Nobody's Fool

Gary and Polly drive Sami to Brian Powell’s apartment. Brian was in and out of prison since he was 18 and was Tad Grayson’s cellmate nine years ago. Brian was released soon after and hasn’t had a brush with the law since. Debbie and Raymond are watching Brian’s apartment, and the Three Dead Hots have learned that he hasn’t been at work for a week. Sami and Gary approach Brian’s apartment, and no one answers when they knock. Marty arrives in a fury, since Sami is supposed to be in the hospital. Sami explains the situation, and Marty tries knocking and identifying himself as the police. Marty wants to call the nearby precinct, but Gary grows impatient. Pretending to hear screaming inside, Gary breaks down the door. Marty and Sami walk through the apartment and find Brian dead at his kitchen table, shot in the back of the head just as Nicole was.

Marty calls the murder in, and Sami tells his students to disperse. Arthur arrives and advises Sami not to say anything to the police. Marty describes the crime scene, noting that all the evidence points to Tad Grayson, but too clearly, making him think it’s a set up. Sami says nothing in response to this speculation and leaves with Gary.

As Gary drives Sami to the rehab center, Sami watches the extended CCTV footage from the FBI file. The eight-second clip shows a woman with blond hair following Victoria out of the pub, and through an AI image software, the Pink Panthers have determined that the woman matches Caroline Burkett’s description. At the Solemari Recovery Center, Kate Boyd, the center’s facilitator, takes Sami to Caroline in the solarium. Kate and another patient, Christopher Swain, leave the two alone in the room. Caroline learned about Victoria’s death that day, since the center doesn’t allow internet access.

Caroline explains that the Belmonds kept Victoria’s friends away when she returned, so New Year’s Eve 1999 was the last time she saw Victoria. Caroline remembers Thomas driving her and Victoria to the pub even though he was drunk, and she was relieved that he refused to join the party. Sami senses Caroline’s apprehension when talking about the party, and he knows she’s lying because of the CCTV footage. He also knows the Burketts prevented Caroline from speaking to the police in 1999, so he pleads with her to be honest now. Caroline suddenly claims that Victoria’s disappearance was her fault, but her mother forced her to keep quiet. Caroline and Victoria were in love, but they kept their relationship a secret because society wasn’t accepting. They both had boyfriends to cover up their relationship, but Caroline was growing tired of the deception.

At the party, Caroline brushed off her handsy boyfriend Buff and kissed Victoria in front of everyone. Buff pushed the girls down, and the partygoers hurled slurs at them. Victoria ran away, and Caroline chased her through the busy pub. A drunk stranger stopped Caroline, and Victoria slipped out the door. Kate Boyd interrupts Caroline’s confession, which infuriates Caroline, who thinks Kate was listening in. Kate leaves, and Caroline continues her story. Caroline followed Victoria down the street, and they comforted one another. Victoria received a call from Thomas, who was at a nearby bar getting drunk. The last time Caroline saw Victoria was when she went into the bar to get Thomas.

Sami doesn’t reveal his findings to Gary or to Molly when she calls, since he wants to think the new information through. Marty informs Sami that Brian Powell was killed with the same gun that had been used to shoot Sami and Victoria—which is also the same type of gun used in Nicole’s murder. Tad Grayson and his lawyer refuse to cooperate, claiming that Tad has a solid alibi. Sami receives a cryptic call from Jennifer Schultz, asking to meet.

Jennifer shows Sami Anna’s modelling headshot, which conjures overwhelming feelings in Sami’s mind. She explains that Jennifer’s father scouted Anna in a mall and likely offered her a modelling portfolio on a “scholarship.” Anna Marsten was 16 at the time and had run away from her abusive aunt’s house three weeks earlier. Anna was born in State College, Pennsylvania, to a single mother who died when Anna was 9. Jennifer speculates that her parents promised Anna overseas work, but when they got paid by their trafficking contacts, they didn’t keep track of her. Jennifer asks if Anna was pretending to be Victoria Belmond, and though Sami knows this is true, he can’t say the words aloud.

Sami feels that he was destined to be a cop, even though he wanted to become a physician. Over the next week, Sami gives his students final assignments and collects their investigative results. He sets up a meeting with the Belmonds, and Marty drives him to their estate. Sami meets Archie and Thomas to report his conclusions and confront Thomas about his lies. Sami makes Thomas confirm that he went to a bar instead of going home, and that he called Victoria. Thomas admits that Victoria left her party to drive him home. The siblings made promises to each other for the New Millennium, arriving home just after midnight.

