The End?
Does Laura find Nick?
Episode 8 of Pieces of Her begins with Laura phoning Nick and asking to meet, determined to try and settle this conflict once and for all. The collateral in all this is Jasper, who Laura decides to sacrifice in order to get her daughter back and end this nightmare. On the road, Laura receives a message from Nick, telling Laura she should take better care of her daughter. At the cabin, Nick claims to have taken her to his cabin after the car crash, having heard her screams for help. Charlie was nowhere to be seen though and he admits that Clara is long gone. He also broaches the subject of seeing him again, understanding that it must be a shock to see him. However, he has unfinished business with Laura, which he intends to resolve. Laura shows up at the cabin with her suitcase, where Nick comes outside and sees her. Looking her in the eyes, Nick holds Laura close before frisking her, making sure she’s not carrying a gun. Nick admits that Andy is okay and walks with Laura hand in hand back inside.
What happens in the cabin?
Nick is not happy that Laura kept her pregnancy from him. Laura admits that she was too busy keeping tabs on her family and working with Nick in Oslo to give it much thought. When he slams the suitcase on the table, sifting through what’s inside, he demands to know where “it” is. That “it” happens to be a tape, which Nick eventually finds and plays, using his tape recorder. The details of this incriminate Jasper, who was working in collusion with Nick this whole time. Laura has been keeping hold of this tape the whole time to use as collateral against her family – and Nick – should they come after her. Now that Nick is in possession of this, it raises big question marks over what’s going to happen next. Aa Nick demands Laura come clean about what happened in Oslo, Andy senses an opportunity and throws a lamp across the room. She realizes that Nick was the one who crashed into their car intentionally and left Charlie to die. The lamp explodes on impact, setting the place alight. As the money burns and Nick skips away, Laura and Andy stumble out the cabin.
Does Laura kill Nick?
Laura eventually catches up with Nick and holds him at gunpoint. He encourages her to fire, but just before she does Andy appears behind her. She questions her mother’s resolve and whispers that she doesn’t need to do this. Everything is over. And just like that, flashlights break everything up as police show at the scene and demand both Nick and Laura drop to their knees. With the stand-off over, Gordon joins Andy as she mourns the loss of Charlie. Nick is questioned by the authorities while Laura catches up with Jasper, revealing that the tape is gone and can’t be used against him anymore. Laura also asks Jasper to get involved and find out what Nick is saying in his interview but he refuses, incredulously scoffing at the idea of interfering in the justice system. He walks away.
Do Michael and Andy get their happily-ever-after?
Michael is on the mend, Andy shows up and the pair talk. He thanks her for helping, as he admits the doctors found a needle mark where he was punctured by some sort of respiratory paralytic. This is likely to have been caused by the runner who bumped into him under the bridge. Andy actually saved his life by doing CPR and calling the paramedics. He’s en-route to DC where he’s about to be debriefed and potentially lose his job too. However, he suggests they go for dinner sometime when he swings back through town. While Andy does agree, she also wants some time to process everything that’s happened so far.
What happened in Oslo?
Andy eventually catches up with Laura, who admits that she’s been stressed and enraged for a long time. She was suffering a lot and that’s why she constantly went to the beach. Laura admits she wanted her daughter to have a normal life, which is why she shielded all of this from her for so long. Laura is bitterly regretful over her meeting with Nick, wanting to keep him away from her. She was also close to killing him in the woods too, had Andy not shown up and stopped her. However, there’s one more thing that needs to be cleared up, and that comes from the incident in Oslo. It turns out Jane actually switched the bags, leaving the one with a gun in for Grace up on stage. This explains why she was so spooked. The bag with the bomb was not there after all, and Nick has been aware that Laura was responsible for doing this. She’s the one who had their father killed. Jasper rings Laura in the middle of the night and admits that he’s to be Senator Shepherd’s running mate, He’s also been talking to Nick as well, and he talked a lot about Oslo and Laura. Specifically, what she did to Martin. He agrees to keep it quiet but vows to be in touch soon.
How does Pieces Of Her end?
As dawn breaks, Andy collects up her gear and heads out, running all the way to the beach where she finds Laura staring at the water. She couldn’t sleep and needed to get away from it all. Laura admits she never wanted to move there but when she first saw the ocean, she ran into the water, allowing her to think that things will be okay after all.
The Episode Review
So Pieces of Her stumbles over the finish line, rounding out all the big plot points while simultaneously ending with a pretty unsatisfying conclusion… and dragging out its storyline in the process. The entire plot was basically resolved after 37 minutes but yet the show continued on for another 20, with Laura back to playing piano again and revealing the twist that Laura was actually responsible for Martin’s death, at least indirectly anyway. So the irony here is that both Laura and Jasper have family secrets they’ve been keeping from one another. The show has had some stand-out moments but at the same time, struggles to actually justify its 8 episode run given how many flashbacks this has had throughout. In fact, several of these chapters could have been cut and streamlined into a much more pacey thriller like the first couple of episodes would have you believe. There’s also the subject of this series’ romance too, which feels awkwardly contrived. The moment with Andy kissing Michael honestly felt like the start of her catching him off-guard and running but nope, we’re going the route of romance. The end scenes between the pair unfortunately fall flat because of this. Pieces of Her sadly feels closer to Stay Close, which also had issues with its pacing and contrived story. With that in mind, Pieces of Her is not one to remember, bowing things out with a rather disappointing conclusion to this story.
