As the 5th episode begins, Rex (Benjamin Levy Aguilar) forces Anna (Kristen Bell) into her house. He notices the picture of her family and immediately asks about her husband who Anna claims will be returning home soon. Rex makes her text her husband to tell him she needs something from the store. When she sends the message asking for bread, Douglas (Michael Ealy) responds by saying this is weird and he is concerned about her. Rex begins questioning why her husband would say something like that. He gets mad when Anna says her husband knows she doesn’t eat carbs. She quickly texts Douglas again saying she was just craving bread in hopes of fixing it. That continues until Douglas gives her a thumbs up emoji. Rex grabs Anna’s phone before pushing her down on the couch and saying he wants answers. He wants to know if she is working with Lisa and whether they’re trying to cut him out.

Rex is worried because Anna lives right across the street from Lisa who he calls Chastity. He begins looking around and calling her name although she isn’t in Anna’s house. Anna insists Lisa is dead. Rex freaks out when Detective Lane (Christina Anthony) and a police officer show up outside, but Anna says she didn’t call the police on him. He pushes her into the kitchen where he grabs a knife while demanding she tells them she never saw him. After he sees a picture of Elizabeth (Appy Pratt) on the fridge, he threatens to kill her if Anna says anything about it. Anna reveals she has already lost everything so there is nothing he can take that she hasn’t already lost. As Detective Lane knocks on the door, Rex says he just wants answers and Anna repeats that. After the intro, Anna opens the door and agrees to let Detective Lane and Walters come inside.

Detective Lane asks for a cup of coffee so Anna takes them into the kitchen where Rex is hiding in the cupboard. While Anna makes the coffee, Lane insinuates Anna has become infatuated with her neighbor Neil (Tom Riley). Then, Detective Lane asks for sugar so Anna has to go into the cupboard with Rex. Nevertheless, she manages to retrieve the sugar without letting them know about Rex. When she sits back down, she learns that Neil filed a restraining order against her. Detective Lane admits she is lucky Neil didn’t press charges. Anna says she wasn’t thinking when she went into his house and knows she shouldn’t have done it. The police officer asks about the chicken casserole and requests a piece. Anna puts it in the microwave for him.

While they wait for it to warm up, the officer gets a call about another case so he has to leave. Anna pulls out the casserole and burns her hands again. She uses a rag to avoid it. Before they leave, Detective Lane instructs Anna to stay out of their business. Anna looks across the road and sees Carol (Brenda Koo) outside. Back inside, Anna fills up two wine glasses while telling Rex she is trying to figure out whether she is crazy or not. She wants to see if Rex can help her figure this out. They start by questioning whether Lisa’s real name is Chastity although Rex confesses she might’ve lied about that too. While Anna claims she saw Lisa with her throat slit, Rex says she contacted him. He goes on to say they were supposed to meet up. He looks through the window before suggesting Lisa faked the whole thing. Anna isn’t sure about that, but Rex thinks she faked her death so she can keep all of Neil’s money.

Rex explains they were ripping off Neil and Lisa might’ve found a way to do it without him. Anna wants to hear it all. Rex starts by saying he met Lisa at work which is the strip club where he danced. We see Rex dancing in the club before he says Lisa talked to him after work one night. She told him about her boyfriend and admitted she likes them rich. Lisa told the men that he was dying of a rare blood cancer and there was an experimental treatment that could save his life. The only problem is that it isn’t covered by insurance. He opened a bank account in his name although Lisa is the only one who knew the PIN. Once they got the money, Lisa started fighting with the men for no reason until they decided to kick her to the curb. They did it over and over with Lisa always finding some poor sucker in the obituaries to rip off.

Before long, they turn their attention to Neil. Lisa pretends to be broken down in the parking lot to get his attention. As Neil puts the booster cables on her battery, Lisa begins crying and says she’d normally call her husband for this, but he died. Neil obviously knows how she feels since he lost his wife recently too. Once he gets her vehicle started, Lisa asks for his number so they can chat since she doesn’t know anyone who knows what this is like. Neil says yes. Rex admits this one was complicated from the start because Neil had a kid and he never signed up to hurt a kid. When he said he wanted out, Lisa reminded him it was his name on the bank account so it could be pinned on him easily. After that, there was radio silence until he got a message from Lisa tonight. Anna reads the message from Lisa apologizing for ghosting him while claiming she had a family emergency. Rex says he is a fool and she could be anywhere now. Anna says he isn’t because Lisa was just using him.

Anna knows she was used too. A vehicle pulls up outside leading them to believe it is Anna’s husband. Before Anna goes outside, she tells Rex it is her ex-husband so he won’t come inside. Douglas asks what is going on and wonders whether something is wrong. Anna promises she is fine. She doesn’t know what she was thinking and blames it on old habits. When she says she just wanted to see a friendly face, Douglas says he always wanted to look intimidating. She tells him his face is perfect. Douglas hands her the bag of bread and reveals he also got her Red Vines because he knows how much she likes them. She admits it was good to see him again before their conversation ends. She turns around and notices the light upstairs is turned on. Anna goes upstairs and finds Rex in her daughter’s room. He claims he heard something up there and decided to see what was going on. He apologizes, admits he shouldn’t have come up there, and says he’d never hurt her kid.

Anna says Elizabeth used to collect these stuffed animals. She always wanted the turtle, but they could never find it. Rex bets she was a great mom. In a flashback, Anna tells Douglas he is supposed to take his daughter to work today. He is busy today so he doesn’t want to take her. He relents when Anna keeps pushing and pushing. In the present, Anna says it would’ve been her birthday on Wednesday and it was all her fault. She asks him to leave before leaning in to kiss him in front of the door. She admits she hasn’t been touched in such a long time. Carol sees them making out while taking out her trash. They end up having sex all over the house. After they finish and go to sleep, we see a dog howling next to Lisa’s body and severed hand.

 

The Woman In The House Across The Street From The Girl In The Window Review

The episode delivered some interesting insights into Lisa and her scam operation with Rex. The couple met at the strip club where Rex stripped before Lisa offered him an opportunity to make money ripping off wealthy men. Their scheme proved successful until they decided to target Neil. Now, Lisa is dead and Anna is trying to find out who did it.

The sex scenes were over-the-top and a bit longwinded since they really didn’t add much to the story. The episode was decent because it revealed a lot of important details. Benjamin Aguilar seemed a bit odd at first but calmed down midway through the episode.

While I don’t find it humorous and still don’t understand what is being parodied, the mystery aspect of the show is not bad. The episode scores a 6.5 out of 10. Recaps of The Woman In The House Across The Street From The Girl In The Window can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support Reel Mockery by following this link.