We’re back with a look at Episode 2 of the new Netflix thriller series, Pieces of Her. In episode 1, we met Laura Oliver and her 30-year old daughter Andy.
A sudden and random act of violence brings pieces of Laura’s past to light that suddenly create tremendous danger for them both. As we left things off after episode 1, Andy was headed out on the run in the car of a man who had come to kill Laura. Andy thinks she may have actually killed the man, defending her mother and herself.
Still reeling from the attack at the diner that left Laura with a knife stuck through her hand and a dead gunman, Andy is pretty shell-shocked as she heads to the town of Carolton to retrieve a car from a secret storage unit that her mother had been keeping for years. Meanwhile, Laura has an unconscious or dead would-be assassin in her house with the police about to arrive. Let’s jump right into episode 2.
Andy on the Run
Following her mom’s directions, Andy drives the killer’s truck to Carolton. We also see her deal with her first challenge, finding out how to drive somewhere when you don’t have your cell phone or any GPS navigation. Solution - get a map from a gas station. It’s a bit funny to see this 30-year old try to figure out a paper map. At the same time, Andy isn’t exactly showing that she’s up for this adventure. She can’t help but act suspicious with everyone she interacts with. Come on Andy! Get your act together.
Carolton
She eventually arrives at Carroltown, but has no idea to find this storage place. She heads to the public library (not a bad idea) to use their computers to search for the storage place and print a map. But, she starts freaking out when she sees a man looking into the truck she drove from Belle Isle.
She panics and runs out the back of the library, heading to the storage unit on foot. When she arrives, she finds a car in the storage unit, along with some other interesting items. One of them is a handgun in the glove box. The other is a suitcase hidden in the spare tire compartment in the trunk. Not sure why she decided to search the spare tire compartment, other than she needed to find this suitcase to move the plot forward.
Inside the suitcase, she finds what looks like at least $100,000 in cash, along with an envelope containing driver's licenses from multiple states with different names, but all having her mother’s picture on them.
Now utterly confused, Andy begins heading toward Maine, booking a motel room not far away. She is nervous and keeps an eye on the car from her motel window. But, then she inexplicably decides to head to the bar across the street. She is immediately recognized by an annoying bar patron as the woman whose mother had to save her from the gunman.
A random guy at the bar helps extricate her from the other bar patron and she decides to strike up a conversation. Oh, she then asks the guy to teach her how to shoot a gun. What? Seriously, who does that? You are on the run from unnamed killers and you meet a guy in a bar, tell him you have a gun and ask him to teach you to shoot it? I’m really beginning to think that Andy is 100% ill-equipped to succeed in a normal life, let alone one on the run from killers.
But, just when Andy is trying to get this guy to come back to her hotel room, she notices that his car was actually parked near her mom’s house on the night of the attempted assassination. She backtracks and heads back to the motel alone and locks herself in the room, with the gun in her hand. Is this stranger (Jack) part of the shadowy people after her mom? Who knows?
About that Would-Be Assassin
Back in Belle Isle, Laura calls her ex-husband Gordon for help again. This time, she needs him to help her use the wounded killer, who she apparently stashed in her pantry just before the police arrived the night before. She somehow convinced the police that she alerted them to a would-be home invasion (Andy actually sent the text), but was just overreacting after her ordeal from the diner.
Now, I’m not entirely sure how she explained the broken window in the door to the house, but again, you just have to let certain logical inconsistencies go in this series. The cops are very suspicious of Laura, starting back at how she so easily killed the gunman in the diner. She’s clearly a ‘hero’ but the detectives just think she seems sketchy.
Gordon arrives and reluctantly agrees to take Laura and the tied-up thug to wherever he was supposed to meet his boss after the job was done. But, his head injury appears to have been more serious than they thought and he dies in the car.
With nowhere to go from here, Laura goes back home and Gordon apparently disposes of the body. Talk about a great ex-husband! The two also have some conversations about Laura’s past coming back to haunt her, that they knew this day might come, etc. So, Gordon apparently knows at least something about Laura’s past, but we’re not sure what and how much.
Two more key things happen with Laura. When she gets home, she meets a friend named Charlie. He seems like maybe a boyfriend, but Laura keeps him at arm’s length. Makes sense, if she wants to keep him out of whatever trouble she is facing.
Lastly, Laura heads out to the TV truck parked outside her house. She has been avoiding them since the incident at the diner, seeming to really not want to appear on TV. But, now that a killer has been sent to her home, she decides she does have a statement to make, as long as it goes national. It’s pretty clear the message is going to be for whoever is after her.
What do we Know About Laura’s Past?
Laura clearly isn’t just a middle-aged mom. There seem to be a few options to consider at this point.
Laura is in witness protection. But, why doesn’t she want to go to the authorities about what’s going on, if she is in a federal protection program?
Laura is a spy or assassin or something. This is pretty standard for these types of thrillers. Maybe she’s a retired assassin, whose past is catching up with her.
Laura is a criminal on the run. This one makes some sense with the money and fake IDs in the car. Maybe this story mirrors the film, A History of Violence, where Viggo Mortenson is a former criminal in hiding.
So many questions!
