Made for Love Season 1, Episode 4 recap: I Want a New Life

Made for Love Episode 4 opens on a scene set 10 years ago. We see a younger, poorer version of Hazel scamming university students out of money in exchange for fake raffle tickets to get an unreleased Gogol Phone.

Unbeknownst to Hazel, Byron watches her from the sidelines and then approaches her after she finds a hiding spot to count her cash haul. It’s apparent that he has been watching her for a while. He approaches her, supposedly impressed by she can “spot opportunity and understand human desire.” He invites her to dinner with him that night, in Rome. Byron already knows her name and puts the location of dinner in her phone.

Hazel wears the signature green dress and meets Byron inside a tech cube designed to look like a restaurant in Rome.

In present day, Hazel is still living with her dad. Herb wastes no time saddling Hazel with a bill regarding her estimated “rent.” The problem is, Hazel doesn’t have any money. She’s a little concerned with the brain chip and divorce. Herb points out that she’s going to need cash regardless to pay for the brain surgeon and lawyer. Apart from the financial issues, Herb also wants Hazel to pay more respect to Diane. “It is what it is. She’s part of the family.”

At the hub, Byron is still transfixed on Hazel and keeps watching her via the chip. In the meantime, he starts planning to add smell to the cube, since Hazel mentioned wanting them. Bennett suggests they make Hazel part of the process since the smell cube is for her. Byron doesn’t like smells. To put it in perspective he throws a fit over the scent of cinnamon and but loves the way an empty vial of glass smells.

Made for Love Episode 4 recap: Hazel runs into her old friend Bangles

Hazel returns to her old scamming techniques to make money from a local pawn shop. At the shop she runs into her old best friend Bangles (Patti Harrison). Apparently the infamous green dress was Bangles and Hazel never returned it, despite it vital to her school assignment.

Not having her final project resulted in Bangles failing out of school. Bennett interrupts their argument to provide Hazel some smell samples, but Hazel has no interest in doing anything for Byron. Bangles kicks him out and realizes something went down with Hazel in the hub because she’s acting way different than she used to.

Byron is pissed because Hazel isn’t coming back to him. Also, Byron knows about that Zelda helped Hazel escape. He informs Fiffany that he plans to eat her and to put Herringbone “out to pasture.” Fiffany feigns agreement and then rushes into her lab to warn Herringbone that they need a “new plan.”

Bangles and Hazel make amends. Hazel tells her the entire story and apologizes for not returning the dress, admitting that she hasn’t even had any friends in more than 10 years. Once Bangles knows the deal with Hazel’s chip, they switch to using their old secret language. Bangles says she knows a lawyer that could help Hazel (also Herb knows the secret language, too, he learned it when Hazel was in sixth grade).

Made for Love Episode 4 recap: Byron issues a frightening ultimatum

Meanwhile, Byron decides he’ll try to appeal to Hazel via “mimicry.” He knows Hazel likes beer so he thinks that’s the first step and Bennett agrees to help. Bennett tells Byron that he thinks maybe Hazel used to get homesick.

Byron decides that if Hazel doesn’t return in 48 hours then he’s going to merge with her, Fiffany warns him that he can’t do that. Then we return to the night Byron and Hazel met. He starts giving Hazel whatever she wants –– $1 million, a trip to the Eiffel Tower, Antartica and more. It’s easy to see why Hazel was initially so charmed by Byron, who wouldn’t be with all of that?

However, the evening also presents one of the first real difference between Byron and Hazel. While Hazel is fantasizing about all of these places around the world, Byron says he just wants to go back to their date. He has all of this technology at his fingertips and yet his creativity seems fundamentally limited. Byron can’t imagine what it’s like to enjoy smells, drink beer or even eat real meals. It’s why he couldn’t see how unhappy Hazel was, he’s a narcissist who only sees the world through his own narrow view.

That first night together, Byron asks Hazel to marry him because he thinks he can give her the world and everything else she could ever want. It’s apparent Byron had been watching for a while, he knows every detail about her life. Considering Hazel had nothing left, hated her life and hated her town, she said yes to him that night.

Returning to the now, Fiffany implores Byron to reconsider. The technology would only allow the merge to last for 11 seconds, and then Hazel would die, as she was chipped first.

“But she won’t die.” Byron says. “She’ll live here.” And he points to his head. Oh man, Hazel. You better get that chip out ASAP!

What did you think about Made for Love Episode 4? Where do you think Byron is hiding Zelda? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

The first six episodes of Made for Love are now available to stream on HBO Max.