Dead to Me season 1 episode 3 recap: It’s All My Fault

Judy is driven to confessing and Jen makes a separate devastating discovery about her late husband in the third episode of Dead to Me.

Jen and Judy are back at their grief group to start this episode of Dead to Me. Jen talks about the fact that her youngest son, Henry, now believes a bird that lands in his window every day is his dead father coming back to visit.

Jen thinks it’s nonsense, but Judy believes that spirits can find their way back to people. Jen eventually relents and says it’s sweet.

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She then confesses that she’s just tired of being constantly reminded of Ted and his death. It’s especially hard because his birthday is coming up. The group suggests she celebrate or memorialize Ted in some way. Judy is very in to the idea. Jen? Not so much.

Well, that is until Ted’s mom, Lorna invites Jen to an event she’s throwing for Ted’s birthday. Then, all of a sudden, Jen is having her own memorial event, so she can’t go to Lorna’s. Lorna promptly invites herself to Jen’s event. (The two really don’t like each other. Evidence: Lorna bringing up that Ted was her only son as a way to say that of course she’s taking his death harder than Jen is.)

Meanwhile, Steve visits Judy at work to apologize for the restraining order (which he got rescinded), but Judy has other concerns. She drops the bombshell that Jen is the wife of the guy they hit (or the “deer” they hit, as Steve would like to say).

Judy feels bad for ruining Jen’s life and thinks that maybe, by being her friend, something good can come out of a bad situation.

As they talk, we learn that it was Steve’s idea to hide the fact that this happened, Judy had wanted to tell the truth all along. Steve argues that telling Jen the truth will only make things worse and hurt more people than it’s worth. Judy doesn’t listen, she has her own ideas of what needs to happen.

Just then, Jen calls to have Judy help her plan this memorial event she made up. Judy, still feeling bad about the whole killing Jen’s husband thing, offers to take over the planning duties so Jen doesn’t have to worry about it.

Dead to Me skips forward to the party. Judy has done a great job with tasteful decorations (including bird cutout decorations for Henry). Even Jen and Lorna, who are both very critical at times, have to admit how well Judy did.

As part of the event, everyone writes messages to Ted on pieces of paper. Henry asks why Judy isn’t writing one and Lorna, snarkily, asks why she would, since she never met Ted. Dead to Me then cuts to Ted’s funeral where Judy, away from the gathering mourners, stands watching.

On her paper, Judy writes that she’s sorry and it’s all her fault before running off to the bathroom in tears.

As Judy leaves the bathroom, she runs into Lorna who has plenty of questions about this whole living situation. Lorna is suspicious about why Jen would have Judy move in so quickly. Lorna also says that Jen is a bad mother and Ted was always the responsible parent. (Which seems like a harsh thing to say in general, let alone to someone you don’t know.)

Back out at the memorial/birthday party, the police show up looking for Jen. It’s about the beat up yellow supercar, which they suspect she had something to do with, based on how many time she called them about it.

Jen is furious that they’re so concerned about this car and finding a vandal, but they’re not just as worried about finding the person who killed her husband. (Meanwhile, Judy is in the background, looking awkward.) Jen angrily, repeatedly asks who was responsible.

Judy pipes up and says she did it. But she’s taking responsibility for damaging the yellow supercar.

As Judy is taken away by the police, she insists Jen go back to the party. But at the party, Jen is immediately berated by Lorna for having someone “violent” like Judy living there with the two kids. Jen vehemently defends Judy, saying she is the only one who has been there for her through everything.

Jen then says that Lorna was the only reason she and Ted ever had issues in their marriage. That’s where things take a turn. Lorna says that Ted called her the night he died and Jen’s face drops. She immediately tells Lorna to go home.

Meanwhile, at the police station, Judy continues to confess to destroying the car. It seems to make her feel better just by saying she’s guilty of a crime, any crime, even if it’s not her biggest one.

After being processed, Steve comes and gets Judy out of jail.

Steve reminds Judy that they’re in this situation together. Judy agrees and says she knows she can’t tell Jen the truth. Steve tells Judy to trust him and things will be ok and then he kisses her.

That night, as Jen sits outside having a glass of wine, one of the balloons from the party (holding the messages they wrote) floats back down to her. She pops it and unrolls the message to find her Charlie’s note, saying he wishes he could still play his favorite online video game with his dad.

Jen goes inside and gets on the computer to play with Charlie. After she logs on, though, since the game still uses Ted’s username, she gets a message from a “Bambi” who asks when they can see Ted. (And see all of Ted.)

Dead to Me ends the episode with Jen looking completely shocked.

Who is Bambi? And do you think Judy can really keep from telling Jen the truth? Let us know your thoughts on Dead to Me in the comments!