Safe episode 6 recap: who confesses to killing Chris?

Sophie and Tom looking at a phone in Safe episode 6 on Netflix
Tom's hunt for Jenny has taken a dark turn. (Image credit: Netflix)

Safe on Netflix is a twisty-turny thriller adapted from a bestselling Harlan Coben book of the same name, and despite it landing on the streaming site back in 2018, fans of Fool Me Once are revisiting the series after watching the Fool Me Once ending

The story follows a single father to two teenage daughters called Tom (Dexter's Michael C Hall), who is struggling after the death of his wife a year ago. But Tom's life is thrown into further chaos when his eldest daughter disappears in mysterious circumstances. 

After Jenny's boyfriend, Chris, winds up dead in a pool his body is then dumped in a reservoir and secrets from the past are unearthed. But while we now know that Jenny is still alive, Tom's hunt for her takes another dark turn when a devastating fire next door sees the body count rising. 

Here's everything you need to know about what happens in Safe episode 6...

Marc Warren as Pete Mayfield in Safe

We finally find out why Pete has been sneaking around.  (Image credit: Netflix)

The episode opens with a flashback to Sia's party, and we learn that Chris's fight with Mike started after Mike insulted Chris's mum, Zoe, who is also Mike's teacher. The pair fight, and then we are shown Chris's lifeless body floating in the pool hours later. 

After the credits, we learn it is day five, and Tom is heading into the fire at Helen's house next door after discovering from tracking her phone that Jenny was there recently. 

But as he hunts for Jenny in the flames, Tom finds Helen, who is dead. Tom calls 999, but when it becomes clear that Jenny isn't in the house, he rushes out, leaving his neighbor, Eric, and the police calling after him. 

Getting more information from his friend, Ben, who is tracking Jenny's phone, Tom finds out Jenny is no longer in Helen's house but making her way across the estate. He follows the lead, but once again it comes to a dead end. 

Meanwhile, Sophie and Emma are telling the Chahal family that Jojo's confession to killing Chris was false and so his killer is still out there. Neil and Zoe are understandably shocked when the police reveal Jojo dumped Chris's body in the reservoir.  

News of the fire at Helen's spreads across the estate and Sophie and Emma are called from the Chahal's to the scene. Neil and Zoe go with them, leaving their daughter, Tilly, home alone. But while they are out, someone breaks into the house and Tilly hides in her wardrobe, terrified. Eventually whoever it was leaves, but Tom gets information that shows Jenny is at the Chahal's and he investigates, only to find the front door has been smashed in. 

Tilly confronts Tom with a knife, thinking he is the intruder, but he explains who he is and that whoever was in her house has now left. Tilly calls her parents and they race home, but despite the study being trashed and things broken, nothing has been taken from the house. The police do, however, find Jenny's phone dumped in a bush in the front garden - but was it her who broke in? 

Zoe has a panic attack that whoever was in the house could also be the same person who put photos in her locker and also killed Chris, and she starts having a panic attack. She is in a bad way and, eventually, Neil confesses that he was the one who put the naked photos in her locker as they were going through a rough patch and he wanted to teach her a lesson. 

Jenny sitting at a bar in Safe

Tom's hunt for Jenny is still going on.  (Image credit: Netflix)

Sophie notices something odd about Helen's body when it is removed from her burnt-out house, and it turns out she was right when a post-mortem reveals she was dead before the fire started and that she was killed by a skull fracture. An accelerant was also found in the house, suggesting arson - but more worryingly, Jenny's bag is also found in the house. 

Elsewhere, Pete wakes after his stabbing and as Tom arrives he sees a man leaving Pete's room. Tom questions who he is, and we learn it is someone Pete is in a relationship with, but they have kept it a secret because he is married with kids. Pete tells Tom that he sneaks into the man's house through a gap in Tom's fence, which means we now have an explanation for all those times we saw him looking shifty and sneaking around in previous episodes. 

Sophie is shocked to find someone at the front desk of the police station, wanting to confess to Chris's murder. It turns out to be a false alarm though because it is Mike, the boy that Chris was fighting with. Mike thinks he must have hit Chris harder than he realized, but when Sophie tells him Chris's cause of death is drowning, Mike is visibly relieved that he isn't guilty of killing someone, even if it was an accident. 

Pete discharges himself from hospital and Tom tells him he thinks Neil Chahal knows more about Jenny's whereabouts than he is letting on. They find Neil at Chris's memorial that has been set up by his friends and family, and Tom confronts him, but before he can get very far Zoe arrives and tells Neil she has something to tell him. Neil replies that he already knows that she is going to confess to having an affair with a student because he followed her the night of Sia's party and saw her with Ioan. 

At the end of the episode, we see Jenny, but this time she is with Archie Roberts, her mum's ex and the manager of the Heaven bar. But is she there of her own free will? 

All eight episodes of Safe are available to stream on Netflix now. 

Claire Crick
Assistant Managing Editor at What To Watch

Claire is Assistant Managing Editor at What To Watch and has been a journalist for over 15 years, writing about everything from soaps and TV to beauty, entertainment, and even the Royal Family. After starting her career at a soap magazine, she ended up staying for 13 years, and over that time she’s pulled pints in the Rovers Return, sung karaoke in the Emmerdale village hall, taken a stroll around Albert Square, and visited Summer Bay Surf Club in sunny Australia. 

After learning some tricks of the trade at websites Digital Spy, Entertainment Daily, and Woman & Home, Claire landed a role at What’s On TV and whattowatch.com writing about all things TV and film, with a particular love for Aussie soaps, Strictly Come Dancing and Bake Off

She’s interviewed everyone from June Brown — AKA Dot Cotton — to Michelle Keegan, swapped cooking tips with baking legend Mary Berry backstage at the NTAs, and danced the night away with soap stars at countless awards bashes. There’s not a lot she doesn’t know about soaps and TV and can be very handy when a soapy question comes up in a pub quiz! 

As well as all things soap-related, Claire also loves running, spa breaks, days out with her kids, and getting lost in a good book.