‘Secrets And Lies’ Season 2 Spoilers: Who Killed Kate Warner? Detective Cornell Returns In Shocking Premiere [RECAP]
Detective Andrea Cornell is back with a brand new case in “Secrets and Lies” Season 2.
The ABC drama picks up with a man named Eric Warner (Michael Ealy) running down a long flight of stairs. He’s clearly in a panic, and viewers find out why shortly after. Outside on the ground, in a pool of blood, is his wife, Kate (Jordana Brewster).
Detective Cornell (Juliette Lewis) arrives at the scene of the crime to find Eric covered in blood and cradling his wife. Needless to say, the no-nonsense cop is not happy that her crime scene has been contaminated. Especially when she needs to find out if she’s investigating a suicide — or a murder.
Cornell brings Eric and his entire family inside the lobby to question them about the events leading up to Kate’s death. A flashback to earlier in the evening reveals that the family was celebrating Eric’s promotion. Patriarch John Warner (Terry O’Quinn) was retiring and passing down the family’s private equity firm to his eldest son. It was supposed to be a joyous occasion for Eric and his new wife, but then something went horribly wrong. Kate fell from the roof of the building.
The detective keeps pushing for answers and discovers that Kate was pregnant at the time of her death. Eric had just found out earlier in the evening, and no other family members had been informed yet. However, Kate’s pregnancy might not have been welcome. Another flashback of Eric and Kate prior to the party that night reveals Eric was ecstatic when he found a baby onesie that Kate had hid. But Kate didn’t seem as thrilled. She began to cry, passing it off as hormones.
Kate’s pregnancy makes things even more complicated, and Eric’s sister, Amanda (Mekia Cox), realizes that. As an attorney for the Public Defender’s office, Amanda shuts down Cornell’s questioning and tells her that she’ll have interview her brother at some other time.
“I will need to be there, as his council,” she warns.
Amanda’s family members are shocked that she stopped Cornell, but Amanda insists that she has good reasoning. “That cop is not on your side,” she explains to her brother. She shares a frightening statistic, revealing that 9 out of 10 times when a wife is murdered, the husband is the one that did it.
“You are the prime suspect,” she says.
Eric and Amanda spend the night at their father’s house. But Eric wants to return to the office in the morning — despite Cornell telling him not to. He can’t stop thinking about Kate and wants to try to return to normalcy. Unfortunately, that’s going to be difficult. Eric, Amanda and John show up at the office just as Cornell’s investigative team drops a dummy off the roof to try to recreate the fall.
That’s not the only thing that Cornell is doing at the office. She’s interviewing employees to find out where they were when Kate was killed, as well as Kate’s relationship with her husband. Since Kate was the Chief Compliance Officer at the company, Cornell also wants access to her emails. However, Amanda squashes that immediately.
As Eric watches Cornell interview employees one by one, he has another flashback to his “no frills” wedding. The whole family gathered in John’s backyard and Eric’s younger brother Patrick (Charlie Barnett) officiated the ceremony. Eric and Kate had started dating less than a year earlier, but Kate was already well known in the family. She was a law school friend of his sister Amanda.
Eric receives a welcome distraction in the form of his friend and co-worker, Neal (Eric Winter). While everyone else is tiptoeing around Eric, Neal displays some odd behavior. He throws his feet up on Eric’s desk and tells him that he’s “not going to ask how you are …. Because that’s annoying.” It’s not clear if Neal really liked Kate, but he certainly has respect for Eric. He explains what Cornell has been questioning employees about, and even tells him how he told her about him being a “stand up guy.”
After Neal leaves, Eric tries to get down to business. He approaches a woman about getting new financial projections, but she refuses to get that information for him. Instead she hands him funeral information so that she can pick out a coffin, flowers and more. Eric’s too distracted by Cornell though. He hands the information back to the woman and tells her that Kate did not want “wallowing” and would have preferred to be cremated.
Eric chases Cornell out of the building to tell her that despite what everyone else is telling her, he loved his wife. It’s an odd thing to say in a murder investigation, and Cornell counters by asking if Eric was on the roof with Kate that night.
“I didn’t kill Kate,” he says. But that’s not what Cornell asked.
“I’ll find out anyway,” she warns Eric. “With or without you.”
Eric returns to the roof after speaking with Cornell. Neal finds him up there, and it’s revealed that he wasn’t the biggest fan of Kate. It wasn’t anything personal, he just has a mistrust of women due to his previous relationships. Despite his dislike, he promises Eric that Kate would not have killed herself.
Desperate for answers, Eric goes into Kate’s office. Another flashback reveals that Kate was hesitant about making their relationship public at work. Eric wanted to tell the whole world, but Kate didn’t want her co-workers to judge her. Patrick told them that the situation wasn’t that difficult — because everyone already knew.
While in Kate’s office, Eric makes a couple of startling discoveries. Someone already broke into her desk, but it doesn’t appear that they took anything. He finds a checkbook with some money stuffed in it and a black iPad with a message about a package being at a P.O. box. Amanda walks in and reveals that Kate had a white iPad. But that’s not the most suspicious thing. Eric reveals that his wife never told him about the P.O. box.
The autopsy reveals even more shocking revelations. Kate’s spine was severed from the 12 story fall, but bruising and the position of the body confirm that this is a homicide and not a suicide. She was 8 weeks pregnant, but this wouldn’t have been her first baby. The autopsy results prove that she had previously given birth to a child — a fact that she had never shared with Eric or Amanda.
The family reconvenes for a post-funeral reception at John’s house. It’s there that more family secrets are revealed. Both of Kate’s parents died before she met Eric. As for Eric’s mom? Although it’s hinted earlier in the episode that she’s dead, Patrick reveals that she’s actually still alive. But where is she? He asks if anyone has been to see her.
The amount of people at the party overwhelms Eric, but one actually gets under his skin. Cornell shows up to continue questioning people and has a very public confrontation with Eric — despite Amanda encouraging her brother to ignore the detective.
“I did not kill my wife,” Eric says loudly.
“What about Steven Porter?” Cornell questions.
It turns out that Eric was in a juvenile detention center for six months when he was younger. “I did not mean to kill him,” he whispers.
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