"When a boy that young kills, it’s really never just his fault."
Ambrose wakes up from a nightmare where his young-self finds his mother dead and he puts rocks on her eyes, just like Julian, this might just mean he identifies with the kid or there might be something else there. Heather’s father seems to want to get rid of him but he says if he’s going to stay, he might as well go to an event at the Rotary Club to be welcomed back home officially. There he finds an old love, Carolyn, but is haunted by memories of his past when she brings it up and we see a flashback that might suggest he was the one who started the fire.
The press is having a feast with the case but everyone from law enforcement seems to want to stop asking questions, except for Ambrose, of course. It looks like the authorities have decided to try Julian as an adult and he’s handcuffed in a panic, no one seems to have any regard for his age. Vera accompanies him as much as she can and Ambrose tells him he didn’t want it to happen that way but he can call him if he needs anything. Vera asks Benji, a member of Mosswood who apparently used to be a lawyer, to represent Julian because she needs someone she knows is on their side. Since they already have a confession the only deal they’re willing to offer to Julian is that he serves both sentences concurrently which is still a minimum of 15 years. Ambrose tells Vera a psychological evaluation has been ordered and confronts her about her secrecy, she defends herself saying there's bias against Mosswood, she says Adam and Bess abducted Julian and he was defending himself.
We see Vera doing some type of creepy exercise in front of the creepy rock and then she hugs it, and here we get a taste of Carrie Coon's acting chops, that was a mix between awkward, mesmerizing, and terrifying, all at the same time. Then she prepares Julian for his interview, she tells him to say he was scared and reminds him not to talk about Mosswood and not to trust Ambrose, but Julian says he doesn’t want to lie. During the interview we learn Julian realized that night overhearing Adam and Bess that they weren't bringing him back, he tries not to give too much away to the psychologist but he can't avoid sharing his beliefs, telling the woman he believes in reincarnation and that he didn't intend to hurt Adam and Bess, only to make them go to the next stage of existence, there's also something about splitting in two when you lie that is definitely not something many have heard before.
Heather had been reluctant to investigate Marin's disappearance 12 years before, thinking she didn't want to be found, but now she forces herself to start digging, she talks to the mom, who seems even relieved that she doesn't have to deal with her daughter anymore, and this is supported when later we learn she told her daughter she wished she'd never had her (such a sweet woman). Looking through her Marin's things, Heather finds a book with the name "Julian" circled over and over again, and this makes her think perhaps she's really Julian's mother. She thinks maybe something happened to Marin and Vera took Julian, which is a possibility, but the fact that they would give him a name she wanted would indicate that perhaps there's not necessarily malice there.
She shares her theory with Ambrose and they go together to talk to the doctor who signed the birth certificate. At first, he tries to play it off as something irrelevant, he says he doesn't remember much, but when they start asking more specific questions he says he's going to get his files and doesn't come back. When they go looking for him they find him with his throat slashed and a bistoury in his hand. Now this really begs the question, what could be so terrible that he would take his own life over a few questions, it seems a bit too extreme, but we will find out eventually. After that, they search his house and they find something that looks like a small altar with a similar rock to the one in the barn.
"I’ve learned that "to protect and to serve" doesn’t apply to Mosswood."
What did you think about this episode? What are your theories about this one? Let me know in the comments.
