Last week, “The Last Thing He Told Me” premiered on Apple TV+ with two episodes. The plot was centered around Owen and Hannah and Owen’s daughter from his previous marriage, Bailey. On the eve of the couple’s 14-month anniversary, Owen disappeared, and the company that he worked for, called The Shop, got accused of committing a massive fraud. The only clues that Hannah and Bailey received from Owen were a couple of vague handwritten notes and a duffle bag full of cash. As if that wasn’t concerning enough, Hannah found out that her activities were being monitored by the FBI, U.S. Marshall Grady Bradford, and a mysterious bald guy. She tried to get some help for her journalist buddies, Jules and Max, as well as her high-profile lawyer ex-boyfriend, Jake. But that didn’t help. Eventually, Hannah figured out that Grady was stationed in Austin, Owen had an aversion towards Austin, and Bailey had some obscure memories of being in Austin for a ceremony. So, she and Bailey decided to leave Sausalito and go to Texas to find out anything about Owen.
Major Spoilers Ahead
Hannah And Bailey Realize They’ve Got To Look For Churches In Austin
Hannah remembers going to the movie theater with Owen and Bailey. Although Bailey scoffed at Hannah for bringing separate buckets of popcorn, Owen told her that she was going to be the mother that Hannah needed. On the plane, Hannah and Bailey notice that the news of The Shop’s criminal affairs has left the state of California and is spreading everywhere. After landing in Austin, Hannah receives a distressing voicemail from Jake telling her about the formal interview with the FBI that she needs to attend in order to clear her name. As soon as she ends the call, she notices someone looking at her, and she infers that she has been followed from California to Texas. While checking into the hotel, Hannah uses Max’s credit and debit cards. Bailey thinks that’s overkill because she doesn’t understand the gravity of the situation. We briefly see the bald guy paying a visit to Hannah’s home and Grady making a note of it before returning to Austin, where Hannah and Bailey are visiting one of the largest stadiums in the world in the hopes of jolting Bailey’s memories.
Initially, Bailey doesn’t respond too positively. But after spotting a discarded foam finger, she remembers that she was in that stadium as a kid with Owen to attend a game. She also feels they weren’t dressed appropriately for watching football and were in their formals. When Hannah points out that Owen never loved football, the show hints at the fact that Owen has purposefully omitted details of his life that are associated with Austin. Based on Bailey’s incredibly fickle memories, Hannah assumes that Bailey and Owen had walked from a wedding ceremony to the stadium. So, she asks Jules to look for churches in that area that held a wedding ceremony back in 2011. While waiting for further directions, Hannah loses track of Bailey, and she starts to panic. Eventually, she finds Bailey in the Bass Concert Hall, reminiscing about her music career, which has been sidelined due to this wild goose chase into her father’s past. Hannah assures her that they’re going to fix the present so that Bailey can carry out her future plans. Bailey takes all the motivation she can get and joins Hannah on her church-hunting endeavor.
Grady Bradford Takes The Duffle Bag Full Of Cash
While going from one church to another, Hannah gets a call from Avett asking about Owen and mentioning something about a corporate setup or accounting mishap before coming to the main point. Avett knows something about Owen’s past that Hannah and Bailey are unaware of. Additionally, Avett hints that he has been keeping tabs on Hannah, which is why he knows that she has “skipped town.” The only person at this point who is unaware of that piece of information is Bobby (Bailey’s boyfriend). That’s why he shows up at her doorstep with a whole gift basket to probably cheer her up. When nobody answers the door, he leaves it there, and Grady makes a note of that. Coming back to the stepdaughter-stepmother duo, Bailey again throws a tantrum about not remembering anything about being in the church they’re standing in. Moments later, her memory starts working, and she remembers attending a wedding there. So, they go to the caretaker of the church, Ms. McGovern, and requests her to give the details of the marriage that took place on the day the match happened. Bailey’s irritating nature discourages McGovern from helping them out. However, Hannah uses her manipulation tactics to win McGovern over, and it works.
While McGovern extracts the information that Hannah and Bailey need, Hannah steps out for a conversation with Jake, who tells her that things aren’t looking all that good for Owen. He even warns her about messing with the FBI because if they can connect her to Owen’s crimes, she can end up going to jail and losing custody of Bailey. Talking about Bailey, she has yet another falling out with McGovern because she’s adamant that the church didn’t hold any wedding ceremonies on game day in 2011. Hannah cools down the environment and requests McGovern give her a call if she comes across any details that she thinks can help out Hannah and Bailey. In the meantime, Grady confronts the bald man trying to break into Hannah’s home and finds out that he’s Avett’s henchman. Therefore, this is how Avett has been keeping track of Hannah and Owen all this time. It’s also possible that he was after the bag full of cash stashed in the bedroom, which Grady ends up taking for himself, thereby indicating that he isn’t a good cop (the concept of a “good cop” is a myth anyway).
Jake Informs Hannah About Owen And Bailey’s Past
Hannah and Bailey have an argument because Hannah wants to go to The Statesman office and check to see if the newspaper prints from 2011 have any wedding announcements in them since it can help them with their investigation. She also wants to visit the U.S. Marshall Services office in Austin because that’s what Grady is associated with. But Bailey is clearly tired of this and wants to go home. As she storms out of the room, Hannah remembers a similar tiff Bailey had with Owen about Bobby inviting Bailey to his parents’ boat party. And the main reason why Owen had rejected Bailey’s request to attend the party was because he was afraid that he was losing his hold over her. He felt that the time when she wouldn’t listen to him and do her own thing was coming soon, and he wasn’t ready to accept that. He also mentioned something about protecting her from any kind of impending danger.
Hannah’s recollection of this moment is interrupted by Jules. After some routine exchange of information about each other’s wellbeing, Hannah requests Jules to go to her home and check out the piggy bank, which has Lady Paul written on its belly. Why? Because, while going through Owen’s laptop, Hannah came across a password-protected file whose hint was L. Paul. Bailey has a conversation with Bobby where she admits that Hannah isn’t the “wicked stepmother” they were making her out to be. The narrative shifts back to Jules, who finds a key in the Lady Paul piggy bank. However, before she can find the lock or door that key opens, she thinks someone has broken into the house. Thankfully, the alleged perpetrator is just Jake, who’s there to meet Hannah and convince her to take the FBI interview. Instead, he finds out that Hannah is in Austin. He doesn’t freak out, though, because that won’t help anyone.
Jake calmly explains to Hannah that, based on his investigator’s investigation, Owen Michaels, Olivia Miller (Owen’s dead wife), and Bailey do not exist, legally. Yes, there are several others who go by that name. The ones that Hannah knows are fictitious, apparently. This obviously scares Hannah because she starts to question her reality. No, this isn’t a case of the entire miniseries playing out in Hannah’s broken mind or the people we are seeing having been manifested by Hannah, much like in “Fight Club,” “Stay,” “Ghost Stories” (the 2017 one), or “The Lighthouse.”
Owen and Bailey are definitely real, but their identities are fake. That’s not the frightening part. What’s troublesome is the reason behind their identity-swapping shenanigans. It’s obvious that Owen (or whatever his true name is) was running away from his past in Austin. He loves his daughter, and that’s why he has ensured that no one can draw a line between him, Austin, and Bailey (or whatever her true name is). What about Olivia, though? What’s the actual reason behind her death? Does Owen have something to do with it? Has he killed her? Is that what he has been running from all this time? Has he run away because he can’t face Bailey and Hannah anymore? Well, the answer definitely lies somewhere in between those questions, and we will have to wait until next week to find out where.
