At the end of episode six, Melissa and Ben finally figured out that their daughter Hazel has been talking to Keith by use of a burner phone. They take the phone from her, and take the kids to a hotel in Oregon, where Melissa’s mom babysits so Melissa and Ben can pay Keith a visit in prison. When Hazel gets all teen-agery about having a sitter, Melissa tells her it’s because they can’t trust her alone anymore.
Hazel tells Grandma that she’s been talking to Keith, and Grandma says she’s throwing her life away, just like Melissa. She says Keith took a normal life away from her when she was married to him.
Keith keeps Melissa and Ben waiting when they show up to visit, so they finally leave. As they drive away, old wily Keith calls and apologizes for making them wait. Ben doesn’t waste any time on pleasantries, he tells Keith in no uncertain terms to stay away from Hazel. Keith gets royally ticked off at this.
After they hang up, Ben and Melissa get in an argument, with him claiming that she is protecting Keith because she just wants to spend time with her Dad. Melissa doesn’t like that at all, but we can tell she knows it’s true.
Back with the kids, Melissa has a heart-to-heart with Hazel. Hazel says she decided to talk to Keith because she wanted to know who she was and where she came from, she wants to know everything. She starts to defend Keith, saying he was bullied as a kid, blah blah blah. Melissa points out that Keith always paints himself as a victim in his stories, that he is grooming Hazel. She tells her about some inappropriate conversations Keith had with her when she was a teenager, and even tells about her rape and abortion, and that Keith said she was a killer just like him.
Hazel whines about it and says Melissa just doesn’t know him. Melissa says Keith is a bad man, and she didn’t want a relationship with him. Her mom comes in, and says Melissa is lying. Melissa says she wishes she could forget the good times, back when Keith loved them, and Mom gives her some cold hard truth: He never loved them, and even tried to kill them at one time by setting the lake house on fire. She got with Melissa (who was just a baby), and saw Keith standing in the woods smiling.
Melissa is shook. She drives off and has a mini meltdown, sobbing in anguish, because she knows it’s true. She finds Ash, and apologizes, telling him she thought there was good in Keith. Ash tells her that Keith beat and raped his mother, and that he had often dreamed about doing the same thing to Melissa. It clears the air between them. He tells Melissa that after his mom was murdered, he starting doing drugs and just went on the run. One day years later, the phone rang, and he heard his dead mother’s voice telling him to stop running. He gives Melissa words of wisdom: “The pain doesn’t go away, but you learn to live with it.” He knows she ran too, but she ran to good things…but now it’s catching up to her. She tells him that Keith never loved her, he tried to kill her when she was a baby. She’s been telling herself a story, but now it’s over. He tells her she’s a survivor, and now she needs to figure out her life’s purpose. They go to a karaoke bar and toast to surviving, then sing Hit Me with your Best Shot, laughing.
Meanwhile, Ben has been at a local bar, where he sees some of the prison guards. One of them comes up to him and asks if Ben has a message for Keith, Ben asks if he’s working for Gillian and Keith. The guard tells him to go home to his hot wife.
Ben goes out to his car, and another guard approaches. He says he’s not like the other guy, is there something Ben wants to do about Keith? He says he can’t beat him, but he can get rid of him.
When Melissa gets back to the hotel, she and Ben apologize to one another. She tells him about her visit with Ash, then agrees when he asks her to promise they are done with Keith.
The next morning, Keith texts Melissa a drawing of Bob, the guy who worked at the evidence locker where Heather’s clothing and other evidence were kept (and destroyed). On the drawing is written “Gotcha.” She has to go find out what is going on, and Ben is mad, telling her to do her job – be a Mom. She’s hurt, but still leaves after he tells her not to be surprised if things are different when she gets home.
Melissa finds our buddy Bob in a diner, and shows him the drawing, he says he doesn’t even know Keith. He says Heather’s daughter showed up weeks ago, crying and saying she wanted to get Heather’s necklace out of the evidence box so she could wear it at her wedding. Dumb Bob left her alone with the box, and found out later that she had taken the bloody dress. He got scared, and ditched the other evidence.
Melissa makes a call and asks about trace DNA, suspecting that Gillian could have transferred the blood from the dress to the wrench. Yep, it’s possible.
Back home, Ben goes through Heather’s drawings (he had already found a super creepy one, with a smiley face superimposed over Heather’s own face). He finds a drawing Keith did of her, and another she drew of Keith.
We flash back to a visit Melissa and Ben made to Keith when she was pregnant with Hazel. When Melissa went to the restroom, Keith thanked Ben for taking good care of Melissa, then he leaned in with a grin and said something chilling: “You can have them now – my Jesperson girls. But just know that I can take them away anytime that I want. There won’t be a damn thing you can do about it.”
In present time, Ben texts the helpful guard and basically tells him he wants him to take care of Keith. They go back and forth about the payment method.
Melissa goes to see Ivy, and tells her all about the setup, but Ivy doesn’t understand why Keith would implicate himself with a false confession. Melissa says he did it to get her back in his life. Someone else murdered Heather.