The first episode of “The Last Thing He Told Me” largely focused on establishing the dynamic between Hannah, Owen, and Bailey before throwing them into the deep end. We learned that Hannah is into woodturning. She was abandoned by her mother at a very young age. And it was her grandfather who looked after her and helped her nurture her love for woodturning. Owen works as a chief coder at an IT tech firm named The Shop. Hannah and Owen have been together for over a year. Bailey is Owen’s daughter from his previous marriage. She aspires to be a singer, and she has a boyfriend called Bobby. In addition to all that, Hannah has a friend who works at the San Francisco Chronicle, Jules, and she’s married to her colleague, Max. While conversing with Jules, things took a turn for the worse as The Shop was accused of causing a massive fraud, and Owen went on the run, leaving behind two very vague notes for Hannah and Bailey, along with a duffel bag full of cash.
Major Spoilers Ahead
Hannah’s Lawyer Turns His Back On Her.
Titled “The Day After,” because it’s literally the day after Owen’s disappearance, Hannah watches The Shop crumble and fall as she remembers having a conversation with him about going to Austin. He revealed that that was where he spent his college days and possibly a brief time after graduation. Owen said that that period was defined by the use of a lot of recreational drugs, but he refused to spill any more details. Hannah assured him that his past wasn’t going to change her perception of him in any way. Yet Owen didn’t divulge, and that’s the biggest hint that Owen’s current predicament is somehow connected to Austin. In the present day, Hannah calls up her lawyer, Carl Strumwasser, because that was something that Grady Bradford told her to do. However, Carl seems to be unavailable at this difficult time, and this makes Hannah very anxious.
Talking about anxiety, Bailey seems to be on edge because she keeps seeing news about The Shop on her social media feed. But it’s Hannah who goes over the proverbial edge after suspecting that her car is being followed by someone while dropping Bailey at her school. After having a tense conversation with Jules and Max about how Owen needs to show up immediately or else he’ll be a part of the ongoing investigation, Hannah tries to break into Owen’s laptop to get some information. Surprisingly, that’s when the FBI shows up to seize the laptop so that they can look into it. Frustrated with the constant warnings to have a lawyer back her up, Hannah shows up at Carl’s doorstep. And she finds out that Carl and his wife, Patty, have been ignoring Hannah because Owen had apparently asked them to invest in The Shop and has now run away with their money.
Max And Jules Try To Calm Hannah And Bailey Down.
While calling up Jake, her lawyer ex-boyfriend, Hannah remembers her conversation with Owen about his dead wife, Olivia, where he said something vague about her death being the worst thing that had happened in his life. But nothing more than that. Anyway, Jake picks up the call, and Hannah gives him all the information she has on the situation so that he can use his powers to help her and Bailey (who is having a tiff with Bobby due to their differing college admissions). Jake treats Hannah like the wife of every high-earning grifter who has run away after making a lot of money, owing a lot of money to a lot of people, or sometimes both. Hannah is obviously taken aback by this because she still believes that Owen hasn’t run due to money issues, and there’s more to this story.
Later that evening, while Hannah is working at her studio, Bailey suspects someone has broken into their home and rushes to get Hannah. When the police look through the house, they find no sign of a break-in. Soon after that, Jules and Max show up, and while Jules goes out to talk to Bailey, Max has a conversation with Hannah. Jules and Bailey discuss Bobby and Owen’s apprehensions about him, and Max questions Grady’s legitimacy and his involvement in it. And Max points out that the area code for Grady’s phone number is that of Austin. Since nothing is coincidental, Hannah connects this piece of information with Owen’s aversion to going to Austin because that’s where he spent his college days.
Why Are Hannah And Bailey Going To Austin?
Carl swings by to reveal an infuriating bit of info, i.e., he didn’t invest in The Shop like his wife, Patty, believes. Carl is a gambler, and he simply burnt through his savings. When he had to give an answer to his wife about the whereabouts of the money, he lied about giving it all to Owen. Hannah is obviously shocked, but since they’re friends, she brushes it aside because she already has so much on her plate. Since the Austin connection is bugging her, she asks Carl if Owen has ever mentioned anything about being there. Carl says that this one time, he and Owen were talking about being at a concert in Austin. Then Owen got all weird about it because he wanted to convince Carl that he had never been there, as if he had to make sure that Carl didn’t associate him with Austin in any way. That’s all that Carl is able to remember before rushing back to his house.
Hannah checks if the U.S. Marshall’s number is legit, and it is. But before getting into her house, she notices the bald-headed guy from earlier lurking around again. Hannah is taken aback by it, but she doesn’t act on it. Instead, she goes to Bailey to ask her if she remembers anything about spending time with Owen in Austin. After Hannah reveals why Austin is on her mind, Bailey vaguely remembers going to a football game in Texas with him. As she goes into specifics about the stadium’s color and the reason for their visit being relatives, it becomes apparent that Owen does have a deeper connection to the place than he wants everyone to believe. As Bailey shuts Hannah off after digging that deep into her memories because it’s tough on her heart, Hannah calls up Jake to learn more about the football stadium in Austin.
The one thing that matches Bailey’s description of it is the white-and-orange color theme. Hannah also mentions that Grady’s number is from the U.S. Marshalls’ office in Austin. And then there’s Owen’s tendency to avoid Austin. Therefore, Hannah thinks that she and Bailey must go there to look into Owen’s past. Jake obviously tells her not to do anything like that because the FBI is investigating the matter, and if Hannah and Bailey skip town, they’re going to think she’s somehow involved in Owen’s disappearance and The Shop’s case of fraud. Hannah doesn’t listen to all that and leaves with Bailey while giving Grady the slip.
It’s very obvious that Owen was involved in something criminal in Austin, which is why a U.S. Marshall has been keeping tabs on him. Owen had brought up recreational drugs, and it’s safe to assume that he did more than just consume them. And, no, selling drugs in back alleys or to random people you see on the street wouldn’t put you in the U.S. Marshall Service’s radar. You have to do something magnanimously criminal to make that happen, and there’s a good chance that Owen has done exactly that. If that’s the case, it becomes clear why he wants to avoid going to Austin or even mentioning that place.
We’ve heard that Owen’s ex-wife, Olivia, died in a car crash. If drugs were involved, she could’ve been the victim of some kind of gang warfare, and Owen was simply lying about it to protect Bailey and Hannah from that dark era of his life. However, the thing about life is that unless you’ve truly paid for what you’ve done, it’s going to come back to haunt you and your loved ones as well. If Owen had settled his score back in Austin, it probably wouldn’t have followed him to Sausalito. Now, he is on the run, and his wife and daughter are distraught. That said, why did Owen jeopardize his position at The Shop if he was trying to keep a low profile after his time in Austin? Or was that something coincidental, i.e., life’s way of balancing the scales?
