Want to Know a Secret?

One year earlier than the narrative present, Julie is having coffee with Kathy Tanner. Kathy asks her if she wants to hear some gossip, and Julie thinks how sad her life is that neighborhood gossip is now the most exciting part of her day.

Kathy tells her that April dropped out of culinary school. The rumor is that she was having an affair with her professor. Julie is surprised, thinking how April would never do that, but then she considers how April might have been when she was younger. Julie warns Kathy to be careful about spreading the gossip, as April isn’t someone that she wants to make an enemy.

Julie goes with April to film an episode for her YouTube show at her mother’s care facility. She is surprised at how quickly April’s mother, Janet, went into the nursing home. A few years before, April had Janet watch both of their boys while they went out. Just six months after that, April told Julie that her mother’s health had gotten very bad, and she was taking her to a facility.

Looking at Shady Oaks, Julie thinks how she would never put someone in a place like it. The place looks old, with peeling paint and flickering lights. However, she reasons that April probably can’t afford anything better, as her husband’s law firm refuses to promote him after what happened to Courtney.

After April finishes filming the episode, she leaves Julie alone with Janet. Julie thinks how out of it Janet was during the filming, but now she seems more lucid. Once April is gone, Janet desperately tells Julie that she needs to leave. She promises not to say anything to anyone about “the night that girl died” and that she will lie and say that April was with her all night (278). Before she can say anything more, April comes back. Seeing how upset Janet is, she calls for the nurses and has her taken back to her room.

As they go to leave, Julie hears April angrily talking to the staff. The one nurse tells her that Janet has been talking about “Courtney” a lot. April insists that they need to increase her medication.

Julie decides to call Riley to look into Courtney’s death. He agrees, and a few days later they meet for pizza.

Riley tells her that the circumstances surrounding Courtney’s death were strange, so they investigated it as a homicide. She was sleeping with a lawyer and trying to get him to leave his wife, but he refused. She died by suicide, taking a full bottle of prescription pills.

The night of her death, Elliot had an alibi, as he was at work. April was supposedly at home with her baby and her mother. However, based on what Riley saw, he thinks that April would be the most likely suspect.

Julie goes to Shady Oaks to talk with Janet. She signs in at the desk and then finds one of her nurses—Peggy—outside Janet’s room. She can tell by talking to Peggy that she doesn’t like April, especially the YouTube shows for which she uses Janet. She tells Peggy that she just wants to see Janet for a visit, and Peggy willingly lets her in.

Julie tries desperately to get Janet to talk to her. However, she is barely conscious, drifting off each time Julie tries to ask her about Courtney. When Julie turns around to leave, she finds Peggy watching her. Peggy asks why she is so interested in Courtney. Julie tells her that she just wants to know what happened. Annoyed, Peggy says that Janet was April’s alibi for a murder investigation for about a year and then decided that she wasn’t going to be her alibi anymore. Shortly thereafter, she came to Shady Oaks and has been heavily medicated ever since. When Julie asks why Peggy wouldn’t tell anyone, Peggy insists that she wouldn’t be believed, and she’d lose her job as a result. However, she tells Julie that, if she wants to talk to Janet again, let Peggy know, and she will make sure she forgets to give Janet all her medication.

On the way out, Julie runs into Joe Williams, Janet’s doctor. He is annoyed that Julie is there. When Julie says she is just visiting, he assures her that Janet needs visitors and that she should let him know if she wants to come back again.

When Julie leaves the facility, she is suddenly overwhelmed by fear over what April has done—both to Courtney and her mother. April is supposed to be picking up her two children from karate, but when she gets home, Julie decides to call the karate club and ask them to keep her children there. Even though the class isn’t over for 20 more minutes, she learns that April has already picked up her children. She tries to call April several times but gets no answer.

Julie realizes that Dr. Williams must have already told April that she was at Shady Oaks. After two hours with no answer from April, she decides to call Riley. She explains everything to him. He gets her address and promises to come over, but then Julie’s door opens. It’s April with her children.

April is apologetic, insisting that she just took the children to McDonald’s. However, as Julie looks at her, she thinks of how she has seen some of the worst criminals in her time with the DA’s office. Looking into April’s eyes, she sees nothing but “evil.”

Later that night, Julie realizes that April was sending her a message. If Julie messes with her, then April will hurt the things about which Julie cares most. She sends a text to Riley, telling him that she was wrong about April and that everything is fine.

While Bobby and Leo play in the backyard, Julie does laundry. Despite everything, she is still friends with April. Julie tries to dodge her or give her the worst jobs with the PTA, but April is always happy and agreeable to everything. She also tries to avoid letting Leo play with Bobby.

As Julie is putting away Keith’s clothes, she feels something in the pile. It is an old flip phone. She opens it and finds messages back and forth with someone, asking when they can see each other. She realizes that Keith is cheating on her, but she isn’t surprised or angry. Instead, she messages the person back, telling them to leave her husband alone.

When Julie hears yelling in the backyard, she looks out the window just in time to see Bobby throw a ball at Leo’s face. Julie goes outside, and Bobby immediately tries to say that it was an accident. As Julie looks at him, she realizes how good he is at lying—just like April. She confronts Bobby with the fact that she saw him do it, so he begrudgingly apologizes and goes inside.

Leo tells his mother that he doesn’t want to play with Bobby anymore. He says that Bobby is always mean and steals his toys. Julie promises him that he doesn’t have to anymore.

The next morning, Julie decides to go talk with April about Bobby’s behavior. She sees the flowers in her house, which Keith bought for her as the start of an apology for the phone she found. She isn’t bothered by his betrayal, but she does keep the phone.

When Julie gets to April’s house, she sees April kissing Mark through the window. They are making out, and Mark has his hands all over her. April takes a picture with her phone.

Mrs. Kirkland comes up to Julie. She asks if Julie saw what April was doing. She tells Julie that it has been going on for months. She is adamant that she is going to say something to April or tell her husband.

A few days later, Julie goes for her run. She considers what to do about April, Mark, and Mrs. Kirkland. However, when she gets home, there is a police car and ambulance outside her home. She learns from one of the police officers that Mrs. Kirkland fell down her stairs and died.

April gets home and comes over. When she learns about Mrs. Kirkland, she breaks down, and the officer comforts her. As she sobs, she stops for just a moment, turns toward Julie, and winks at her.

Julie sits in her backyard reading her book for book club. She sees Bobby playing alone in the backyard. As she watches, Bobby leaves, goes up to their new neighbor’s door, knocks on it, and then goes inside.

Julie takes out her phone to text April and let her know where Bobby went. However, she stops, deciding that she could do it with the burner phone. She decides that a little panic is the least that April deserves for kidnapping her children for two hours.