CBS’s Tell Me a Story
2×06: “Lost and Found”
Directed by Millicent Shelton
Written by Mark Hudis

* For a recap & review of the previous episode, “New Pages” – click here
* For a recap & review of the next episode, “Thorns and All” – click here
Tucker chases Olivia through the dark, rainy woods. She takes a tumble and hits her head on a rock. But she keeps going, hearing her captor’s voice not far behind in the trees. Meanwhile, Brendan’s coming to chained to the bed in the soundproof basement. He sets off the alarm in his car which pulls Tucker’s attention away from the chase. He tries to fight Tucker when the psycho writer returns, but the chain proves too difficult to fight with and he’s overcome. Tucker beats him, calling him “a fucking hero” for trying to help Maddie, and he ties the guy tighter.
Now the writer’s got more tracks to cover, more secrets to keep.

Jackson is off searching for the missing Simone. He goes straight to talk to Veronica, threatening them all with what he knows. The family’s pretty coy about things. Veronica’s advice? “Just let her go.” However, a guy like Jackson, who seems very much in love with Simone already, won’t do that. He cares about the woman and wants to figure out the truth. Before Jackson leaves Derek privately gives him acess to all the company’s warehouse locations. He’s the one brother that genuinely cares about Simone, willing to go out on a limb for her. So much so he’s following Derek closely. Shit.
And in one of those other distillery warehouse rooms, Simone’s trapped.
Poor Olivia. She’s having flashbacks to the abusive boyfriend prior to her move. All while still out there in the woods alone, waiting for the worst to happen. Tucker’s back at the house preparing to go back out hunting his prey. He has more syringes. Brendan’s doing what he can to keep the writer talking. But Tucker has his plans and they’re not going to change. He sticks a needle in Brendan’s neck, telling him it’ll be “just like falling asleep.”

In the hospital, Beau’s waiting for her his father Ken to come out of surgery. He’s worried but staying positive. Eventually he finds the Pruitt family dropping by— Ashley Rose is, of course, most glad to see him. She tries to comfort Beau, though he’s scared because it’s the first time he’s seen his father truly scared, too. He gets uncomfortable when people begin snapping pictures of Ashley, not wanting her to be in danger with Dylan Young out there somewhere. Later, Beau’s out trying to do what he can while being kept at arm’s length from the investigation. He sees a young woman watching the scene outside Dylan’s house. He talks to her, pushing for info, so she agrees to talk.

Ron stops and calls Derek out of his car. They confront each other about the truth. Derek wants to know where Simone’s been taken. His brother’s not so willing to give that up. Things turn violent when Ron punches Derek and challenges him. Derek’s not willing to fight his brother, though it may come to that sooner or later. Hopefully he’s not in any danger right now. Ron and mom are CLEARLY devious. He’s contacted the people Simone worked for back in North Carolina, who are apparently looking for her— does that relate to her criminal past? She tells him: “They‘re going to kill me.” He feels no pity.

“And I wanted this time to be different”

Ashley’s doing everything she can to move past her horrific injuries. She thinks no man will want her. Maddie can’t get through to her sister. It’s one thing to tell someone it’ll be okay, it’s another to have to be the one whose face was nearly blown off. Quite a dissonance of experience, really. Plus, Maddie’s got worse issues that she doesn’t even KNOW about yet, given that her fiancee’s currently out working to be rid of her friend’s corpse.
Then there’s Olivia. She’s made it to a road, out of the woods. If only she can find help.

A man called Wade comes to collect Simone with the intent of bringing her back to Charlotte, NC. She owes $300,000, complicated by when she went to jail. The money she was meant to pay people back with was confiscated by the state. Wade’s leading his captive to a vehicle outside when Jackson shows up looking for her. Simone goes into high ass kicking mode, putting up a proper fight for Wade. Things aren’t so easy for Wade when Jackson gets into the mix, allowing Simone to get away. She later finds Cora in her home dead.

Beau is off in search of Dylan. He’s looking through what’s basically a homeless squat, filed with people everywhere in a rundown building. After a while of searching the place, he’s dodging shots as Dylan’s firing at him. He gets Dylan at gunpoint, questioning him about why he’d plant a bomb in Ashley’s car. The man says he was simply doing “a job” for somebody, refusing to give up names. He slips away from Beau and they end up in a brutal fight. He gets the upper hand, and the gun, but luckily Dt. Gwen is there to put a bullet in him before he can kill Beau. Leaves them with one less link to the crime.

Things are going wrong for Tucker.
Olivia’s back. She recalls cracking her abusive boyfriend over the head when he was being abusive. She’s not as helpless as she might’ve once appeared. And she’s going to put that strength to use against Tucker, who seems to have met his match. Oh, damn!

“Not everybody gets a happily ever after”

A solid episode. Things have been very thrilling in Season 2.
Above all, the mystery in Ashley’s plot is so good. Lots to look forward to coming up. And it’ll be great to see where the Olivia-Tucker dynamic goes from here.