So, what — and I can’t stress this enough — the entire f*ck just happened?!?!
Before going on a hiatus that I’m already dreading, In The Dark Season 3 Episode 5 gave us so many things: Murphy and Max reuniting, sex on a train, a coup, a fire, the list goes on.
What are we supposed to do with all of this?
As per usual, every time a plan is in place, it gets blown to hell (pardon the pun), and piecing things together is a chore.
Murphy’s plan to ask Josh and Gene for help was desperate, and in hindsight, it seemed ineffective, too.
They had no way of getting Josiah his money, so she felt her best bet was to get the cops involved and blow the lid on Josiah’s drug empire while turning herself in for Nia’s murder.
It was a noble and selfless move for Murphy, who notoriously gets criticized for being selfish and not putting others ahead of her needs. However, Murphy is showing that she will do anything for Jess.
But was anyone rubbed the wrong way by Josh? For someone who is supposed to be on the right side of the law, it was disturbing that he wouldn’t agree to help Murphy save Jess from a murderous drug dealer without Murphy agreeing to a bunch of terms.
Shouldn’t he feel compelled to rescue someone regardless of if he can get something out of it? We’re talking about life and death, after all!
Josh: Find, we’ll get Jess, but we still need the heroin. Every brick.
Murphy: You can have it. All of it.
He wouldn’t even let Murphy turn herself in and leave it at that. Josh assumed, which is something he’s been doing this entire time, inferring things without facts, that Murphy killed Nia and had help doing it and that all four of them need to go down for Nia’s murder.
Josh and Gene knew that the others weren’t together and likely apart, so it was an insane request that they get everyone on the same page to turn themselves in. But it was particularly bizarre that Murphy had to negotiate with an unemployed man with no legal recourse to do anything on his own.
Josh is a freaking civilian. Who is he to make demands or negotiate anything? He also doesn’t know when to be quiet and stay in his lane, and it can prove to be a liability to Gene while they’re walking a tight rope here.
And it’s also getting annoying that his blindness seems to shift depending on plot convenience, but I digress.
It’s bizarre that they know the chief is shady, but they’re still going to him with too much information, knowing that he’ll find ways to thwart or bench them.
We can believe that Gene has a genuine drive to solve all aspects of this case and do his job, but Josh is operating with a full-blown vendetta, and it’s unappealing at this point.
He’s not worried about justice or anything else; he wants to get back at Murphy because of her hurting him, and he’s willing to assume any and everything of her and put her away.
Gene is the one who is talking about making deals and viewing the bigger picture as far as taking down Josiah. Josh is hiding behind his consultation gig with Gene to lash out at Murphy, and it’s reaching a point of absurdity.
This is what she does. She makes you think that you guys had a special connection or whatever.
Max
Murphy had the near-impossible task of tracking down Max and getting him to agree to turn himself in for the sake of saving Jess. Out of all of them, Max was in the best position and had no reason to oblige.
If it wasn’t evident that he didn’t want to be found by them at all, he didn’t even bother using his assigned name and identification, and he gave his coworker enough information to field calls from them on his behalf.
Hell, Max got his diner job and even had a girl.
The only reason he obliged to any of this was because of Jess. But it was a tall order for them to agree to in the first place. Darnell and Trey would’ve escaped from the ordeal, but Trey’s betrayal was an unexpected turn of events that had a shocking domino effect.
For Jess, Felix and Murphy were resigned to the fact that they would go to jail, and they spent the rest of the day dealing with that in different ways.
For Felix, he had a moment where his low self-esteem got the better of him as he wondered how he would even function in prison. He catches so much flack from everyone, including his friends and family, for being this annoying person with a personality that’s an acquired taste.
While it’s often played up for laughs that everyone rags on him, it’s no wonder it takes a toll on him at times, too. But Murphy finally gave him a bit of reassurance when she admitted that he was great in bed.
