The Last Thing He Told Me Episodes 1 & 2 Recap & Ending Explained: Based on Laura Dave’s bestselling novel by the same name, ‘The Last Thing He Told Me’ tells an intriguing mystery narrative. It follows Hannah, who struggles to forge a relationship with her teenage step-daughter Bailey in the wake of her husband Owen Michaels’ sudden disappearance. Starring Jennifer Garner and Angourie Rice in the lead roles, the cast also includes Game of Thrones fame Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Aisha Tyler, Geoff Stults, and Augusto Aguilera, among others.
The series premiere shows the stages of Hannah’s initial shock and a series of revelations that redirects her life in a completely different trajectory.
*Spoilers ahead*
The Last Thing He Told Me Episodes 1 & 2 Recap:
Episode 1: Protect Her
We meet Hannah (Jennifer Garner) in a hotel room, looking at her phone. The lock screen has a photo of her with Owen (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). She suddenly puts it on the floor and breaks the screen. Soon after, she runs out of her room and starts looking for her stepdaughter, Bailey (Angourie Rice). Despite her efforts, she cannot find her. She returns to her room and picks up her phone. Suddenly, she hears a sound and goes out to see who else is there. She gets stunned, and then the narrative shifts to events from four days before.
At the time, Hannah was working with wood for her new artwork. Owen brings her some lunch and tries to hype her for her upcoming magazine feature. She takes his compliment modestly. One thing leads to another, and they share a kiss. They walk out of the house, and Owen brings up the subject of celebrating the 14 months of their relationship as an anniversary. She shrugs off that thought. They ruminate over their past dates, and then he asks her to celebrate regardless on the weekend. She gets worried about what Bailey would think about this plan.
The next morning, Hannah wakes up worrying about how she should make the lunch. She asks for Owen’s opinion. Bailey interrupts their dialogue and asks Owen to drop her at school. She ignores Hannah’s question and makes it clear that she does not like her stepmother. Anyhow, Owen gets ready and, while walking to their car, he tells Bailey to be reasonable with Hannah and to understand that she is making an effort and reciprocate it. Bailey agrees to do so for the time being.
Later, Hannah drives far away from their place just to get the kind of bread that Bailey likes. Her reporter friend, Jules (Aisha Tyler), gives her a call. She questions why Hannah is making such an effort. Then she cuts her call to know why her partner, Max (Tyner Rushing), has been trying to reach her. Anyhow, Hannah gives her new artwork to Ash (Monnae Michaell) and looks at the feature article talking about her woodwork. She sees her father’s photo and says how happy her father would have been seeing his photo published in a magazine.
Then, Hannah drives back home and gets busy preparing food for dinner. She misses Jules’ calls, who keeps trying to reach her. Then a girl comes by her house and hands over a note shared by Owen. She says that Owen gave it to her in the school hall. Hannah opens it to find ‘Protect Her’ written on it. She gets confused. What does he mean by that? She tries to reach him on call, but it goes straight to voicemail.
Once Bailey leaves with her friend, Suz, Hannah tries calling Owen’s office. But Greg tells her that none of the senior staff is available on the phone and abruptly cuts her call. So, she drives there to find FBI officials swarmed up and bringing boxes of evidence out of the building. She goes to the parking lot to find Owen’s car gone. Then, she sees Owen’s co-worker, Avett Thompson, being taken away by the police.
Still in shock, Hannah drives to Bailey’s school to drive her home. She watches Bailey sing and waits till her performance ends. But afterward, Bailey keeps rejecting her calls and rather keeps speaking with her friend, Bobby’s (John Harlan Kim) place. Finally, she goes back to her locker to bring her backpack. She sees it slightly open with a note and a duffel bag inside. She walks out to Hannah’s car and hands over the note. In it, Owen says how sorry he is about his actions and says that Bailey matters to him so much.
Hannah opens the duffel bag to find many bundles of cash inside. Right before Bailey got inside the car, she read news in the Chronicle about fraud from Owen’s The Shop. She feels sick to her stomach at what Owen has gotten himself involved in. Still, she drives back home with Bailey, who feels that Hannah is hiding something from her about Owen. Anyhow, the two decide not to let any living soul about the cash.
What does Jules know about Owen’s disappearance?
When they walk out, Jules joins them back home. Hannah goes back to the closet to find all of Owen’s clothes intact. She tells Jules about it and concludes that it was not preplanned. Then Jules explains what Max told her. The Shop’s new software does not work. And the numbers that Avett showed as their sales were actually the people who were merely interested in it. So, right after her call with Max, she called Owen to alert him about it. Instead of asking her more about the fraud, he just wanted to know how much time he had to get out. That’s why she was trying to reach Hannah before.
Before leaving, Jules warns her that assets in Owen’s possession will be sealed. Later at night, Hannah notices a man keeping a watch on their house. While Bailey continues to keep her distance from her, Hannah keeps recalling her memories with Owen to find traces of his lies and secrets. The next morning, she talks to Bailey, who is still angsty toward her. Bailey firmly believes that Owen’s note means more than what meets the eye.
