Dear Edward (Season 1), Episode 5: Since its premiere, ‘Dear Edward’ has consistently been dependent on sentimentality. While dealing with the subject of grief, it rarely comes across something original or profound. Its impact gets bogged down since it heavily relies on a theatrical manipulation of emotions. As a result, it ends up becoming just another drama dealing with difficult emotions.
Still, there are individual stories that have the potential, at least on paper, to make one evaluate the messy nature of how one processes grief. There is no judgment involved in how they come to terms with the fact that their lives are different after the loss of their loved ones.
If you’re interested in exploring that aspect of its characters, let’s find out what happens in the 5th episode of this series, streaming on Apple TV+.
Dear Edward (Season 1), Episode 5 Recap:
Episode 5: Haunted
After his brother Jordan’s (Maxwell Jenkins) death, Edward (Colin O’Brien) seeks out emotional support from Shay (Eva Ariel Binder). He sees her as a replacement for the companion that Jordan once was to him. She also empathizes with him and tries to make him feel that she has got his back. In the same vein, she shows extreme interest in finding the girl who gave him a crooked doll’s head. But suddenly, Edward flips out on her and calls out her nosiness. She finds that utterly frustrating since all she was trying to do was support him. So, once again, he is on his own.
Meanwhile, Lacey (Taylor Schilling) speaks in her grief support group about Edward sleeping in Shay’s room every night. She is worried that he will be dependent on her and not be able to move on with the family he has now (her and John). Later, she mentions it to him and tells him the importance of being independent at his age. Even though he is upset, he decides to stay back at her place in his new room. John (Carter Hudson) returns home and get surprised to see him there. He notices Edward’s worry and asks whether he will feel better if he can see a picture of the crash site in the present. To make it happen for him, John decides to travel all the way to that town.
Edward, meanwhile, tries to seek ways to be independent as Lacey suggested him to be. On a school day, he asks if he can miss the classes and go to the central park instead. While Lacey is worried about letting him go to the city by himself, she senses his determination to seek independence in this way and allows him to do so. He wanders around the park and finally reaches a place where the mysterious girl works.
Earlier, Shay found out about this place and mentioned the possibility of that girl being Jordan’s girlfriend. It got Edward riled up. But, due to his curiosity to learn about her, he enters the store. Mahira (Jenna Quereshi) flips out seeing him and makes up an excuse so that she can speak with Edward outside the shop. Edward is poor at understanding social cues. So, he keeps asking why she is being secretive about everything. Since she is caught in this interaction during her work hours, she tells him to go back and gives him an orange before he leaves.
Meanwhile, during her election preparation, Adriana (Anna Uzele) is questioned about her past relationship with Reverend Eric (Joshua Echebiri). Like many other women, her romantic life is questioned despite having no relation to her professional decision-making. So, she is left to answer that it was all in the past, and Kojo (Idris Debrand) is mildly upset about it.
Later, Eric shows up at her doorstep. But since she is not there, Kojo greets him, and they have a brief conversation. Eric offers any help Kojo needs related to the documentation process. Kojo is left with only telling about his porta potties business, which Eric subtly makes fun of. Kojo senses the condescending tone. But he lets go of his anger for Adriana’s sake. Later at night, he boosts her morale, and they share a tender moment with each other.
Meanwhile, she goes to visit Eric at his religious establishment and comes clear about not wanting any romantic relationship with him. She does it right before her electoral questioning round, which makes him see how important cutting ties with him is for her. During the rapid-fire round, she tries to proceed with emotional reasoning. But her competitors shut her up by speaking about tangible progress points. One of them even calls out Adriana’s inexperience in handling such a position since she only worked as someone who took calls for her grandmother.
Instead of taking offense to that statement, Adriana uses it to her advantage to assert her emotional standing. She notes how she was the bouncing board for her grandmother during all her earlier work pitches, which made her learn more than they did. So, she manages to win over the audience by swaying their minds with feelings than facts.
Meanwhile, at the grief-therapy session, Dee Dee (Connie Britton) finally breaks down and speaks about the disappointment she felt about Charles (Ted Koch). She admits to being a complicated mess of emotions after learning details about his secretive life, where he did not tell her about losing his job and all of his money.
She later meets her daughter, Zoe (Audrey Corsa), who opens up about her plan to drop out of school and travel instead. Sensing the risk in it, Dee Dee tries to persuade her otherwise. But Zoe sees it as Dee Dee’s way to enforce her dreams. There is also a financial factor at play since they both cannot spend as excessively as they used to.
On the other hand, because of Amanda’s (Brittany S. Hall) approval, Steve (Ivan Shaw) starts showing up at the grief counseling sessions. After one of these meetings, his fiancé – Daphne (Clara Wong), shows up and learns about who Amanda was to his brother. She does not like the secretive way his family handles these matters. To change it about themselves, she invites Amanda for dinner together.
Later, Amanda and Steve get together in a bar and start speaking about Daphne, his late brother, and how they process their emotions about these issues. During their years together, Brent called Steve to be someone who loved to please his parents. She sees the same reflected in his decision to let his mother have his wedding the way she wants it. Steve, perhaps looks at it as a burden, where the responsibility always falls upon him to please them.
Then, Amanda opens up about her regret of breaking up with Brent right before he got on that plane. Despite knowing his issues with substance abuse, she took that decision because she found it hard to continue having a relationship with him. Steve and she have a brief moment of a laugh during their interaction, which brings them emotionally closer. They both feel a common push-and-pull toward Brent, making their closeness seem believable. So, they eventually start kissing each other and get swayed by their desires in no time.
Dear Edward (Season 1), Episode 5 Ending Explained:
John goes up to Colorado and tries to learn from the locals about the crash site. They are tired of answering the outsiders. Besides, the emotional toll of those deaths makes them annoyed by such requests. One of the locals he meets at a local bar is the country rescue officer (Joe Tippett). He overhears John discussing his relationship with Edward and recalls finding that 12-year-old boy under the plane wreckage. Due to this emotional connection, he agrees to take John to the site. They both get emotional seeing the place. Despite not being religious, they decide to pray for the victims.
Meanwhile, Lacey comes back from her work to central park to meet Edward. He finally opens up about why he sleeps in Shay’s room. Edward had always slept in a room with a company (of Jordan) and is used to it. He finds it hard to adjust to the new life. Hearing that, Lacey gets emotional and decides not to burden him with her desire for him to be independent. That’s when she receives a picture of the crash site from John, and Edward sees it. After finding closure in this way, Edward goes back to meet Shay and mend his friendship with her. Since that orange (given by Mahira) had a date and time written on it, they decide to meet her as a team.
