What's going on in The Changeling? The new Apple TV Plus show is a mysterious and confusing trip, and everything starts to go wrong for our characters in episode 1 which debuted alongside the first and third on Friday, September 8.
In our The Changeling episode 1 recap, we followed how Apollo (LaKeith Stanfield) and Emma (Clark Backo) met, with their fairytale romance coming to a head at the end of the episode when they had the little baby Brian. Episode 2 catches up with the couple as they struggle with their new burdens.
Use our guide on how to watch The Changeling to catch up on the show before you read this recap, because spoilers abound from here! While this episode has fewer time jumps than the first, we've still reorganized events to make them easier to track for this recap.
A glimpse at the future and past
We start by watching a house burning while our narrator (book author Victor Lavalle) reads a poem. Then we're with Emma, as her sister comes to check up on her — Emma has been hard to reach. The woman is tired and seemingly in a trance, and she leads her sister to a woman's apartment.
This is someone she met on a message board, and the woman gives her a heavy bag. As they leave, Emma's sister grabs the bag and finds it's full of chains. Then we cut to six months prior, just after Brian's birth, when Emma isn't as tired or miserable as she eventually turns out.
Emma's sister and Apollo's mother are visiting them, and they remark on how the two new parents seem tired. Apollo's been having dreams of his dad knocking on his door again. However some time later, Apollo's mother babysits for them and they go on a date night, where Emma starts to find herself again.
A big break for Apollo
Emma has to go back to work to support the family, and she's anxious about leaving Brian with Apollo. Her husband takes their baby to visit some other dads at the park, and he's very protective of the kid to make Emma happy.
Apollo visits his Uncle Patrice (Malcolm Barrett), an ex-soldier who helps him in his book-selling business. They're at the house of an old lady who died, and Apollo goes through her books. In them, she finds a first-edition copy of "To Kill a Mockingbird", signed by Harper Lee and dedicated to Truman Capote. He tells Emma about it, as if they sell it they could make enough money to buy their own apartment.
While Apollo is about with Brian, Emma starts receiving mysterious photo texts, of the two from a distance, which quickly get deleted each time. She thinks it's Apollo sending them, but he insists that it isn't.
In a bookstore with Patrice, Apollo begins changing his baby's nappies on the floor, which other customers aren't happy with. Then a woman gives him baby-rearing advice despite not having a kid of her own, something Patrice mocks her for. Apollo also tells Patrice that he found nothing in the old woman's apartment, despite their agreement to split profits 60/40.
Emma isn't certain about Brian
Emma looks up local mom's groups and starts to write down all their strange advice. Later, Apollo returns home and finds that Emma has covered all their windows in foil. Later, she dreams about her wish bracelet from the first episode.
Emma takes Brian to a doctor, and while she's there, we get a flashback to the mother watching her child as it makes inhuman cries. However the doctor is more concerned about Emma than her child.
While walking home, Emma starts ranting to her baby, and at home refers to it as an "asshole" and "the devil". Apollo asks her to see a doctor, and she agrees to.
Here, we pick back up from the 'six months prior' from before. Emma's sister tells her about the night their parents died, which she misremembers; turns out Emma's mother set their house on fire and their dad rescued them before returning to the burning building. The sister tells Emma that the new mother is starting to act like their parent, just before she tried to burn them to death.
It's becoming clear that Emma doesn't think Brian is her son. The baby says its first words but Emma doesn't care; she wants the child baptized. Her and Apollo argue and she leaves, but at night, she breaks back into the apartment.
