The Watcher – Season 1 Episode 4 “Someone to Watch Over Me” Recap & Review

Someone to Watch Over Me

Dean walks in after work at the start of The Watcher episode 4 and Nora angrily confronts her with a pen drive in her hand. “How could you do this to me?” is followed by a clock turning back a week.

Darren Dunn, Karen’s boss, says he had no idea about the house’s history before they sold it to the Brannocks. When Dean threatens with a legal suit, Darren stands his ground and says it would be detrimental to the family itself and not his agency. All transactions were carried out to the letter of the law and there is no scope for snooping around. Since the LLC is involved in the selling of the house, New Jersey state law prevents him from disclosing private information.

Dean mentions Andrew Pierce but Darren still maintains it has no bearing on the sale. Karen tries to salvage the situation but the Brannocks ignore her efforts. Dean had ordered the yearbook of Westfield High School for the year 1995 when Jasper went mute. He finds the names of the Graff members. Dean leaves the office and postpones all his work meetings to peruse the evidence more closely. Dean’s boss notices this and it is justification enough for the reason Dean was not promoted to partner.

He wonders why Chamberland gave him all the evidence. Because it exposes the misdealing of the police department and the town’s dirty secrets. Nora once again asks Dean for some “sexy time” but he is unwitting to it. We again see someone watching the house from the outside. Ellie sends intimate photos to Dakota, who responds with his own. He once again finds Ellie and Dakota flirting and confronts them. Theodora, Dean, and Nora further discuss the case. This is the first time he mentions Graff in front of Nora and she is upset. He is falling back into the pattern when they went bankrupt but emerged somehow. Theodora suggests that it is an imposter who met Dean.

He is struggling with the issue and suggests they sell the house. Nora angrily says he is backing off his own word but Theodora calms them down. Instead, she suggests a theory that Dakota might be the watcher as his screenname for online gaming is “the watcher”. He has a motive since he wants to sell products for his business. They use a hacker to intercept data from his laptop. The Brannocks make up temporarily in the kitchen, as Dean says the issue has become about his mental peace and not money. He proposes that they search Ellie’s phone and go through her chats with Dakota. They execute the plan in a humorous mom-dad way but Dean is angry when he discovers the intimate photos. Ellie is understandably outraged and the couple grounds her in the room. It was maybe a mistake in hindsight.

Dean physically attacks Dakota the next morning when he comes to install new cameras. Ellie phones the police indicting her own father. It is a humiliating moment for Dakota as the cop arrives. Since she is 1 and Dakota is 19, the cop says their private business is theirs alone and he cannot arrest Dakota like that for the letters. The kid breaks down in front of his mother and they go to the station with a lawyer. He voluntarily gives Chamberland his DNA sample and answers any questions they would have. The Brannocks are once again ungrateful in Chamberland’s eyes and they take his leave. Have they made a new enemy?

What comes next will outrage you but you have to see it by subrogating yourself into Ellie’s frame of mind. Not what “you think” she should have done from the comfort of your vantage point. She uploads a message on social media accusing Dean of not allowing her to see an African American man and insinuating that he is a racist. Karen informs Nora and Dean is called in by his boss about the video. They confront Ellie, who says this is what they get for interfering with her life and backing her into a corner. It is an outrageous event for the family as it could potentially destroy Dean’s career and reputation in public. He could lose his job and they the house for not being able to pay back the jumbo loans.

Karen’s membership has also been temporarily suspended. Karen says Nora must sell the house in this situation. Now she does not have a choice. She must divorce Dean and sell the house. $1.9 million is her price. The Brannocks bought it for $3.3 million. Nora outrightly denies it. Karen comes off a little too strongly and Nora suspects she might be involved with the conspiracy. Nora and Dean’s boss get envelopes that say “Watch Me”. It is a shocking video of Dean lying in bed as a teenage girl in pigtails comes to her bed and lays with her naked. It is from Dean’s bedroom.

Dakota admits he did it. But seeing Dean’s reaction to the girl, he rethinks his actions. Dean also apologizes to Dakota for outing him on the spot. Dean is also accused of writing the letters himself for trying to salvage the mistake of buying the house.

That is what Nora was upset about in the beginning. She asks Dean to move out of the house and move into a motel. He tries to show her even that the dress is the same as Pat Graff’s from the evidence. She is filing for divorce and they’re selling the house. Dean finds a familiar face in an advert on television: Andrew Pierce. WHAT?! Was Dean actually being set up? Was Andrew hired by “the watcher”? Dean sits in his car outside the house to keep guard. He spots Pearl looking at him through her house and then the light switches off. And then, to his surprise, he sees a cab pull into Mo and Mitch’s house. It is the couple in flesh. Mo even smiles at him, through the window. What is going on?

The Episode Review

Episode 4 thus far has been the best in giving us substantial headscratchers. There is no way any of us saw so much of that coming. Ellie’s social media appeal, Dakota’s revenge, and Mo and Mitch not dead were the highlights. I missed Andrew Pierce being a probable set up for the Brannocks. Do we really have a John Graff? Is Theodora too a part of the setup? Is Karen among the same crowd?

This episode has certainly made The Watcher’s mystery at the zenith of complexity. It does not get any more difficult than this to figure out who is behind all this. The ambiguity and uncertainty propels the psychological element in the story that will keep eating away at you unless you finish watching the series.