Happy Face Season 1 Episode 4 Introduces Melissa’s Brother, Pulling Focus Away from the Unnecessary Secondary Crime

Our review of Happy Face Season 1 Episode 4 explores the sibling relationship between Melissa and Shane. Click the link for more!

The post Happy Face Season 1 Episode 4 Introduces Melissa’s Brother, Pulling Focus Away from the Unnecessary Secondary Crime appeared first on TV Fanatic.

I’m going on the record — again — that I wish a lot of what’s happening was taking place without the influence of Dr.

Greg and a camera crew in tow.

That said, Happy Face Season 1 Episode 4 revealed a lot of intimate family moments through introducing Melissa’s brother Shane, and with the kids suffering from Happy Face-related fallout.

Let’s dig in!

Melissa’s Brother Shane Has Stories to Tell

Part of the reason I wish Ivy wasn’t tagging along with Melissa is because she barges head first into every situation, ready for a fight.

Yes, a man’s life is on the line, but so is Melissa’s. The way Ivy is so eager to run roughshod over Melissa’s experience to support her end goal is aggravating.

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There has to be a happy medium where Melissa can work with her family to arrive at a conclusion that works for everyone. I was worried that visiting Shane would just be more of the same, but when Melissa pulled the curtain on Ivy, what transpired between the siblings was worth the effort.

It’s hard to tell whether the kids were close when they were younger. Most of Melissa’s memories so far don’t include anyone but herself and her dad. That’s understandable in some respects, but in others, it’s just a storytelling device.

The story has opened up a bit, and now Shane is included. Maybe if there wasn’t so much stuffed into previous episodes, we would have known more about him before the visit. Maybe not. Not everyone is close to their siblings.

But once things got moving, you could sense the closeness between Shane and Melissa. They aren’t estranged, necessarily, although they have been out of tough. And although he hasn’t shared anything about his relationship with Keith’s girlfriend, Jillian, it didn’t seem to be done maliciously.

Seeing them together is another reminder about the devastation done to the families of criminals.

Shane admits to Melissa that he never had kids because of what they experienced as kids. As we watch what’s unfolding with Melissa’s kids, it’s understandable.

It’s also understandable from the perspective that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. We’ve seen Melissa struggle with that already. It’s also demoralizing to have your furniture donations dismissed because they might have belonged to a serial killer.

Again, I know I’ve already asked this question, but isn’t there a whole group of people out there who would jump at the chance to have one of Keith Jesperson’s possessions? If Shane can’t get rid of his junk, then he’s simply not trying hard enough.

Melissa Revisits More Past Trauma

You could tell how close they once were when Shane accompanied Melissa to visit her ex-boyfriend about the abortion. Something is off with that guy and their relationship, but I can’t tell what.

The quick scene of them preparing to have sex wasn’t romantic in the least, but Melissa also didn’t recall any violence.

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Was she coerced into having sex? She said she didn’t feel like she had a choice, but she also didn’t say she said no. It was confusing on screen, so I imagine it was equally confusing for her as a kid.

However, for everything that Melissa reveals about herself, she also helps tip Shane’s recollection. Like her, he’s been beating himself up over not doing something to stop the killings.

It’s so awful to imagine children feeling so complicit in their parents’ crimes, but it’s also very human to do it. Even as an adult, learning that there were three victims after his trip to Texas with their dad is worse than believing there were two. It’s just one more life he feels he could have saved.

Setting fire to the dresser was cathartic, and it was a bonding experience they needed to help sort through all of this. I hope they’ll stay in touch and make more of an effort to support each other.

With what’s going on with Jillian and Melissa’s family, they can use all the support they can get.

Jillian Represents the Problematic State of Women Who Pursue Imprisoned Men

We’re only a couple of months gone from witnessing how women throw themselves at a murderer with the Mangione asshole who gunned down a United Healthcare executive in broad daylight.

Dating is hard, but is it THAT hard? Back in the olden days, there were these things called Pen Pals, and I had them. I loved the idea of getting to know people outside of my own world.

It turns out that my name was given to more than one prisoner, one who had come from the town I was residing in. I wrote to him a few times just to find out what he was about.

His brother was also in prison. He seemed like a nice enough guy, but he was a criminal nonetheless (apparently with a family through line), so I stopped communicating with him.

