How Far Will Alice Go to Take Down Jay Easton?

At the end of Episode 6 of Furious, Alice (Emmy Rossum) was attacked by a drunk, rage-fueled Marshall (Jake Lacy), but she was saved when he was quickly taken down by Catherine (Lola Petticrew), who shot him. Now, she finds herself at a crossroads alongside Nora (Quincy Tyler Bernstine), as crooked cop Ed (Danny McCarthy) takes over the case and Catherine is once again in the wind. Warning: Spoilers ahead for Furious Episode 7 “Some Days It Don’t Come Easy.”

Marshall is in the hospital, where Danny (Scoot McNairy) visits him and confronts his mother, the ultimate boy mom, stripping down her defense of his actions and letting her know that her son is “f**ked up.” She blames Alice and reveals that she found a pre-teen Alice in a group home after she had been living on the streets and had lost a baby.

Elsewhere, Nora tells Alice that Ed has taken over the case, effectively ending her career. Alice tells her about the videos and admits that when Catherine asked if she wanted Marshall dead, she said no. Nora is furious that Alice let him live, arguing that his death would have been better for the investigation. “We become inhuman in defense of humanity,” she says, accusing Alice of being too soft.

Disney/Sarah Shatz

Ed discovers that Catherine’s laptop has been wiped, while FBI Agent Frank Choi (Rob Yang), for once, defends Alice, pointing out that she had no backup.

Danny takes Alice home, where she asks him to stay to comfort her. Alice has an emotional breakthrough and tells Danny she loves him, but he says he can’t do this right now. He then reveals that Easton’s lawyer, Hal (Campbell Scott), kept copies of the files and videos, and that Alice is on the flash drive. There’s a video of her as a teenager, though Jay Easton isn’t the man in it. Alice wants Danny to turn it over, but he refuses to let anyone see it because he loves her and wants to protect her. At the same time, he admits he can’t sleep with her because he can’t get her face from the video out of his head.

They love each other, but they both have a long way to go. Maybe one day, when they are both healed, he’ll take her to the vacation beach house where they can explore a relationship. But not now.

Over at Ghoul Manor (i.e., the Easton household), Jay Easton’s daughter Emma (Hope Davis) tells him he needs to “be more careful” before revealing a hidden safe room in his office where he meets with young prostitutes. More disturbingly, it is revealed that Emma is the one who brings the girls to him, adding a new, horrifying dynamic to the father-daughter relationship.

Nora spills the beans to Choi that Ed gave the case back to the PD because he wants Catherine dead, revealing that he was Easton’s “cleaner” from way back, and he’ll do anything, even destroy the case, to protect the Easton family. Meanwhile, Ed watches a video of Alden (Steve Way) giving Danny something, so he knows that Danny has some relevant evidence that he needs to get his hands on.

Alice’s sister Amy (Elise Kibler) comes to visit, and the two have a heart-to-heart, or as close to a heart-to-heart as Alice can have given her anger. Alice got pregnant at 14, and Alice’s parents kicked her out of the house. She doesn’t share the warm, happy family feelings that Amy has, and she makes it clear that she is not interested in being part of the family or Alice’s sister.

Alice goes to Nora with an idea to follow Isabel’s daughter Elena (Chloe Carrillo), who has Mira’s (Riley Vinson) backpack, when they spot her. They follow Elena into a house, where Nora takes down her abuser, Big Man. They then go to a hotel and call Catherine from Elena’s phone, only to discover Catherine is already hiding in the bathroom.

Disney/Sarah Shatz

Unthrilled with Jay Easton and his hobbies, Alice has had enough. She sets Catherine up to go to Easton’s house and kill him, then lets her go.

Talking to TV Insider, Rossum explained Alice’s frame of mind in that moment and what allowed her to let Catherine go, potentially setting a revenge plan in motion.

“I think it is interesting that Alice has believed that she’s unable to get justice for herself throughout this whole story, and is in fact on a collision course with this serial killer, which will, in a kind of roundabout way, make her confront by proxy what was done to her,” said Rossum. “So I think what was done to her and the choices that she made are because of what was done to her. She’s living with a lot of secrets.”

Meanwhile, Danny investigates the 2012 case that Nora and Ed were on and finds it was ruled accidental. Nora calls Danny and sends him after Alice, but when he gets to his car, Ed is waiting for him. Ed wants to bury this case and protect the Eastons, and he’ll do whatever it takes, but when the “hero cop” threatens his son Liam, Danny beats the holy hell out of him.

Ed calls the Eastons and warns Emma that Catherine is headed to the house, which is sure to bring the authorities after her. So anything that Jay Easton might have in his manor that might incriminate him needs to be destroyed. Emma says she got rid of everything last week and then threatens her father. Power tripping, Jay says he “doesn’t give a f**k” what his daughter thinks of him and that “no one can do a f**king thing” to him. Fed up with everything she was ever forced to do to protect her devious dad, Emma pushes Jay down, and he starts to sob, begging her to let him keep the illicit materials he kept in a safe, his precious and revolting mementos. “Please, please don’t take them,” he begs. She is disgusted with the man whom she has served faithfully for her entire life. She starts to clean up his mess. Again.

How faithfully? Well, the labs came back from Isabel’s crime scene, and they ran it against the DNA found at Caleb Easton’s crime scene for comparison. They call on Danny, who is with Nora, to share their findings. The DNA found under Isabel Luna’s fingernails from the cold case is revealed to belong to a sibling of Caleb Easton: Emma.

The last shot is of Catherine, sitting in a stolen car outside the Easton mansion. She looks at a few mementos from Isabel, gathers her courage, and heads inside.

Furious, Season Finale, August 31, Hulu