Kayleigh
Episode 2 of Stay Close switches the perspective over to Kayleigh, who hangs out with her friend Bea. Both of them have been following Megan, who shows up at Viper’s Club one night wearing a blonde wig and Kayleigh’s red dress. Thanks to a camera in her closet, this is what sparked Kayleigh’s interest in finding out more about her mum. Kayleigh and Bea manage to convince Carlton, who happens to be passing by, to join them in Viper’s in order to gain entry. Only, he’s not exactly a saintly man in shining armour. He spikes Kayleigh’s drink. Thankfully, Bea is wise to this and switches the glasses before she can drink. Carlton takes a sip instead, as he girls charge away from the club. a drugged up Carlton tries to follow, stumbling into the woods after them. Back in the present, Megan shows up at Lorraine’s place. It turns out Lorraine was the one who saw Stewart Green ,on the way out from the club. He was yelling “I know Cassie was in,” and thanks to CCTV footage, it’s brought up old memories. Meanwhile, Broome continues to juggle the Carlton Flynn and Stewart Green cases, trying to find a connection between the two. Broome breaks into Viper’s, steals their recorder (with a note saying “it’s called cooperation”) and tells the cleaners to put up missing person posters. Bending the law a little here, but we’ll run with it for now. Now, it seems there’s another missing person by the name of Guy. Her worried partner, Simona, shows up to see Ray, who got drunk with him the night of the carnival. They were also at Viper’s too, where things got “messy”; thin fragments of a fight from the club that night bleed through in flashbacks but don’t reveal too much. Megan meets a much more sober Harry the following morning. With him distracting Stewart’s wife out in the garden, Megan sneaks into the basement, using her phone to check on Harry’s status. In the basement are numerous flyers for Viper’s, and specifically that of Cassie performing. A heavy door seems to hint at something more is an enticing prospect but for now, her time is up. Megan scrambles up and out the house before she’s spotted. Carlton Flynn appears to be connected with Tawny Allure, one of the workers from Viper’s. Thanks to taking the recorder (and finding the dates in question have been wiped), Broome shows up at the club to speak to her, forcing owner Rudy’s hand to allow this. Tawny doesn’t know where Carlton is but the night before the carnival she ended up going out with him after-hours. Normally she wouldn’t do this but the prospect of extra money was just too much. Things didn’t go well and he broke two of her fingers. Beyond that, she’s unsure where he is. News of Carlton’s disappearance spreads across to Kayleigh, who heads out with Bea to check in the woods. While they do, Broome begins to bring up all the missing person reports from 17 years and finds a loose connection. All of them were last seen some time around April, which Broome immediately suspects is a serial killing. I mean, bit of a jump and hold up, did they not actually see this connection before? We hear there are 10 different missing person cases that were last seen in April so that’s seven, and no one bat an eyelid? Bit of a jump here, don’t you think? Anyway, anonymous pictures further cement the idea of a murderer, with Ray’s photos of blood spatters on stones and Carlton showing on CCTV hint that something sinister has happened. It all seems to be connected. And nowhere else is that more evident than in a strange, psychopathic couple of assassins showing up and killing Tawny in her house. As the episode closes out, we see a hooded figure dumping a car in the lake… a hooded figure that’s actually Dave! If that wasn’t enough, rumours of a bald guy in a suave suit spreads, showing up at the skate park and taking Megan’s youngest, Jordan. Alas, the plot thickens.
The Episode Review
The case is just starting to get interesting now, with theories abound that all of this is connected in some way. Quite how and why the month of April is so important though is a mystery. As these episodes tick by, it does seem that there’s a lot more of a connection that we first though, but Dave’s inclusion in this is another enticing prospect that will likely catch many people off-guard. I still have my doubts over the shoddy police work here, especially with the sudden interest in an April connection, while the small town we’re playing with not knowing about Cassie and Megan’s double life a bit of a stretch. How Megan managed to live a brand new life and escape from this alleged psychopath Stewart Green is anyone’s guess, especially given how close the club appears to be to the nearest town, where we’re spending most of our time. Maybe it’s just me but surely if you’re running away from someone you wouldn’t just stop at a nearby town. But hey, who am I to question this! Either way though, Stay Close is shaping up to be another addictive Harlan Coben mystery. It’s not perfect, and certainly has some illogical plot beats, but there’s just enough here to sink your teeth into nonetheless.
