‘Under the Bridge’ Episode 3 Recap: Listen to Lily Gladstone, Damn It!

Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Under the Bridge Episode 3.

The opening scene of Hulu’s true crime series Under the Bridge Episode 3 tells you a lot about what those behind it are interested in. Rather than being about the typical ins and outs of a police investigation, which we’ve seen countless times before in far lesser shows that can fall into being coldly distant, we instead hone in on how the Virk family reacts to the news that the body of their daughter Reena (Vritika Gupta) has been discovered.

Yes, this is communicated to them by a police officer, Matt Craven’s Chief Roy Bentland, but he is not the focal point of the scene. Instead, it is about seeing Manjit (Ezra Faroque Khan), Suman (Archie Panjabi), and Raj (Anoop Desai) receive the news. Their grief, all of which they’re processing in different ways, is made central. Where far too many other true crime series can feel like they’re diving in for all the gory details, this simple yet effective opener moves beyond that to the human aftermath. Rather than just tossing them aside to get to the next “twist,” writer Jihan Crowther and director Catherine Hardwicke let us sit in this moment. Where other shows lack patience and just end up robbing real people of their humanity, Under the Bridge takes a more tactful approach. This is felt throughout an episode that, like the two before it, bounces back and forth through time from before the crime in the past to its aftermath in the present. Critically, no matter what timeline we are in, we never lose sight of the characters along the way.

Reena’s Death Hangs Over Everyone in ‘Under the Bridge’ Episode 3

After briefly seeing Josephine (Chloe Guidry), Dusty (Aiyana Goodfellow), and Kelly (Izzy G) panic over the fact that Reena is dead, we pick back up with the two adults trying to get to the truth. Officer Cam Bentland (Lily Gladstone) and author Rebecca Godfrey (Riley Keough) are each deeply flawed characters who disagree about how they should approach the case. At the same time, they are both united by a desire to find some sort of justice where there may be none to be found. Cam was the only one who was taking Reena’s disappearance seriously when even her own father (Craven) didn’t seem to care, and Rebecca has been trying to get to know the various girls in the town that almost everyone else would rather forget them. However, they soon get into an argument both about this case and their complicated personal history with each other. With Gladstone and Keough playing the scene more subtly while still letting bursts of tension peek through, it effectively sets the stage for what will be an increasing split between their characters.

Elsewhere, Warren (Javon Walton) is going over to the house of his girlfriend Samara (Isabella Leon) to do some laundry. This is a plausible thing for him to do as he’s basically homeless, but she catches sight of blood on his clothes, which he quickly puts away. While the show is not very much about its mystery as much as it is about the general way it impacts the community, this is one of several scenes that show there is no one simple answer to who killed Reena. What is clear is that Suman, in a devastating scene where she comes to identify Reena, must face so much of this alone. It is then that she takes notice of a cigarette burn on her daughter’s forehead that raises the serious possibility that this may have been a hate crime. Where the autopsy later in the episode focuses on all the other elements, this detail is something that starts to feel increasingly overlooked.

The impact of Reena’s death continues to reverberate outwards, including in a conversation between Josephine and Rebecca. The latter tries to show her compassion before taking a sudden shift to dangling that she won’t write a book about her if she doesn’t talk to her. She stops short of promising that she will take her to New York, but the fraught ethical questions still make this conversation even more complicated. In many regards, the most interesting part of the episode and the show writ large comes down to how Rebecca is the character we are invited to be most skeptical of despite being a portrayal of the character who wrote the book on which it is based.

Cam Is the Only One Seeing Clearly in ‘Under the Bridge’ Episode 3

After Suman comes to identify Reena, we get a closer look at what happened to her. Despite how distraught he was when he broke the news to him, Roy begins to think that Manjit might be responsible for his daughter’s death. Cam is shocked at this, questioning him about what foundation he has for making this claim.

With just a few lines and a disappointed stare, Gladstone captures the growing disillusionment her character is feeling perfectly. No matter how much she tries to get her father to listen to her important objections to his theory, he just steamrolls right past her. Just that single moment where Hardwicke lets the camera linger on her, taking in what she has just heard at the end of the scene, speaks volumes. She knows that pursuing Reena’s father as a suspect is not just the wrong course of action but a waste of time. And yet, there is nothing she can do when faced with entrenched attitudes that won’t be budged no matter how wrong-headed they are. There is no making change from within when nobody will even listen to you with any degree of seriousness. This will come into play later in the season, but it is all part of Gladstone delicately capturing the inevitable realization that the department her character has given her life to is built upon a rotten foundation.

We then flash back to four months earlier when Reena is being punished for sneaking out. They are trying to show their care for her, though they are also removing the privacy of her door. It is a painful exchange where two people talk past each other, neither fully listening and just driving each other apart. When Reena then retreats once more, there is an earnestly humorous conversation she has with Dusty while making what looks like the most disgusting Kool-Aid you’ve ever seen which, noticeably, neither of them actually drink. The relationship between these two is among the show’s most tragic as, bonding over smoking a cigarette, we can see how they are generally happy to be in each other’s company. At the same time, both are desperate for the approval of Josephine and to feel like part of her group. While this scene is a little less effective than some of the others in the episode, passing too quickly and not allowing us to really reflect on the small emotional beats as much as we’d like, it still gets us wanting to shout out to them about how they don’t need to spend time with Josephine when they’ve already got each other.

