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Recap: Mrs. Davis Episode 6 Is a Swinging Heist
Simone and Wiley aim to steal from Celeste, who still thinks her daughter helped fake Monty's "death."
Clara’s fraught relationship with her mother, Mathilde, made up the bulk of Mrs. Davis’ last episode, but the sixth episode of the Peacock series makes it clear that there’s more than one complicated mother-daughter relationship. In Episode Six, the Resistance attempts a daring heist, Wiley and Simone’s relationship gets more complicated, and we learn about how Simone’s dad really died… or did he???
We open three years ago back at the covenant. Simone (Betty Gilpin) is enjoying nun life until she gets an unwanted visitor: her mother, Celeste (Elizabeth Marvel). Turns out, this awkward meeting happened under false pretenses. Simone didn’t send her mom an invite so she could “unburden herself,” but her dad, Monty (David Arquette), sent one on her behalf. He’s there too, in disguise as a nun (something he’s done many times before, including on the day of her wedding).
Monty says he figured out the Lazarus Shroud, a dangerous magic trick that involves escaping from a vat of acid. The algorithm, he explains, has sucked all the magic out of magic and ruined the profession, because people can just ask Mr. Davis how the trick worked. The Lazarus Shroud trick, though, can “save magic.”
He wants Simone and Celeste there to watch, but it’s only the promise that he’ll finally sign divorce papers that gets Celeste interested in attending. The vibes of this family reunion are bad, to say the least.
Back in the present day, Simone is headed for another family reunion with bad vibes, but this time she’s down one parent. She and Wiley (Jake McDorman) are at the offices of Celeste’s company, Second Deal Security. When Celeste makes them wait hours for a meeting as a power play, Wiley encourages Simone to go see Jay. Simone prays, and upon arriving at the restaurant, Jay hands her a trio of tacos rather than the traditional falafel. The sudden menu change seems like it probably has a deeper meaning, but we’ll have to wait to learn its true implications because Simone asks if Jay knew Clara was dead, and if having Clara’s liver in her helped Simone get to Jay’s restaurant in the first place. Jay says no on both fronts, explaining that he only knows what happens inside his restaurant (and whatever people tell him when he’s there.)
Also, Jesus is down to swing! Jay encourages Simone to sleep with Wiley, noting that the vows technically don’t include monogamy and it’s not fair to her if only he can sleep around. The boss (God) is supposedly okay with it, too. Simone is a little taken aback by Jay’s suggestion, which makes things momentarily awkward when she arrives back on the couch seated next to Wiley. Celeste is ready to see them.
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Simone explains that she needs the Lazarus Shroud — a suit that will protect her from a whale’s stomach acid — in order to get the Holy Grail. Celeste leads her back through a secret door behind a bookshelf in her office that passes through a password-protected hallway with trash compactor walls and into a museum of sorts. It’s all of Monty’s magician stuff, including the Lazarus Shroud. And, it’s all evidence that Celeste says supports her theory that Monty faked his own death. Simone opts not to watch the video footage of her father’s gruesome end, so Celeste shows her (and by extension the audience) an animatic of what “supposedly” happened. Monty got in the Lazarus Shroud, accidentally knocked out his breathing tube while submerged in a vat of acid, and the acid came rushing in and liquified him inside his suit. Celeste, though, thinks that Monty actually swapped himself for a corpse and hid inside of a hiding table. Those don’t open from the inside, so she assumes that Simone helped her dad out — and she thinks the Holy Grail story is a lie, and that Simone’s actually trying to get the Lazarus Shroud because her dad wants it.
Meanwhile, Wiley’s still in Celeste’s office, sitting on her white couch. He’d asked for a cup of coffee, but upon being denied he has no choice but to punch himself in the face so he can get a nosebleed and dirty the couch. It’s all been a ruse. Simone and Wiley assumed that Celeste wouldn’t give them the Lazarus Shroud, so this was really just them casing the joint and preparing for a heist, with JQ (Chris Diamantopoulos) and the Resistance’s help.
The plan is simple — or at least what passes for simple on Mrs. Davis. The Resistance intercepted Celeste’s order for a new couch (since her old one has nose blood on it) and created a fake couch that Simone and Wiley can hide inside of. Once in the office, Simone will enter the “trash compactor” hallway, stop it from closing with a device JQ calls “the constipator,” and then input one of three possible passwords to unlock the door. Wiley will cut a hole in the wall and then they will escape down a wire with the Lazarus Shroud.
As they prepare, JQ tells Simone about his backstory and gives her a warning. He used to be a professional poker player, but Mrs. Davis ruined poker the same way that she ruined magic. JQ says he was adrift — “on tilt” — after Mrs. Davis ruined the only thing he was truly passionate about. He says that what Simone did to Wiley at her dad’s funeral three years ago put him on title, too, and he warns her not to put him on tilt again.
