Neagley season 1 episode 4 begins with a scene that explains a whole lot about what’s going on at Echo Canyon. In episode 3, Keno successfully infiltrates the farm as a recovering addict and keeps Renee in the loop on everything he discovers. In the opening scene, we are taken back to Pierce Woodrow’s underground research facility, where he and Lawrence are conducting an experiment on a guy named Owen.
He has been administered the dosage, and an AI voice helps Owen navigate through his most traumatic memories. He’s a former soldier stationed in Ghazni who witnessed horrific things. In his memory, he and his unit were conducting a routine raid when they were hit by a bomb that left a mental scar on Owen.
During the experiment, the drug forces the trauma to surface so the victim may navigate through it, but since the drug isn’t ready, Owen hits a dead end, and as Woodrow so conveniently puts it, patient 42 is "cooked." This means the experiment always leaves the subjects losing their psychological balance for good. Woodrow is furious that the drug didn’t work and insults both Lawrence and the doctor for their incompetence and gives them an ultimatum that if they don’t give him results soon, he’ll pull the plug on everything.
Neagley gets a target on her back
Back in Chicago, Keno calls in to tell them about the underground lift and the armory the farm has for its protection. Keno is terrified and asks that the gang rescue him, but Neagley wants him to stay put. She threatens not to clear his debt until he finds out enough about what happens at the farm and why Tommy Crane sent her rye flour.
Hudon, Renee, and Neagley later discuss the possibilities of what could be happening at the farm. Since they know that Tommy was drugged when he died and that the guy Keno found was probably under influence too when he hammered his genitals, it could all be related to drugs or psychedelics.
Neagley suggests Renee get in touch with the county clerk's office to find out who had an underground construction built on the farm. Moreover, she also asks Renee to find out who was with Davos and Ford in his military unit because army buddies tend to stick, and if Davos was seeking help at Echo Canyon, the third survivor must have also followed suit.
As Renee leaves the café, we see a man and a woman in a car watching her intently and informing someone on the phone that they have eyes on the target and will engage when an opportunity arises. Back at the café, Neagley insists that she break into the Deputy Chief's house to bug it so they can get more information on dirty cops. Hudson argues that it’s a bad idea, but Neagley convinces him and asks him to keep a lookout while she gathers information.
The scene intercuts to Neagley’s place, where the Swedish man and woman following her break into her place. They lace the milk, water, toothbrush, and other personal use items with the drug to ensure she’s out of the way once and for all. However, a few moments later, York arrives and bangs on the door, claiming he knows Neagley is inside and just wants to talk.
York says he’s worried for Neagley’s safety and that she can talk to him if she’s in a tough spot. Unfortunately, the killers open the door, pull him in, and place a knife to his throat. We never actually see what happens to York, but it's safe to assume that the killers took care of him.
At the Deputy Chief’s place, Neagley successfully manages to break in, and as she’s placing bugs, she comes across a report that catches her attention. She’s talking to Riley on the phone when the chief's dog walks into the office, ready to tear the intruder apart. What’s more, back at the station, while Hudson is keeping an eye on Chief Plemel, his godson arrives and corners him.
Murphy threatens Hudson not to dig deep into Davos’s death because it's his word against Hudson’s, whom no one trusts. However, Hudson isn’t the one to be scared easily, and he threatens to come after anyone who works against the law.
Unfortunately, by the time he gets away from Murphy, he realizes that the chief is gone. Back at Plemel’s place, as Neagley thinks of ways to get rid of the dog, she hears Plemel arriving. She has no choice but to pull up to the attic, and by the time the chief comes looking into the office, Neagley is gone.
However, seeing the dog so agitated, Plemel looks around and finds a shoe print on his desk. He immediately realizes there’s an intruder in the attic and fires relentlessly. Neagley makes a run for it and barely escapes the house, but thankfully, she isn’t spotted.
Keno discovers the truth about Echo Canyon
At Echo Canyon Farm, we see Judith carrying out some sort of therapy session with Mandy. The scene depicts how people like Judith spot potential victims of mental and physical abuse and choose them based on the intensity with which they let their trauma affect them.
Watching Mandy confront her fear makes Keno feel something for her, but he can tell she’s too invested in the farm and in Lawrence. As they talk, Judith arrives and questions Keno for missing Community last night and prompts him to reveal where he went. Sensing trouble, Mandy takes the fall, telling Judith that she suggested Keno take a walk under the stars since the first community can be overwhelming for newcomers.
However, Judith isn’t happy and urges Mandy to be careful because Lawrence might be considering her for the neophyte position, and even as a participant in the project. Judith tells Mandy to clean and be ready for the special community later that day.
