Netflix Pieces of Her season 1 recaps: Episodes 1 to 8

Episode 4

As we progress into Pieces of Her episode 4, we get more insight into what happened during the Oslo economic forum that ultimately resulted in Martin Queller’s murder. The original plan was intended to be non-lethal. Nick and the Army of the Changing World only wanted to humiliate Martin.

The cult kidnapped the real Professor Alex Maplecroft—an outspoken critic of QuellCorp who has written several books about Martin’s seedy business practices, even going so far as to compare it to the Third Reich—and replaced her with a woman named Grace Juno (Catherine McClements), a widow whose husband was prescribed a heavy dose of Haldol, a drug QuellCorp heavily invests in.

He ended up murdering their three children as a result, and now Grace has a vendetta against Martin and the company. Plus, she looks enough like the real professor to make the perfect patsy for the Army of the Changing World.

The plan was for Grace to infiltrate the conference disguised as the professor, get on stage, and use money outfitted with a detonator to blow up onstage and douse Martin in fake, symbolic blood. Of course, as we know, things don’t go according to plan. Grace ends up pulling a gun on Martin and murdering him in front of everyone, but more on that later.

In her Sheila disguise, Andy gets access to visit Paula at the Fort Worth prison. But it’s mostly a dead end. Paula (Genevieve Hegney) goes completely feral when she finds out Andy is Laura’s daughter, or Jane, as she calls her, and threatens to kill Jane when she gets out someday. No love was lost between them, that’s for sure. Beyond that, Paula doesn’t provide much other valuable intel except leading Andy to realize Laura Oliver is actually Jane Queller, sister of politician Jasper Queller and daughter of Martin Queller!

From there, she visits a bookstore and picks up a copy of Jasper’s novel, which contains more tidbits about Jane and her family. In the process, she realizes that Jack has followed her across three states and leads him down an alley to confront him. “Jack” is really U.S. Marshal Michael Vargas, assigned to monitor Andy and her mother as part of their assignment under the witness protection program.

Once realizing this, Andy convinces Michael to help her gain access to a book tour stop in El Paso where Jasper will be next so she can meet him. Before they get there, Michael and Andy spend the night at a motel where yet another random man breaks in and tries to kill Andy. Luckily, Michael stops him before he can strangle her to death. Andy and Michael finally give in to the romantic tension that has been steadily building between them and share a kiss, though it doesn’t go further than that.

In El Paso, Andy gets to meet her long-lost uncle. Michael is barred from entering the meeting room. He notices the same man from the motel arriving at the conference center and gives chase. He disappears before Michael can catch up with him, and by the time he returns, Jasper and Andy are gone, though she leaves her phone behind for Michael.

While Andy is on a whirlwind adventure across Texas, Laura (who I’m now going to refer to as Jane) is stuck with Charlie at a safe house. Jane has been in witness protection for more than 30 years and so has Andy. But she finally decides to sign out of the program against Charlie’s wishes. By the end of the episode, she is officially Jane Queller again and neither her nor Andy is protected by WITSEC anymore.