In the previous episode, Nora kicked Dean out of the house, thinking that Dean had an affair with a very young woman.
The Watcher (2022) is a series based on a true story about a family who moved into a new house in New Jersey. The series stars Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale as the main couple of the Brannock family.
Streaming on Netflix
The Watcher - Episode 5 Summary & Recap
It's Dean
Believing that she could find traces of phone calls between Dean and the mystery woman, Nora looked up all the phone records. To her surprise, she found out that the unknown call from the motel was from their house. This made Nora believe that Dean was behind the letters and therefore, she brought this up to Theodora. Theodora then found out from a handwriting specialist that it is 70-80% certain that Dean wrote the third letter from “The Watcher”. She also found out that Dean skipped partner at his workplace and had been getting high-interest loans to pay the house. Theodora is certain that this was the motive and believes that Dean was behind the letters.
With Dean gone, Pearl invited Nora over to her place for a lunch with Mo. During lunch, Mo explained that her son, Christopher had planned to fake her and Mitch’s murder in order to claim insurance money. What’s more shocking to Nora was that Mo believed that Christopher went the extra mile and wrote the letters to the Brannocks. Pearl, on the other hand, thought it was Jasper. She told Nora that she once received a love letter for the house titled “Ode to the House” and she always assumed it was Jasper behind them. Another odd thing was that Nora could hear thudding inside one of Pearl’s rooms but Pearl assured her that Jasper was not around.
Mystery gets thicker
Meanwhile, Dakota realized something odd in the 657 Boulevard’s security footage. The young girl in Dean’s bedroom never seemed to have entered the house. This made Dakota believe Dean’s claim that the footage was a setup. Together, Dean and Dakota brought this information to Nora. They both think that there either was another way to enter the house or that the girl had been hiding in the house all along. In private, Nora asked Dean about the letters and the house loan, and this time, Dean admitted everything. He wrote the third letter because he knew he can no longer pay for it. However, he still stood by his claim that he did not sleep with the girl in the footage and that he did not write the first two letters. Nora then forgave Dean.
Karen called Nora not long after to inform her that an LLC is willing to buy Nora’s house. Turns out, Karen’s realtor has been behind an LLC that flips houses in the area. However, Nora was not willing to consider it because they got a lowball offer of 1.9 million despite buying the house for 3.3 million. Nora continued to press Detective Chamberland for the results of the DNA, who he very conveniently said was misplaced with a few magazines. According to the test, the DNA on the envelop belongs to a woman, but her identity was not in the police records. Dean believed that this information was not helpful.
Hidden places
Soon after, Nora went to the Westview Country Club and saw Karen chatting with Detective Chamberland very intimately. A very sound theory then clicked for her. Karen and Chamberland was behind the LLC and they were trying to scare her family away in order to buy the house cheap. That was why Karen was pushing Nora to sell the house while Chamberland once made a comment as if he knew the Brannocks were suffering financially to afford the house. Nora called Dean over to the club and the husband-wife pair berated Karen and Chamberland who tried to defend their actions. By the end of it, Dean threatened to sue and Karen threatened to let the whole world know about the letters.
When the Brannock couple got home, Ellie had an interesting discovery. She found out that “Ode to the House” is an English assignment for the Westfield High School students years ago where the students had to write a love letter to their favourite house. There is even a Facebook group for the assignment. The English teacher is Roger Kaplan and he is in the Facebook group. When Nora saw Roger’s face, she recognized him from the man during the open house.
Before they could learn any further about Roger Kaplan, the construction workers found a secret pathway inside the house. Without much hesitation, Dean went in the narrow pathway with a torchlight and Nora followed suit. The whole area smells and worse of all, they saw someone running in that pathway which shook the both of them.
Additional Observations From Episode 5
- Ellie apologized for what she did to her father.
- Andrew Pierce admitted he was an actor, but still claimed that whatever he said was true.
- Nora sold all her pieces at her recent sales gallery. Now, the Brannock family is slightly better financially.