This is a scene-by-scene recap of Happy Face Season 1 Episode 2, “Killing Shame.” For a discussion of the episode, please visit our Happy Face Series Premiere Review.
Melissa and Ivy arrive in Jefferson, Texas. Melissa has to tell Elijah’s lawyer everything.
It brings up memories of the day they discovered her dad was in jail. Elijah never had a chance, according to a video he recorded with his lawyer. Their last appeal left them out of options. The only physical evidence against Elijah was a fingerprint on the steering wheel.
Gabriella, the attorney, needs an absolute ruckus to bring attention to this, and Melissa will have to testify in court.
Now, as Melissa grapples with testifying, she remembers her mom rounding them all up to buy every newspaper in the entire region. June knew that if people got wind of this, all they’d ever be are the family of a serial killer. Her first instinct is to run.
After telling her the good news — that his boss is retiring and wants him to follow in his footsteps — Ben reminds Melissa that this isn’t her fault and that she should just breathe. He’s got the opportunity to become regional manager, which means more money and more freedom.
While outside, Melissa walks past the Whisky River. She shows the bartender her dad’s photo, and he calls his dad over. Carl says he looks familiar, but lots of truckers came through. It’s a thankless job and lonely. He hopes her dad is retired.
She snaps a photo of Melissa’s photo behind the bar, and the bartender asks if she knew Melissa. He went to school with her. She was a few years ahead of him. He wonders if she’s exploiting her dead friend with his social media.
They have a countdown for Elijah’s execution nearby. Is that what she needed to do the right thing?
Keith is boasting to his fellow prisoners about his kills. They might even do a whole episode of Dr. Gregg about him. He laughs, “There’s a whole lot more where that came from.” He says he’s doing it to save a man’s life. Nobody can say he’s all that bad if he does that.
Hazel gets bullied at school when some girls find a photo of her grandfather on her phone. They call her Queen Hairy Bush. One of the two girls apologizes, telling her to get a razor or a wax because when they change in the locker room, it’s sticking out all over the place.
Melissa and Ivy are working with Tyler and an actress to bring the death of Heather to the screen. Ivy is angry at Melissa for caring more about her anonymity than a man on death row.
Hazel is at the drugstore buying bikini wax when a boy named Josh says hello. She gets flustered and walks out with the bikini wax, setting off the alarm.
Melissa gets calls from Ben and silences them. When the film shoot is over, Elijah’s sister Joyce finds them. She’s spent three decades screaming into the wind. The woman who finally heard her get hugs. Joyce is so grateful. While she’s talking, Melissa takes Ben’s call. Hazel wasn’t shoplifting. It was an accident.
Ben isn’t pleased that Melissa isn’t jumping on the next plane to go home. But when she’s on the phone, she finds a happy face carved into the tree near where Heather was killed.
Gabriella brings the district attorney by to look at the tree. He doesn’t believe this means anything. He thinks this is all circumstantial, which makes Melissa speak up. What if Jesperson’s daughter wants to testify?
He says he doesn’t know Jesperson’s daughter, but he knows enough to know that if she grew up with a monster for a father, as an adult, she’d have her own set of problems. The internet being what it is, it wouldn’t take long to look up this woman and use her issues on the stand to make her testimony worthless.
Right after her father was arrested, Melissa was beaten by local teens for his actions. She deserves her father getting the needle, stupid bitch.
Word is already out at school about being Jesperson’s granddaughter. One girl says her grandfather helped bring down the night stalker, which is how she became a murderino, and if they come with her tomorrow, they’ll show her what that means.
The DA revoked approval for Melissa and Ivy to visit with Elijah.
Melissa gets home, walking into a warm hug with Ben. Melissa got the kids some trinkets from the airport. Like father, like daughter. But she has some much worse news. She’s thinking about coming out about her dad on the show.
Melissa is totally frustrated about what they’ve uncovered being totally disregarded, believing they’re a bunch of old white guys who refuse to admit they made a mistake. She tells Ben how Joyce said they need to make a lot of noise to move conservative courts.
She is holding on to what the DA said about her being just like her dad. He made her feel like she was nothing, like she was 15 again, responsible for what her dad did.
She wonders why she’s so fucking desperate to keep a secret? For who? Hazel admits she knew. She didn’t say anything because Melissa wasn’t here. Hazel is pissed that they lied to her all her life. But if Melissa can help Elijah, then she needs to do it.
Hazel says she told some people at school, and they think it’s cool. She calls him Grandpa, and Melissa corrects her. They will never meet. He’s a killer. Max hears the conversation, and Melissa tells him the truth.
Max wonders why his grandfather is in jail. Did he hurt bad people? No. Can he have some ice cream? Yes.
Ben is adamant that this is bad. Hazel stands behind her family. Lying is against everything they’ve taught them. Ben cruelly compares Melissa’s return from the road to how Keith would come back from trips with trinkets.
As a teen, Melissa hid her attack with makeup.
Adult Melissa prepares to go wide on the Dr. Gregg show while Hazel’s friends take her to the murder museum. Her friend says I thought your grandfather was Canada’s most famous serial killer. The museum has some of his “work.”
On the Dr. Gregg show, Keith tells his story, including how he used to duct tape his victims to the bottom of the cab to keep them from rolling all over the place. Finally, Melissa admits he’s her father. She tells him about her family and visiting Chilliwack. She didn’t come here to humanize her father but to talk about Elijah.
Dr. Gregg says people here want to know what it was like to grow up with a serial killer. She recalls her first memory of Chilliwack before Dr. Gregg presses her about whether she still loves her father. She describes her dad’s MO and how he got caught.
He was questioned about the murder of Louise Nelson, who was different than other victims, as they were dating. They were going to get married, and Melissa thought she would have made a great stepmother. Dr. Gregg pushes. Of course, she couldn’t help but believe her father. And she had a connection with Louise. They both loved a killer.
The lady at the museum offers $100 for Hazel’s birthday drawing. Hazel is shocked he can sell his work from prison and make money from it. The museum curator says they sell out fast.
Melissa recounts what the Texas DA said about her being an apple that doesn’t fall far from a tree. Ivy asks Dr. Gregg to push again. DOES Melissa worry that she’s like her dad? Melissa says she would never hurt anyone and starts listing answers about why she’s not like her dad.
All she ever wanted was to have a normal family where her kids didn’t have to worry about being evicted, going hungry, or visiting their father in prison.
Dr. Gregg says she worked hard to create the perfect life from the outside, but does she think she’s not far from him after all? Her father didn’t love her enough not to kill women. She knew him best, and she didn’t know. All of the people who bully her are just perpetuating that she already knew — she’s worthless.
Melissa cries. What if she’s like him? She came from him. He seemed so normal, but there was a side of him that was so dark. That’s why she doesn’t like to see her father.
He plugs into a side of her that is out of control. Dr. Gregg says her father is manipulating her. Thankfully, he pulls it around and tells her everything lovely about her. She says she knows. She’ll never be her father.
She tells Dr. Gregg she feels relieved.
In prison, Keith tapes a news story about the ninth victim to his wall.
A man in a convenience store sees the paper and finds Melissa’s photo inside, as the story discusses what she’s revealed.
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