As the 3rd episode of The Girl Before begins, Jane (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) tells Carol (Amanda Drew) she has never seen Edward get angry. Carol asks if she finds it odd that someone can remain in control all the time. She mentions how Edward likes to control everything with his rules while Jane meets with Edward and says they need to talk. As Edward (David Oyelowo) leads Jane inside, Carol tells her that Edward has the hallmarks of Repetition Compulsion. She explains that Edward is acting out the same psychodrama over and over again. Carol believes it is happening in this case and it can sometimes become extreme. When Edward is challenged, he may feel threatened and become violent. Regardless, Jane doesn’t want to believe Edward could do anything like that. Carol tells Jane what controlling men do before asking whether she really feels safe. After the intro, Edward and Jane look at a mask of a god while he tells her about the Isese tradition.

The tradition claims your weak human spirit vanishes when you wear a mask of a god and you become capable of any good or evil act that the god wishes. Jane asks whether he’d mind breaking his rule and looking around the rest of the museum. Edward admits he’d rather not do that. She keeps pushing and pushing until Edward agrees to show her around the museum. As they look around, Jane reveals she found the service cupboard. He is surprised the agent didn’t show her and suspects Emma likely knew about it too. Then, he is forced to admit he was in a relationship with her. He never told Jane because he made it a rule never to discuss his past relationships with others. Edward agrees he should’ve told her because she deserves better from him. She believes she knows little about him and describes him as an enigma. Edward says the same about her. Next, Emma (Jessica Plummer) finishes talking to the judge and DI Clarke (Ian Conningham) says she did well.

John Broomer (Jason Thorpe) explains the judge has reserved judgment because she sees the difficulties they’ll have with this case. The other detective steps into the room to reveal Ray Nelson (Jimmy Walker) was just granted bail. As Emma begins crying, Clarke says they can get the video ID line-up started since it would help to positively identify Nelson. Jane runs into Rachel who doesn’t seem eager to stick around and talk to her. We hear Edward Monkford’s voicemail as Emma tries to call him from home. Jane opens a pregnancy test and uses it. She meets with Mia (Rakhee Thakrar) and admits she doesn’t know what to do now. Although she is partly thrilled, she is also afraid of going through a stillbirth again. Jane isn’t sure whether she’ll tell Edward since she doesn’t know how he’ll handle it. Mia asks if Jane ever wonders whether Edward might’ve had something to do with Emma’s death.

When Jane says she doesn’t know how to ask him, Mia recommends asking someone else. We see another question asking whether there is a correct course of action in any situation. Clarke rushes into the room to tell Emma they’re ready to go. He tells her that the identification will be done with an inspector not connected to the case and the defense barrister. Emma changes her mind by saying she doesn’t want to do it because he told her Ray would plead guilty. She is warned that they’ll likely have to drop all charges against Ray without her cooperation. Clarke says it would be better for everyone if this guy was behind bars. She tells Clarke that she was terrified when she saw Ray outside the courthouse yesterday. The detective tells her she is a very credible witness and he believes the jury will be on her side.

When she agrees to do it, Clarke tells her that seeing him at court might undermine her identification so they shouldn’t say anything about it. After she leaves, she seems paranoid believing someone might be watching her. Jane reads an article about understanding a CTG or cardiotocography trace. She also visits a website fighting to end stillbirths. She picks up her phone and begins calling. She visits the charity to talk to one of its representatives. She wants to know if anything would’ve been different if she had visited the doctor sooner. She went in because she hasn’t felt the baby move in a while. When one of the midwives asked if she had pain, she said she had a few Braxton Hicks. The baby’s CTG trace showed a lower heart rate than normal. When combined with reduced movement, it would’ve been better for Jane to get an immediate ultrasound.

She never had an ultrasound. The representative theorizes that the first midwife never told the second one why she came in. She blames a lack of continuity of care for that. The second midwife treated her for abdominal pain by sending her home with paracetamol. Jane insists she felt Isabel kicking again at home. Although she thought it was normal, the charity’s representative suggests it might’ve been distress. The discussion continues before we see Jane thinking about things in the office. She meets with Edward later and he wonders why she is so quiet. He gives her a gift which he calls an apology for the other day. A flashback shows him giving Emma a necklace. He does the same for Jane who calls the necklace gorgeous. Emma says she is fine although she wishes Edward could be with her more. Jane asks about his bag and learns he has to go to Bristol for an important project.

He offers to move in. Emma is immediately excited about that idea and says he makes her feel like nothing bad will ever happen again. They immediately begin kissing and she jumps into his arms. Edward tells Jane they seem to be getting along well and he’d like to get to know her better. She agrees to let him keep a few things here if he wants. He says they should celebrate. He tells Housekeeper to play them a slow jam. Jane gets upset when she learns that the Housekeeper system has voice control and microphones. He isn’t sure how many microphones there are since Peter handles that. Jane asks how many partners he had. Edward says there were four including him, Edward, Elizabeth, and Paul Ellis. After spending the night, Edward tells Emma he has to go to Bristol even though she tries to get him to stay. He explains the council wants to talk to him about a new town. Emma’s assault convinced him to think about it since he could create a whole town where people feel safe from violence.

