11.22.63 Episode 5 recap revisited: The truth is told, and nothing can go back

11.22.63 Episode 5 is titled The Truth. The Episode first hit Hulu on March 14, 2016.

Things start to fall apart for Jake Epping here. He has spent so much time building a life in the ‘60s, but everything starts crashing down when Sadie finds his secret recordings. Their relationship falls apart, and it doesn’t just stop there.

Jake loses his job, his loyalties get pulled in all directions, and his investigation into Lee Harvey Oswald and the attempt on General Edwin Walker’s life gets a whole lot riskier. Nothing goes the way he planned.

11.22.63 Episode 5 recap: The Truth

11.22.63 Episode 5 continues where Sadie had found the tape in the basement of Jake, a tape of Lee and Marina Oswald speaking Russian. Sadie does not even listen when Jake comes and attempts to explain it. She is shaken and furious and tells him that he is lying at all times and stomps out.

Her response seems sudden, but it is based on an underlying fear: Jake’s secrecy is a reminder of Johnny Clayton, a man who once masqueraded domination and brutality as romance. In case Jake is a liar about this, maybe he is a liar about all things, including his feelings towards her.

Jake returns to the deserted house, where he finds the casserole and love note that Sadie left. He disposes of them, having known that they have lost whatever they had.

In 11.22.63 Episode 5, there is a small flashback to the life of Jake in 2016 that re-contextualizes the central dilemma of the episode. When Jake was teaching The Odyssey, he asked his students why Odysseus did not remain in the cave with Calypso but went back home, a question that is also relevant to Jake when he must decide whether to remain in the past or to resume his life. In another time-travel discussion in the classroom, a darker picture is shown to us: most of the responses are about killing historical evils. Violence, it seems, is the most tempting use of power.

In the year 1963 in Texas, Sadie narrates to Principal Deke Simmons about the recording. Together with the previous brothel experience Jake had, that is enough to make Deke invoke the morality clause in the contract with Jake and lay him off. Ms. Mimi is the only person who truly believes in him, having observed his goodness in a segregated town, but that does not matter when it comes to his employment.

Jake hardly has time to digest the loss. The assassination attempt of General Edwin Walker is imminent, and history tells us that the shooter will shoot through a window but will not kill him. According to Jake, by shooting Lee Harvey Oswald, he demonstrates that he can also shoot JFK. Bill wonders about the logic because Walker and Kennedy are ideological adversaries, but Jake shuts down the skepticism. The “why” no longer matters. Only whether Lee shoots.

In 11.22.63 Episode 5, Jake and Bill are obsessively looking after the car and setting a backup plan in case the past returns. Bill will be on the lookout for George de Mohrenschildt, and Jake will be near Oswald. However, Jake fails in his planning as he gets an invitation call from Johnny Clayton. The former husband of Sadie has returned, and he is holding her as a prisoner.

Jake quits the operation and leaves Bill to deal with Walker on his own. Johnny meets him with cold politeness at Sadie’s home. Sadie is at the kitchen table, bleeding, her head against the gun. In some twisted, self-excising reasoning, Johnny describes Sadie as having stained herself by abandoning him and engaging in an affair. He is a bleach salesman who thinks that stains are removable, and he makes Jake drink a glass of bleach to show his loyalty.

Sadie, not a passive woman, starts to sabotage Johnny, teasing him and laughing in a manner that upsets his authority. Jake silently pushes a piece of broken glass toward himself, awaiting an opening. He is about to act when the doorbell rings, and two students bring a school gift basket. Jake sends them off, but the interruption costs him his opportunity.

Jake has no choice but to virtually surrender before eventually hurling the bleach in the face of Johnny. When Johnny shoots blindly in the room, Jake distracts him by tossing his watch, then hits him with a fire poker. In 11.22.63 Episode 5, Sadie takes the gun and shoots Johnny herself. It’s over.

Sadie is taken to the hospital, and Jake is taken in to be questioned. Deke steps in and charms the officer to allow Jake to make his statement later. The police believe Jake when he tells them that it was good to kill Johnny because he deserves it, another moment where moral violence is validated.

In the meantime, in 11.22.63 Episode 5, Bill is waiting outside the office of Walker. The local church service concludes just in time, and the shooter has the ideal protection. Then Bill notices something unbelievable: he sees his sister Clara, who died long ago, walking in the crowd. Conquered by hope, he pursues her and discovers too late that it is an illusion made by the past itself. A gunshot rings out. Walker is hit, and whatever evidence Bill had been hoping to get is lost.

In the hospital, Jake notices Walker being brought in alive and calls Bill. Bill is devastated, realizing that he failed and realizing that he has been used. Jake understands that he is also to blame. He leaves without saying goodbye.

One of the doctors tells Jake that Sadie will not die, but the wound on her face will leave a mark. Jake doesn’t care. Tired of lies, exhausted by the weight of the past, he finally tells Sadie the truth.

“I’m from the future,” he says. The rest, he insists, is true: his name, his love of her, his feelings. Sadie listens in disbelief, then tells him it’s a lot to take in for two people who have only just met.

“Well,” Jake replies quietly, “it’s good to meet you.”

11.22.63 Episode 5 finishes with the truth being finally told and the realization that telling it can change everything.

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Also Read: 11.22.63 Episode 4 recap revisited: Jake closes in on Oswald as his double life begins to collapse

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