‘Losing Alice’ Recap: ‘The Bad Reader’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Six of ‘Losing Alice’.
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Thus far, our journey through the world of Losing Alice on AppleTV, has taught us a great deal about the nature of obsession. For we’ve come to learn that sometimes we latch onto people because they represent a lifestyle that we yearn for, and the draw to that life is so powerful and so intoxicating that we will do whatever it takes to live vicariously through the object of our obsession. To the point where we will let that person abuse us emotionally or worse to get our fix. But while that has provided us with some powerful storytelling, the kind that has allowed for us to watch helplessly as Alice continues to slide deeper into her obsession with Sophie, what this show hasn’t quite explored just yet, is how exactly obsession can become unhealthy and potentially dangerous for us.

Because the whole reason we step away from someone we once latched onto, it due to the fact that our inability to disconnect from them was beginning to harm our everyday life and well… it just so happens that the next episode in this series, finally took the time to dive into that. For ‘The Bad Reader’ put that negativity on display in a sneaky and sublime manner. For initially, when we catch up with Alice here, she’s still concerned about Sophie’s past and whether or not she killed her best friend from back in the day. To the point where she’s starting to wonder if some of the scenes from her script are ripped from real life, since the late Naomi's mother spoke to moments that are in fact present in the script. Which of course made Alice quite terrified of Sophie, and in order to garner some peace of mind in regard to her… she decided a special visit to Ami was in order.

All so that she could hear from a trusted source, what Sophie is really like and whether or not she was as twisted as Alice believed and well, that’s when the show surprised us. Because just like that, the story was no longer focused upon the investigation at hand. No instead, being face to face with Ami and his charisma and suave nature, motivated Alice to attempt to see how the other half lives, by briefly indulging in fantasy and surrendering herself to Ami and his touch. An act that crosses quite the line, since she was, up until this point, a faithful wife. One that would leave this type of tryst on the page or on the screen. But she simply felt compelled to try the lifestyle that ignited something within her and this decision brought forth, slightly disastrous results. For Sophie came by and saw them together and of course, let Alice rightfully have it for her actions. 

Which re-centered Alice and allowed for her to make nice with Sophie and finally spend time with her and talk to her about the whole incident with Tamir, to get her side of the story. With a caveat of course. In that, Sophie was to say nothing about Alice’s moment of indulgence to anyone, since it would cause more harm than good. Something that Sophie agreed to, making it seem as though for a brief moment, that perhaps this story might take on a more hopeful and lighthearted turn. But shortly after this reconciliation between the two, Alice made another horrifying discovery. For she was able to get ahold of Naomi’s directing project from film school, and it just so happened to be the dinner scene in Room 209, to a tee. Meaning that Sophie’s brilliant script is plagiarized and that puts another dark cloud over her, since one can infer that perhaps Naomi died for this story. 

But the true shocker of this revelation, is that Alice didn’t alert anyone to what she discovered. She instead tossed the digital evidence and forged ahead with pre-production, helping to reinforce the fact that this strange and twisted world that Sophie has created on the page and in real-life has taken hold of Alice, and she is beyond eager to be a part of it and by finally indulging in her powerful obsession, she's genuinely putting herself on a collision course with disaster. But while we wait to see how her decision to do so will backfire, we can revel in one fascinating tale. One that did a fine job of confirming the fact that Sophie has a lot of dark skeletons in her closet and truly helped us to understand how obsession infects our minds and motivates us to make fantasy a reality, regardless of the risk. Until next time.

‘Losing Alice’ is available to stream now, on AppleTV+.

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