She does her best to convince him to call in sick. They go into the shower to have sex. Jane has a nightmare of a baby crying and looking for it in the service room. When she wakes up, she calls for Edward. Emma finds out that Edward changed his mind and is going to go to work anyway. He says he can’t get completely absorbed in this and won’t be back for a while. Moments later, Jane meets with Simon (Ben Hardy) and apologizes for taking the flowers. He’d like to prevent others from going through the things Emma went through and still believes her death is suspicious. He suspects Emma was being manipulated by Edward right from the start. While it was romantic at first, Emma said Edward lost it and terrified her days before she died. Simon accuses Edward of being involved. Despite the investigation, it was an open verdict because Emma could’ve thrown herself down the stairs. He called the useless POS Clarke, but he didn’t care by that point.

He goes on to say Amanda wasn’t talking to Emma at work and Monkford was filling Emma’s head with rubbish before she died. Moments later, we see Saul (Mark Stanley) at Emma’s workplace. Emma finds Amanda crying in the bathroom. She checks on her. Amanda tells her how it went wrong in her face because she works at the same place as her husband. She explains Saul couldn’t keep it in his pants because he has been with Leona (Natasha Atherton) from marketing. He has been going out to the club with Simon to help him get back on his feet as well. Amanda doesn’t think it’ll work because Simon is adamant about getting back with Emma. Still, Emma has no interest in getting back with him. She admits she needs someone equal to her before they agree to get a liquid lunch. After getting drunk, Emma returns to the bathroom where she sends Edward a picture of a tattoo on a girl’s butt pretending it is her.

When he asks why she did it, Emma says she wanted to wind him up. He responds that she has succeeded. Emma laughs as she leaves the bathroom. Later that night, Edward rushes home and demands to see Emma’s tattoo. When he finds out it was her friend Amanda, he complains that he canceled a meeting with the planning committee for this. Edward accuses her of spoiling things. He knows she is drunk. Emma wants to have fun so she asks Housekeeper to play something sexy. He finds the plate she hid behind the pillow and asks if she is mocking him. Emma says no but she needed him and he wasn’t there. They get into an argument as Edward reminds her she agreed to live by his rules. Once she says life doesn’t work like that, Edward sternly tells her to make it work like that. Emma tells him to stop telling her what to do.

Edward gets angrier and throws the wine bottle against the wall causing Emma to scream. He says she wouldn’t do this before correcting himself and saying you wouldn’t do this. She runs up the stairs before we see another question about getting upset when things don’t go as planned. At work, Amanda approaches Emma to find out how things are going. Amanda complains about having to see Leona every day at work. She gets a call from the police who want to meet her. She agrees to come down there around lunch. Edward gets mad and destroys his model city as Peter (Ben Addis) watches from behind. Jane meets with the charity worker who reminds her it is her meeting so she can delay it if necessary. Once they go inside, the charity worker alleges Jane’s pregnancy was mishandled due to a lack of continuity in care. Dr. Green (Dan Li) explains they’ve been through the summary together and the cause of death is unexplained.

Jane gets upset and again says she came in with reduced moment instead of abdominal pain. They believe Jane wants an apology and acknowledgment of everything they went through above all else. Jane says Isabel died, but she should’ve been here right now. When Green says he noted the discrepancy, Jane asks why he didn’t say. He tells her he didn’t want to add to her distress since it might not have made a difference to Isabel’s outcome anyway. Jane is confident it would’ve changed the way she feels because she has been blaming herself for Isabel’s death. She believes Dr. Green could’ve put an end to that line of questioning. Emma goes to the station where she meets James Clarke and his partner. She is taken to a private room and introduced to Detective Chief Inspector Shapton. They sit down before she is told that the prosecution and defense have to share information before they go to trial to prevent cases from going to court unnecessarily.

Ray is claiming misidentification. The detectives finally checked the metadata of the video which confirms it was recorded five days before the alleged assault. Nelson has an alibi for that day so Emma has not been telling the truth about the assault. She is forced to admit that Ray never forced her to have oral sex with him. She is charged for lying about the crime. When Clarke asks why she would lie about Ray all this time, Emma says it was because they asked her about it in front of Simon. She is reminded that she skipped many opportunities to tell them the truth, but never did. She begins screaming and remains adamant that she was raped. She is told she’ll have a duty solicitor since she is going to be arrested now. Jane somehow tracks down James Clarke and asks him about the alleged assault. He admits he thought it could be Nelson and Emma confirmed it.

