While looking at the key she found behind her mother’s picture, Kirsten is interrupted by Camille’s lust for entirely too expensive boots. She feels like since she puts her life on the line by working for the program, she should be paid more and Kirsten implores her to ask for a raise like a normal person. But just as the two begin talking about what constitutes as normal, given that Kirsten is now timing Camille’s showers thanks to a broken hot water heater, a good looking man shows up at the door looking for Kirsten. Unfortunately, Kirsten and a smitten Camille have to go to work and as they leave their porch, Kirsten reveals that this man is her boyfriend.
The stitch of the week is a Jane Doe in her early 20’s who was found on a hiking trail near Mulholland Drive. It looks like she was pushed from the road above down onto the trail, but talk around the office quickly turns to Kirsten having a boyfriend, as Camille blurts it out basically unprompted. Maggie then pulls her aside not to chastise her for asking irrelevant questions but to task her with finding out everything she can about this new guy. While Camille is uncomfortable at the idea of spying on someone she considers a friend, she ultimately agrees to the proposition and blows her first shot at asking for a raise in the process. Once their brief interlude is over, it’s time for Kirsten to bounce into Jane Doe and when she does, she lands in the middle of a 4th of July hot tub party. It looks like Jane Doe was either rich or knew someone who was. Kirsten continues exploring the scene and finds Jane Doe’s yippy dog as well as Jane Doe herself taking a selfie with an issue of Mulholland Magazine. The house itself is completely wired with security systems and decked out with fancy art, but Kirsten soon finds herself in a less than swanky bathroom before being forced to bounce out.
Camille finds the issue of Mulholland that Jane Doe was holding up and it seems like the house belongs to Joe and Suzanne Parks. With Fisher on special assignment, Maggie gets Kirsten and Cameron to come along with her to verify that the Parks residence is the same house that Kirsten was in during her stitch. Once they meet the Parks, though, Maggie finds herself undercut by Kirsten’s lack of filter and inability to play it cool in stressful situations. She immediately turns Joe and Suzanne off with her interrogation tactics and nearly blows up Maggie’s spot by mentioning things she saw in the stitch that make her confident this house is the same one she was just in. Back at Kirsten’s, Camille finds Liam’s passport and notes that he’s impressively traveled. Adding to his list of qualities is a string of photos showing him receiving prestigious awards and volunteering his time in Third World countries, but before Camille can take a picture of his shirtless body in one of the photos, he comes back from a run. And subsequently shows her his insane body in real life when he uses the bottom of his shirt to wipe the sweat from his forehead. Her head all swim-y as a result of the vapors, Camille learns that cultural anthropologist Liam has spent time in a hut in Peru and a yurt in southeast Asia, some of the many places he’s invited Kirsten since they met three years ago. However, she’s never accepted his invitations, so they end up spending a lot of time apart, which he likes given that she very clearly lives in the moment.
When Kirsten and Cameron arrive back at the lab, they’re greeted with the news that Linus found out the name of Jane Doe through her dog. After tracking a chipped Giorgio to the Bel Air Animal Shelter, he landed the name of his owner – Brenda “Bentley” Miller. Using the keys that were found in Bentley’s possession, Kirsten and Cameron head to her apartment and begin poking around for evidence. Cameron tries to talk to her about Liam and the difficulty of long distance relationships, though Kirsten’s lack of time recognition means that she never misses him. The two find a collage with the phrase I WANT IT ALL over top of it, indicating Bentley’s desire for a better quality of life, and some gaudy jewelry that shows just how far away from that life she was. But Kirsten recognizes a piece of jewelry from the stitch and goes to the toilet to find the expensive (and obviously stolen) jewelry being kept in the back of the toilet. Therefore, Bentley was a thief.
