As the second episode of Pieces of Her begins, we see Andy curled up in a wood structure worrying that he is coming back. In the present, Andy Oliver (Bella Heathcote) swerves to stay on the road. Moments later, Andy stops at a gas station to pick up an energy drink, chips, and a road map of Georgia. She freaks out and has difficulty paying for her items. He sees blood on her hand. When Andy goes outside, she washes her hands using the water in the windshield wiper cleaner. The cashier walks over to the door to watch her. She gets into her truck and pulls out the map. She quickly pinpoints Carrollton. She drives there and arrives the next day before she asks a woman how to get to Get-Em-Go. The pedestrian doesn’t know what she is talking about though. The radio says something about a Democrat who wants to tackle climate change.
The radio continues saying Shepard doesn’t carry the same kind of baggage that Hillary Clinton did. It also discusses Jasper Queller while Andy drives through the town in hopes of finding the storage facility. She stops at a library and gets the directions by using one of the computers there. She also finds that it is nearly 20 hours from the library to Camden, Maine. Andy looks at the website for the Belle Isle Sun to see if there is anything about the invader’s death, but she finds nothing. She remembers her mother saying something about Paula Koontz when she was attacked. When she searches that name, she finds several social media accounts and something about an intelligence analyst. Meanwhile, Laura Oliver (Toni Collette) sits down with Detective Wilson (Zahra Newman) and Shooltz (Josef Ber).
She claims Andy has gone to see some friends in Atlanta. When asked about the police call last night, Laura says she woke up and thought she saw someone outside so she called. She is seeing guns everywhere and that caused her to say that man was armed. Shooltz agrees it is understandable after what she went through. At Wilson’s request, Laura begins telling them about what happened yesterday including going to lunch with her daughter. When Betsy and her daughter came over, there were a bunch of gunshots suddenly. She remembers seeing a lot of blood and that young man Jonah Helsinger (Harry Greenwood). Since she was so worried about Andy, she just reacted. Wilson finds it weird that she wasn’t hiding under a table like everyone else. She insists you’d do anything to protect your child.
Before they leave, Shooltz spots her keys and offers to have a couple of officers drop it off since it is still at the diner. She says that would be wonderful. She also asks Schooltz if he could have the reporters move down the block to avoid bothering her neighbors. Once Laura is alone, she calls Gordon (Omari Hardwick) to tell him that Andy is just fine. She explains that Andy is someplace safe before asking Gordon if he can come over. Andy speaks to a worker at the library to get what she printed. The woman tells her Maine’s slogan which is “The Way Life Should Be”. Andy doesn’t say anything. As she walks toward the door, she sees a man in a hoody looking into her truck’s window. She begins freaking out and goes out the backdoor. She runs through a parking lot before finally seeing the storage facility in front of her.
She opens the storage locker and funds a car inside. Once she shuts the storage door, she gets into the station wagon and begins looking around. She finds a registration for the vehicle made out to Daniela Cooper from Cranston, Rhode Island. Then, she finds a handgun wrapped in a shirt or something similar. In the trunk, she finds an old suitcase that is filled with money. She also finds a handful of driver’s licenses with her mother’s picture and different names on them. When she finds pictures, she remembers giving her mother a bath when she was ill. While bathing her mother, Andy asks about one of Laura’s scars. Laura claims she got it when riding a bike and it went out from under her. They talk about Andy playing volleyball. Laura asks her not to make her laugh because it hurts.
Andy gets in the station wagon and looks at the picture of the girl. When Gordon arrives at Laura’s house, he learns that Andy is on her way to Maine. Laura tells him about the man who broke into their house last night and tried to hurt her. She explains that they know where she is now so it isn’t safe for Andy to be around here now. Laura takes him to the room where the invader is being held captive. Gordon wants to call 911, but Laura says they don’t have time for that. The man is supposed to meet someone outside Macon at three to get paid. She wants to take him there to see who shows up and possibly get a picture of the license plate before taking him to the hospital. Gordon has no interest in doing this though.
