Apple TV's new psychological thriller Cape Fear doesn't waste any time beginning the chilling mystery. Once Max Cady gets out of prison, he reenters Anna Bowden's life and has her looking over her shoulder. And maybe he even held her teenage son captive and cut off his toe. But there's also the lingering mystery of what secret Anna and Max are keeping from the past.
Cape Fear episode 2 begins with a flashback to seven years ago as Max is in jail doing upside down pull-ups. As he's hanging, a group of men approaches him and attacks him. Finally, Max is able to fight back using kettle bells. He pushes one of the men into the open prong of the weight rack, spearing the man's head and killing him. Max sustains his brain injury with a kettle bell to the head and he uses a weight plate to smash in the skull of the man who hit him.
In real time, he wakes up int he middle of the night to police entering his home and he goes into fight mode before they detain him. Meanwhile, the Anna and Tom try to get answers out of Zack at the emergency room, but he's still feeling out of it. While searching for water for Zack, Anna hears Max's voice as he's also getting treatment at the hospital for his broken finger.
Anna accuses Max of cutting off Zack's toe
While home alone and talking to her dad on the phone, Natalie answers a knock at the door, but when she doesn't see anyone when she answers. She stands outside on the porch looking around and someone runs into the house behind her. Thankfully, it's only her friend who sneaks in to scare her. In the hospital, Anna listens as Max speaks with a detective about the incident and his condition.
When the detective's line of questioning tips Max off to who sent the police and he begins laughing, Anna yanks open the curtain to announce her presence. Anna asks the detectives to step aside so she can speak with him alone. She confronts him about Zack's missing toe and accuses him of drugging her son. Unsurprisingly, their conversation doesn't end on good terms.
Tom speaks with the doctor, who asks if Zack takes drugs or if there's a family history of mental illness. He admits the incident that occurred, with a shared intimate photo of a crush, that caused Zack to lose his friends at school. While Natalie and her friend hangs out in the room that's under construction, she finds Zack's phone and steps in blood amid a strange ritualistic scene.
Anna continues to confront Max about what he did to Zack, but he vehemently denies everything. Zack chokes and vomits up his own toe. Currently, the doctors are convinced that Zack took drugs and did this to himself, but Anna's unconvinced. Zack stops in the bathroom on the way to his hospital room, and Max happens to be in there, too. While talking to Max, Zack doesn't have kinds words for his parents. Later, Tom drops some kind of liquid into his mouth to help him relax.
Back at home, Anna looks at the strange scene in the under construction den. Natalie gives her mom Zack's phone and takes on the pressure of having to be "okay." Noa calls Anna to inform her that Byron and his mom were found dead at home in a supposed murder-suicide. Anna's under a lot of pressure with another client, but she can't work when Zack's discharged back home.
Anna makes a chilling connection between Max and Zack
Anna notices their electronic picture frame glitching but doesn't look into it. She asks Tom about the girl Zack met online because there's a lot they still don't know about their son and his life. Zack won't open up to them, so Anna's forced to unlock Zack's phone with his face. She reads his texts messages with his supposed internet girlfriend and attempts to reach out to no avail. Later that night, Tom gets on edge when the outdoor motion-detected lights turn on.
Tom catches up to the culprit, and it was Anna's estranged father, Brandon, leaving gifts on the porch for Natalie and Zack. He wants to reconnect with Anna, but Tom won't even mention that he stopped by. For some reason, Max meets with a stranger at his house and convinces him to assume ownership of his dog under the guise that he can swap for a new one at the Humane Society. While walking down the street, Max looks behind him and sees a woman in a green coat and mask.
Online sleuthing doesn't help Anna track down Max's supposed mystery girlfriend, and Tom wants her to stop and get back to reality. As it turns out, Zack has a burner flip phone that he uses to call Sophia and apologize, but she hangs up. Max visits Anna's client Ruben in prison to convince him not to drop his appeal. Natalie chases after Zack when he leaves the house and tries to stop him from going to visit Sophia. They talk through some real family problems before returning home.
Zack appears to hallucinate Adam Cady again. Anna and Tom talk about Max's case and whether he could be guily, but they disagree. Tom looks at the fact that Amy Brancato confessed and had the murder weapon, though Anna wonders if Max could have given it to her. But at the time, they did what they thought was right. The next morning, Anna sleeps in late and learns that Max convinced Ruben to continue with his appeal. Max will also be doing an interview.
On camera, he admits that he was under pressure to plead guilty without elaborating on what that means. He explains his childhood origin story: His father was an American soldier and his Spanish mother didn't want a child. She died by suicide when he was 13 and he was sent to North Carolina to live with his father. Anna walks in during his interview, and he talks about being a "patient man" about having a family, directly referencing her life. He's apparently "just getting started."
She rushes home and fishes Zack's phone out of a drawer to look over the messages. One rang a bell: "Impatient boy. We're just getting started." For Anna, that's more than a coincidence. Anna asks if there's any way Max could know what they did, and he insists no one knows. From the hallway, Natalie overhears this conversation. Max charms his way into buying a house. He asks the realtor to step outside while he sits inside alone and pictures his wife and son.
Cape Fear releases new episodes Fridays on Apple TV.
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