The Sinner season 2, episode 3 recap: ‘Part III’

Carrie Coon proves that she truly can take on any role in the most recent episode of The Sinner–but what is up with that rock?

The Sinner is blowing our minds away with each and every episode of this season and we’re only three episodes in! A lot went down in this week’s episode, including Julian getting arrested and sent to prison. Yep, that’s right. He is being tried in criminal court, and it appears that Vera isn’t actually his mother either!

Ambrose is well-equipped at picking up the odd, subtle nuances of a shady person, or in this case, a shady town. And he knows something sinister is at work here and that Julian may not be the one to blame, at least not entirely. One thing is certain in his mind–Adam and Bess were not planning on returning and perhaps they were heading to Marin, who is most likely Julian’s real mother.

The more we think about it, the more Julian is really starting to creep us out. He plays the role of the innocent, clueless child well, but with the whole ordeal at Mosswood and whatever teachings Vera has imparted to him, something is just not right there. Talks about a “shadow self”makes us wonder if that persona of his is what came out and murdered Adam and Bess, to begin with.

Credit: USA

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While Ambrose is still trying to figure out what Vera’s role is in all of this, he does seem to connect to Julian. This episode reveals that they are more alike than we thought. He had a troubled childhood in which his house burned down, and he may have been the one to light the fire just to get away from his mother.

When Julian is arrested, Ambrose jots down his phone number on Julian’s palm and tells him to memorize it and call it if he needs to talk. Ambrose is most definitely invested in a way that is more so than he was with Cora in the first season. By the way, there a Cora shout-out this episode, if anyone caught it.

This episode of The Sinner focuses a lot on Heather and Marin’s past as well, and while it’s obvious that the two were more than friends, there is still a lot of mystery surrounding their past. We know that Marin has been missing since about 2005 and when Heather goes to visit Marin’s mom, she finds a book that has the name Julian circled multiple times. Well, that explains a lot.

So is Marin alive? Not sure. Was Dr. Poole killing himself scary as heck? Definitely. And what was that scene with Coon dancing around the rock? No idea, but she was pretty darn convincing at…whatever that was.

The Sinner airs every Wednesday on USA at 10 PM EST!