Attribution
In the fourth episode of Shining Girls, “1986,” Rachel is at the hospital desperate to see her daughter, Sharon. This is Kirby. The fourth episode of Shining Girls starts with a sobering montage through time. A single dead body lines the street through the years, as we eventually settle on 1986, with an exasperated Rachel at the hospital desperate to see her daughter, Kirby. ..
He walks over to her and sees that she’s receiving treatment from a doctor. Harper is standing behind him, looking at him with a look of confusion. He can’t understand how she managed to survive.
Back in the present, Dan speaks to the team at work and brings up the case of the seven women who have been killed. There’s still the subject of the tape though, but Dan has uncovered clues linking the seven women to the killer. Abby decides that it’s worth exploring further and gives Kirby permission to pick up the madrigal tapes. ..
Marcus and his wife decide to take a walk outside to check out the echo on the line. They hear a voice that they assume is Harper’s speaking, but they’re not sure. They take a closer look and realize that there’s an echo on the line where Julia is speaking.
That echo looks like it could actually be a recording of Julia played back to her. Kirby had similar calls herself prior to being attacked.
Dan, a detective on the Harper case, stumbled upon a breakthrough after speaking to Summer Francis’ “roommate.” It turned out that Harper was leaving items found at the scene of one victim and placing it inside the body of another. ..
Kirby decides to come forward and talk to the police about how she was linked to the other women, in order to give her story more credibility.
At the same time, Harper tries to find Sharon. He shows up at what he believes is her apartment but quickly realizes it’s not hers. He’s furious, and intimidates the poor apartment owner.
That evening, Kirby went to the laundrette. Unfortunately, Harper found her there, unhappy with the way she looked. ..
A man quickly grabs a woman and begins choking her. He then knocks her through a wall, causing her to fall to the ground in shock. This prompts Kirby to hurry out of the building, turning to see if Harper is following. When she notices that the laundrette has turned into a bar called “Bee Happy,” with many people inside, she exits quickly. ..
The Episode Review
AppleTV episodes often lack a strong story line and are more about the characters and their relationships than anything else. This latest episode of Shining Girls falls into this pattern, with a long chapter that doesn’t really add anything to the overall story.
This laborious chapter takes its sweet time getting to the crux of the issue, which can be chalked up to Kirby and Dan learning what the victims have in common and Kirby’s meeting with Harper. Everything else in this episode really doesn’t add very much to the story at all.
The show has an eerie atmosphere, but it’s not enough to keep things interesting and engaging across the whole 40 minutes. Hopefully the rest of the episodes can improve, but this one felt like a bit of a dud.
