This is a full scene-by-scene recap of “Controlled Burn.” There isn’t anything fancy here, so if you want thoughts about the episode, visit our Happy Face Season 1 Episode 4 review.
A fireman is setting blazes in a dense forest.
The bald guard delivers a new phone to Keith, who asks him to be more discreet from now on.
Melissa and the others arrive at Shane’s place. It’s been a few years since they’ve seen each other, but they’re friendly.
Ben installs a security camera for peace of mind. He’s got personal days, so he’s taking some time off, even if he’s up for a promotion.
The cute guy, Josh, picks up Hazel at school. He’s kind of obsessed with sloths, and she teases him about it. He’s got the money for the painting. She likes snow leopards. He would have picked her for a panda person. She’s insulted.
Someone opens the door. It’s Jillian, the girlfriend. Shane never mentioned he had a girlfriend. Oh, not Shane. Keith! She met him on a prison pen pal site a couple of years ago. She’s a Reiki healer and an empath. Shane lets her stay there when she visits.
Apparently, she is the person who asked Keith to come forward about the ninth murder. He trusts her, and she’s trying to help him become the man he wants to be. She says his higher self is free to evolve. Look at Melissa. She’s free of her secret and blossoming into the woman she’s to become.
Melissa is totally against putting Jillian on camera. She thinks she’s deranged. Shane comes home, upset about the visit and the filming. But Jillian says, y’all can’t leave without eating. It gives Ivy the opportunity to ask Shane about his travels with Keith.
Jillian knows a lot about the prison process. Another boyfriend, another time, she says. It didn’t work out.
Ivy asks about Heather, the restaurant, and the church. He says he doesn’t remember, and Melissa calls bullshit. He wants to know what this has to do with him. It’s just a TV show. They’re not lawyers. And dad is already doing his time.
Melissa thinks Shane is lying. Ivy will go talk with Keith, and Melissa can deal with Shane.
In school, Hazel is sporting new “kicks” and drawing her dad. There’s a rumor that Hazel was making out with Josh in his car yesterday.
Melissa brings Shane donuts. That makes him smile. She apologizes about the ambush the day before. Maybe they can hang out today. He’s got to take a dresser to a friend’s house about 30 miles away. She’s happy to help.
It was their grandfather’s furniture. When she lies on her grandfather’s old couch, she recalls the ceiling fan and bolts up.
Shane has rules about spending time together. No talking about Texas or travels with dad. They just need to be brother and sister.
Melissa says Grandpa was a good carpenter, but Shane can’t imagine how he found the time between drinking and beating his kids all day. She’s lucky she got to change her name.
Hazel asks Summer if she sent the happy face balloon, and Summer says she only gets to hang out with them because of her grandfather. Josh will soon forget she ever exists.
The couple doesn’t want the dresser after seeing Melissa on TV. What if it was Keith’s?
Keith doesn’t want to hang out with Ivy without Melissa. He complains and stalls. Is Missy mad at him or something? Ivy wonders about Heather’s guitar, the wrench he used to kill her. He complains about his sore body. Getting old is not for pussys, he says.
His word isn’t good enough about the murders? He’s not in the mood to talk anymore. Is this one more like Bobbi Kresenski Ivy wonders. Keith angrily lashes out until he asks to leave. Ivy isn’t going to be able to do this without Melissa.
Even a local charity won’t accept the dresser. Melissa spots a West Slope tote bag in the pile. She wants to visit Brendan. High school Brendan? Yes. He owes her an apology.
Ben is running a meeting, declaring that the employee who opens the most new accounts gets a three night stay in Cabo, all expenses paid. His boss has an update on that — it’s five nights.
He’s interrupted by a video from his camera. Max seems to be locked out of the house. Max was supposed to be at Karate with Ryder, but Ryder’s not allowed to play with him anymore, so he was left there and had to get ride from someone else.
The mom said Max has bad blood, but Ben assures him that’s not true. Ben says Ryder sucks at Karate anyhow.
Melissa remembers the night she and Ben had sex. He wonders if she’s OK. He promised he would never tell anyone about the abortion, and he swears he has never told anyone.
She says, you didn’t do this, fine, but you did other things. He shows her pictures of his wife and boys. Can he see pictures of hers? No, he can’t. Shane tells Brendan to fuck off.
Melissa needs a drink.
Ivy and Tyler interview Jillian, who shares why she chose to begin relationships with prisoners. She had an uncle who was in prison.
She’s teary when she talks about how their humanity is stripped from them, and it’s not fair. There is so much pain in those walls, and she connected to it. She felt it. Her life wasn’t easy.
She reminds Keith that he’s worthy of love and joy. Ivy wonders if she receives it in return. She knows he’s damaged, but there is goodness there. She reflects that goodness back to him and makes it shine brighter. She never met anyone like Keith. His soul gets inside yours. She’s been changed.
Grandpa sent Hazel the smiley face balloon.
Melissa didn’t know that Shane dated someone for two years. He never had kids because of his family experience. He has to ask about Brendan. She says it’s not important, but it cost him a tank of gas, so…
She will tell him, but it means talking about dad because it was the same day they found out dad was arrested. She didn’t feel she had a choice. Dad was a serial killer; they were so poor. She wants him to talk about the church in Texas or traveling with dad.
Shane is like, uh, dad’s victims got it a little worse than you. But Melissa thinks that she could have stopped dad at the beginning, but she didn’t. It was the ceiling fan. It’s her fault. She didn’t say anything then, but she did this time. Shane feels the same way. He could have stopped him, but he didn’t.
Of course, he remembers Texas. One morning, he found Keith in the cab of his truck. He had taken like 100 sleeping pills. Shane got him to the hospital, but Keith was so angry with him.
A couple of days later, they were back on the road. That was in December of 1994, and Keith killed two women after that. He blames himself.
Now, Melissa is telling him it’s not two others but three, and he doesn’t know what to do with that. They decide to make a fire with the dresser.
Max had a bad dream about Ash and grandpa. Ben tells him he’s safe. He wants a pitbull, but Ben says he’s better.
Melissa doesn’t think it was Brendan who told about the abortion. It was Keith. The de-aging done on Dennis Quaid is so weird.
When she visited him in prison, he says he’s still just dad. And he always did look great in orange. She tells him she did something bad, and he promises to love her no matter what.
He says that’s not bad. It’s good. She’s young, but she’s tough. He knows she can do it. He’s not as pleased when he learns she had an abortion. “So you’re a killer, just like me,” he said. “You deserve to be there in the cell right next to mine. You know that.”
Melissa visits him without the cameras and posse. He wants to talk about Jillian, but she’s there to confront him. She’s done. This is her goodbye.
She sure went to a lot of trouble to come here to say that to him. But she’s going to continue fighting for Elijah. He says bad press is good press, right?
He thinks she gets so high and mighty sometimes that he has to remind her of who she really is — a killer, just like her old man. She had an abortion because she was raped, just like what he did to those women. She’s not like him at all. She’s like them.
He apologizes for not being there for her. She’s his little girl, his baby. She deserved a dad who protected her and showed her nothing but love. She agrees. When she begins to leave, he offers the murder weapon he used to kill Heather.
Melissa and Shane, followed by Ivy and Tyler, examine the toolbox in the shed. They have it.
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