As the second episode of For Her Sins begins, Emily (Rachel Shenton) talks about finally finding her and describing her as plain. There was someone else trapped under a life she didn’t choose. Then, viewers see Laura (Jo Joyner) partying with Tom (Ansu Kabia) and Emily. Liam Stevens (Gerard Miller) seems to be watching them from a distance. Emily follows Tom and Laura back to the motel. Once Laura and Tom pass out on the bed, Emily begins undressing them. After posing them, she takes pictures of them. In the morning, she uses Laura’s credit card to settle both rooms. Rob (Duncan Pow) comes back with Elliot and Eliza (Romi Hyland-Rylands).

He tries to call Laura. Emily rolls her eyes when she hears the phone ringing. She listens to the voicemail message before deleting it. Then, she puts Laura’s stuff back. Emily tries to wake Laura because she wouldn’t want to be there when Tom wakes up. Laura freaks out and questions what she has done. Emily says there is no proof that they did anything, but Laura says there was a condom wrapper on the side not realizing Emily put it there. Laura wonders if someone spiked her drink because she hasn’t blacked out before. Emily tells the receptionist that she might’ve left her bracelet in the room.

She gives the woman her number in case anyone from housekeeping finds it. Emily actually gives them Rob’s number. Emily tells Laura that she must’ve paid for everything last night. Laura remembers Eliza’s behavioral meeting and worries that she is going to be late so she rushes home. She makes it home and apologizes to Rob. He is upset because he looked like an idiot trying to cover for her. Laura says she has too much to drink and was a mess this morning. She claims she spent the night at Emily’s after passing out. Rob says they want to reschedule, but they’ll have to wait until he is back. He asks if this is what it is going to be like when she is back at the office and questions whether Tom was there.

Laura reminds him that the whole firm was there before getting a text from Tom asking her to call him. They argue until Eliza hits her daddy. Laura screams at her and tells her to go to her room. Rob doesn’t like the way Laura handled it. Emily says you pretend you’re so in control of your life even though you don’t choose your parents. Later, Rob gets Laura something for her hangover. Laura says she is angry at herself if that makes him feel any better about it. She insists she loves all this and it is the reason she gets up in the morning. They hug, but Laura can’t keep thinking about what might’ve happened with Tom. The same happens when they start making out on the bed.

Liam visits Emily. He wants to help her, but he doesn’t know what she is up to. Liam accuses her of spiking their drinks. When he asks why the story is so important to her, Emily says people need to know the truth. Everything she has told him about Laura so far checks out. He tried contacting her parents only to find out that they’re both dead. Emily says she never trusted journalists so he won’t be able to speak to her. Liam says she needs to give him more than just her version of events. Emily suggests she can get Laura to talk to him. If this is going to work, Emily needs to trust Liam. He says there can be no more dodgy stuff. Rob and Laura discuss getting takeaway for dinner. Laura notices that Eliza is playing with the baby.

Rob believes this phase with Eliza will pass. Laura says they can put the kids to bed early and have a nice dinner. Emily arrives to see if Laura is ready for the massages and facials. Laura doesn’t remember booking the spa trip last night. Laura asks if they can do it later because she wants to spend time with Rob before he flies out. Emily shows her the photo of her at the motel and says she doesn’t think it can wait. She reveals that Tom sent it to her. While Laura tells Tom, Emily takes pictures of documents sitting on the table. Laura promises to be as quick as she can. Laura thinks about incidents from the past. Emily tries to find a way to help her relax, but Laura doesn’t think she can knowing that Tom has photos of her.

Emily says she’ll bring her out an afternoon tea. As they have tea, Emily recommends inviting Tom over to find out what happened and try to move on. She doesn’t think Laura should come clean unless she wants her kids to spend every other Christmas at someone else’s house. Laura worries that Rob will find out another way, but Emily doubts that’ll happen. Emily insists that Rob never has to know. Laura thinks she should probably go so Emily tries to change her mind. Emily reminds her that she told her about her brother’s death last night. She gets mad and storms away from the table.

