The third season of “Truth Be Told” has been quite a ride. While it has maintained a steady pace, it is its understated approach to the case that has best relayed the trauma that victims have to go through. Poppy Scoville takes on the trafficking ring in Oakland and is on the verge of uncovering the mastermind behind it. It starts when a Black girl named Drea goes missing, but the police are not putting in much effort to find her as they have allocated all their resources to finding Emily Mills, a White girl. Drea is eventually found murdered, and she is likely killed by her pimp or one of the handlers, who is revealed to be a corrupt cop named Sun.
Meanwhile, another girl named Trini, who is Markus’ daughter, is kidnapped, though she is eventually found. The principal of the school, Eva Pierre, reveals to Poppy that she was trafficked as a young girl by Andrew Finney, the mayoral candidate, and the tattoo on the hands of Drea means that he is still running the operations. But some investigation and Finney’s subsequent death reveal that he was not the mastermind and that it could be Lee Hackman, the founder of Questeur, the app which was used for the communications in the ring. Meanwhile, Trini has agreed to testify against her assaulter, but right before she can do it, somebody tries to shoot her, but Eva gets in the way. In the season finale of “Truth Be Told,” Season 3, we see how Poppy tracks down the person behind the ring and brings down the operation, along with how Trini gets justice for herself.
Spoilers Ahead
Did Trini Give A Testimony Against Bill Ochoa?
Upon watching Eva get shot, Trini is really shaken up, especially after she hears the adults talking about how the real target might have been her. When she initially identified Bill Ochoa after the mixer, she was told that since she had drugs in her system, her testimony wouldn’t hold. Additionally, she also has no evidence since her encounter with him was never recorded like some of the other girls. Trini is scared that the efforts she puts into her testimony will amount to nothing, and she doesn’t want to go through the ordeal. Zarina supports her and lets her know that she doesn’t need to do anything she doesn’t want to. While Trini doesn’t testify against Bill Ochoa, when Zarina gives birth to her child, she says that she wants to take the recovery program so that she can be a fully healed person for her sibling.
The Investigation Of Eva’s Killer
It is not long before Eva passes away due to her gunshot wound. Poppy, Markus, and Aames resume their investigation of Lee Hackman. Poppy gets the paperwork of Questeur from Sybil Hackman by letting her know about her suspicions regarding Lee. Though initially reluctant, she hands it over to Poppy for her investigation. When going through it all, Poppy finds that Questeur had initially suffered due to a lack of investors, but that had come around six months later when investors came pouring in. That is why Lee had been blackmailing Finney—to get a hold of his johns to become his investors. With their theory in place, it was now a question of finding the evidence.
Since they already knew that Rochelle was the one who killed Finney, they hoped that she could give them a lead on Eva’s killer. Rochelle has been lying low, but she is found with the help of Devon, another prostitute who has been working with Poppy. Rochelle confesses to killing Finney once she is cornered during the investigation. But she did not kill Eva and was just waiting for her payment for killing Finney. The person making the payment is going to contact her through Questeur’s one-way messaging system. When the message does come for Rochelle, Poppy and Aames follow the guy from the designated meeting place, and that leads them straight to Lee Hackman on stage, welcoming the new mayoral candidate. But since he is not the one typing, he cannot be the one sending the messages.
‘Truth Be Told’ Season 3: Ending Explained – What Happens To Bill Ochoa?
As Poppy looks around for the possible culprit, she spots Sybil talking to the man who had gone to meet Rochelle. Poppy follows Sybil and confronts her about her role in the trafficking ring though Sybil denies it all. That is when Lee comes there and defends his wife, but in doing so, he ends up undermining her. He claims that she could not possibly have done that, even though Sybil was once an expert coder. What moral outrage couldn’t do, a slight and years of being in the background did for Sybil, and she angrily confessed to the whole thing. She started it to get the required funding for Questeur, and to keep it going, she continued the operation with Finney. Poppy has recorded the entire thing, and that is enough evidence to put Sybil in jail.
Meanwhile, Poppy gets a call from her bosses, and they tell her that Eva had informed them of the real reason Poppy had not broadcast her interview, and they are going to continue the contract with Poppy. As for Markus, he is about to confess to Zarina that he kissed Poppy, but she goes into labour that very minute and the information becomes redundant.
Coming to Bill Ochoa, Markus has resigned to the fact that he might not receive any justice for Trini. But that is far from the case, as on behalf of Markus and the injustice suffered by countless girls, Shreve takes matters into his own hands and holds Ochoa at gunpoint, asking him to leave the city. But when they get into a scuffle, Shreve’s girlfriend, Lilian, shoots Ochoa, finally making sure that he gets his due. As the season closes, we see that Poppy receives a message with the name and address of her birth father. In Season 4, should there be one, we will see Poppy pursuing a new case while trying to deal with the life and truth about her parents.
Final Thoughts
“Truth Be Told” season 3 was a great show that gave the issues it was dealing with their due sensitivity. We doubt the show is binge-able, but it is certainly worth watching. This was a much-needed perspective on the vulnerability to violence that Black women, more than anyone else, face in society. It has left us reeling, and we don’t have many more words to describe it but let this be the one thing you make sure to watch and use this as a stepping-stone to educate yourself further on some of the darker evils of society.