Later, when Lawrence is going for community, Judith stops him and pleads with him not to do what he’s planning to do. However, Lawrence is adamant that this is how it’s supposed to be, but Judith argues that punishing someone so fragile could damage what they have built here. However, Lawrence’s God Syndrome gets the better of him, and he threatens Judith not to cross the line.
As community begins, Lawrence says Echo Canyon is a family and that it's important not to betray family. He calls out Mandy, who thinks she’s going to be rewarded, but instead, Lawrence hurls insults at her for being naïve enough to give negative counsel to a newbie. By telling Keno to skip his first community, Mandy has disrespected their core value.
To make Mandy repent, Lawrence hits her hard with a paddle to the back. He hits her and her screams fill the air, but no one is able to do anything, including Keno. He later calls Renee to rant about the place but vows to find out more for the sake of Mandy and the others. However, Renee warns her that if they can be cruel to their own, they’ll be ruthless if they catch Keno, but he’s determined to follow through.
At the hospital, Neagley asks her father about the financial report she found since he worked in financial crimes back in the day. Although he isn’t happy that his daughter is snooping around the deputy chief's house, he offers rare insight into what it could be.
Neagley tells him that Plemel recently opened an account with $800,000, but he used all that money to buy shares in an ETF that focuses on pharmaceutical companies. His father tells him it looks like he’s cashing in on insider information. However, if he bought an ETF with a large holding in that company whose stock is about to jump, he can’t be convicted of insider trading.
He advises Neagley to look at one of that ETF’s top ten holdings to find a trail of where Plemel is invested. However, before she bids farewell. Neagley shows her father her old report card, where the teacher noted that she had started acting strangely by avoiding touching people. She demands that her father not lie to her about when her haphephobia started, but Mr. Neagley urges his daughter to let go of the past because there’s nothing there.
Renee, Neagley, and Hudson later regroup to discuss a course of action. Renee finds that a man named Owen Vark was one of the survivors along with Davos, but he’s currently committed to the psychiatric ward at Jesse Brown Veterans Hospital. However, before they leave, Renee gets a call from York’s wife, Nora, who's worried about her husband because he hasn’t called back in a while. Neagley suggests they have their guy ping his last location so they’ll know where he's been.
The trio visit the psychiatric hospital and find that Owen is in no shape to talk, but Neagley, being in the army herself, finds common ground with him. She explains how she understands the horror he witnessed overseas, but it’ll be okay if he gives them some information about Echo Canyon.
Owen is reluctant at first but eventually warms up to Neagley after Hudson gives him broken dolls to play with. He tells them about Echo Canyon and how he went there with his army buddies to be ‘fixed.’ He didn’t want to remember the terrible things he saw during deployment. He thought Lawrence could help, but then he repeats what Pierce said, "Patient 42 is cooked." However, before Neagley and Hudson can dig any further, Owen loses his calm, and the two are escorted off the premises.
At Echo Canyon, Lawrence is being schooled by Pierce for ‘disciplining’ Mandy. Pierce doesn’t want Lawrence giving fresh trauma to a patient he’s trying to give trauma drugs to. However, Lawrence argues that Woodrow was supposed to help his people, but he has turned them into lab rats. Lawrence insults the man, saying he has given humanity nothing but corpses.
At the York office, Neagley and the others try to make sense of the information they collected. The only theory they can come up with is that Echo Canyon is drugging people for some reason, but where and why? When Neagley mentions Pierce, Renee is able to point out his involvement in the pharmaceutical industry.
It turns out that Pierce is the current CEO of Invection Pharmaceuticals, and the said company is the number one holding in the ETF that Plemel invested in. It looks like things are finally making headway in the right direction. The trio decides to call it a night as Neagley suggests she head home and do some research on Pierce Woodrow.
Back at Echo Canyon, Keno breaks into the barn once again, but he has company. When he tries taking the elevator, he finds it's already being used by some guys to transport duffel bags from underground onto a truck. Keno sneaks in on the truck but finds that the bags are filled with dismembered parts of the patients who died during experimentation.
Unfortunately, before Keno can find a way off the truck, the men arrive, and he has to hide beneath the bags. The men drive the truck away into the dead of night with Keno stuck in the back. As for Neagley, she drives back home and pulls out the milk laced with the drug. As she’s about to take a bite of the cereal, Renee calls to inform her that York’s phone last pinged near Neagley’s house.
Neagley is confused, but when she finds blood on her paper towel roll, she assumes the worst. She tells Renee someone was in her house and scouts the place with a UV light. To her horror, she finds a giant pool of blood in the middle of her home that was cleaned after someone murdered York there. Neagley has no time to think, and she grabs her cereal in a flask and heads out. As the elevator door closes, Neagley drinks the laced milk, not knowing what it’ll do to her.
All episodes of Neagley are currently streaming on Prime Video.
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