In the previous episode of HBO’s The Outsider, Ralph teamed up with the Maitland’s defense team to hire Holly Gibney to investigate what happened to Terry on the Dayton trip. In The Outsider Episode 4, the investigation in Dayton takes Holly to New York City.
Heath Hofsteader
Holly followed the nurse at reception, Angela Kelly. Angela pepper-sprayed Holly and brought her inside once she learned she was a private investigator and not a reporter. She’d known Heath Hofsteader, the nurse who had killed himself in prison. She recalled that Heath was supposed to be on vacation and remembered that he’d run into Terry.
The head of security at the parking lot, Andy Katcavage, met with Holly and invited her to dinner. He was an ex-detective who could give her information. Just like Terry, there was overwhelming evidence that he’d killed the little girls, but witnesses, including his mother, said that Heath was with them. Heath’s mother killed herself by deliberately crashing her car and his brother overdosed. The girls’ family also experienced sudden deaths. It appeared as if murder was a virus, and Holly went back to Angela. She learned that Heath had taken a trip to New York. In a postcard to Angela, he’d mentioned he met a woman.
Scratches and Figures
After speaking with Holly, Ralph went back to Yunis to watch the videos of Terry. He saw a moment in the strip club where it seemed like Terry had scratched Claude on his hand. Ralph went to The Peach Crease to talk to him, but Claude couldn’t recall.
Merlin Cassidy, the runaway who had stolen the van, wanted to talk to Ralph again. He’d lied because he feared the man who had stolen the van. Ralph suggested that Merlin draw him. He drew a hooded figure with a malformed face.
Meanwhile, Jack was having trouble concentrating at the station and didn’t hear Tamika invite the precinct to her baby’s christening party. He went to the store and bought several items, including lamps, preparing for the Outsider’s plan.
Reporters
At dinner with Howie, Glory could hear people whispering about her. A man confronted her and threatened her family. Howie tried to intervene, but it was Ralph that subdued him.
Glory interviewed a woman to home-school her children. However, her references were suspicious, so Glory tested her with a simple math problem. The woman was a reporter, and she wasn’t the first to pretend to be a tutor.
El Cuco
Holly went to Rikers to visit Maria Caneles. She had been convicted of a horrible child murder, but unlike Terry and Heath, she was still alive. Heath had asked her out while he was in New York, but she said she blew him off. However, we saw Heath and Maria having their breakfast date and having sex. She had scratched him. Like the other murders, there were deaths in her family, as well as the young boy’s family.
Idilys Castro had overheard Holly and Maria’s conversation and invited Holly to talk with her. She mentioned how every culture has their own version of the Boogeyman. She called it the Grief Eater. It fed off the deaths of the children, but also feasted on the grief of the families of those involved as dessert.
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