After all that time she spent not talking about their surprise hookup, Felix felt good about himself for about five minutes regarding them clearing the air there. Of course, that also led to him opening up to Darnell about the feelings he has for Murphy.
Murphy: I didn’t want to say this because I didn’t want to make things weird, but I guess it doesn’t really matter now, but you are good at sex, and you can’t be a loser if you’re good at sex.
Felix: Are you being serious?
Murphy: Yeah. And if I weren’t going to prison, I would do it again if I were horny enough.
It’s never been a secret that Felix harbors some feelings for Murphy, so the two of them having sex brought up the inevitable. But Murphy doesn’t think about him in that way.
If there was ever a time for a reality check, it was when Felix overheard Murphy and Trey having sex.
Murphy and Trey’s dynamic is a fun one, but it was still a shock when it led to them having sex. Who saw that coming?!
One minute they’re bonding over being foster kids, and the next, they’re getting it on in the train bathroom. I’m too flabbergasted by Murphy’s reverse harem of men to say anything about it. You know, outside of the girl getting more ‘d’ than a word puzzle.
It made for some interesting moments when she was in the car with all the men she screwed, or when they were by themselves in the car, only some of them aware that they all had slept with Murphy.
Max zeroed in on Trey, and he made a point of telling Trey to watch out for Murphy. He had no way of knowing that his little piece of advice would prompt Trey to go through with his plan to remove the drugs from the arcade and take over Josiah’s empire.
Max is hurt; we get it, but at what point does he suck it up, let it go, or move on?
If he doesn’t want anything to do with Murphy anymore, then so be it, but the rest of his behavior is childish at this point. I can’t figure out which guy’s incessant and whiny butthurt behavior is worse: Max or Josh?
They have too many other problems for Max to still harp on the same old thing. And if he’s mad at Murphy, that’s fine, but why does he feel the need to turn everyone else against her too?
Murphy and Trey did have a connection or at least some form of friendship. And honestly, she didn’t need anything out of him. She went out of her way to make sure that he and Darnell wouldn’t face any flack.
She wasn’t using Trey for anything, so Max instilled some false fears in Trey, and he went from rethinking his plan that could screw Murphy over to going through with it.
If not for Alex, then Trey’s partner would’ve succeeded in stealing all of the drugs before the cops got there.
I like Alex, and my biggest fear was that she’d be dead by the end of the hour. She’s another woman who seems to have gotten in over her head with Josiah.
She’s been the one shining light Jess has in captivity, and Alex put her neck out there trying to keep Jess alive.
But after Josiah’s threats, it was only natural that she call and warn him about the cops coming. It’s safe to say that Josiah blew up the arcade on his own to keep the cops from raiding the place.
Jess and the drugs are probably gone, or they lost the product in the fire, which means that Murphy and the others will face more blowback from Josiah.
Josiah is worse than Nia ever was, and the hell he’s wreaking on all of their lives is making things stressful.
They’re not in a good position here.
Now, Jess is nowhere to be found, and the others will probably assume that she’s in the arcade still or dead.
The drugs that Murphy and the gang needed for their deal and Josh and Gene required for their investigation are M.I.A., and Murphy, Felix, and Max will probably be brought into custody for Nia’s murder and get squeezed from that angle.
Jess, if she dies, I am, I, yeah, I just, please. Please.
Murphy
Trey will likely feel pissed that he missed out on his big chance to take over, but since his coup was unsuccessful and he didn’t bring the money or the crew to Josiah, then he’s a dead man walking.
And Darnell already suspects something is shady about Trey, so if he finds out what Trey did, then goodness knows what that’ll be like for them.
The initial plan was too messy, and there’s no way of predicting how they get out of this one or find Jess.
And to our displeasure, we have to wait until August 11 to find out!
Over to you, In the Dark Fanatics. Are you sick of Josh and Max whining about Murphy? What do you think happened to Jess? Hit the comments below!
If you want to relive the season during hiatus, you can watch In The Dark online here via TV Fanatic.
Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.