Thomas and Archie go silent, so Sami fills in the blanks with his theory. Sami knows Anna was pretending to be Victoria, but she needed help from the family to make it believable. They shaved her head, forced her to play mute, and kept her away from society so no one could spot the differences. Achie didn’t run a DNA test, but he spread news that he did. Archie found Anna through Vic’s Place after she returned from Spain. Archie was sympathetic to her traumatic life, so he took her into the family. Sami reveals that he did a DNA test comparing Thomas and Anna’s DNA, which showed no sibling match. The family cremated Anna’s body so no one could perform this test, but Sami took DNA from Anna’s autopsy and Thomas’s used glass.

Thomas knows the situation looks strange, but he and the family grew to love Anna as they had loved Victoria. His daughters don’t know the truth and love Anna more than anyone. Archie claims that Anna brought their grieving family back to life, especially Talia. Sami realizes that Talia doesn’t know the truth and is just a mark in the Belmond men’s scam. Talia didn’t believe Anna at first, but Archie fed Anna information about the childhood book to change Talia’s mind. Sami is disgusted by their manipulation, but Archie and Thomas claim the lie helped Talia recover. The illusion fell apart when Sami appeared and recognized Anna. Archie hired Sami to control his investigation and make sure he couldn’t speak publicly.

Sami circles back to the real Victoria, who he thinks died in 1999. Sami contacted Lacy and learned that Thomas didn’t arrive at her house until 5:00 am. He suspects that Archie went to Chicago to create a last-minute alibi. Thomas’s car doesn’t appear in the records for New York City’s E-Zpass toll payment system after that night, so Sami assumes it was involved in Victoria’s death. Sami believes Thomas was behind the wheel of the car that killed Victoria, since he has a history of DUIs. Archie tells Sami that anything they say can’t be repeated because of the NDA, and Thomas finally makes his confession.

After Thomas and Victoria arrived home, Thomas stayed in the car to do drugs and call Lacy. When Lacy called him back and said she missed him, Thomas wanted to go to her immediately and sped off down the driveway. Thomas made a wild turn and sped into the yard where Victoria was walking the dog. He accidentally hit the gas pedal instead of the brake and crashed into Victoria, pinning her against a tree and killing her instantly. Archie heard the crash, came running, and stopped Thomas from calling the police. Archie didn’t want to lose both of his children, so he hatched a plan to protect Thomas from going to jail. Archie and Thomas buried Victoria in the yard and later sent the car to a scrapyard. Thomas visited Lacy, and Archie went to Chicago, texting himself from Victoria’s phone before destroying it. Archie lied to Talia to spare her the pain of Victoria’s death. Archie now wishes he had told Talia the truth, since his lie gave her hope that Victoria would return, which led to the plot with Anna.

Archie doesn’t plan to tell Talia the truth even now. The tragedy helped Thomas turn his life around, and in Archie’s mind, they made the best out of a bad situation. Sami understands Archie’s frame of mind that fateful night, but he thinks Victoria’s life is too high a price to pay for personal transformation. Sami refuses Archie’s offer of a cash bonus, and he leaves without a word, knowing there’s no way to prove the crime after all these years.

Sami thanks his students for their hard work at their last class. The Three Dead Hots invite Sami to a club, but he declines. Marty calls with an urgent request to meet. Sami calls Molly on the way, and she worries about the abruptness of Marty’s request. Marty shows Sami a video from the shooting. A man was filming his kid playing baseball at the park and didn’t think his footage was useful, but the video shows Raymond at the scene of the shooting.

Later, Sami confronts Tad Grayson at the hospice center, where his mother passed away earlier that day. Tad claims he’s done trying to prove his innocence. Sami shows Tad photo stills from videos taken by Raymond. Raymond followed and videotaped Tad wherever he went, and the videos prove that Tad snuck out of the hospice center and shot Sami and Anna. Tad admits to the crime. He was going to shoot Sami, but he decided to make him suffer by shooting Anna. He planned to kill Sami’s whole family. Sami, wired to a live mic, calls the police in, and they arrest Tad.

Sami drives to the cemetery and visits Anna’s grave. Sami wonders how different their lives would have been if they had all simply been honest. He can’t guess whether life would be better or worse, but he doesn’t want to lie any longer. He knows the Belmonds won’t face legal justice for Victoria’s death, so he leaked the story to the Three Dead Hots, who plan to cover new theories about Victoria’s disappearance on their podcast. Sami learned from Anna’s autopsy that she had given birth, and he wonders if Anna had a child in the months after leaving Buzz. Suspecting that the child might be his, Sami promises to keep hunting for the truth.