Episode 5 of “The Last Thing He Told Me” largely revolved around a bar called The Never Dry after Bailey and Hannah discovered that it belonged to Katherine Smith, i.e., the woman who looked exactly like Bailey. While Bailey communicated with her boyfriend, Bobby, to get the whereabouts of a woman named Andrea Reyes, Hannah headed over to The Never Dry to talk to Charlie Smith. There she found out that Charlie was Katherine’s brother and Andrea’s husband, and he confirmed that Katherine had died due to a car accident. When Hannah showed a photo of Owen to check if Charlie knew him, he got agitated and chased Hannah and Bailey through the streets. When they returned to their hotel, they were advised by Jules and Jake to get out of Austin because they had learned that Charlie and Katherine’s father was a mob lawyer named Nicholas Bell. Before they could do that, though, Bailey went missing, and Grady Bradford showed up at Hannah’s doorstep.
Major Spoilers Ahead
Hannah Learns Why Owen Went On The Run
Episode 6 of “The Last Thing He Told Me” opens all the way back in 1999, with Katherine Smith dating Owen. His actual name is Ethan. So, due to this newfound piece of information, let’s call Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s character Ethan in this article. Also, today’s episode confirms that the woman in the photo who looks exactly like the actress playing Bailey, i.e., Angourie Rice, isn’t someone who has been created via Photoshop by aging up Rice. She’s a living, breathing human being called Tate Moore, and she looks exactly like an adult version of Rice. That is some impeccable casting by the casting directors of the miniseries.
Anyway, coming back to the story, Katherine takes Ethan for a drive after his shift at the diner ends, and the car’s tire bursts somewhere in the middle of the highway. Ethan thinks they should call for a mechanic, and Katherine reveals she has already called her father, Nicholas, thereby setting up Ethan’s first meeting with him. In the present day, Grady Bradford gives Hannah the lowdown on Nicholas by drawing parallels between the crime syndicate Bell works for and “The Godfather.” He reiterates the fact that Ethan provided evidence on eight high-level members of this syndicate, which included Nicholas Bell. Due to this, Ethan had to change his whole identity and move to a different place. It’s only a matter of coincidence that the controversy at The Shop happened and made him and his company national news.
Hannah asks a very obvious question: why didn’t Ethan or Owen expose Avett and everything that he was doing at The Shop to the FBI instead of going on the run? Well, his anonymity wasn’t granted to him by the FBI. That was the work of the U.S. Marshals. As per Grady, there’s a good chance that the people who Bell is associated with have infiltrated the FBI, and if Ethan’s name shows up, then they can come for him again, and that’s why he had no other option but to go on the run.
That brings us to the topic of Hannah and Bailey’s return to normalcy, and the bottom line is that that’s not exactly possible because they are too popular amongst the most notorious sections of society to go about their day without facing any kind of danger. Now, while Grady’s team combs the streets of Austin for Bailey, we find her standing in front of Andrea’s house, who welcomes her in because she recognizes the similarity between her face and Katherine’s. Andrea notices a car across the road, and it’s revealed that Nicholas’ henchman is sitting in it. He informs him about Bailey’s movements. In a flashback sequence, we briefly see Nicholas coming to Ethan and Katherine’s rescue by helping them with the car, and it’s evident that Ethan and Nicholas started things off on the right foot. That’s in stark contrast to the dirt about the Campanos (the crime family that Nicholas works for) that Hannah is currently sifting through.
Andrea Takes Bailey Down Memory Lane
Andrea starts to fill in the gaps in Bailey’s or Kristin’s memories. She talks about the falling out between Nicholas and Ethan, as the episode flashes back to the moment when they were on talking terms while changing a busted tire. We notice the point at which Nicholas planted the idea of helping actual, hardened criminals because they deserved to be defended and since they paid the big bucks. According to Grady, Ethan helped Nicholas by building an encryption system that would allow Nicholas to talk to his clients in a discrete fashion. Apparently, Ethan didn’t know what was in those messages that Nicholas used to send until the day Katherine was killed.
This comes as a shock to Hannah because she was under the impression that Katherine’s death was a hit-and-run. Grady says that, back in the day, Nicholas had refused a high-profile case and had received several death threats. After that, Katherine was killed at the park where the family used to go on a regular basis. The Campanos clarified that it wasn’t them and put the blame on a competitor. However, Ethan didn’t care about all that and blamed Nicholas for Katherine’s death. Andrea tells the same story to Bailey, which means that this is the true story and the one that Charlie was going on about in the previous episode was completely false.