Emma refused to give them anything despite James putting his neck on the line for her. Jane wonders if it had something to do with her being terrified. As for Emma’s death, DS Willan was responsible for investigating it because Clarke had retired by then due to Emma’s case. Then, Jane learns that Emma had made allegations about Simon Wakefield being abusive. Sami Ahmad (Fayez Bakhsh) is picked to be Emma’s solicitor. He meets with her at the jail and says he has met women who felt pressured into making and withdrawing rape accusations. He admits it would help if she was afraid to tell someone. She says she was afraid to tell Simon. Sami explains it isn’t enough to be afraid of someone’s normal reaction. Instead, they need to be violent, coercive, controlling, or something like that.

Nothing would happen to Simon without evidence, but it would help Emma’s case. James says he has been around a lot of criminals and Simon never struck him as the abusive type. He won’t tell Jane whether Emma’s rapist was ever found. As for her death, it looked like an accident or suicide. Jane accuses him of using Emma to help convict his guy on the other counts. Jane says she deserved better because no one protected her before she died. Jane immediately returns to Carol to find out if she has proof that Edward was responsible for Emma’s death. She needs to know because Edward is going to be the father of her baby and she must decide whether to keep it. Carol doesn’t want to talk about any of that and only wants to hear about Jane’s feelings. Jane says she feels like having the baby would be like betraying Isabel. Carol believes it is normal and suspects Jane might be investigating Emma’s death because she still hasn’t processed her feelings about Isabel’s death yet.

Jane believes the police failed her in some way. She thinks there was more to it than just the false accusation too. Carol says there was more to it. Jane goes on to say everyone let Emma down, including her partners, friends, and Carol who agrees. As for Edward being a threat, Emma asked her the same question. Carol didn’t have a definitive answer for her either. Carol wonders if Jane would want to risk it right now since it would be safer to just walk away. Next, Jane tracks down Amanda who confirms she was good friends with Emma until Emma changed after she got together with Edward. She reveals they had an argument just before Emma died and she went off on Emma. It seems silly now. When asked about the business with the police, Amanda says she doesn’t want to get into that and tries to leave. Later, the house goes haywire on Emma who can’t stop it. It eventually does before she curses the house. Jane finishes taking a bath and touches herself through the mirror before the house’s music system turns on unexpectedly.

She manages to stop it quickly. In the morning, a guy on a bike throws paint on Emma and says this is what she gets for lying. She quickly calls Clarke to tell him about it, but he says the circumstances have changed so she shouldn’t be calling that number. After the call ends, Emma struggles to clean up the paint. Jane goes to the station to talk to Willan. Jane says she lives at 1 Folgate Street and wants to know where there were any allegations against Edward Monkford. When Jane tells her the circumstances, Willan says she can set her mind at rest because Edward has an alibi. As for the alibi, Willan believes Edward was with Paul Creed at the time of the accident. Later, Edward calls Jane at home and asks how everything is going. He tells her he won’t be coming back for a while and why. When the call ends, Jane looks at her wall which is now covered with evidence, pictures, and notes.

 

The Girl Before Review

What in God’s name were they thinking when they decided to create this monstrosity and actually stream it on HBO Max? It is surprising to see some of the awful shows being added to HBO Max in the past few months and this takes the cake. The BBC airs some of the best shows in the world so it is jaw-droppingly baffling that this one managed to fly under the radar. The Girl Before should’ve been a one or two-episode miniseries less than 50 minutes each because the story and pacing are painful. Better yet, it should’ve never been created at all.

Until this episode, I could tolerate the performers, but Jessica Plummer just seemed too immature to add authenticity to the rape revelation scenes. Other than those scenes that needed to be intense and dramatic, the actors and actresses did okay with the wafer-thin characters they were given. The episode really stretched reality to the point of breaking and sucking everyone into the Twilight Zone. Jane and Emma are not the smartest characters in the world since they’ve decided to give up many of their freedoms to live in a house for free.

Yet, they’ve fallen in love with the home’s designer and their enslaver in what feels like a few days. Now, Jane has become a super sleuth who tracked down DI Clarke and Amanda without any difficulty. These things are unbelievable and it feels like they’re trying to rush the finale because they wasted two prior episodes doing nothing. Not to mention, it would be insanely foolish for Jane to push a man who could be a violent psychopath. It seems Carol is the only sane, realistic character in the entire show.

Anyone who knows anything about the book, what they’ve changed, and modern policies will have a good idea of what is coming in the upcoming finale and it won’t be clever, unique, or worthwhile. Truthfully, the best thing that could happen to The Girl Before would be for the show and every scrap of its existence to be completely scrubbed from the modern world so we’ll never remember it even existed. Zap our memories while you’re at it. The good news is that it easily knocks out many competitors for the worst show of 2021.

The episode was excruciatingly dull so I already dread the idea of watching and recapping the finale. Episode three deserves a 3.5 out of 10. Recaps of The Girl Before can be found on Reel Mockery here.