‘The Pact’ Recap: ‘Episode Four’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Four ‘The Pact’.
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One particular experience in life that each and every one of us hope to avoid, is being betrayed by an incredibly close friend. Because having someone that we chose to bring into our inner circle, turn their back upon us and violate the trust we bestowed upon them, would be devastating and hurtful. But alas, it is an experience that we will deal with somewhere along the line and it is as bad as advertised. Since it truly rattles us like never before and closes us off to others, and also motivates us to spend a great deal of time pondering upon why someone that laughed and smiled and shared in emotions with us, would choose to do such a thing. Because it simply doesn’t make sense.

In fact, it is so befuddling, that we often turn to fiction to try and gain some kind of understanding of how this can occur and oddly enough, this is a question that the next episode of The Pact tries to answer. For when we last left our four friends, Anna came to discover that her closest pal, Nancy, had betrayed her and everyone else in their group by extorting them for money and that allowed for this episode to go back in time and truly dive deep into the why, and it turns out that a close friend might betray someone they call family… if by chance they find themselves in a desperate and emotionally destitute situation. Such as say, having lies rule their marriage all while facing severe financial strife.

Which is precisely what happened to Nancy. Because in the months prior to Jack's passing, her beloved husband Richard committed to some relationship changing decisions. Such as not telling Nancy that he was unemployed and obsessed with online gambling. To the point where he and Nancy’s finances were put in peril, and as Nancy was trying to reconcile the reality of this once she discovered the truth... the whole mess with Jack got underway. Adding more strife and stress to her life and well… once the car was repossessed, Nancy decided the only way forward, was to go to extremes and do whatever she must to find stability. Which of course, motivated her to send those texts and claim Anna’s money and this was proof positive that when someone is truly down and hopeless and broken, they’ll betray anyone if it means they can find peace.

But regardless of Nancy’s reasoning for crossing the line in this manner, there were grave consequences for her actions. Because eventually, Nancy was shunned from the group and even denied a chance to set things right when Louie was at her lowest ,since Arwen died in this tale from his injuries. And being cast out left Nancy in a difficult place mentally, one where she was ready to just cut her losses and move on. Which would have allowed for her to simply fade away in this tale… but it turns out that there were more consequences waiting in the wings for dear Nancy. For while she tried to navigate a new normal of her own creation, Max was hard at work at solving the case and figured out that it was Nancy’s car on the road that fateful night, which brought the police to her doorstep.

A move that puts this story into undiscovered country, simply because police pressure on a dejected and desperate Nancy could motivate her to talk and bring incredible scrutiny upon the rest of the group. but while we wait to see what comes of this visit, we can revel in the majesty of one intelligent tale. For this episode did a fine job of exploring what could cause a good friend to shun people they call family and it also excelled at moving the plot along. Because not only did the police make progress at last, but the story also implied, that they might inadvertently have the killer in front of them. Since this episode reminded us, that we don’t know what Nancy was doing alone in the dark on the night Jack died. A hint that added all kinds of unsettling tension to this tale because there’s no way that Nancy was in that dark of place, or was she? Either way, it is clear now that we are closer than ever to the answers we seek and that is going to make the wait for next week’s episode, a difficult one. Until next time.

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