Eyewitness - The Yellow Couch - Review: "I was there, in the cabin"

Previously on Eyewitness:
An extra long recap gets us up to speed with the crazy events of the first half of season 1: Philip thinks Lukas should tell Helen he witnessed the murder alone, Kane offers Sita immunity if she works for the FBI but instead, Sita kills Mithat under Angels orders. The sequences flash with suspense in this insane fever montage.



Back to present time, Philip takes Helen to the lake where the gun was thrown but of course, the gun is nowhere to be seen. Kane informs her Mithat is dead and orders the case to be finally closed but Helen promises she will find the gun and if she doesn’t find it, she’ll find something else. She cleverly lies when Kane asks her who tipped her off because if she hadn’t, Kane would have tried to shut Philip up and if Philip sees Kane his cover is blown because Philip knows he’s the murderer.

Philip runs to find Lukas, but he’s already being confronted by Helen. His eyes are wide open and his ears are ringing, just like when Kane is caught in a lie. Helen reassures Philip she believes him but as it becomes harder and harder to uncover the truth she begins to doubt him.

Lukas ignores Philips texts, furious that he told on him even if he denied everything he said to Helen. Helen finds him by tracking his phone... because she’s Helen and the two sit together, stuck in a literal and figurative dark tunnel. They both hate where they are and always end up lying about their past. Philip lets it slip that his mum’s boyfriend never overdosed on the yellow couch and Helen jumps to the logical conclusion that the cabin was also another lie.

Kami has Mithat’s murderer on video and immediately shows Kane which a) is insane and b) I never expected her to do. Kane begins looking into Helen as she’s quickly become his worst nightmare. He gets in touch with her therapist and learns she stole the missing pages from her case in Buffalo and uses them to punish herself, which is what we saw in last week’s very emotional scene. How ironic is it that he's questioning her mental state when he's the sociopathic serial killer.

Tony and Helen have to go back to coning (running gag) now that the case seems to be over and she gets a visit from Kami. She tells her about Sita and cries on her shoulder. Helen offers her help and brings Sita back to her after she was abandoned by Angel Vescovi. Helen is left with Sita's baby which clearly brings back some painful memories for her, a reference to last week's flashback.

Kane gets to Helen’s storage room and finds the pictures and her clonazepam prescription but Tony accidentally catches him in his car as he holds the letter he fabricated. He learns Helen has given up and scraps the fake suicide letter, giving her one last chance.

Gabe is hurt that Philip lied to him and invites Bo and Lukas for dinner so that Philip can come clean and apologise. This is the dinner from hell and it was almost painful to watch until Lukas finally owns up and confesses he has not been truthful. Or at least that’s what we’re lead to think because he then accuses Philip of stealing from his father to buy drugs. A very beaten down Philip just accepts whatever lie Lukas springs on him and requests to be relocated to a different family.

Half way through the season and everything is falling apart. Granted, there’s a serial killer on the loose so I’d want to leave Tivoli asap as well but it’s heartbreaking to see Helen and Gabe witness this. Philip gets drunk and arrives at Rose’s party, slurring that he's looking for Lukas. He carries him home the next day and apologises before leaving him on Helen’s doorstep.

Sita and Kami sit on the famous Tivoli bridge and share one last moment before Sita’s arrested. Kami promises to bring her baby to her and Sita asks her to raise him if something happens to her. We finally have some closure on their troubles and as Kami turns away, we hear Sita jumping off and falling in the water. The body count is getting out of hand.

Upon learning that Philip is going away and seeing the video montage Philip made for them, he rides away on his motorcycle to tells Helen the half truth about him seeing the murder. He hands her the gun while Philip’s in the car, ready to go. Maybe this is the first step towards a chance at a redemption making Lukas sort of almost tolerable.





Questions:
Is Ryan Kane suffering from borderline personality disorder? Is this how he's able to switch between the charming FBI agent and the serial killer pedophile?

Favourite scene:
Ryan copies a letter Helen had written and fabricates a suicide letter as he's about to kill her off before she gets to the truth.

Favourite shot:



Helen and Gabe's exchange at the barn after he came back from kanoeing with Philip. The conversations and arguments between these two are the most interesting to watch. Unlike Philip and Lukas, they have a very organic dynamic that doesn't feel forced or scripted. Julianne Nicholson is fantastic.

Favourite quote:

- She loves you.
- Okay.The one thing that she loves more than her drugs and me, is to go out dancing.

Grade: 3.5/5

While the last episode lacked major developments, this one was jam-packed with them. The ball is rolling as the countdown to the finale begins. Sita's storyline is wrapped up, Lukas has started to take responsibilities and Helen is so close to the killer she can smell him. Sorry for posting this so late, my final assessments are due in the next couple of weeks. I have to write film analyses for two films for one of my modules and writing about Eyewitness is a much-needed break from that. What did everyone think of episode 1x6?