But people like Jillian feel the need to enhance a prisoner’s existence with love and light, and in the case of Happy Face, it’s not warranted. I guess it seems easy to open your heart while trying to fix someone (a very female thing to do) when the guy’s behind bars.

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But what if he’s not? Do people like Jillian ever think about what would happen if their prisoner escaped or got out? Are they really so different from other women that they wouldn’t be marks themselves?

It’s fascinating to think about, but it’s not a life I would want to live.

She even integrated herself into Shane’s life, which is the hardest part. He’s clearly not fully evolved from the child who with with his father during a murder spree, so it feels dangerous to get so close through Jillian.

Keith Is Like a Petulant Child

While Melissa was reconnecting with Shane, Ivy tried to interview Keith, but he wasn’t having it. He wants his daughter there. Doesn’t anybody else see red flags with this stunt he’s pulled?

It’s super suspicious that he’s claiming rights to another murder when it’s so interconnected to his desire to lure Melissa and her family back into his orbit.

Something feels off, and his petulance during that interview should feed into Ivy’s sense of reason. She may be too far down the rabbit hole of saving Elijah that she can no longer sense whether Keith has something worth investigating.

Regardless, it’s working because Melissa visits Keith again. He wants to talk about Jillian, but Melissa is there with a purpose.

She suspects that it wasn’t her ex who leaked about her abortion, but her own dad. The jealousy he showed during Happy Face Season 1 Episode 3 when she grabbed the spotlight for herself may make him quite dangerous.

When she had the abortion and shared it with him, she believed that he was still, at heart, her dad. And it likely never dawned on her that he could someday use it against her. How could he, right? He’s in prison. What a difference technology makes.

Now he’s got guards providing him with cell phones, and he’s using a new, previously unreported crime to bolster his spotlight.

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But good on her for pushing back on Keith when he pulled the “you’re a killer like me” nugget out for old times’ sake. Now, she’s not so scared that she won’t tell him the truth — she was more of a victim than a murderer.

And who doesn’t hate how weight grasped that moment to call her his baby and whine about not being there to protect her. The sad thing is that even with everything she’s processed so far, there is still a part of her that wants to believe her daddy loves her. That’s so painful.

And then he reveals that he still has the murder weapon. Doesn’t it all seem a bit too easy?

It’s been forever since that murder. Now there’s a wadded-up trampoline and a bloody tool just sitting in his old toolbox? Nobody ever thought to toss the place?

All of this is even more reason why it’s even scarier to think of Melissa’s kids being impacted by him.

Hazel and Max Experience Fallout From Being Outed as Keith Jesperson’s Grandkids

Hazel is enjoying the cash grab from her grandfather’s drawing, almost setting up a little side hustle, but it’s not soothing her actual pain, which comes from being discarded by her fellow classmates like she’s garbage.

Even worse, her new “friend” Summer reveals that the only reason she’s being given the time of day is that she’s related to the Happy Face killer.

Finally, some honesty. But it doesn’t bode well for asking Hazel to step back from her grandfather. If anything, you’d think it would make her double down on her efforts to get to know him.

Meanwhile, Max is losing friends because parents are afraid to let them pay together. Really? I still think that many people would be fascinated by the connection rather than disgusted.

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Maybe it’s my own love affair with true crime coming out. And yes, I did just say that I reconsidered being a pen pal with a prisoner with family members who were also criminals.

Yet Melissa and Ben have shown no such inclinations. They are not long-haul drivers. They have been and remain a normal family that has tried to escape Melissa’s past.

I don’t think Ben is helping, though. His reaction to Ash’s presence at the house frightened him so much that he appears to be scaring Max. Suddenly, there are security cameras, his friends won’t play with him, and he’s locked out of his own house. It’s a lot.

You’ll just have to keep watching to see where things go from here.

But tell me: Are you interested in Elijah’s case, or are you more interested in Melissa and her family weathering the media scrutiny after her secret was revealed?

If you’ve made it this far, why not drop me a comment below?

Let me know if you’re enjoying Happy Face Season 1 and what else is on your mind.

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The post Happy Face Season 1 Episode 4 Introduces Melissa’s Brother, Pulling Focus Away from the Unnecessary Secondary Crime appeared first on TV Fanatic.