The new mystery comedy series Phony follows mother-son duo Ellen and Sonny (played by Connie Britton and Sam Nivola) as they navigate a change in their relationship following Sonny's car accident. Ellen is grateful to have Sonny back in her home uninjured, but Sonny is having a wildly different experience: he's convinced his mom was swapped with an imposter while he was unconscious from the accident.
Fan theories online have people wondering if Sonny even survived the crash at all, but from Sonny's perspective, he has a strong case for why he believes his mom isn't "real."
None of his friends seem to see what Sonny is able to see, but new student Weldon helps him seek out a private investigator. And now in Phony episode 3, more clues surrounding what happened at the lake (but also tons of wild rumors) are coming to light — and hopefully, Sonny can work out what happened to his mom and how to get her back.
Sonny's forced to spend the day with Ellen
Up to this point, Sonny's main tactic has been to avoid Ellen, but because of his behavior at school, Sonny has been suspended and is forced to stay home. And what's even worse for Sonny is that Ellen opted to take a sick day and stay home with him. Sonny's convinced Ellen is trapping him there on purpose, and so he picks up the phone to confide in his new private investigator Sharla, looking for guidance on how to proceed.
Now feeling like he's on an undercover mission, Sonny takes Sharla's advice to play nice with Ellen for the day, but he overhears Ellen on a tense phone call that only feeds his suspicions about his mom being an imposter. Jumping on the offense, Sonny sets Ellen up by asking her to make a specific meal called "chicken nummers" from his childhood, something the real Ellen would absolutely know! So why is Ellen standing in front of him looking panicked about it?
Just when it seemed like Ellen did actually know how to make the specific meal with their favorite special ingredient, she slices her finger, prompting Sonny to run upstairs to find a first aid kit. But what actually catches Sonny's attention is a journal in Ellen's bed marked to the page that would have given her all of the information she'd need about how to make the recipe and the childhood lore behind it.
Ellen's suspicious field trip to the bank
With Ellen's phone continuing to ring, Sonny jumps when he hears the doorbell but is relieved to find it's his girlfriend, Chloe. Making up an excuse to leave the house, Ellen tells the two of them she's going to urgent care. And after Ellen leaves, Sonny checks in with Chloe about his mom's behavior. Chloe agrees with Sonny that Ellen is acting weird, but Sonny still doesn't fully tell Chloe what he thinks is going on with the imposter. The duo does take advantage of having the house to themselves, though.
Luckily, as Ellen is out the door to "urgent care," Sharla tracks her and follows her to a shopping center bank. We then see Ellen hand a large stack of cash to a mystery man in a parking lot, and it seems like the two know each other. He lights a cigarette for Ellen (and we also learn that Ellen can now track Sonny with the new phone she got him) before leaving, but he leaves before Sharla can learn more about what's going on.
Ellen and Sonny both learn about Shovel's dead body sighting
Conveniently, Ellen's parking lot payment outing was the very bar parking lot where the teachers from school were meeting for a night out. She's encouraged to join them for a drink, and she learns all about the rumors spreading at school about how Shovel saw a dead body. Getting the same intel from Chloe at home, Sonny and Chloe decide to go to the "dead body party" at the lake.
Sonny's smart enough to turn the location off on his phone so that Ellen can't track him to the party, but the phone doesn't make it out the door with him. When Ellen returns home, she sees Sonny's phone ringing and answers the call. But it's Sharla reporting back with the information about Ellen's bank trip! Ellen doesn't get any specific information before she realizes it's Ellen and hangs up the call, but it leaves us on quite the cliffhanger heading into next week!
New episodes of Phony drop Tuesdays on Hulu and on Hulu on Disney+ for bundle subscriptions.
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