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

Episode 5

Pieces of Her episode 5 is a pretty flashback-heavy installment that gives a lot of insight into young Jane (Jessica Barden) and Nick’s (Joe Dempsie) relationship from the past. The episode starts with Jane trying to contact Andy and getting Michael instead. Michael is at work with Andy’s suitcase full of cash. Since Jane and Andy are no longer in witness protection, he’s been kicked off the case. He’s told to log evidence and then wait for reassignment. Michael’s in too deep now though, so he ignores his orders and takes the suitcase and leaves so he can find Andy instead.

Jasper takes Andy to the magnificent Queller estate where she gains access to old videotapes of her mother. Jane was quite the pianist, a real prodigy. Once she entered witness protection, Jane was told to never go near a piano or risk giving up her true identity, so Andy never even knew her mother was a performer. Jasper provides her with a bunch of tapes so she can watch some of Jane’s old performances. The maid, a woman who has remained with the family since Jane was a girl, gives Andy an additional tape, this one far more intimate as it shows Nick and Jane together.

Seeing them makes Andy realize that Nick Harp might be her real biological father, not Jerry Randall. Interestingly, Jasper lies to Andy about everything regarding Nick. She asks him if Jane was part of Nick’s cult, and he claims she wasn’t. Jasper also says Jane hated Nick and thought he was a monster. But the flashbacks show us how Jane and Nick fell in love. He offered her an exciting life outside the controlling thumb of her father.

In fact, the flashbacks depict a rather disturbing relationship between Jane and Martin. Martin was very possessive and controlling of Jane. The only person Jane really loved and counted on at home was her brother Andrew, who she named her daughter after.

Later, Andy and Michael manage to reconnect via phone and plan to meet again. Shortly after, Andy realizes that Jasper has people spying on Andy, surveilling her every move and listening to her conversations, including the one with Michael.

Here’s where things get weird. Despite knowing that the men were listening to her conversation, Andy and Michael still meet at the same place they discussed on the phone?! And Michael gets attacked by a random jogger who jabs him with something that causes him to pass out. Andy starts CPR before the paramedics arrive and take him away. In the commotion, Michael manages to give Andy his phone and information to his motel room, where he has stashed the suitcase full of cash, which Michael thinks is evidence of something.

Okay, so now Michael is just out of play and at a hospital? They really didn’t notice the “jogger” abruptly running into him after people listened to Andy’s calls? It’s a little hard to believe.

Jane doesn’t get much to do in this episode, but she does meet with Gordon to change her will now that she’s officially Jane Queller again. She also gives him a file on her entire life so Gordon can finally learn who she was in the past. It’s a touching scene given that Gordon never got the chance to learn much about his own wife despite all their years together.