Emily goes to the bathroom where she breaks the mirror with her first. Laura arrives and finds out what is going on. Emily says she is just very upset about her brother. Laura apologizes and asks about her brother. Emily says she was always told to look after him. Laura gets a call from Rob and promptly ignores it. Emily thinks she should be in the ground instead of her brother. Laura urges her not to say stuff like that. She reminds Emily that there are many people who love her. Emily tells her she should get back to Rob, but Laura isn’t going to leave her like that. Laura says she can come home with her. Rob gets a call from the hotel about the bracelet.

Once Laura and Emily get back, Rob confronts Laura about the bracelet at the motel. When he finds out Emily is staying, he says it is the least they can do after Laura crashed at her place last night. Emily eavesdrops from the stairs as Rob asks Laura about the call from the hotel. He has been wondering why she’d lie about something like that. Laura says she was with Emily and she is embarrassed. Rob wants Laura to be honest with her. Eliza comes out and sits with Emily. She takes Eliza back to bed. Eliza says she lied about divorces. Emily says it wasn’t about her at all since it was about mommy and daddy. Eliza admits it is terrifying when her mommy shouts. Emily tells her she can always talk to her if she gets worried about her mom’s temperature.

Emily says she gets it because she used to get shouted at a lot. She offers to tell mommy to come up and tuck her in. Emily checks on Laura and learns Rob has to pack for his trip tomorrow. She offers to talk to Rob and say it was her idea to crash at the hotel. Laura doesn’t understand how they got Rob’s number. Emily doesn’t mind if Laura wants to throw her under the bus. She says Laura has an amazing life here so she’d hate to see her throw it away for a moment of madness. Before Emily goes to bed, she tells Laura that the kids are down for the count. In the morning, Laura argues with Eliza until Emily comes down and interrupts. Laura continues arguing with Eliza before telling Emily that Rob left without saying goodbye.

Eliza yells for her mother to stop shouting at her. Emily tries to calm them and reminds Laura that none of this is Eliza’s fault. When Laura tries to hug her daughter, Eliza hides behind Emily and refuses to let her get close. Emily goes to Rob’s workplace to talk to him. She is worried that Laura won’t be able to cope if Rob leaves without putting things right. She thinks Rob needs to go home. While speaking to someone, Emily says she built up an image of a woman she hated. After they spent more time together, Emily began wondering if she got it wrong. Tom visits Laura at home. He is glad she invited him over because he wanted to talk to her about the other night.

Neither admits they don’t know what happened. Tom would hate to think she believes he took advantage of her. When she got upset about Jamie, he was just trying to comfort her. He insists he didn’t use that to get her in bed. Tom insists he didn’t know about sending photos of her to Emily. He says he is deleting them now. Then, Tom admits he wants to try again. Laura asks him not to do that because their relationship is in the past. Rob comes home and catches them together. He immediately expects the worst and questions whether Laura slept with him. Laura says she doesn’t know because she can’t remember. Rob curses her and leaves. Laura asks Rob to leave although he doesn’t want to leave her like this.

Later, Laura speaks to Emily on the phone and tells her what happened. Laura also reveals that the new nanny starts tomorrow. After the call, Emily calls the nanny and tries to convince her not to take the job. Laura finds Florence waiting for her mother. Isla comes over and reveals that she is Florence’s mom. Laura is surprised to learn that Emily was their nanny until she quit without giving notice.

 

For Her Sins Review

The second episode of For Her Sins follows in line with the previous episode. The performances are decent and the cinematography is good. By all accounts, the series is well made so it certainly gets the basics right. The issue is the story and the many coincidences that bring Emily’s plan together.

The characters would have to be robots to react the way Emily would want them to ten times out of ten. As a result, viewers will have to bend reality a lot to fully accept and enjoy what For Her Sins is trying to do. Furthermore, there is very little original content in the formulaic series so most viewers have seen this several times before.

Truthfully, the cast deserved a better script and shouldn’t take the blame for the series being so underwhelming. However, casual viewers who haven’t watched many Channel 5 dramas may enjoy it more than others. The second episode scores a 5 out of 10. Recaps of For Her Sins can be found on Reel Mockery here.

Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising on Reel Mockery here.