Diksha Sundriyal
Answers start to trickle in as more questions are raised in the fourth episode of Apple TV’s ‘Cape Fear.’ It opens with Max performing a ritual with the sketch of his 17-year-old son Adam, who was never born. Later, he crosses paths with Tom at a bar. He buys the prosecutor a drink, but it isn’t welcomed. When Tom asks him what he gave to Zack (as found in the CCTV), Max reveals that it was actually Zack who gave him something.
Turns out, Tom’s son had a dream about Adam, so he made a sketch for Max. When Tom wonders why Zack would do that, Max notes how it is easier to talk to strangers than to one’s own parents. He adds that Zack needs a strong father figure, and when Tom gets offended, he amends his statement, saying that the words reflect his own desire to be a father, something he never got to be. Tom is not fooled by his act, though the same can’t be said for others. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Naveah Embeds Herself Deeper With Nat
As Anna drives home one evening, she finds the woman in a green jacket in the middle of the road. When the woman approaches her, Anna tells her Max isn’t there. The woman chuckles and leaves, singing the song she sang for Max in the video, which made him break his TV into pieces. The next morning, as Anna is in a rush to leave for work, Nat gets angry that her mother is dropping yet another thing she promised to do for her. She was supposed to take Nat for supervised driving for her license, but, once again, her work is taking priority. When Tom offers to do it, she calls him a cuck, echoing Naveah’s words and shocking her parents.
Later, Naveah shows up at her soccer practice, luring her away from it. Nat follows her, thinking she is accompanying Naveah to get a tattoo. But the girl takes her to someone’s house instead of a tattoo parlor and then makes her get a nipple piercing. Then they get high, and later Naveah takes Nat to Callie’s house. She has a Wi-fi jammer, which she uses to block out the CCTV, so they can sneak into the house and do whatever they want. They try on Calie’s clothes and have sex on her bed. When Callie’s father shows up, they sneak out. In the middle of this, Naveah has a small knife with which she is ready to stab the man if he finds them.
Fortunately, things don’t go that far, and Nat never notices what her girlfriend was ready to do. Anna discovers that Ruben Ramirez’s appeal has been denied. This means they have only two weeks before finding incontrovertible evidence that compels a judge to give Ramirez another chance before he is executed for a crime he did not commit. They know there is a criminal named Smiley, who witnessed the murder and can confirm Ramirez’s innocence. But he refuses to come forward because he doesn’t want to be charged as an accessory in the victim’s murder. Ramirez knows this, which is why he doesn’t have much home.
A Hitch in the Case Leads Anna to Ask for Max’s Help
Anna assures Ramirez she will find a way to make Smiley talk. True to her promise, she visits Smiley’s house, which has all kinds of snakes lazing around. She gets his attention under the impression of getting him financial aid from the police department, but when she starts talking about murder, Smiley catches on to her. He takes her phone, throws it into a snake’s box, and then threatens her to leave for good. Anna shares this with her team as they stage a protest for Ramirez outside the prison. Max gives a speech about wrongful imprisonment, but instead of getting the focus on Ramirez, the media seems entirely focused on him.
Later, he mentions that Smiley was once incarcerated at Tatwater. They were not friends, but Max crossed paths with him and offered to talk to him about Ramirez’s case. While Anna doesn’t say anything, Ray declines the offer on her behalf. He tells Anna that whatever Max wants in return for this is not worth it, but Anna seems to have made up her mind already. Later, Max intimidates Ray, threatening him with the consequences of his actions. He also notes that Ray has a quite good used car, so he goes out and buys one for himself. At the dealership, the dealer tells him the cars are not for sale to him.
It turns out his wife, Sandy, used to be friends with Max’s wife, Melissa, and knows all about how Max cheated on her and made her life hell. Max turns the tables by revealing that Sandy knew about his affairs because she, too, slept with him. He starts to rile up the man with details, but then the guy’s boss shows up and takes Max away, promising to treat him better and sell him a good car. While Max walks away, he is clearly not done with Sandy’s husband yet. He gets a call from Anna, who wants to meet with him. Anna and Max meet at a park where she confesses she needs his help.
Before agreeing to help her, he kisses her, telling her he had been thinking about it for years. She is rattled, but she still needs his help, so they drive separately to Smiley’s house. Max uses his charm to enter Smiley’s house, who is a little wary of them because of the previous encounter with Anna. Max talks about his spiritual growth in prison, but Smiley doesn’t really care. Max, who feels at home with the snakes, gestures for Anna to leave, and then gets a bit violent with Smiley.
While Anna waits outside, the strange woman in green shows up again, this time, with a camera pointed at Anna. She reveals she warned Amy and Melissa, Max’s mistress and wife, about him, but they didn’t listen and look at what happened to them. Anna wishes to ask her more questions, but she leaves, and then Max shows up with her phone and a recording of Smiley’s confession. When Anna asks what he did to Smiley, he doesn’t reply. In any case, the recording is good enough to get Ramirez out, which had been the aim all along.
Zack’s Situation Worsens as Tom Tries to Help Him
While Anna is busy with her case, Tom sits down with Zack’s therapist. He is frustrated with the fact that there is no visible progress with Zack. He loses it when the therapist starts talking about how they need to talk about Tom’s dead brother. According to Zack, he died in a car accident, but the flashes in Tom’s mind reveal that it was a suicide. In any case, Tom believes they need a new therapist, so he fires her. Later, he tries to take Zack out fishing, reminding him of how, when he was little, he caught a huge fish. Instead, Zack is interested in going to an art show, so Tom decides to join him.
Things seem to go well in the beginning, but then it turns out that Zack came to the show because he knew Sophia would be there. He tries to talk to her but is interrupted by her family, especially her mother, who chides Zack for his awful actions. Tom takes Zack home, where he confronts him about intentionally going there, even when he is legally not allowed to be near her. Zack angrily says that his father’s words make him want to stick his head in the oven, which gives Tom flashbacks of his brother’s suicide. He has to slap himself to get out of that spiral, which is when he notices Zack face down in the pool.
He thinks his son tried to kill himself, but it turns out that Zack was simply using a technique his therapist taught him to calm down. When asked why he cornered Sophia and is so desperate to get her forgiveness, he says he wants to show her he is not who she thinks he is. Tom assures him he is a good person, and then talks about the grief of losing his brother to help Zack understand how he, too, will eventually move on from this difficult part of his life. What assurance Zack gets at the moment is undone when he gets a call from Sophia, who tells him he is a bad person and she is never forgiving him.
He cries at this and then texts AngelX. She agrees to meet him, going against what Anna told her. Meanwhile, Anna, who has just walked out of prison after giving Ramirez the good news, gets a call from Ray. He looked into Naveah’s background, and it turns out her mother was a prison nurse who was fired after having an affair with a high-profile inmate. It was Max, who means Naveah is his daughter, who now has her teeth sunk into both of Anna’s children.
Read More: Cape Fear Episode 3 Recap