She reminds him that he always knew someone could come after her. He thinks they should call the feds, but Laura argues they need to see who he is trying to meet. Although she tried so hard to keep Gordon and Andy out of this, they’re not going to stop and they will go after Andy. Laura wants to do something so Andy won’t have to continue looking over her shoulder for the rest of her life. Gordon relents and helps Laura take the hostage to the meeting point. Laura turns off Gordon’s music. When Laura turns it off, Gordon tells her they’re not married anymore and turns it back on. Andy goes to a motel where she asks for a room facing the parking lot. She signs into the motel using a different name. She moves into the room moments later. Then, Laura has to get into the backseat because the man begins having a seizure.
When he stops, Laura tries to get the number for the man who sent him. He tells Laura that the man in question is going to kill her. Once he dies, she gets out of the car and begins screaming. After she returns to the car, Gordon asks why she never told him how bad it was, but she doesn’t think it’d make a difference. Laura reveals it is just one person who wants to hurt her. She wants to find a way to reach him to make this stop. Gordon wants to drop her off in Pembroke and bury the man on his own. He insists that this never happened. As Laura rides in a car, she remembers something happening in her past. When she gets back home, Charlie Bass (Gil Birmingham) helps her keep the media away. They sit down on the front step as Charlie reveals he has been waiting an hour and a half for her.
She says Gordon took her to physical therapy but insists they’re not back together or anything like that. He was in the Keys and came straight back when he heard the news. Charlie doesn’t like the idea of losing her. Laura tells him that Andy is visiting friends. He offers to help her get away from all this, but she insists she is okay. They agree to talk again tomorrow. Later that night, Laura tries to clean up the blood in her home. While cleaning up the blood, she remembers a murder during the International Economic Forum. Andy decides to leave her motel room. She grabs the gun and looks at the Blue Bar & Grill behind her. She walks across the street and enters the bar where she orders some fries and alcohol.
As she drinks, she sees a report on television about herself and her mother. A woman nearby recognizes her and begins asking her questions so Andy asks if she can get the fries to go. The woman tries to get a man to say it is the same woman, but he won’t play her game. Andy thanks him before saying it’d be bad to be that girl and be frozen with fear while your mom had to save you. She asks whether he has ever known someone he thought he knew but he ended up being totally wrong. He felt that way about Santa Claus. She offers to buy him a drink although he wants to leave. She eventually convinces him to stay for one more drink. He introduces himself as Jack. Andy begins flirty with him. He tells her about the bet he had with his buddy in boot camp about who’d win the marksman prize.
He eventually wrecked his bike and hurt his knee. His group went to Iraq and he pushed paper elsewhere. She asks him to teach her how to handle a gun. Jack asks whether she is expecting trouble and he isn’t eager to help. She pleads with him to teach her to shoot. They go outside where Jack tries to teach Andy how to shoot her handgun. Laura hears something outside so she gets up and looks through the window. She walks outside and knocks on the window to watch up the news journalist. She wants to make a statement, but they have to air the whole thing without any edits.
She agrees to do an interview for the Today Show tomorrow because it would be national and everyone would see it. Andy walks Jack back to his truck before she thanks him for helping her. He reminds her not to lock her knees or elbows. The rabbit’s foot in his car causes Andy to remember something. She freaks out and begins heading back to the motel room as quickly as possible. When she gets back to the room, she locks the door and props a chair in front of it to prevent anyone from getting in. She loads the gun and waits on the edge of the bed for someone to enter.
Pieces Of Her Review
While there is always a slim chance that Pieces of Her is going to right the ship, this episode was not good in the least. I genuinely hate being so critical of a series like this, but the episode was so bad in so many ways. The first was much better and at least felt competent compared to the second. The episode quality just deteriorated as it went on because not much of interest happened, Andy’s Australian accent kept popping out at times, and the gun loading sound effects were painfully bad.
If I was going to watch this, I’d likely do so for David Wenham. Unfortunately, he hasn’t even been in it more than a few seconds so far. Regardless, it is quickly turning into a major disappointment that doesn’t stray too far from Netflix’s other shows right now. The episode scores a 5 out of 10. Recaps of Pieces of Her can be found on Reel Mockery here. Learn how to support the Reel Mockery project by following this link.
Jay Skelton is a fan of all television shows and movies. He tries his best to keep up with the latest foreign television shows and movies. Jay loves skinny dipping in the dark too.
