a partner, Dale, that she cared about very much. In a flashback we see her and Dale going to investigate a drug house, and Dale is shot in the chest. He dies in her arms. To this day Dale's murder has never been solved, and since he was Cornell's partner she can't investigate. I was very impressed with this story. While devastating, it gave us more insight into Detective Cornell, and I think it made her more relateable. I hope we learn more about her past, and maybe the police can find Dale's killer before the end of the season.
Like I stated above, this was my favorite episode so far (besides maybe the season premiere), and I'm excited to find out what happens next!
What did you think about this episode? Do you think Patrick and Melanie had something to do with Kate's murder? Were you surprised that Cornell has a family?