Rebecca Gets More Entangled in the Case in ‘Under the Bridge’ Episode 3

Alone at a diner, struggling to work on her book, we pick back up with Rebecca as she is about to have a fateful first conversation with Warren. He comes in asking if there is any spare food he can work for. She strikes up a conversation with the young kid, joking around about his name, before offering to buy him some food after learning that he is all on his own. It’s an honest conversation grounded in compassion, but you can practically see the wheels spinning in Rebecca’s head about how he could be another source for him to talk to.

It’s also one of those scenes that, without saying much beyond small talk, represents the show sowing doubt about her methods and the cost of doing journalism. How do you avoid being extractive and truthful? That Rebecca’s conversation with Warren leads to her getting through feeling stuck is a moment of tension, as it certainly seems like she got something out of their interaction, but it is also bound up in skepticism. As we then cut to the local television media interviewing kids at the school, one of whom spouts off complete nonsense about Reena jumping while another spins a ridiculous theory, the moment feels intentional in how it connects the two together.

We then pick back up with Cam, who is having to again fight against unfounded suspicion being leveraged against Reena’s father. It’s the type of suspicion that, to be frank, reeks of casual racism. With only the fact that he didn’t come to identify the body to go on, why is he now somehow the main suspect? No matter how much Cam tries to push back against this, it doesn’t seem to be making any headway. You can see the frustration in Gladstone’s eyes just as you hear it in her voice. When Cam then proceeds to go over to talk with Rebecca, acknowledging their disagreement from before without really addressing the root cause of it, it feels like she is running away from this frustration of being ignored over and over. Gladstone captures a halting compassion in Cam before opening up to ask whether Rebecca would like to go out for a drink later. This is interrupted by Raj growing angry with how the local news is asking all the wrong questions about what happened. We hear his anger and grief come spilling out. We then flash back to Reena going to hang out with Josephine. There, Warren is beaten up as part of an initiation while they all watch. They all bond over the moment, but Reena is told she can’t be part of their group as she must prove herself first. We can only wish that she just walked away from this double standard, as we know where this ends up.

Cam and Rebecca Finally Get a Chance to “Talk Properly” in Episode 3

A little while later, in the best scene of the episode, Cam and Rebecca begin to talk about all that had been left unspoken between them. There is still plenty of shared pain they’re carrying with them from the past, but the authentic way they are starting to acknowledge it provides a chance to feel a more complicated emotional connection bumbling up. They talk partly about the case, with Rebecca saying she can help her, but Cam doesn’t commit to anything. Instead, Gladstone gets to flex some of the equally great comedic acting muscles she has with even just a simple “yuuup” showing a new side to the character. That the two then dance together provides a bright spot in an otherwise dark episode.

As Cam becomes overwhelmed by the moment, rushing away to the bathroom, Gladstone shifts on a dime to capture the necessary dramatic beats to give it heft. A simple look she exchanges in the mirror expresses desire, sadness, and maybe even a bit of dread about what they are about to do. They begin kissing and, again, Gladstone captures a moment of hesitancy before this gets pushed aside once more. It is a strange sequence to then flash back in time after, to Reena with her family as they try to build a bridge that had been broken in the previous fight. Still, this all builds to the show bringing together the past and present effectively.

Unwilling to let the fact that Manjit does not make any sense as a suspect in Reena’s killing, they dig up the fact that he has a record. Even as the same scene culminates in an acknowledgment that it was expunged, which should have been a sign, Cam gets Rebecca to look into it. Some of this is interrupted by a scene with Warren that initially feels out of place where he must convince Samara he didn’t really do anything to Reena, but this exists to establish that he did kick her at least once. He eventually confesses that he went back, and we learn that he saw something. Meanwhile, Josephine discovers Reena’s shoes in her closet, and Kelly smiles while everyone else looks on in horror. That the people tasked with finding these could not be further from the truth is the point. The truth is right there in front of us as Kelly proclaims, “I did it for you” to Josephine before it all cuts to black. The wheels of justice meant to protect were already moving too slowly to save Reena and now, even after her demise, they’re repeating all the same mistakes.

Under the Bridge (2024)

Under the Bridge continues to be a more tactful true crime series, taking us further into the personal struggles alongside the failings of the police.

810

Pros

• Lily Gladstone has several moments where she is able to convey both the frustration and the growing disillusionment of her character as she navigates an uncaring department.
• The episode never loses sight of the characters who are impacted by the crime, ensuring it doesn’t fall into being just about twists as many lesser true crime series do.
• Episode 3 builds to a series of effective scenes that capture personal strife just as they establish how far from justice for Reena the police remain.

Cons

• One key scene could have lingered a bit longer and some of the sequencing of flashbacks don’t work as well as they should.

Under the Bridge is available to stream on Hulu in the U.S.

WATCH ON HULU