Sumith Prasad
The seventh and final episode of Apple TV+’s crime drama series ‘Lady in the Lake,’ titled ‘My Story,’ unveils the mystery behind Cleo Johnson’s supposed murder. The bartender shows up before Maddie Schwartz to convince the journalist to stop writing about her so that she can make the world believe that she is dead. Maddie’s relationship with Ferdie Platt takes a turn when the latter decides to leave his job to end up together with her. Reggie Robinson makes a life-altering sacrifice that sets Cleo free from the clutches of the law. As the show concludes, Cleo and Maddie start new chapters of their lives, embracing themselves more than others! SPOILERS AHEAD.
Lady in the Lake Episode 7 Recap: How is Cleo Johnson Alive?
‘My Story’ begins with Cleo Johnson, who is believed to have been murdered and found dead inside the fountain in Druid Hill Park, appearing before Maddie. The bartender lets the journalist know that she staged her death/murder with the help of Reggie, who was supposed to kill her on behalf of Shell Gordon. By the time the businessman’s right-hand man meets Cleo, her best friend, Dora Carter, dies of a drug overdose. The death completely changes Reggie, as he starts to have suicidal thoughts. He sets out to kill Cleo to save his life from Gordon, which is necessary for him to lead a life with his girlfriend. When he realizes that the latter is dead, he embraces death over survival.
As a man who accepts death, Reggie does not need to fear Gordon killing him, follow the businessman’s orders, and kill Cleo. This realization makes him take the latter to Dora’s dead body rather than kill her. Reggie even asks her to kill him so that he can join his girlfriend in death and allow the bartender to escape with the money she won by betting. Meanwhile, Cleo understands the nuances of the predicament. She realizes that she cannot continue to exist as herself since Gordon can easily find someone else to kill her if Reggie fails to do so. That’s when she perceives that she can use her best friend’s dead body to stage her death.
Cleo then teams up with Reggie to stage her murder. Rather than dumping Dora’s dead body in the lake, he hides her inside the fountain so that the authorities won’t lay their hands on the corpse soon enough and identify her as the singer. Cleo waits till the body decomposes enough to ensure that nobody would be able to recognize the corpse as her best friend. Once the waiting time is over, she sets out to convince Gordon that she is dead for good. The bartender writes a letter to Maddie’s newspaper, The Baltimore Star, about the fountain’s bulbs for Dora’s body to get discovered. Once that happens and the corpse is identified as Cleo, Gordon stops worrying about the bartender.
Who is Seth’s Father? Why Does He Destroy Maddie’s Diary?
One of the major reasons behind Seth’s decision to stay away from his mother, Maddie, concerns his real father’s identity. From the journalist’s diary entries, he has already discovered that Milton is not his father. The young boy’s father is seemingly Alan Durst, Maddie’s teenage sweetheart and the son of the man who impregnated her first. Right after the journalist married Milton, she attended a party and met Alan, who talked to her about her affair with his father. Their conversation about highly implosive secrets made them vulnerable enough for both of them to seek comfort and distraction in sex.
Seth was most likely conceived during this sexual encounter, which explains the similarity between the boy and his mother’s ex-boyfriend. The sixth episode even indicates that he has no doubts regarding his father’s identity. However, Seth does not want the biological truth to change who he considers to be his father. In his eyes, Milton is and will always be his dad. As far as the boy is concerned, Milton has tried his best to keep their family together, while Maddie has abandoned him and pursued her aspirations selfishly. Seth wants to repay Milton by being there for the latter as his son. He does not want his mother’s diary to reveal the truth to the world and eliminate his relationship with Milton.
What Happens to Shell Gordon?
After saving herself from death, Cleo decides to destroy Shell Gordon, the man who wanted her dead. After the arrest of her husband, Slappy Johnson, she thinks of surrendering before the police to save the former. However, before turning herself in to the law, she wants the threat of Gordon eliminated for good. She cannot let the highly influential businessman destroy the lives of Reggie and her loved ones after she resurfaces from death. To ensure the same, she wants to bring him down with herself. She sneaks into his hotel with her son’s help and collects enough “dirty books” that would incriminate him.