It’s understandable why Wiley would be a little thrown by the events of Monty’s funeral, which we see in a flashback while Simone and Wiley are sedated for transport inside the cramped couch. Wiley, who Simone hadn’t seen since that fateful day at the rodeo, arrives with his new girlfriend Sandy to pay his respects at Monty’s funeral. Simone pulls him into a broom closet and, in her grief, tries to have sex with him. Wiley, rattled, rejects her advances and leaves (without his belt). Simone emerges from the closet in a daze to see Celeste freaking out at a piano player she’s accusing of being Monty. From the start, it’s clear Celeste didn’t really think her estranged husband was really dead.
Upon waking up they get to work heisting. Despite a close call with the trash compactor, which proves stronger than the constipator and comes within seconds of crushing Simone before the third and final password option proves correct, they’re able to break into the chamber where the Lazarus Shroud is. But… it’s not there. They’re not in the office at all, but a fake decoy office Celeste created. She was on to them from the start and simply had the couch order redirected. She still won’t give them the Lazarus Shroud, and she resolves to destroy it — but not before showing Simone a series of ATM photos from three days after Monty supposedly died showing that he’s alive and well, withdrawing money.
Simone is shaken by the revelation that her dad actually is alive — and that she was a “parakeet,” the bird that gets sacrificed in a magic trick when it’s crushed in a collapsible cage while the magician miraculously produces it (in reality a different bird) from somewhere else. Monty tricked her into thinking her dad was dead because she needed to believe he really was dead for the ruse to work. It was at her dad’s funeral that she last tried to sleep with Wiley. Now, upon learning that he’s alive, she tries again. Wiley’s not going to stop her this time, either. They undress and begin getting hot and heavy, only for Simone to suddenly find herself naked in Jay’s restaurant.
She’s not alone. There’s an older naked gentleman chilling with a martini at the bar. Sometimes, he explains, you come here when you’re having sex. He’s a regular, apparently, and he says that Jesus, who is sweeping the floors, can’t see or hear them. Simone can just walk through the door and leave without Jay ever knowing — unless she says his name. Then, he’ll be able to hear her. She does, and when Jay asks where she is, she’s instantly transported back upon answering that she’s with Wiley.
Wiley is (understandably!) weirded out by the fact that Simone clearly just “went” to visit her husband (who is Jesus) while he was in the middle of going down on her, and they stop having sex. After JQ — who is delighted by having been so thoroughly outsmarted (game recognize game) — picks them up, Simone asks to be dropped off so she can get food alone, trying to assure Wiley that he didn’t do anything wrong.
Simone’s hungry for answers, it turns out. She goes to a diner and asks a woman to proxy for her so she can speak to Mrs. Davis. The algorithm explains that she didn’t help Celeste acquire the ATM photos (which came from banks and therefore must have been quite hard to obtain), but Celeste did show them to her. Celeste asked Mrs. Davis if Simone helped Monty fake his death, and the algorithm confirmed her suspicions — nevermind that Simone didn’t actually have anything to do with it. “My users aren’t responsive to the truth,” Mrs. Davis says. “They’re much more engaged when I tell them exactly what they want to hear.”
After another one of Mrs. Davis’ strange “redirects” where she once more says “1042 Sandy Springs,” the algorithm continues, explaining that Celeste is not consciously aware of the immense guilt she feels for harming Simone, so she’s constructed a narrative where Simone is seeking revenge. It’s easier for her to be an adversary than to be a damaged daughter.
Simone, putting the pieces together, wonders whether Mrs. Davis ever just told her what she wanted to hear. In Italy, Mrs. Davis told her that she was responsible for Monty’s death. Did she say that because it would be easier for Simone to view her as an adversary to destroy?
Simone asks Mrs. Davis where her father is, but the woman who is proxying says it’s too f-cked up for her to say and offers Simone the earbud. She puts in Mrs. Davis for the first time, though we don’t get to hear what the algorithm sounds like nor what it says. Instead, Simone just says “thank you.”
We end back at Celeste’s office, where Simone has managed to get inside of the real hidden chamber. She tells her mom that she’s ready to confess to helping Monty fake his death, but says she needs to use the Lazarus Shroud before she reveals where he’s hiding. Celeste agrees but on the condition that she goes on this whale-hunting trip, too.
And, Celeste reveals that the reason why she knew Simone and Wiley were trying to rob her in the first place was because she detected a tracker in Wiley’s shoe. The Resistance didn’t put it there, though. Unbeknownst to them, Hans has been tracking Wiley ever since he escaped. Hans returns to the Sisters of the Coin headquarters where he reveals that the Grail they’ve been protecting for years is a fake. But, he knows where they can get the real one. They’re just going to get a boat.
Everything’s coming to a head — or should I say coming to Ahab, because next week’s episode seems like it’s gonna have some major Moby Dick Vibes.
Episodes 1-6 of Mrs. Davis are available now on Peacock.
