‘Close to Me’ Recap: ‘Episode 3’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Three of ‘Close to Me’.

One particular lesson in life that few of us ever find joy in learning… is that the truth can and will cause us emotional harm. That’s not to say that we shouldn’t seek it out at any cost, since the truth is important and should be front and center in our lives, but the emotional side of us… simply cannot deal with its dry and blunt reality at times nor is it fully prepared to handle how its arrival can obliterate our unhealthy perceptions and well, the difficulties that come with that, and how much the truth hurts to learn are concepts that are top of mind today… simply because they served as the focal themes of the next episode of Close to Me on Sundance Now.
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For when we catch up with Jo Harding in this particular tale, she’s now emboldened to learn her past to a tee, regardless of whether it is sorted or not and that leads to some supremely difficult moments for her. Since a desire to see her father in person… outright breaks her heart. Since she was ill prepared to see him in such a deteriorated state mentally and that led to the first harsh truth in this tale for Jo. In that… she was going to have to watch her father fade away, and not having the memories needed to properly process this reality only made realizing it a second time around as harsh as it gets, especially since visiting him was uncovering all kinds of memories about her past and her youth. 

But while that made for a powerful personal journey for Jo, it was grossly overshadowed by the more difficult and painful truths that Jo uncovered in this tale. Such as the fact that her beloved husband, is not the supportive and kind man that he appears to be. Because during several occasions in this tale, he was quick to snap at Jo when it suited him and pressure her and even gaslight her, making it clear that Rob has a real dark side to him and that he has no problem with manipulating the situation or a person to serve his needs and wants and that… definitely put Jo in a difficult place. Because she was now genuinely seeing her life and her marriage in an objective and unsettling manner and that was difficult for her to even remotely begin to accept.

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However, as moving as this was and unsurprising to a certain extent, since Rob has shown signs of this along the way, we would be foolish to not point out the importance of this part of the part of the story. Since this sequence really was, a solid and powerful conversation on domestic violence and gaslighting and what it looks like and it was shocking, in a good way, to find that here. Since this is a topic, that so many stories have deemed taboo and we even treat this as a poisonous topic in our everyday lives. So, to see it here in the raw was revolutionary for certain and it certainly gives one pause. Simply because there are moments that feel oddly familiar for those have that been through such matters and those who haven't, likely endured a little déjà vu regardless, since they've heard such works spoken aloud by someone they know.

But what also made this sequence of note… is that it gave life to the beginning of new explorations. For shortly after Jo began to uncover some ugly truths about the supposed love of her life, her quest to get answers also revealed that she’s crossed some unfortunate lines romantically. To the point where lives will be ruined if the truth about her affair was revealed, and coming to that epiphany and pondering upon her past and the pressures and lies, she’s faced, allowed for this story to ask some incredibly poignant questions. Such as whether or not Jo is a bad person that has actively made choices to harm others… or if this behavior is a direct result of the negative behaviors that have surrounded her for some time, making her a product of her environment, and open to change. Wherein she could shed this darkness with some work. 

But alas, the rest of that exploration will have to wait for a later time, since the episode ended shortly after introducing all of this. But that really is a fascinating direction to take this story in, as was everything that preceded it. Since we saw first-hand how the truth hurts and makes us uncomfortable, but we continue to strive for it because we know its purity does a great deal for us. Plus, this episode really does deserve a round of applause for diving into the very real power of gaslighting and how domestic violence doesn’t just revolve around the traditional concepts and can in fact be subtle and emotional in nature and really in the end, all of these elements inform us, that the journey is about to take quite the turn. One that will shock us and leave us uncomfortable as the rest of the truth about Jo’s missing year, and her life… is laid bare. Until next time.

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