Blackmail
Episode 4 of The One begins 12 months prior to our current timeline. Rebecca stops her car in the middle of London and marvels at a big billboard advertising The One. She smiles, heading back to track the numbers on her computer. Only, this comes at a cost. Ben shows up and reveals that he’s currently being investigated for a data breach. He’s been doing his work on a public wifi network and believes this may have attributed to him being hacked. James and Rebecca contemplate hat to do about this, but ruthless Rebecca decides to let him take the blame for everything. Even worse, she doesn’t even feel remorseful for what follows, as Ben loses his job. Rebecca continues to march on with her success. Back in the present, Valeria and Kate head in to hospital where Sophia’s brother and Father are sat checking up on her. Together, they break the news about Sophia’s complicated love triangle. Speaking of triangles, Hannah does her best to try and blank Megan too, rejecting her calls as Mark jokes about the pair being romantically involved. Meanwhile, Rebecca hosts Ben’s service where both Kate and Nick show up to pay their respects. It’s obviously more than that though, as Kate keeps a watchful eye on Rebecca. She confronts the CEO in the toilets too, questioning why she leaked the news to the media. Rebecca changes the subject, mentioning Sophia and her coma instead. Kate next turns her attention to Ben’s wife Amy, bringing up Rebecca and how she’s hiding behind her lawyers. Kate prods the hornet’s nest hard, sending this angry woman buzzing over to Rebecca, ready to sting. Amy confronts her in front of everyone and asks outright exactly what happened to Ben. The murmurs in the room turn awkwardly silent as Rebecca eventually walks away, refusing to say anything. Instead, she visits Fabio and Matheus who happen to be in London; there’s clearly no love lost there. Fabio immediately leaves when he sees her while Matheus brings up Tenerife and their time together. Apparently he came looking for her after a speech online. Her words really struck a chord with him, given they echoed his exact feelings toward her. Unfortunately, Rebecca is still haunted by memories of Ben, including him being pushed off the roof and then subsequently into the water some time later. After sleeping with Matheus, she tells her match that he needs to leave and keep up the pretense of lying. She wants to make sure nothing comes back against her, and that includes him going back to Tenerife. Megan blindsides Hannah after she leaves work and quizzes her over why she’s been avoiding her. Eventually Hannah comes up with a pretty ludicrous and hilarious excuse, claiming she doesn’t like how she gets changed at yoga. This inevitably brings her to Mark, admitting that she’s really confused and wanting to know what’s going on with Hannah. Mark shows up and the two trade stories too, realizing that Hannah has lied to them both. Mark is clearly torn over what to do and eventually leaves. Well, back home he speaks to Hannah, questioning her over the story she’s concocted. Hannah sounds pretty crazy to be honest, and believes Megan is trying to break them up. Mark knows there’s something going on and admits that he’s scared. Hannah eventually breaks the news that Megan is his match as the two sit in stunned silence. Mark feels betrayed, in fact he’s outright furious that she’s done this behind his back. Unable to take Hannah’s lies, he decides to sleep on the sofa. Kate heads out with Sebastian next and talks about Sophia; it turns out they haven’t seen her for 4 years. Sophia’s past is pretty dark too, with her Mother dying while Sophia was in the car with her. On the back of this, Sophia’s Father started drinking heavily but the hazy details following this cause a bit of a red flag for Kate, as she wonders quite what to do next. Rebecca makes her move and sends a sex tape of Kate out to the whole office. Kate knows this is the work of the CEO, and braves the comments at work, before heading back to the hospital. Meanwhile, Fabio phones Rebecca and gives her a taste of her own medicine. He’s going to blackmail her, telling the boss that Ben revealed everything and he’s ready to leak that to the press.
The Episode Review
With multiple blackmail angles going on, The One continues to pedal its soapy storylines over the top of its intriguing sci-fi premise. There’s nothing wrong with that of course, but the supporting characters and their storylines are a bit of a mixed bag. Kate’s angle, for example, isn’t that interesting as she dives into Sophia’s past. At times this storyline does drag a bit. Meanwhile, Hannah and Mark’s relationship woes are far more interesting despite how ludicrous this whole set-up is and shows how a happy couple can be torn apart by this app. Or, more specifically, how Hannah’s curiosity can lead to lying and deceiving Mark to find out who his match is. The central mystery is quite good though, although unless there’s a twist in the tale it seems like Rebecca is going to be revealed as the one who killed Ben – she’s certainly capable. Still, we’ll have to wait and see for now as this show continues to march on.