This news is especially important given that there’d been a string of break-ins in the area. Kirsten posits that the jewelry made Bentley feel important, hence her keeping everything, while Linus finds out the name of Bentley’s only social media friend – Sadie Morton, who works at a Beverly Hills spa. Kirsten recognizes Sadie from the stitch, but since the refractory period is over in six hours and she didn’t exactly do well today with the Parks, Cameron and Linus go to talk to Sadie themselves. Camille, meanwhile, encourages Kirsten to have dinner with Liam, which she subsequently gets dolled up for. But when she gets home, she finds that Liam wants to stay in after fixing the hot water heater and that he likes her look better when she dresses down. Nonetheless, they make out while Camille leaves Maggie with the photos she found of Liam, none of which she deems suspicious. However, when Maggie finds the one of Liam accepting an award, her eyes are drawn to one person in the background. Meanwhile, Cameron and Linus arrive at the spa and the former uses a fake badge he got at Comic-Con in order to throw his weight around. The two get an audience with Sadie and quickly force her into confession; she and Bentley would “house sit” empty places in the area as a way to get a feel for the life they might never achieve. She used her client base at the spa to pick out the places, with Bentley disarming the security systems and stealing once she got too greedy. Sadie then explains that Mr. Parks came home during their 4th of July bash and Bentley was trapped in the house for hours, which causes Cameron to frantically call Kirsten in hopes of getting another stitch in.
But Kirsten is busy having sex with Liam and misses at least five calls from Cameron before the latter shows up at her doorstep. Cameron immediately becomes intimidated when he sees that they had sex and that Liam is a well-built do-gooder who knows how to make mushroom risotto. He doesn’t have the time to stew in his insecurity, though, as he and Kirsten rush back to the lab in order for her to get another stitch in. This time, Kirsten finds herself 
in the Parks bedroom where Bentley is stealing jewelry from Suzanne. Before she can leave, though, two people come into the bedroom and begin fooling around; Bentley films it while Kirsten assumes it’s Mr. Parks bringing in a younger woman. Kirsten then finds herself on Mulholland while Bentley walks Giorgio before having a confrontation with the person she was blackmailing with the video. The two have a scuffle before the unknown assailant pushes Bentley to her death, further solidifying the idea that Joe is the murderer.
Adding to that is the fact that he texted Bentley before the murder, a fact that Cameron uses as an excuse for a celebration dinner. But where Liam is cooking, his group thing turns into a bro night, as Linus finds out that Giorgio, for whom he filed adoption papers, doesn’t like men and that he’s out of the running to become an owner. Once Cameron gets Linus back to his place and starts making tapas, he confesses that he’s worried that Kirsten could get hurt, which doesn’t hold as much water when he goes on about Liam’s perfect smile, perfect abs, and do-gooder status. Not helping is that Linus checks Liam out online and deduces that he’s perfect; everything about him isn’t an act, nor is it a way to lower Kirsten’s defenses so he can take advantage of her. As a result, the two decide to have a much bro-ier bro night than they had originally planned. Meanwhile, Kirsten surprises Camille with the boots she had been lusting after. Since Liam fixed the hot water, the two were saving more money than the boots cost and Kirsten wanted to do something nice for her friend. But the moment of joy is cut short when Kirsten hears a dog barking in the distance and puts together that Mr. Parks couldn’t have been the murderer. Giorgio only barks at men (see: the first stitch) and since he wasn’t barking while Bentley was being attacked, it stands to reason that the person who pushed her to her death was female. Therefore, Kirsten comes up with another excuse to leave Liam (this time, she’s a video game developer who has to fix a glitch) before taking Camille to the Parks residence.
Linus and Cameron invite Tim over for bro night and though Tim doesn’t know why he’s even there, the trio play video games, drink beer, and bond. While Linus is busy whiffing on smashing a beer can on his head, Kirsten hacks into the Parks’ security system with the intention of finding the gloves worn by the killer on the night of the murder. They would likely have the DNA of whoever killed Bentley on them, so she and Camille split up in order to cover more ground. Kirsten ends up finding the ankle bracelet from the second stitch in Suzanne’s jewelry box just before Mrs. Parks comes home to find Camille outside the closet. Suzanne gets confronted with what she did by Kirsten and attempts to bribe her way out of trouble before Kirsten tries to take the phone Bentley used to record the affair. This causes Mrs. Parks to draw a gun and Kirsten to chuck the jewelry box at her in order to knock the gun away. Meanwhile, Linus laments that he doesn’t have a reliable girlfriend and he agrees to a girl fast with Cameron; neither of them is going to have sex for a while so they can refocus on what’s important. But when Tim points out that neither of them is exactly swimming in women right now, he gets kicked out of bro night.
