Maniac season 1 episode 4 gives us Owen and Annie together inside of Annie’s B trip, which began at the end of the previous episode. The pair are Bruce and Linda Marino, a married couple and parents to 3 kids in Long Island during the ’80s. While Bruce waits in the couple’s station wagon, reading a book on how to keep their marriage together written by Dr. Greta Mantleray, Linda uses a false story at the DMV to get an address from a license plate. Telling Bruce she failed her driver’s test, Linda asks him to take her to the address.
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The address leads the couple to Furs by Sebastian, a store selling fur coats in a strip mall. While Bruce distracts Sebastian, Linda sneaks into the back office, where she finds a lemur named Wendy locked in a cage. Forced to hide when Sebastian’s sons, Lance and JC, enter, Linda overhears the two plan to turn Wendy into a hat later that night. Slipping out of the office, Linda grabs Bruce and tells him they need to leave.
Back in the car, Linda explains the situation to Bruce. Linda, a nurse, had a patient named Nan who owned Wendy the lemur. Right before Nan passed away, she asked Linda to take Wendy to Nan’s estranged daughter, Paula. Nan made it clear that Wendy was illegal to keep, so it had to be Wendy who did this alone. No cops. Bruce, desperate for Linda’s favor, says they’ll come back later tonight and steal Wendy.
At the hospital, a Fish and Wildlife officer questions Linda about the lemur. The officer doesn’t buy Linda’s story that she doesn’t know where the lemur is now. The officer follows Bruce and Linda to Furs by Sebastian that night.
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Linda breaks into Furs by Sebastian by throwing a brick through the front window. She and Bruce grab Wendy and start to leave when JC returns to the store with pizza and catches them. Sebastian threatens to kill Bruce and Linda, but only after they watch him and the boys skin the lemur. Fish and Wildlife show up and surround the front of the store. Sebastian and sons confront the officers, bullets flying. Using the distraction, Bruce and Linda free themselves, grab Wendy, and slip out the back.
That’s Not an “I Love You” Lemur
Linda delivers Wendy to Nan’s daughter, Paula, who reads Linda the last letter that Paula received from Nan before she died. The lemur wasn’t meant to be a token of reconciliation. Giving Wendy to Paula was Linda’s last word in the terrible relationship between the mother and daughter. Meanwhile, as Bruce waits in the car, he continues reading the advice book from Dr. Mantleray. Flipping the page, he sees a photo of Olivia and a caption that references Owen’s first psychotic episode, his “BLIP” as he calls it.
On the way back home with the lemur, Linda tells the story of the time that Annie’s mother left Annie, her sister Ellie, and her father. Bruce asks Linda when her parents got back together, since Linda’s parents aren’t divorced. The pair shrug it off as effects from the long night and being knocked out.
Back at home, Linda decides she wants to keep Wendy. Bruce apologizes for not being able to make Linda happy. As he’s taking out the trash, Fish and Wildlife surround Bruce. Bruce takes the rap for Linda and is arrested. As he’s being handcuffed, Bruce sees what appears to be Grimmson in a long, black, old fashioned car that is totally out of place in ’80s Long Island.
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