Dead to Me Season 1, Episode 8 recap: What does Parker know about Steve?

In Dead to Me Season 2, Episode 8, Charlie gets dragged deeper into the Steve conspiracy, and Parker might know something about his disappearance.

Dead to Me Season 2, Episode 8 is very much a transitional episode in many ways. There are still a lot of spinning plates from the season, and we don’t yet know where they’re going to land when they come crashing down.

To start, this episode focuses on Charlie in a big way. As Dead to Me Season 2 circles closer to an explosive finish, it has become increasingly evident that Jen’s eldest son is going to be tangled up in the carnage in one way or another.

When we last saw Charlie, he recognized Steve’s car in the slideshow shown at the vigil. Those dots he started connecting create lines in Episode 8 as he notices the strange positioning of the gas can Jen used to set Steve’s Mercedes aflame, and he makes a phone call on Steve’s burner phone.

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Guess who picks up? Captain Hastings, the man Nick hates and also the man who berated Judy for turning Steve into the FBI at the vigil. Hastings is definitely a dirty cop since he starts speaking Greek on the phone, meaning he surely has direct ties to the Greek mafia.

Speaking of the Greek mafia, Nick is pulling on that thread more so than the Judy thread, much to Hastings’s annoyance. The massive $100,000 reward is sending the tip line haywire, and poor Nick is saddled with wading through lots of pointless calls.

But the episode ends with a huge cliffhanger as Charlie now-ex-girlfriend Parker phones in and tells Nick she knows something about Steve, what she knows we aren’t made aware of just yet.

Parker also pulls a nasty move with some spraypaint on Jen’s garage door, writing, “I know what you did,” which makes Jen panic. She thinks the message is aimed at her, but based on the street cam footage from Karen’s house, she discovers Parker was doing it because Charlie has moved on with another girl named Natalie.

A few revelations from this whole scene, for one, Jen is able to get Jeff to delete everything off the street cam footage from the last month. Things don’t end up going the blackmail route, but Jeff does reveal he confessed to Karen that he’s in love with Sebastian, and the two are getting a divorce. Poor Karen, hope she stocked up on her orange wine supply.

Since Charlie has a new girlfriend, I’m curious if she will have plot relevance later. He name-dropped Parker in the first episode, and now she has a big part to play in the central plot, a similar thing happened with Michelle and learning her roommate was Perez, is there a chance this “Natalie” will become yet another player on the chessboard?

Ben and Jen finally get it on in this episode, too, after tons of tension and the emotional makeout from the vigil. Jen visits the Wood household to help learn more about the Wood family’s incredible mansion, which Eileen Wood is considering selling. Ironically, she became quite taken with Jen at the vigil and wants to hire her as the realtor.

While there, Ben and Jen continue to bond, especially when he tells her about the scars on his chest from multiple surgeries he had as a kid. Jen has her own scars from her mastectomy, so she knows what Ben means when he talks about his trauma.

In the final moments of Episode 8, Ben shows up and confesses that he can’t stop thinking about Jen and the two can’t keep their hands off each other.

Luckily, Jen and Judy already talked about the messiness of their love lives at the beginning of the 30 minutes. Jen gives Judy her blessing to date Michelle if she wants to, so long as she stays far away from Perez.

At first, it looks like Judy and Michelle will get back on the right track as Judy shows up to apologize, and Michelle lets her back into her life. But then Flo, Michelle’s mother, has a stroke and is rushed to the hospital.

Judy shows up to support her and runs into Perez, who is not happy to see Judy there with Michelle. She tells Michelle about the open investigation into Judy’s ex-fiancé and her former stalking charges.

You can’t blame Michelle for being a little spooked by that. On top of her mom taking a turn for the worse, it is too much for her to deal with right now, and she tells Judy as much, asking both her and Perez to leave.

Judy has a rough time in this episode. After being dismissed by Michelle, she wanders into the maternity ward, still nursing the sting of finding out Heidi is pregnant with Steve’s child. Judy croons over the newborns and chats with a woman who works as a “cuddler” to hang out with the babies when their parents aren’t around. It sounds like the perfect job for Judy, but she probably wouldn’t pass the background check.

There is also a sweet moment between Judy and Perez, where she learns just how much Perez cares about Michelle and her mother. While Perez isn’t about to open to Judy and hug her, Judy does quietly place a box of tissues next to her, and it’s a pleasant exchange.

Seeing Flo on life support motivates Judy to call her own mom, and she learns something that profoundly upsets her on the phone call. Hopefully, we’ll find out what in the next episode!

Read more about James Marsden’s thoughts on the twin twist at Digital Spy.

What did you think about Dead to Me Season 2, Episode 8? What will Charlie do now that he has made this new connection? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Dead to Me Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.