The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window Season 1 Episode 3 Recap

Someone brings Anna back into her house, and she wakes up to find police officers talking to Neil and Emma. She goes outside to see what’s happening. Detective Lane and Officer Walters ask to talk to her in private. They say Lisa Maines is not dead but on a plane to Seattle. They also tell her it’s easy to mistake a red scarf for blood, especially when you have had wine and pills. Detective Lane also tells her the book she’s reading, with a theme of witnessing a murder, can make her imagination run wild. After they leave, Anna doubts herself as well.

The next morning, Anna remembers seeing Lisa’s face and tells herself she couldn’t have imagined that.

She talks to Neil about what she saw, making Neil furious, so he asks her if she was drinking. As it turns out, Carol told Neil that Anna has a drinking problem. Neil tells Anna that Lisa can’t be dead because they have just been texting. Anna insists on seeing Neil’s phone to verify this information. Neil is reluctant, but he still gives her the phone. She reads the messages and is somehow convinced, but she thinks that is not enough. She asks Neil if she can come in just to investigate further. He refuses to let her in and tells her that Emma has been really afraid of the police coming. Neil tells her that grief can do many things.

Anna sees Carol unloading groceries and asks her about hearing something the previous night. Carol says what she heard were police sirens waking up her boys and her husband, which was very unfortunate because Scott has a big meeting happening that day. Anna asks her why she told Neil she has a drinking problem. Carol just repeats the fact then tells her that maybe she needs a better therapist. Anna gets upset and tells her to fuck herself.

Back home, Anna sees Neil leave. She sees the perfect opportunity to break into his house, but first, she needs to make Buell go away, as he doesn’t seem to finish fixing her mailbox. She smashes a light fixture and asks him to run to the hardware store, and he does.

With Buell gone, Anna rummages through his toolbox and finds something she can pick Neil’s lock with. She breaks in and immediately tries to find any evidence of the murder. She looks for blood on the floor but finds nothing. Then, she notices one of Lisa’s earrings under the curtains and keeps it. She gets distracted by a family photo, and while looking at it, Neil and Emma arrive.

Neil asks Emma to go upstairs. He confronts Anna for breaking into his house. He tells her there is nothing to see because nothing happened to Lisa. But she insists Lisa’s dead, and she isn’t who he thinks she is. She tells him there is a photo of her with another guy. Anna wants to show Neil, but she realizes she doesn’t have her phone, so she borrows his phone. Neil refuses; she tries to get it by force. Emma sees this. Anna stops in embarrassment. Neil tells her to get out and to stay away from them.

Anna meets Sloane and tells her what happened. Anna weeps because Sloane doesn’t believe her either. Sloane tells her she sees things and Elizabeth, making her realize she might be wrong for the first time. Now, she thinks she needs help.

Anna goes to a support group meeting for grief. She shares she has a shrink, but she lies to him because maybe she doesn’t want to get better, afraid that she will forget about her daughter if she does. After sharing, Anna helps herself to some pastries. Eileen approaches and tells her their daughters were in the same class. She apologizes to Anna for never reaching out to help.

Anna sees a flyer for a grief retreat to Miami Beach then contemplates going. She reaches for her pockets and gets Lisa’s earrings. She tells herself not to bother with it; it’s just the grief playing tricks on her. She takes the flyer.

At the airport, she sees a poster: “West Coast Flights Begin Next Year!” She asks the receptionist about it, and he verifies what Anna knows. Lisa works for Olympia Airlines, so this means Lisa is not really in Seattle.

Anna goes to the police station to tell Officer Lane about her discovery. Officer Lane tells her that Lisa just might not want Neil to find out where she is, so she lied. “If lying to your romantic partner was a crime, everybody would be in jail,” she tells Anna. Anna takes out Lisa’s earrings, telling it can be evidence. “If there was a body, it would be evidence. But because there’s no body, it’s just an earring,” the officer replies.

Anna tells Officer Lane about Rex—she thinks he found out about Neil and Lisa, so he killed her. But Officer Lane tells her maybe she is just a mother who lost her daughter most horribly. She shares she was one of the junior detectives in Massacre Mike’s case, and she wanted to kill him right there and then for killing and eating people, but she didn’t. She says sorry to Anna because had she done that, Elizabeth won’t be another one of his victims.

Anna heads out and sees an inscription on the rear of her car saying she should stop or she’s going to be next. Arriving home, Anna asks FBI records to run background checks on Lisa Maines and Rex Bakke using Douglas’ credentials.

Emma knocks on Anna’s door to sell her chocolates again. Anna apologizes to her, pays for the chocolates, and gives Emma the duck Elizabeth owned. Emma is about to leave when Anna asks her about the other night. Emma shares her dad and Lisa were arguing, but she didn’t hear a lot. She tells Anna her dad gets mad a lot, even at her mother, making Anna think about Neil badly. Anna tells her she can come to her if she ever feels like she is not safe.

Anna does her research on Neil and discovers he is named a person of interest in the case.

Our Thoughts

Now, even we are confused. Well, Anna could just be seeing things because Lisa texting Neil meant she’s really alive, and Officer Lane might be correct about Lisa lying about Seattle. If there is one thing this episode gives us, it is the confirmation that Elizabeth died in a very tragic way by being murdered and eaten by a psycho. We now understand how hard it must be for Anna and why her grief is something we cannot blame her for. It is also the first time that made us think of Neil differently: there is really a possibility he is not the good person we think he is. Oh, the story gets twisted and twisted with every episode.