Grady and Andrea tell Hannah and Bailey, respectively, that after Ethan passed on the information about Nicholas and those in his clientele to the Feds, Nicholas was sent to jail for six years. But since Nicholas agreed to do time instead of cooperating with the Feds, he earned their respect. That gave him the backing to put the onus on Ethan for ruining his professional and personal lives, thereby establishing their enmity. After telling Bailey that she has split up with Charlie and now lives with her twin sons, Andrea decides to give Bailey a trip down memory lane so that they can reminisce about the good times instead of going in circles about the bad times.
Since Grady is a realist, he brings up the topic of witness protection yet again, and Hannah counters that by asking Grady why Hannah and Bailey are not already under witness protection. She says that, given the magnitude of the crimes being talked about, their identities should’ve been as anonymous as possible. And as soon as The Shop story went viral, they should’ve been protected. Grady admits that that’s due to a mistake on the part of the authorities, as Ethan and Kristin’s identities were leaked. So he had to come up with “Owen” and “Bailey” on his own. Andrea tells Bailey that she helped Ethan get away from Austin because she didn’t want her to lose her dad right after losing her mother.
Hannah Decides What Kind Of Future She Is Going To Give Bailey
Hannah asks Jules to get her in touch with Bobby because he’s the one who gave her Andrea’s address. In the flashback sequence, Nicholas continues to bond with Ethan, while in the present, he gets closer to meeting Bailey. Grady gives Hannah the lowdown about witness protection, which involves Hannah giving up on wood turning and Bailey giving up on her theater work since they are niche enough to be traced back to them. Hannah clearly thinks this isn’t a viable option, and she assumes that Ethan left so that Hannah and Bailey could continue with their lives. Grady points out that, even if that was his plan, Hannah has ruined it by coming to Austin and digging up Ethan’s past. Grady also theorizes that, even if he’s unsure about what Nicholas has in store for Bailey, he’s certain that the people that Nicholas works with are going to use Bailey to draw out Ethan and then make him pay for his sins.
Grady pulls out the duffle bag full of cash, which is tangible proof of the fact that Ethan wanted Hannah to use that and continue her and Bailey’s lives in Sausalito. Hannah is obviously not happy about the fact that Grady knows more about Ethan (or Owen) than she does. So, Grady talks to Hannah about what Ethan said before he proposed to her and how he talked about how much he loves her. Grady admits that he told Ethan not to marry Hannah because it would jeopardize his anonymity. But since Ethan was already in love, that wasn’t an option. That’s why Grady told him not to talk about his past to Hannah so that, in the off chance things go sideways, she has genuine deniability. Hannah says that if they had trusted her with all this information, she could’ve had a better handle on this whole situation. Grady says that if he knew about Hannah’s capabilities, he would’ve brought her into the trust circle.
While Hannah still thinks that there’s a way to handle the mess they are in without upending their whole lives, Grady is of the opinion that they’ve got to erase themselves from the system. Before reaching a conclusion, Jules gets to Bobby, and Hannah gets him to reveal Bailey’s location. Grady assembles a team and heads to the location while Hannah is made to sit in the office and fill out the witness protection program form. Hannah calls up Jules again and asks her if Ethan has listed anyone other than Hannah as Bailey’s guardian, and Jules utters Charlie and Andrea’s names.
At the end of episode 6 of “The Last Thing He Told Me,” as Grady brings Bailey to his office and Nicholas helplessly looks at his granddaughter being taken away, Hannah escapes so that she can meet with Charlie. From what I can gather, Hannah probably thinks that Charlie has a soft spot for Bailey, and he is on good terms with Nicholas (since he still speaks highly of him and he’s taking care of the family bar). So, if he can convince Charlie to convince Nicholas not to harm Bailey or Hannah in any way, then there’s a good chance that they won’t have to take up Grady’s witness protection scheme. Hannah also has to broker a deal for Ethan or Owen, and I think that’ll be the most difficult part of this negotiation. That said, we’ve seen Hannah’s manipulative powers. If she plays her cards really, really well, she can get Nicholas to bury the hatchet permanently and let bygones be bygones. We’ve got one more episode to go. Let’s wait until then to see how things turn out for Hannah and Bailey.
