‘Losing Alice’ Recap: ‘The Paranoia’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Five of ‘Losing Alice’.

Thus far our journey through the AppleTV+ series, Losing Alice, has provided us with some incredible insight on the nature of obsession. Specifically, what motivates us to take part in it, how easily it can consume us and how hard it is to escape it… once it has taken root in our heart. But what has truly allowed for this examination to shine, is that it has been methodical and detailed, to the point where there is little left to explore on the matter. Leaving one to wonder, exactly when Alice’s obsession with young Sophie is going to turn sour and delve us into the part of the story where obsession goes wrong and begins to bring about great destruction. 

Well as it turns out, the back half of this series is apparently going to provide us with just that, since ‘The Paranoia’ brought forth some cracks in the foundation between Sophie and Alice. Because when we catch up with Alice here, she’s deep into pre-production on Room 209, and being in the thick of it and looking at filming locations and the like… has her missing out on a lot of home time and quite frankly, time with her husband. Something that begins to make her nervous, once she comes to realize that Sophie is beginning to spend more time with her family than she should. Which in turn leads Alice to believe that perhaps her husband will be unfaithful to her by way of temptation and persuasion from Sophie, two talents that she is extremely adept at wielding. And that leads to the paranoia that the title makes mention of, since Alice resides within it for a good part of this tale and this part of the story, genuinely informs us that trouble is now on the horizon in regard to her relationship with Sophie.

Something that was further enhanced by an uncomfortable discovery on Alice's part. Because while she was looking for the right person to cast for the role of Dana, she came to learn that the gal that was once her best friend, and the inspiration for the character of Dana, basically dropped off the face of the Earth. Granted, she had some behavioral issues and wasn’t exactly a social butterfly, but the fact that she spent a lot of time with Sophie, a master manipulator, before fading into oblivion, motivated Alice to dig deeper to uncover the truth about what happened to her and well, what she found was frightening to say the least. For the mother of this girl, was now living on the streets, and claimed that Sophie killed her baby and that’s not the only dark moment surrounding Sophie and her relationship with Alice in this tale.

For she is beginning to slowly sink her poisoned claws into Alice’s inner circle. Because we came to learn in this particular tale that Sophie decided the time had come to toy with Tamir and test his limits when it comes to temptation, a decision that led to utter disaster. For eventually Tamir crossed a lot of lines, the kind that motivated Alice to swoop in and save the day and pick up the pieces. But despite her best efforts to make sense of this mess and bring order to chaos, the damage is done. For Sophie is now clearly letting loose and doing as she pleases, to the point where lives are starting to be ruined. Since it is likely only a matter of time before Tamir’s indiscretions are made known to his beloved wife. All because Alice opted to indulge and unleash this monster by letting fantasy and obsession control her.

If anything, this horrifying twist can only mean one thing. In that, things are going to get worse well before they get better, and who knows what kind of hell Sophie will unleash before enough is enough. But while we wait to see how this story and situation spirals out of control, we can bask in one incredible tale. One that was filled to the brim with tension and worry. Since there really is a chance that Sophie either killed her friend or influenced her death in some manner, leaving one to wonder how many times she’s done this, since we still don’t know whether or not she was involved in the death of Room 209’s previous director and well, that definitely motivates one to continue this twisted journey. So that we can learn everything we can about Sophie’s sorted past and to see exactly how Alice is going to stop this growing nightmare. One that could tear down everything she’s built if she doesn’t detach herself from the toxic monster she’s latched onto. Until next time.  

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

---