Back at the lab, Maggie praises Kirsten and Camille before giving the latter the raise that she earned. Once she gets in her office, though, she finds Leslie lurking in the shadows. Maggie then points out the suspicious photo of Liam, taken when he was receiving a NSA fellowship for emerging Third World countries. Noticing the same thing Maggie is, Leslie promises to take care of it. Elsewhere, Liam tells Kirsten how right it feels being with her before proposing to her outside her house.
Additional thoughts and observations:
-“His name is Liam and he’s drop dead delicious.”
-“Oh, fantastic. We haven’t had a vague answer in almost 10 minutes.”
-“You know what we need?” “To do 1000 sit-ups and start a foundation for starving children?”
-In case you missed the news yesterday, the show got a second season renewal. ABC Family is now apparently giving second seasons in lieu of first season back orders (see also: Young & Hungry), but I will take more episodes of this show in any package the network wants to give them. I honestly wasn’t sure if this was going to get a renewal, so a renewal coming this much in advance of the finale is an excellent surprise.
-Wouldn’t Suzanne have deleted the video from the phone (or even destroyed the phone itself) after disposing of Bentley? Because I don’t know if she was the type to keep a trophy from a kill, especially if it’s something that could’ve incriminated her. Could that have been the hubris of wealth – this idea that because she is who she is, she’d never have to worry about having something like this in her possession?
-Fingers crossed we see Camille wearing her new boots in an upcoming episode. I’m a sucker for details like that and enough of a deal with made of them that they need a proper showcase.
-Interesting that we didn’t learn exactly how Kirsten and Liam met in this episode. We know it was three years ago, but we don’t know if it was in school, a random meeting in public, through a friend, etc. I feel like this’ll come into play later in the season – I just don’t know how.
-Between her reaction to Kirsten having a boyfriend in the first place, her thirst for Liam (and the boots), and her quest for a raise from Maggie, this was an excellent episode for Camille. Allison Scagliotti remains the best.
-Going off that, I loved how funny this episode was. Dips into the darkness are expected for a show in this genre, but I think Stitchers shines the most when it doesn’t let itself get bogged down in the darkness. While mythology is important, there are corners in this story that don’t provide a lot of laughs, and not every episode needs to be packed with laughs in order to be potent, this is the type of show where a sense of humor is an important asset to have.
-Also funny: Tim throwing shade and remaining an enigma (I love the weird little glimpses we get of him); Linus’s love for yippy dogs (endearing character development!) and inability to smash a can on his head; Liam feeding Cameron risotto while shirtless; Cameron maybe making Cosmos for bro night; Camille sprinting to Kirsten and hugging her for buying the boots; Kirsten throwing the jewelry box at Mrs. Parks to distract her.
-I liked how the case extended thematically (wanting it all and not being able to get it) throughout the episode. Bentley wanted a better life for herself; Suzanne wanted to cover up her crime and keep her high society status; Kirsten wanted to have her hot boyfriend and her cool career; Cameron wanted Kirsten; Linus wanted Giorgio and a good girlfriend. The only person who got what they wanted was Camille, who walked away with a raise and expensive boots she didn’t have to pay for.
-We got a mention of Fisher, which was better than nothing. He’s felt a little absent these last couple of episodes, but it’s nice to at least have him as part of the conversation. And judging from Kirsten’s phone call, I think the Ed Clark mystery will play a major part for the remainder of the season.
-I like how Leslie is just lurking in the shadows at every turn. But Oded Fehr is a quality lurker, and every Leslie appearance gives me hope for answers/clues to the show’s mysteries, so I’m all about it. And I love that Maggie doesn’t bat at eye to him just popping up.
-My read on Liam thus far is that he’s not a/the villain, but he’s also not the perfect boyfriend he presents himself to be. That all felt very constructed, as did the (suspiciously quick) proposal and his clean online record; regarding the latter, I’m surprised they didn’t consider the possibility that Liam Grainger isn’t his actual name. I’m guessing Liam has some type of association with the nefarious man in the photo, who may have helped clean up the online record, and that the proposal has something to do with the man’s desire to use Liam to get to Kirsten.
-Next week on Stitchers: The lab is placed under quarantine after a body is found to be carrying a deadly virus.
