Upamanyu Biswas
More family drama ensues in the fourth episode of ‘Happy Face,‘ titled ‘Controlled Burn,’ as Melissa tracks down her brother Shane for a discussion about Keith and what he was up to in Texas back in the 1990s. With time running out on Elijah’s death penalty, the protagonist and her work colleague, Ivy, try to forge connections with anyone they can to figure out a way to get to the bottom of Heather’s murder. However, the process proves to be more difficult than imagined as past issues resurface between the brother and sister in an effort to come to terms with the trauma their father left behind on the entire family. Additionally, Melissa also feels out of her depth as her own family faces the repercussions of her decision to go public with Keith’s identity. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Shane Makes a Late Entrance as Melissa and Ivy Meet Someone Unexpected
In a remote forest area, Shane, a wildland firefighter, tends to some fires before getting in the back of a truck. His friends ask him out on a night out, but he has other business. Elsewhere, his sister, Melissa, and Ivy are waiting outside his home for him to show up. The latter is unsure about the visit as Melissa has not talked to Shane in ages. She calls her husband to check up on the situation at home, especially with Hazel, who has stopped calling her mom. We get a glimpse of Hazel walking through the school parking lot, where Josh invites her into the car. He hands her the cash from the artwork sale as they engage in some playful flirtation. In the meantime, Bassett steps inside Keith’s solitary confinement cell and hands him his new cell. Thus, the guard and inmate are in cahoots with one another.
After waiting outside Shane’s house for a while, Melissa, Ivy, and Tyler are surprised when a woman named Gillian opens the door to greet them. She is Keith’s girlfriend and has been living in Shane’s house for a while. Although Gillian’s personality puts off Melissa, she proves to be a great candidate for an interview, especially as we learn that she is the one who urged Keith to confess to his ninth murder. Shane arrives not long after and has a run-in with the TV crew and his sister. He is unhappy with them barging into his home but allows them to stay over for dinner. During the meal, Melissa and Ivy bring up the topic of Shane traveling with Keith across Texas, which the pastor brought up in the previous episode. He loses his temper with Melissa and storms away. Ivy tells Melissa to deal with her brother while she heads off to talk to her dad.
Melissa and Shane are Ostracized For Their Father’s Notoriety
The following day at school, Hazel hears from Eva that rumors are circulating about her hitting on Josh because she got in his car. A teacher hands her a delivery form stating that something is waiting for her in the office. Melissa returns to Shane’s house bearing gifts to apologize for her accusatory attitude the previous night. They decide to head out on an expedition together to sell the family dresser sitting in Shane’s garage. Before leaving, he tells her she is lucky she could change her family name, implying that he’s trapped. Elsewhere, Hazel heads toward the school office and finds a Happy Face balloon inside, which she realizes is the gift for her. Believing it to be the work of Josh’s girlfriend, she confronts her in the locker area, only to be humiliated by the girl. She also learns the balloon was sent by someone else.
Melissa and Shane arrive at a prospective buyer’s house to sell the dresser. However, the couple recognizes them as Keith’s children, which sours their feelings towards buying the furniture as it may be connected to Keith somehow. When the sale is a bust, Shane tells his sister that this is the consequence of going public with their secrets. Meanwhile, Ivy arranges another interview with Keith, who is more interested in why Melissa couldn’t make it. Keith shows his derision with the entire interview process, frustrated that it is taking so much effort to be considered the one responsible for Heather’s murder. He refuses to speak with Ivy any further, who is left frustrated. At the same time, Melissa and Shane drive the dresser to another furniture shop in town, only to be turned down once more.
The protagonist notices a tag with the name West Slope on the back of the truck. She subsequently asks Shane to drive her to West Slope, Oregon, where her ex-boyfriend, Brendan, is living. In the meantime, Ben’s meeting at the office is disrupted when he gets a security camera alert on his phone. He realizes that his son, Max, is waiting outside the door. He cuts the meeting short and heads home to pick up Max. It turns out that his friend’s mom abandoned him because she no longer wants her son to associate with someone who has “bad blood.” Ben realizes that Melissa’s truth may be poisoning people against the entire family. Melissa tracks down Brendan to his workplace, where she confronts him about the op-ed about her abortion. However, it seems he has no part in it. She heads back out with Shane covering her back.
Shane Reveals the Truth While Melissa Confronts Her Father One Last Time
Meanwhile, Ivy and Tyler sit down for an interview with Gillian, who goes into a lot more detail about her past association with prison inmates and why she is attracted to them. They also get into her relationship with Keith and what she gets out of it. She explains that Keith is a complex person as we cut to Hazel collecting the balloon from the delivery office. They hand her a note from the sender, which reveals that her grandfather is behind it. Elsewhere, Melissa and Shane have some quality sibling bonding time as they sit down for some drinks at a bar. She tells him about how Brendan got her pregnant, which she kept a secret from everybody but Brendan and someone else. Subsequently, she asks Shane to share his side of the story, specifically about the travels to Texas with Keith. He gets angry with her again and rushes out.
Outside the bar, Melissa finally breaks through Shane’s walls as he finally reveals his memories of traveling with Keith to Texas. He blames himself for not stopping his dad because after they stopped at the “Find God Here” church, he killed three women. Later, brother and sister burn the dresser in a backyard fire as they sit down for some drinks again. Back home, Max has a nightmare, which compels him to go up to his dad’s room for some safety. Ben consoles his son and tells him that nothing will ever hurt him because he will protect Max. We receive a flashback of the time Melissa visited her father at the penitentiary for the first time, where she told him about her pregnancy. He was the only other person outside Brendan who knew. He calls Melissa a killer for getting an abortion.
In the present-day timeline, Melissa sits down for an unrecorded conversation with her father at the penitentiary. She tells him that this is her final time visiting him, even though she promises to keep looking into Elijah and Heather’s case. When Keith continues to be smug, Melissa reveals that the reason she got an abortion years ago was because Brendan raped her. She tells her father that she is just like the victims of his murders and not like him at all. As she proceeds to leave, Keith desperately tries to get her to stay and listen to him one last time. His only option is to give up the murder weapon he used in Heather’s death – the wrench. In the final moments of the episode, we witness Melissa and the filming crew walk into Shane’s garage and unwrap the wrench from Keith’s toolbox.
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