The Innocents season 1, episode 5 recap: ‘Passionate Amateur’

Previously on The Innocents, June and Harry learned that her ability may result in terrible things for some of the people she shifts into.

Aware that John and Ryan are in London, June and Harry meet with them so June can learn what her father knows. After a stressful meeting where John doesn’t provide any satisfying answers, June and Harry leave.

Meanwhile, in Norway, Elena reveals she wants to stay at Sanctum with June once she arrives instead of eventually joining the real world. Runa’s jealousy and confusion is getting progressively worse, and the news pushes her over the edge.

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At the start of The Innocents‘ fifth installment, “Passionate Amateur,” Elena is going through another treatment. She is watching slides and describing a memory of Ryan. She is getting stressed but keeping things under control.

The scene cuts to Harry who is talking to the camera about how we all experience emotions. Then we see he’s in an interview for a job selling greeting cards.

At the same time, June is hanging out with a group of people at the hostel where they’re staying. She notices another group watching a video on a laptop. It’s the viral video of her shifting at the club.

When Harry comes home she shows him the video. Harry dismisses it. No one will believe it’s real and there are way weirder things on the internet anyway. He’s got a point.

June starts to scroll through the video’s comments anyway and notices the one by the man who saw the video during the last episode, someone with the screen name “Passionate Amateur.” June responds to the commenter and they set up a meeting.

In their hhometown Harry’s mother is watching the surveillance video of Harry leaving the hospital with June after she’d shifted into Deborah. Then she notices something — they pass a reflective surface and Deborah’s reflection doesn’t match the way she looks in real life. Christine plays with the video’s brightness and realizes the reflection is not of Deborah but of June.

She goes into her files and finds a video of her husband, Lewis, walking past some windows. She adjusts the brightness again and realizes the reflection in the windows is not of her husband but of Elena. What could this mean?

Christine confronts John outside a store. John’s back home and not handling June’s rejection well. He hasn’t been in contact with Christine and she can smell alcohol on his breath. John claims he didn’t find June and Harry in London but Christine insists he come with her anyway.

Christine puts John in an interrogation room at the police station and questions him about Elena but John isn’t being cooperative. So Christine shows him the video of Lewis and the Elena reflection. John acts like he doesn’t see Elena in the reflection.

Suddenly, they’re interrupted by Christine’s boss, Doug. Doug is furious. Christine brought John in for drunk driving but she didn’t give him a breathalyzer test or let anyone else talk to him. Doug thinks Christine’s abusing her position.

Christine insists John knows something about what happened the night Lewis and others went into comas. Doug has nightmares about the unsolved case too, but it’s no longer in their jurisdiction. Christine won’t let it go because she wants to follow the lead. So Doug suspends her indefinitely.

In London, June and Harry go to meet Passionate Amateur, whose real name turns out to be Cam. Cam’s a shapeshifter too, and she can transform whenever she wants.

Cam remembers what it was like when she first shifted and realizes June and Harry must be reeling. She offers to put them up for a few days and give June a crash course in shifting. Harry is suspicious, but Cam tells him she’s had trouble finding people to trust as well. Cam gives them her address, tells them they can decide what they want to do, and leaves.

Harry and June decide to take the risk and go to Cam’s place. Cam introduces them to her boyfriend, Andrew, the man who Cam initially appeared as.

Cam and June start to discuss their condition. According to Cam, only women are shapeshifters nowadays.

In their hometown, John returns to his farm. He’s distraught. Ryan comes in to find out what’s going on, and John finally tells Ryan about Elena and June.

Ryan confesses he has memories from when he was young before Elena met John. These memories were where Elena would leave him for days and strangers would take care of him, except they weren’t strangers at all. He now understands what was really happening. And he understands what John was trying to do for June now.

John just regrets that he couldn’t help Elena or June. He feels like he let everyone down. Well, if nothing else, at least those two are finally bonding.

The next morning, in London, Cam and June talk about Elena. Cam can’t believe Elena would just leave June like that. June shows her Elena’s video, but Cam is skeptical of Elena’s motives. But June tells her she’s not angry, she just wants to see her mother again.

Cam shows June the research she’s done into other instances of shapeshifters. There was an incident in Norway involving a nun and the picture accompanying the article clearly shows a photo of Elena. June now knows for sure that Elena’s a shapeshifter.

