USA Network’s ‘The Sinner’ Recap: Episode 3

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The Sinner, Episode 3, USA Network

(Courtesy of Peter Kramer/USA Network)

After two knockout episodes, USA Network continues the momentum with Episode 3 of their gripping crime drama, The Sinner, starring Jessica Biel. In the limited miniseries event, audiences are introduced to a murder mystery that doesn’t ask the “who” or the “what” — but the “why.”

After attacking detective Harry Ambrose (Bill Pullman), Cora Tannetti (Biel) meets with another psychologist and answers questions. She would have told her 13-year-old self to run if she had the chance.Harry reads up on schizophrenia as he awaits the results of her exam.

Knowing that Cora is competent to stand trial, Harry then tells the psychologist his theory. If his theory is true, Cora is suffering PSTD and hiding from a traumatizing event. In the flashbacks, young Cora (Raegan Millican) has now grown up at the house to a young teen with her sister, Phoebe (Rileigh McDonald).

During Harry’s interrogation, Cora’s parents reveal that their daughter ran away just before Phoebe’s death. Cora remembers her mother forced her to kneel on salt and pray for forgiveness. When the parents weren’t looking, Cora and Phoebe have their own communion. The mother tells Harry that her daughter died the day she ran away.

Waking up screaming, the prison guards have to sedate Cora and discover the needle marks on her arms. Harry learns more about Cora’s heroin addiction from the aunt, Margaret (Rebecca Wisocky). After Cora ran away, she lived with her aunt, recovering from the event that scarred her head.

This is the first time that Cora’s husband, Mason Tannetti (Christopher Abbott), has heard about her heroin addiction. Mason isn’t mad that she used drugs; she’s not fighting for her son. During her court date, Cora has a chance to plead not guilty but chooses not to when she sees her parents sitting there.

Harry then visits the rehab clinic that Cora went to. She was found by Caleb Walker lying not he streets, abandoned and beaten. After meeting with Caleb, Harry finds another heroin addict lying on the pavement and checks his feet.

While Harry secretly has an affair with his dominatrix, Mason has a confrontation with the mysterious man known as J.D. (Jacob Pitts). Mason then starts a fight with J.D., who won’t stop laughing. The two end up getting arrested by the police.

Harry wants Cora to show him how to shoot up heroin into her arm. She doesn’t know how. Heroin addicts start with the feet, not the arm. They realize something happened to her that her mind has completely blocked out.

In he prison cell, Cora focuses on the wallpaper design and finds herself in a dark room with a masked man.

The Sinner airs Wednesdays at 10pm on USA Network.

– By Jorge Solis

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