In the previous episode of Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, Rachel's attempt to unite the Cunningham family and force them to emotionally handle Victoria's impending death ended up working. However, Rachel ended up being kidnapped from Somerhouse. The beginning of episode 4 finds Jude overhearing the struggle and informs Jules that Rachel was taken.
He shows his dad the footage he shot and the creepy man he saw in the house. When he asks if it's the Sorry Man, Jules looks like he's seen a ghost. We then see video camera footage playing on a television set, but it's not the video Jude shot. It's from January 1997 in a snowy forest location that looks a lot like where Somerhouse is located. Already, this found footage is creepy.
The camerman, Jay, enters the bathroom of what looks like a rest stop bathroom and shoots over a stall to capture a candid moment of his girlfriend, Ali, who is — surprise! — played by Victoria Pedretti. The couple are in Upstate New York in preparation of their wedding. She's pregnant — surprise again! — with Rachel. These are Rachel's parents, and we're seeing her origin story.
Victoria Pedretti guest stars as Rachel's ill-fated mother
In the video, Rachel's parents appear to drive past the bar she entered in episode 1, and they stop at the Coldies location that Rachel found abandoned in present day. The worker is incredibly creepy, and that's because he's Larry, the killer Nicky was telling Rachel about in the first episode. Alexandra doesn't feel right about the situation and wants to leave without their custard, fearing Larry will poison them.
Jay and Ali arrive at their cabin in the snowy forest, and the television set looks a lot like the one we're supposedly watching this footage on. When he notices Ali feels unsettled, Jay puts the camera down. She reveals that she's had dreams about this cabin and has seen grown-up Rachel in her dream, feeling that she's paranoid that something bad will happen. But she can't warn her daughter.
He calms her down and helps her sort through her complicated feelings about her mother. With that situation behind them, the next clip finds Ali wearing her wedding dress and talking to Rachel. Another hour passes and the couple are now at the church for the ceremony. They ask a man to hold their camera, and he asks Ali, "Are you sure he's the one?"
The footage skips every so often, providing an eerie mood that's sure to jump scare more than a few viewers. Before saying "I do," Ali looks at the camera, and the proceeding skip in the footage features a blink-and-you'll-miss-it inclusion of her bloody face. But that's not where we pick up. Back at their cabin, the newlyweds celebrate their marriage with music and slow dancing.
While dancing and kissing, Ali's nose starts profusely bleeding, and then it starts coming from her eyes. It's so intense that she's soon standing in a pool of blood. The next clip finds Ali lying on the ground, still bleeding, and pleading "You have to tell her." Jay tries to save her, but Ali has already died. The Paul Anka song she mentioned before from her dreams begins playing as Jay rips open her dress and then her stomach to deliver Rachel. He apologizes over and over.
The Sorry Man's identity is revealed
It's revealed that Rachel is watching this footage. As it turns out, it was her father (Josh Hamilton) her took her from Somerhouse to show her the video from the day she was born. She's furious that he lied to her about her mother's death and can't stand his breathing exercises. But he levels with her that her mother felt like something bad was going to happen and that he knows she feels it, too.
He informs her that that dread she felt when she arrived isn't happenstance. He knew that it was happening again when he received the invitation to her wedding, an invitation she didn't send him. He's also the one who sent her the warning and insists that she will die if she marries Nicky. Rachel wants to know what her mother was trying to tell her in the video.
Suddenly, Jules barges into the cabin with a gun and identifies Rachel's dad as the Sorry Man. Jules instructs Rachel to get away from him, but she insists it's only her father. He then has a realization about what he experienced as a child. When he ran away from home, he ended up in Jay and Ali's cabin. He was hiding under the bed when Rachel's mother was dying. Ali saw him and said "Tell her it's real" and "Are you sure he's the one?" before she died.
He watched as Jay tore Rachel from Ali's womb, saying "I'm sorry" over and over again, believing that Jay killed his wife and stole the baby. The Sorry Man urban legend is nothing more than a very tragic misunderstanding. While Jay and Jules struggle, Rachel leaves the cabin and drives to the creepy dive bar to confront the old man who asked her that telling question days ago.
Rachel learns about the curse that could cost her life
When she enters, he's singing the Paul Anka song that was playing when Ali died. She knows that he was at her parents' wedding and wants to know who he is. He already knows who she is and demands an apology. But before she can even consider it, he stabs her in the leg with a fork. An eye for an eye. He then goes into a story about his great-great-great-grandparents, who were tragically parted before their wedding. The bride begged Death to bring her soulmate back.
Death agreed to bring him back if she truly believed that he was her soulmate. Obviously, she agreed, and since Death cursed the woman's children to have the same burden when they marry. Every child that originated from this union was challenged to find their one true soulmate. This man met his wife-to-be Marianne and received a mysterious ultimatum to marry his soulmate before sundown on his wedding day or he will die. He left Marianne at the altar, and she ended up marrying Thomas Harkin.
The prophecy has continued down the Harkin lineage all the way to Rachel. The man reveals that Death has been following her leading up to her wedding day, which explains the unsettling point of view that has watched Rachel. He also reveals that he's immortal, a punishment for betraying Death's bargain and must witness every wedding in Marianne's bloodline.
The Witness hands Rachel a marriage license with only her name filled out. She still has two days to decide if Nicky's her true soulmate. She has to marry her soulmate by sundown on her wedding day or she will die. If Nicky's her soulmate, she will live. If not, well... And if she calls the wedding off, then the curse spreads to Nicky and his family. It's a big decision that falls on her shoulders.
Jay and Jules enter the bar, and it's clear that Jay recognizes him. She insists that he stick behind and talk to The Witness to get closure on what happened with her mother. She leaves the bar with Jules, and in the parking lot, she reaches down on the ground and picks up an elongated coin baring the Coldies logo and its saying, "But daddy, I want one!" that Ali had found odd. In the car, she and Jules reel over the truth. She believes in the curse.