Elsewhere in the city, a bruised Steinar is drinking and despondent. He calls Halvorson with the bad news. He claims June isn’t like the others at Sanctum. She can get into an individual’s mind and memories. Apparently, this is what Halvorson has been looking for.

Meanwhile, Cam gives June lessons in how to control her shifting. She asks June about her emotional trigger when she shifts. She says if she can understand the emotion behind the shift she can control it. She demonstrates with Andrew.

When Harry gets June alone, though, he confesses that he thinks Cam is using Drew. But June insists Cam may be her best chance to figure out what’s happening to her.

Harry relents. He says they should ask for Cam’s help and then leave. He also asks June to never do what Cam just did to Andrew. June insists she’d never do anything he didn’t want her to do.

In Norway, Runa finds Halvorson organizing for a trip. Halvorson is planning to go to London to get June. Runa can’t believe he’s leaving when she needs him more than ever. But Halvorson insists he won’t be gone for more than 2 days — he needs to help June. Runa finally agrees.

Halvorson then tells Sigrid he’ll be going to London. Sigrid is confused. Isn’t she supposed to be the one leaving? But there’s nothing in place for her. She has no money, no place to stay. Where should she go? They’re supposed to help her and instead, they’re preoccupied with June.

Halvorson manipulates Sigrid by repeating something her father said to her the night of her first shift. Sigrid backs off and says she’ll stay at Sanctum while Halvorson is gone and look after Runa.

In London, Cam and Andrew take June and Harry to a club. Cam and June and Harry and Andrew split off in pairs. June wants to know if Cam actually enjoys shifting. June talks about how she can get into people’s minds, an unnerving experience for her. Cam, however, doesn’t seem unnerved at all.

Harry confesses to Andrew how difficult the whole experience has been since June started shifting. Andrew cautions that their current arrangement isn’t permanent. He’s not trying to get rid of them but Cam puts people in her thrall.

Unsettled, Harry goes to search for June. Cam has escorted her to a private room where they watch a male dancer. Cam asks June if she wouldn’t want to explore how it really feels to be a man at some point.

She encourages June to touch the dancer and as she does, Harry bursts in. He punches the dancer and is immediately kicked out of the club. June starts to follow Harry but then Cam asks her to stay.

June runs after Harry anyway. Harry’s angry at her. He tells her Cam won’t help her find her mother, she just wants to make June like her. June needs to start thinking for herself. Harry stalks off, leaving June behind.

June calls Halvorson on Steinar’s phone. She wants to talk to Elena. Halvorson wakes Elena up and convinces her to take the call. Elena encourages June to come to Sanctum and June agrees. Well, if it was that easy, why did June make such a big deal of needing Cam’s help to find her mom?

June goes back to Cam and Andrew’s apartments but Harry’s not there. When Harry finally returns later that night, June’s asleep.

In the early morning, he wakes her to have sex. But June sees in the mirror that it’s really Cam. She pushes her off and tells her to get out of Harry’s body.

Cam — as Harry — tells June that Harry’s gotten what he wanted out of her and that things won’t last. June calls Cam she’s a liar and storms out. She looks for Harry but, of course, when she finds him he’s unconscious.

Andrew intervenes and tells Cam to let Harry go. She finally does and Harry wakes up.

June and Harry leave but then June remembers that she left her phone at Cam’s place. She tells Harry she needs to go back for it. Halvorson has the number and is coming for her.

Harry isn’t happy about the news. He’s had enough and wants to go but June is defiant. She wants to see her mother. Harry points out that he’s the only one who’s stayed by her through everything.

He’s still not sure what happened at Cam’s place. He knows someone shifted into him and he wants to know if it was June. June doesn’t answer the question. Harry starts to walk away. He doesn’t feel like he even knows her anymore.

As the episode ends, June tells Harry to go home.

No one’s really wrong in Harry and June’s conflict. After all, love is challenging enough without adding shapeshifting to the mix. It looks like one way or another, though, June will soon be off to Norway. Will she find what she’s looking for there? We’ll learn more on the next episode of The Innocents.

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Our recap of The Innocents episode 6 will be up soon. In the meantime, share your thoughts on The Innocents episode 5 in the comments and stream The Innocents on Netflix.

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