At the beginning of the episode, Emma Hedges (Molly Windsor) moves in with her friend Skye (Jamie Marie Leary). Emma wants to know if Skye’s mother sees her dad. Skye says that she doesn’t see him at all as far as she knows. Kathy Torrance (Jennifer Spence) and Sarah Gordon (Laura Fraser) speak about the picture Emma showed Sarah. Kathy says the picture shows Emma’s parents who weren’t together in bed after sex. She wonders why someone would take a picture after something like that. She wonders if Marie Monroe (Carly Anderson) was dismembered.

After that, Sarah heads inside to talk with Emma about their latest problem. People are taking drugs they know nothing about and it is killing people. She tells Emma that Neil should be calling her soon. Trina (Morayo Akande) makes sure Neil is ready before they attend a strategy meeting together. It is believed that two of the victims died due to the fire. The two were locked in the office and Trina explains they were likely having an affair. Ian Harry is identified as the other man who died in the fire. However, he died before the fire and was killed by strangulation. CCTV footage shows Shuggie Brock (John Clyde) letting Ian in through the kitchen entry.

Neil (Michael Nardone) contacts Sarah and tells her to send him copies of the MOOC modules. If she does, he’ll suggest what changes need to be made. That night, Emma and Skyke head out to the club. They get drunk and take pills before Emma spends the night with a man. In the morning, she goes back to the club because she forgot her purse. She isn’t allowed in but Daniel (Martin Compston) arrives and agrees to help. Once Emma has her belongings, she prepares to leave. Daniel invites her to an upcoming event before they get into an argument. Emma leaves in a hurry, stops near a trashcan, and takes a morning after pill.

The bag falls out of the trashcan and floats along the street. Emma rushes back home and charges her phone while speaking with Skye about the previous night. Skye apologizes and blames the medication for her mother saying Marie Monroe was dismembered. Kathy Torrance teaches a class. While Emma is in the shower, Skye finds that she is using the photo of her parents on her cellphone. Surprisingly, they find that the bed in the picture is the bed in the house. The parents were having sex in the house owned by Skye’s mother. Skye promises to ask her mother about it. Neil calls Emma seconds later. The class with Torrance continues.

She says that the evidence only tells them that the blade of the saw came in contact with the bone three times. Emma meets with Neil and speaks with him about Marie’s death. Neil explains that he followed the case but he wasn’t in control. During their conversation, Emma shows Neil the photograph of her parents in bed. She also tells him about the day of her mother’s death. Neil says Emma may know the person who killed her mother but she may not realize it. Neil tells her to be very careful about what she says from here on out. Sarah meets up with Emma outside of the institute to make sure Neil took care of her. After that, we learn that DNA on Shuggie’s belt is consistent with it being used as a ligature.

It is believed that Shuggie started the fire in hopes of covering up the murder. The team is told to look for a different story. Neil wants them to look at problems with the buildings too. Next, Emma learns that Sarah asked for a portion of all drugs seized by the police so they can test them. Emma and Louise (Anna Leong Brophy) begin testing the drugs immediately. Emma seems particularly excited about it. The drugs she used last night are part of the testing. During a break, Emma calls Skye to ask about her mother. Skye says her mother was sleep so she was never able to see her. However, we see that Izzy (Laurie Brett) is awake and with her daughter during the call.

After that, Emma goes out with Daniel. Emma says she was rude and she likes Daniel’s nose. They share a drink while Sarah tells the others that the MOOC has been a big success. She explains that they’ll need to change some of the modules because they’re a little too close to reality. Daniel tells Emma that he needed to do a good deed to make up for a bad one. He says he was stupid and people suffered as a result. Emma learns that the police just spoke with Daniel regarding what his company did.

The authorities want to know if Daniel’s company did something that could have started the fire. A video is taken of Sarah walking up a set of stairs. A young girl arrives looking for Torrance. Emma tells Daniel that she got herself into trouble with anxiety and depression when she was in school. She got on anti-depressants and sorted things out. Daniel takes Emma up to the hill. Torrance confronts her friend Pia outside and goes off on her. She sends her away in a hurry so the coworkers will not suspect anything. Daniel and Emma go up the hill where her mother was and drink alcohol. Emma imagines seeing her mother walking through the weeds nearby.

The couple cuddle and Daniel says they’re standing on an extinct volcano. When Kathy returns home, she changes her attitude and begins calling local motels in hopes of getting in touch with her friend Salvador. Neil calls Sarah and tells her that they should look out for Emma because she knows something that was never disclosed. Sarah believes it is the dismemberment. Emma and Daniel go back to his place. Daniel freaks out when he realizes he is out of coffee. Then, he notices Emma’s tattoo and kisses it. When Daniel discloses his tattoo, Emma kisses it. They have sex before waking up and chatting about Emma’s studies.

Emma gets a text from Julie telling her that her apology has been accepted. Then, her father calls. He wants to talk about the photo.

 

Traces Review

I have noticed that the scores for Traces have started to drop elsewhere. They might be a bit too high still. This episode was dull and the problems persist. Jennifer Spence’s acting hasn’t improved at all. She is too loud and high strung. The character’s dialogue doesn’t help either. I am not sure Molly Windsor was right for this role either. Regardless, the Emma Hedges character is silly and a bit unrealistic.

She is supposed to be a smart researcher and such but she is giddy over a few pills? This episode did very little. It didn’t cover much at all and that makes the sexual scenes between Emma and Daniel unacceptable. It was a waste of time considering the episode didn’t move the story forward at all. I can’t recommend Traces since I do not expect it to get better. The episode scores a 6 out of 10. Catch up with previous recaps of Traces before you go!