I Am the Night episode 2 recap: A Hodel and a hard place

As Jay gets closer to the truth, Fauna meets the Hodel family and discovers she might be way in over her head.

In just one episode, I Am The Night went from a slightly boring crime drama to a thrilling mystery full of creepy stalkers. The series only has eight episodes, so it has to quicken the pace now that it’s gotten past the basic introductions.

In the first episode, we were introduced to Fauna Hodel, a girl who grew up believing she’s biracial and that her name was Pat Greenwade. Upon learning she’s adopted, she sets out to find her birth family and figure out why they gave her away.

The second episode brings in the suspense we were promised and it’s all over the place, in a chaotically enjoyable way. The Hodels come into the picture quicker than I expected but they’re still kept in the dark, particularly George Hodel who walks behind the scenes like Peter Pan’s shadow having a jolly ol’ time.

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I feel like Rust and Marty from True Detective are about to walk in and implicate the Hodels in a cult massacre. That’s the feel I Am The Night gives off; that dark chill usually found in abandoned houses radiating an unknown presence which stalks you all the way home.

The episode opens with some personal melodrama. Fauna, now in California, goes to stay with her aunt, Jimmy Lee’s sister, Big Mamma. We meet Fauna’s cousin Tina, who I don’t think we’re going to see a whole lot of, and Fauna meets two male admirers at a party. A handsome young man named Terrance Shye, and another boy that’s more the creeper stalker type than boyfriend material.

Talking to her aunt, Fauna lists her reasons for wanting to meet her real family but according to Big Mamma, blood doesn’t mean family. “Jimmy Lee is your real mama”, she says.

While having a night out with her cousin and some friends, Fauna sees a man whose been following her since the first episode, watching them from his car. Now she’s in California, and there he is. The man doesn’t at all seem concerned that he’s been spotted, he simply smiles, and watches Fauna run away.

Jay starts looking for Tamar

We learn more about the article that ruined Jay’s life. Turns out he wrote about Tamar Hodel and the accusations she made against her father, George Hodel. Jay wrote in defense of her, hoping to expose the truth, but because of her unusual behavior at the trial and because she later retracted her claims, Jay’s article was considered a dirty lie against a prestigious doctor.

Possible spoilers ahead! 

Now, they don’t discuss the accusations Tamar made against her father, but based on their descriptions it sounds like the Hodel Incest Trial from 1942, and Tamar’s later statements naming her father as the murderer of Elizabeth Short.

Being the subject of extreme injustice and the reason for his sacked career, Jay can’t let the case go, especially after the call from Jimmy Lee. He wants to keep looking and figures that the best way to do so would be to look for Tamar Hodel and get the truth directly from her mouth. Unfortunately, Tamar was sent to a convent after the trial and hasn’t been heard from since.

He decides to ask George Hodel’s ex-wife, Corinna, but instead of finding Tamar, he finds Fauna. Not knowing who she is but knowing she’s too young to be Tamar, he brushes it aside and finds himself at a dead-end.

In the meantime, Jay’s working on a report about a prostitute murdered by someone dubbed “Bloody Romeo.” If anyone remembers the scene in the first episode when Jay breaks into a morgue to take pictures of a murdered woman, that’s the woman he’s writing about. The LAPD already has a man in custody for the crime, but as Jay investigates, he quickly learns that the guy they’re accusing is innocent. Through the victim’s friends, he learns that the victim had just recently met a man she was getting friendly with. Leading him to believe it was this unnamed man who killed her.

I may be jumping to conclusions here, but I’m going to take a wild guess and say George Hodel killed her. It seems to be heading in that direction and the real George Hodel was accused of murdering multiple women so it wouldn’t be that far-fetched.

Something weird is going on with Corinna Hodel

In another attempt to contact her grandfather, Fauna calls Corinna Hodel, the same woman who told Fauna to stay far away. However, when they talk on the phone, Corinna insists they never spoke before. She tells Fauna that Tamar is dead and begins acting shady. Despite various attempts to divert the situation, she eventually accepts Fauna’s offer to come visit and share some information.

I’m going to take a wild shot in the dark and guess that the woman who spoke to Fauna on the phone earlier was actually Tamar, who is alive and in hiding.

When the two meet, it’s clear that Corinna’s a prissy queen-B that thinks her husband, or ex-husband, is the world’s greatest creation since the Grand Canyon; George is a genius, George is wonderful, George loves art, etc. She could be faking but it’s hard to fake that kind of sneer.

She also gives a brief description of Fauna’s mother but holds nothing but scorn for her former step-daughter. According to Corinna, Tamar was a pathological liar, and by the sound of it, mentally ill. As a child, Tamar couldn’t separate dreams from reality and would confuse her dreams for real-life moments in time.

Now this would have seemed like an actual illness resonating in Tamar’s mind, if we hadn’t gotten an earful of George Hodel discussing the wonders of dreams and how they help us in our conscious state later in the episode, suggesting he had a part in influencing his daughter’s strange behavior.

So, Corinna, being the sophisticated woman that she is, decides to introduce Fauna to her grandfather by showing her his gallery, instead of actually taking her to meet the physical man. The gallery is like a huge museum where Hodel houses his favorite artwork, none of which he painted himself.

Both he and Corinna hold art in high esteem, treating it as the only valuable aspect of society because it is proof of human emotion and life after generations have died.

It’s at the gallery where things get really weird, as if the situation wasn’t already a bizarre one. First, Corinna leaves Fauna alone in the gallery, stating that she’ll be right back, but never returns. Then a man behind Fauna whispers her name before seemingly vanishing. His voice wrapped around Fauna’s name sounded like a viper drooling over its favorite dessert after going months with no food.

Fauna sneaks around the gallery and finds two men, one is the driver that’s been stalking her, and the second is none other than George Hodel, who she recognizes from a bus station. Her grandfather has been stalking her and the man in the car works for him. He’s so desperate to see Fauna but never actually walks over to say hello. Apparently, brilliant men love doing everything in dramatic fashion.

At the end of their trip, Corinna, who conveniently reappears when George is gone, coldly tells Fauna that she’s not half-black, but pure white and was fathered by a French ballet dancer. A claim Fauna refuses to accept.

Jay figures out who Fauna is

While in a moment of self-loathing, Jay finds some clarity and figures out that Tamar went to the convent to give birth to a baby in secret. He realizes that Fauna is Tamar’s daughter and rushes to find her. Running to the gallery, he searches for Fauna but just misses her.

The story is building up incredibly fast, Jay already knows who Fauna is and it looks like they’ll meet in the next episode. Who knows what George Hodel is going to do, probably something weird and creepy.

Don’t miss the next episode of I Am The Night on 9:00 p.m. ET Monday nights on TNT.