After destroying the rest of the books, Cleo takes the evidence to Maddie and gives her a better story to write. The bartender asks the journalist to use the books to unravel Gordon’s empire, which was built using his illegal betting schemes. Maddie’s focus shifts to the “bigger” case, which will also help Cleo immensely. She writes about Gordon’s crimes and explains why such a potent businessman wanted a mere bartender dead in her book titled ‘Lady in the Lake.’ While the story guarantees the businessman’s arrest, Maddie attains stardom as a newly published author, making a name for herself by achieving individuality and recognition, the dream that motivates her to leave her husband.
Lady in the Lake Ending: Why Does Reggie Confess to Killing Cleo? What Happens to Her?
After collecting necessary evidence against Shell Gordon, Cleo sets out to turn herself in to the police, only for Reggie to stop her. He asks her to escape and eventually confesses to “killing” Cleo to the police. Reggie does not want the bartender to end up in prison, especially when she has a family to look after. She has a son and a husband who needs her. After Dora’s death, Reggie has nobody to return to. He does not want to see her loved ones struggling with her predicament. Furthermore, he must be immersed in the guilt of dragging Cleo to a life-threatening situation.
Gordon orders Cleo’s death only because she can name him as the person behind the assassination attempt on Myrtle Summer. The bartender gets involved in the crime because of Reggie, who substitutes her in his place. Since he spends his time with Tessie Durst right before she is murdered, he is scared of being part of another crime, which convinces him to send Cleo to the businessman’s men to kill the senator. If he had gone to assassinate the politician himself, Cleo wouldn’t have been involved in the mess, and Gordon wouldn’t have wanted her dead. Thus, Reggie confesses to killing Cleo to save her.
Because of Reggie’s kindness, Cleo reunites with Slappy and her son, Teddy. After swapping her identity with her late best friend, she goes to Paris, France, where she lives as Dora Carter with her loved ones. Since Dora is a singer, she also finds a job as a performer at a nightclub similar to The Pharaoh. When Cleo and Dora first appeared in Gordon’s nightclub, they wanted to sing as a duo. The bartender then chickened out due to her nervousness. She then always remained behind the scenes while Dora became an established singer.
Cleo’s transformation into a singer reveals how she killed her traits and embraced the characteristics of her best friend. As Dora, she is no longer nervous about performing in front of an audience. She knows that she cannot stop herself from doing things that are necessary for her and her loved ones’ survival.
Why Do Maddie Schwartz and Ferdie Platt Break Up?
After losing his job as a police officer, Ferdie Platt tells Maddie that he values his relationship with her more than his uniform. Even though he had been involved with several women before, he never felt like forming a committed relationship with them. His feelings change when he falls in love with Maddie, and he even expects her to move in with him. However, the journalist is not ready to become just another wife in their highly patriarchal and oppressive society. The years she spent as “Mrs. Schwartz” were nothing but overwhelming and suffocating for her. Her identity was limited to the status of her husband, and her ambitions were killed by her duties as a traditional wife.
Maddie does not want to return to the same life she hated for years. After suffering and tolerating a lot at her workplace, she has finally made a name for herself as a journalist. She cannot just throw away the same by becoming Platt’s wife. The woman now knows that she is not suitable for a domestic life, which is what the former police officer wants. By proposing to elope to the state of Virginia, Platt is introducing a journey that ends in just a marriage. Maddie wants more than their married life to be with him. She needs the world to know her for the work she does. She hasn’t been tolerating and fighting her misogynistic colleagues just to disappear from Baltimore with Platt.
Meanwhile, Platt is not ready to accept the limited space Maddie is allotting to him in her life. He proposes a life together with her after sacrificing a detective job as an African American police officer, especially during a time when his community is being targeted immensely. He is expecting the journalist to make adjustments like him for the sake of their togetherness. When all Maddie offers is her permission to sneak into her house to continue having sex with her, he decides that it is time for them to part. The former cop is looking for a partner who can be with him irrespective of time and place rather than a woman to satisfy his sexual needs. When he realizes that Maddie cannot be the former, he understands that it is time for him to break up with her.
Read More: Lady in the Lake: Is the Apple TV+ Show Inspired by True Events?