Soon after their awkward interaction, Grady Bradford (Augusto Aguilera) meets Hannah and introduces himself as the US marshal. Hannah refuses to share any details about Owen. Still, Grady talks about Owen as if they go way back and also makes Owen sound like a criminal mastermind, which baffles Hannah. Anyhow, Brady leaves after giving his contact written on a napkin.
Episode 2: The Day After
The next morning, Hannah watches the news saying that The Shop’s software was not operational. Since Avett had hyped the sales figures in advance of their company’s IPO, their shares have now plummeted. Hannah recalls an event where she suggested going to Austin together. He said that they should go to Taos, New Mexico, instead. He says that he hasn’t gone there since college and that the thought brings back some strange memories to him.
Meanwhile, in the present, Avett gets bail. Hannah calls Carl Strumwasser (Ross Partridge) to call her back urgently. She believes that she now needs a lawyer. Despite Owen’s disappearance, she drives Bailey to school. On the way, she feels like someone is following them. Jules calls her out of concern for her well-being and tries to relieve her stress.
Hannah drives back to her studio and opens Owen’s laptop. She goes through his files and finds a password-protected file that says, ‘Most Recent Will.’ She tries an option, but it doesn’t work. Suddenly two FBI agents – Agent Naomi Wu (Jennifer Khoe) and Agent O’Mackey (Nick Thurston) show a warrant and confiscate Owen’s laptop. Besides, they also threaten to hurt Bailey if Hannah does not cooperate or hides any known details. While Hannah does get angry, she reveals a visit from Grady. Naomi warns her not to share details with any strangers like that.
Right after, Hannah drives to Carl’s home since he refuses to pick up her calls. His wife, Patty (Jennifer Lafleur), tries to villainize Hannah for knowing about Owen’s fraud and not telling them beforehand. Patty is angry since they lost so much of their savings because of Owen. Carl does not get to speak with Hannah just then. However, Brady keeps following Hannah every step of the way.
In school, all the students keep staring at Bailey since they read the news article about The Shop. Still, she feels supported only by Bobby. Unfortunately, he soon shares his plan to go to Duke University instead of Stanford. It upsets her since that would mean they would live so far away.
Meanwhile, Hannah recalls a time when Owen told her about Bailey’s mother’s tragic death. He regrets not being there for her. In the present, Hannah decides to call her ex-boyfriend and lawyer, Jake (Geoff Stults), since Carl did not help her with a lawyer. He panics the moment Hannah mentions Owen was the lead engineer at The Shop. He also notes that the FBI’s involvement in such a case is normal, but the US marshal’s involvement suggests Owen is a fugitive. Hannah tries to still defend Owen. Jake says that she sounds just like any other wife of a white-collar criminal. Still, he offers to help with a private investigator.
Later in the evening, Bailey comes home, drenched in the rain. She hears some sound on the first floor and walks up there, feeling as if Owen is there. Instead, she notices a door wide open. She ran out to meet Hannah, who was busy working in her studio. Right after, Hannah calls the police about a break-in complaint. However, the officers cannot find anything that suggests a break-in.
Soon after, Jules arrives at their doorstep with Max. Hannah still cannot understand why Owen decided to run away. She speaks with Max about Grady’s visit. Max also finds it unusual that a US marshal met her about this. Hannah says that Grady shared his contact on a napkin, which is yet another weird thing about him. Max reads the number and notices that the area code is from Austin. Hannah recalls asking Owen to join her for her woodturners convention in Austin while he suggested something else.
The Last Thing He Told Me Episode 2 Ending Explained:
What is Owen’s connection with Austin?
Carl texts Hannah saying he is outside her house. He comes there without his family’s notice. He tells about their common friend from Costa Rica, his sportsbook, and he fell back into that wagon. Carl lied that he put their savings in The Shop just to save himself.
Anyhow, Hannah asks whether Carl can think of any of Owen’s relation to Austin since Grady is based there. Carl recalls one incident where Owen mentioned visiting a place in Austin and then retracted himself as if it mattered. He recalls this since he found it weird back then.
Then, Hannah calls the number written on the napkin to learn that Grady does, in fact, work in the Austin US Marshall office. She goes back inside and asks Bailey if she remembers even being in Austin. Bailey cannot recall the city in specific but recalls being in Texas for a football game. She can’t think of any relatives or friends living there. But the most she can remember about the stadium is the orange color associated with it.
What is the Orange color’s relation to Austin?
Right after, Hannah calls Jake to learn that the Austin football stadium, the t-shirts, and many other things are orange-colored. Once he confirms that, she makes up a new plan. Right away, she tells Bailey about it. The next morning, they both get on a plane to Austin.
The first two episodes show that the series is a slow-burn thriller. It enjoys taking its time to reveal the details and loves to ruminate over the past quite often. It is clear that Owen lied to Hannah and Bailey about something substantial about his identity. I just hope that ‘the truth’ is worth the season-long episode that’s built up to learn about it.
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The Last Thing He Told Me Episodes 1 & 2 Links – IMDb, Wikipedia
The Last Thing He Told Me Episodes 1 & 2 Cast – Jennifer Garner, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Angourie Rice
Where to watch The Last Thing He Told Me
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