Spoilers are ahead from Imperfect Women episode 6!
The fifth episode of Imperfect Women was quite intriguing with the story being told primarily through one big flashback. In episode 5, we found out that Nancy was having an affair with Howard before her untimely death. After uncovering the true reason behind Robert’s emotional distance, Nancy then decided to end things with Howard. However, he didn't take the breakup too well.
What was even more shocking was the very last scene of the episode. After Robert finds out about Nancy's affair, he becomes enraged, which scares Nancy away. As she drives off in her SUV, she doesn't notice that Mary is trailing her. Why? That's something we hope to find out in the sixth episode, titled "Mary." Now, follow along with our recap!
Mary suspects that Howard cheated on her
The sixth episode finally brings viewers back to the present after two episodes filled with flashbacks. It's been two months since Nancy's murder, and the episode is all told from Mary's perspective. The episode opens with the scene in which Mary kicks Eleanor out of her house after their big argument over Eleanor sleeping with Robert.
The episode then cuts to Mary speaking with several other people about the new book that she's writing. It's basically about her life, and as the others offer suggestions, she's instantly thrown off when they suggest adding Nancy to the story and including Eleanor's affair with her husband. During this scene, we learn exactly how Mary and Howard got together. She was a teaching assistant (TA), and they were having a secret affair while he was still married to his first wife. We find out later in the episode that the wife's name was Jenny. The episode then cuts to the opening credits.
Once the opening ends, we're shown Mary at a grocery store. She requests cold medicine from an employee and is given a bottle of Adderall. Oh no! There were hints that Mary might have struggled with some sort of addiction in the past. Hopefully, the medicine is really for something else. Back at home, Howard relays good news to Mary. Apparently, he's got the new job that he applied for, which is in Ohio. However, Mary is hesitant about everything since their kids are pretty settled already and she'd be leaving her friends behind.
The conversation ultimately wraps up with Mary supporting Howard before he goes upstairs. Afterward, she turns to her bag, takes a single Adderall pill, and then pours the rest into a mint tin to conceal them. Later on, the police show up at their house. Detective Gantz is trying to get information on Eleanor and Robert to see if one or both of them might have killed Nancy.
While Mary protects Eleanor, she throws Robert under the bus by bringing up the apology letter that he wrote to Nancy before her death. She also mentions Scott, Nancy's stepdad, and asks Detective Gantz if she's spoken to him yet.
Detective Gantz reassures Mary that she did, adding that Scott claimed he hadn’t spoken to Nancy in quite some time. She then asks Mary about what time she left the restaurant the night of Nancy's murder. Mary says she left around 9 p.m., but Detective Gantz reveals she spoke with the bartender, who described how intoxicated Mary was that night.
She suggests to Mary that her memory may be unreliable due to her level of intoxication. At this point, Howard steps in and insists that Mary returned home at 10:30 p.m. and went straight to bed. A flashback then shows Howard helping a drunk Mary into bed that night.
Later on, Mary is shown sitting on her porch. She looks through Nancy's old scrapbook and finds a torn page with a sentence underlined. Mary recognizes the page right away. She goes to look for Howard's poetry book and discovers the exact same page inside.
We're then shown a flashback of when Mary and Howard used to secretly hook up when he was still married to his first wife. Howard had dedicated that same exact line from his book to Mary. During this flashback, we also learn more about Howard's first wife. He told Mary at the time that Jenny was mentally unstable and that he was going to divorce her soon. After the flashback wraps up, Mary seeks out Howard. She confronts him about the page, but he deflects by asking if she's popping pills again. He even gaslights her by bringing up a past incident where her struggle with addiction put their kids in danger.
While Howard might have been able to get out of this uncomfortable conversation, Mary is still just as suspicious and unsettled. Later on that night, she takes several pills while thinking back to the night of the ballet performance. She starts to remember how different Howard was acting that night. He seemed angry about something and was acting much more detached. We're then shown a flashback to the night of the ballet performance, where we find out why Mary was trailing Nancy.
Basically, she had witnessed Nancy and Howard having a tense conversation in the theatre. Since she was unable to question Howard about what they were talking about when they got home, she decided to follow Nancy afterward. She trailed her to a local diner, and they spoke about the situation. However, Nancy lied and told Mary that she went to Howard for advice about Robert. She didn't mention anything about her sleeping with him. At the time, Mary took her at her word and didn’t think much of it. Once the flashback wraps up, we're then taken back to Mary's kitchen.
Mary learns about Eleanor helping Marcus
As Mary thinks back to the night of the ballet performance, Marcus comes down the stairs. During this scene, Mary finally learns about how Eleanor helped Marcus out with his gambling debt. Now, she knows that Eleanor has been protecting him this entire time. As an emotional Marcus reveals this information to Mary, Mary tries her best to comfort him. Marcus then tells Mary that he initially planned to go to her and Howard for help, but when he got home that night, she was asleep and Howard was nowhere to be found.
This shocks Mary because Howard told Detective Gantz earlier that he was at home that night. Now, she really knows that something's up and that Howard isn't being truthful. This leads her to go search through his things, and guess what she finds. She finds Nancy's old ring that she had gifted her a long time ago. Now, she knows for certain that he and Nancy were having an affair behind her back. Mary's also more suspicious that he might have killed her.
So, she heads to Jenny's house to get answers. During their conversation, Mary learns that Howard is abusive and a liar. She also learns that Jenny was never mentally unstable as he claimed. In reality, Jenny was the one trying to leave him, not the other way around. Howard even pushed her down a flight of stairs when she actually tried to leave him. With all of this newfound information, Mary then heads to Eleanor's house.
They talk about Howard, the affair, Marcus, and Nancy before their conversation is interrupted by Eleanor's phone ringing. It's Howard! After asking about Mary's whereabouts, he tells Eleanor over the phone that one of their kids is in the hospital. Oh no! Mary and Eleanor immediately rush to the hospital, where they learn that Mary's daughter, Artemis, swallowed a bunch of pills.
It's the same pills that Mary was hiding in a mint tin in the kitchen. As the doctors rush to treat Artemis, her pulse begins to rapidly climb and she goes into distress. The sixth episode then ends with Mary and Eleanor staring as the doctors tend to Artemis, while Howard looks angrily at Mary.
Imperfect Women is available to stream on Apple TV.
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