Warning: this article contains spoilers
Furious makes it uncomfortably easy to sympathise with Catherine Grace, a serial killer who leaves a growing number of bodies behind her.
Played by Lola Petticrew, Catherine was trafficked as a teenager by wealthy men who have spent years beyond the reach of the law. She is now finding them one by one, killing them with fentanyl as she searches for the truth about Isabel, a friend she loved and was unable to save.
The eight-part thriller comes from Elizabeth Meriwether, creator of New Girl. Since its July premiere, it has become one of the year’s most acclaimed new dramas, earning a 98 per cent critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes. Hulu has already ordered a second season, with all eight episodes now streaming on Disney+ in the Middle East.
Emmy Rossum was 18 when her performance in The Phantom of the Opera earned her a Golden Globe nomination and later spent nine seasons playing Fiona Gallagher in Shameless. In Furious – which she also executive produces – Rossum, 39, plays Alice Black, a former NYPD detective trying to rebuild her career at the FBI after she was abused by fellow officer Marshall Connelly (Jake Lacy).
In preparing to play an FBI agent, Rossum also listened to people who had done the job. “You draw on research that you do. You draw on personal experiences. You also draw on stories that current and former FBI agents tell you,” Rossum tells The National.
On screen, Alice stays late at the office and keeps people at a distance, withdrawing from her family and former colleagues as she throws herself into the search for Catherine. Even showering has become difficult since the assault.
“Alice starts as somebody who has a lot of secrets,” Rossum says. “She’s clearly able to find her way to separate from a lot of her complex PTSD, and she’s able to use her obsessive tendency to her benefit at work.”
Who killed Isabel in Furious?
The finale takes Catherine back to the Connecticut mansion of billionaire Jay Easton (Peter McRobbie), where the memories she has spent years suppressing begin to return.
Jay had beaten Isabel shortly after she gave birth to Elena and left her bleeding without medical help. DNA found under Isabel’s fingernails initially appeared to implicate Jay’s daughter Emma (Hope Davis), but Isabel had scratched Emma’s neck while clinging to her before asking her to bring Catherine to the room.
Knowing she was dying, Isabel asked Catherine to end her suffering. Catherine gave her a fatal dose of heroin and then buried the memory that she had been the last person beside her. Isabel held Catherine’s hands as she died, explaining the loss of feeling she has carried in her fingertips ever since.
But it was Catherine who gave Isabel the dose that killed her, at Isabel’s request, after Jay had beaten her and left her to die. She had spent years searching for a killer while unable to face the act of mercy Isabel had asked of her.
Alice stays beside Catherine as the memory returns and shields her when the police enter. When she later visits Catherine in prison, she tells her that Isabel can finally be moved from Hart Island, New York City’s public cemetery for unclaimed bodies, and buried under her own name.
Why does Alice kill Jay Easton?
After Catherine is taken into custody, Alice finds Jay upstairs. He recognises her from a video recording of her abuse when she was 14 and tells her it was one of his favourites.
Jay appears to suffer respiratory failure while Alice calls for medical assistance. A later flashback shows her stepping on his breathing tube and holding his mouth closed.
When Alice reported Marshall, his colleagues protected him and her career at the NYPD ended. She responded by starting again at the FBI.
“I think that she starts as someone who doesn’t believe she can get justice for herself, but believes that she can get justice through the normal channels for others,” Rossum says.
By the time Alice reaches Jay, Emma has destroyed the evidence at the mansion. Senior FBI official Ed George (Danny McCarthy) continues to defend him in exchange for information, dismissing Isabel as “just one dead girl”. The NYPD has meanwhile given Marshall a commendation, rewarding the man Alice tried to report.
“Alice is wondering if justice is really achievable through a system that feels like it’s been failing her and failing others around her,” Rossum says. “She’s starting to question whether or not she’s on the right side of things.”
In Jay’s bedroom, Alice uses her badge to do what Catherine has been doing without one. The officers outside hear her calling for help, but cannot see her foot on Jay’s breathing tube.
“Having been exposed to so much honesty and manipulation, and done so much of it herself, she’s a little bit of a shapeshifter, able to manipulate whoever she’s with in order to get what she wants,” Rossum says.
What does Alice’s final smile mean?
A copy of Jay’s files survives on a USB drive recovered by Alice’s former NYPD partner Danny Kelly (Scoot McNairy). Alice gives it to her FBI superior Nora Washington (Quincy Tyler Bernstine) – who Rossum says is one of Alice's manipulators – and admits that one of the videos records her own abuse, footage she has never been able to watch.
Nora gives her access to the secure room where the files can be viewed. Alice searches for her name, watches the recording and finds that it has been downloaded more than 50,000 times. The episode does not establish, however, whether those downloads can be traced to individuals or what Alice intends to do with the information in the upcoming second season.
Catherine does not believe the official account of Jay’s death. During Alice’s visit to the prison, she asks whether Alice enjoyed killing him: “Did you like the way it felt?” Alice smiles.
“I think there are very few moments in the series where her mask is completely down, and where she’s able to really connect,” Rossum says.
This, the final moment seems to imply, is one of them.
Furious season one is now streaming on Disney+ in the Middle East
