The seventh and penultimate episode of USA Network’s The Sinner aired this week, and it finally began to piece much of the puzzle together while also leaving many of the most pressing questions dangling. “Part VII” is an intense and unpredictable episode, but it finally makes sense of Cora’s lost memories. Trauma is a hell of a thing, and for Cora, she suffered the triple whammy of physical, emotional, and sexual trauma in the span of one night. It clearly scrambled her brain. She must have repressed most of the night, and the bits of memory that did seep through were mangled and confused.
Most crucially, Cora blocked out the fact that her sister, Phoebe, was present at the Beverwyck Club with her that night.
Briefly, a recap of what we learned: First, the memory that Cora had about getting pregnant and throwing herself in front of a car in order to kill the baby? That wasn’t her memory. It was Maddie all along. J.D. had impregnated Maddie, and she had thrown herself in front of a car. Cora had transposed the memory. Also, it wasn’t Maddie that begged Cora to go back to J.D.’s that night. It was Phoebe, who had strong-armed her sister into taking her to a party for her 19th birthday.
The party, however, was more than just a friendly get together with a few beers. Frankie Belmont — whose murder this show is ostensibly about — was there, which explains why Cora eventually killed him in the present day. Frankie and Phoebe — both high on molly — had an instant connection, and by the end of the night (after Cora and her sister had snorted coke and made out), Frankie was having sex with Phoebe. It was too much for Phoebe’s heart, however, so while Cora was being pressured into a three-way with J.D. and Todd (the skeevy real estate broker) Frankie was giving Phoebe heart compressions to revive her. However, in the process of doing so, Frankie snapped Cora’s rib cage. That prompted Cora to remove herself from the three-way and attack Frankie in the exact same manner in which she murdered him in the present day (with the exact same song). J.D., in turn, pulled Cora off of Frankie and knocked her out with an ashtray, which explains Cora’s wound and her memory loss.
The night answers a lot questions. It explains why Cora confused Frankie with J.D. It explains why seeing Frankie aggressively making out with a woman on the beach while that song played triggered Cora. It mostly explains why Cora’s memories of that time period were blocked, and it explains why Cora’s parents disowned her (because she had taken her ailing sister out to a party). It also explains why Frankie seemed to almost expect it when Cora killed him. I think Frankie had a similar traumatic experience that night, and his death may have felt like a relief after carrying that guilt for so many years.
There are a number of questions, however, that remain unanswered. Where did Maddie go, and how did she die? How did she get out into the woods? Who buried her? And what does the bus have to do with it? What happened to Phoebe after her rib cage snapped? Did J.D. hold Cora captive for two months after that night? Besides being the location of that crucial night, how was the Beverwyck Club involved? Why are they covering it up? Why did J.D. attack Cora’s father? Who murdered J.D.? How does Mason Tannetti play into all of this? Or does he?
I guess the biggest question of all is, will Cora’s recaptured memories save her from prosecution for one, or maybe even two murders? She may have her memories back from that night, but most of the participants are dead: Frankie, J.D., Phoebe, and Maddie. The only person that can back up her story is Todd, who doesn’t seem the sort of person who would want to implicate himself in a coke-fueled three-way that resulted in a murder.
In other words, even though we know the truth about that night now, there’s no way for Cora to corroborate it. Without witnesses or evidence, Cora has no defense. That may be the saddest tragedy of all about Sinner: That a clear case of PTSD may not be enough to save her.
