Defending Jacob Season 1, Episode 5 recap: The truth about Sarah and Derek

In Episode 5 of Defending Jacob, Andy finally finds out the truth about what happened between Derek, Ben and Sarah while Laurie breaks down.

Episode 5 of Defending Jacob begins with a montage of Laurie and Andy Barber grappling with their depressing new reality. We see Andy making the solemn drive to Connecticut to visit his father in jail while the eighth-grade chorus sings “The Circle Game” by Joni Mitchell.

Then Ben’s mother, Joan, steps up to the microphone and expresses her gratitude to the school for everything they’ve done for her family, she wishes Ben’s friends the best as they continue to high school in the fall. Then she makes a tearful plea to the parents to appreciate their children.

“I know you do, but please, we forget sometimes.”

Andy gets a sinister confrontation with his father, and wow, J.K. Simmons is a piece of work in this role — brilliantly so. The scene between father and son boils with simmering tension, an ominous instrumental plays in the background.

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Billy clearly has no intention of giving his son the DNA he needs. He uses their meeting to belittle his son’s parenting and ask for an apology since he feels that Andy abandoned him. Andy is unwilling to play Billy’s game and winds up leaving the jail empty-handed.

Joanna thinks Andy could stand to be a little kinder to his father if it means persuading him to help their case, but Andy doesn’t think it would make a difference, Billy will string him along regardless.

“I know his type,” he says.

Before their meeting is over, Joanna shows Andy the Globe interview that Laurie mistakenly gave to the woman at the diner. I had a feeling that her not verbally saying the entire sitdown was off-the-record would come back to bite them.

The article causes a splinter between Andy and Laurie’s already-strained relationship. Luckily their spat doesn’t last long, Sarah shows up with ice cream to spend time with Jacob. The sight of their son having a healthy interaction with a girl his own age is enough to lift his parents’ spirits, and they make up.

Poor Laurie, it feels like she’s taking the brunt of abuse from the public, which is how it always seems to be, right? People love to blame the mom. While grocery shopping, Laurie has a rare moment of happiness and decides to say, “screw it” let’s celebrate Independence Day! She loads up her cart with themed treats and goodies, genuinely enjoying herself for a moment until she comes face-to-face with Ben’s mother.

In a tense standoff, she approaches Laurie, and it looks like she’s going to hit her, but then she does something worse, she spits in her face and walks away. Laurie abandons her cart and leaves the store in a rush.

Elsewhere, Andy tracks down Duff to find out more about Derek. He wants to know who tipped her off. We know that it was Sarah, but we still don’t know what she told Duff or if they have a reason to suspect Derek in Ben’s murder.

Speaking of Sarah, she and Jacob continue their friendship via text. Back at home, she notices that he recently updates his secret Instagram page with an edit of his face on Patrick Bateman from American Psycho.

Jacob captions the picture, “What people think of me.”

Andy isn’t satisfied by Duff’s non-answers, so he decides to dig into the Sarah/Derek secret himself. He gives his mom a flat tire so he can get Derek alone after his lacrosse camp. Derek divulges that Jacob has a dark side. He likes spending time on a creepy website called “The Cut Up Room,” which is all about bondage porn.

From there, Andy goes to Sarah, who finally tells him the whole story of what happened between her, Ben and Derek. Ben and Sarah had a little flirtation going on, and eventually, he asked her to send him a nude photo. Sarah sent Ben a topless pic. In response, Ben threatened to blackmail Sarah, telling her if she didn’t give him a blowjob, he’d send her photo to the whole school — real nice kid, that Ben.

When Sarah told Derek about this, he told her he’d deal with it. Fast-forward to Derek stealing Ben’s phone. Well, instead of falling into Derek’s arms, Sarah got spooked, and they fought about it. She never wanted him to steal the phone. Then two days later, Ben turns up dead.

Andy, Laurie and Joanna theorize that Derek could have been angry and bitter over Sarah’s rejection leading him to murder Ben. They don’t have enough proof to support that story, but Derek having Ben’s phone could be used as exculpatory evidence to set Jacob free.

Jacob is pissed at Sarah, despite the fact she didn’t do anything wrong except trust the wrong guy. When she reaches out to talk to him later that night, he calls her a s–t. Ugh. All these kids suck, Sarah deserves better.

As for Laurie, after the confrontation with Joan, she seeks solace from Jacob’s behavioral psychiatrist. She has a break down at her office and finally admits to having doubts regarding her son’s innocence.

Laurie recounts the story of Jacob, almost hitting another kid with a bowling ball when he was younger. The psychiatrist tells that it’s normal for her to have these different perspectives on her son and compares it to the Boring figure illusion.

Laurie seems to feel better after their conversation, enough that she and Andy have sex for the first time in a while. It looks like she’s desperately trying to get back to the people they were before all this happened.

Andy is too, in a way. He takes Jacob on a father-son fishing trip and they bond, Jacob feels guilty that Andy had to reconnect with Billy for him. Andy reassures him that he would do anything for his son.

While out, Joanna calls with good news for a change. Derek turned in Ben’s phone, meaning they can use anything compelling on it in their defense case. Plus, Billy changed his mind; he will give his DNA after all.

Andy realizes that Laurie must have visited his father; it’s the only way he would have relented. He confronts her after family movie night, and she doesn’t deny it. It looks Laurie is embracing their son’s innocence now, trying to do what she can to save their family. I’m sure looking at Jacob’s baby album helped.

The episode ends with Andy receiving a call from an unknown number. It’s Matt! Leonard Patz’s former victim. Too bad, he chickens out from saying anything.

Flash-Forward

During the flash-forward of Defending Jacob, Neil questions Andy about the article, asking him if Laurie’s comments bothered him. Andy defends his wife. Neil presses him. Did he ever doubt Jacob’s innocence, even for a second? Andy says no, and when the line of questioning turns to his wife, he continues to deny, deny, deny. But we all know that’s not really true.

He also questions Andy about “The Cut Up Room.” We see a glimpse of the website, and it is deeply disturbing stuff. It is a lot more than just your basic BDSM content. The images are violent and bloody — certainly not something your average pre-teen would spend time perusing.

According to Andy, he never told Laurie about the cutter porn, and he never confronted Jacob about it.

What did you think of Defending Jacob’s fifth episode? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

New episodes of Defending Jacob become available on Fridays on Apple TV Plus.