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Did you know Seahorses are fish? is the first episode in the limited television series, Lady in the Lake. The episode premiered on July 19, 2024.

Synopsis[]

When the disappearance of a young girl grips the city of Baltimore in 1966, the lives of two women converge on a fatal collision course.

Plot Summary[]

In Baltimore, Maryland, in 1966 during a Thanksgiving Day parade, a girl named Tessie slipped away from her family and went into a pet store. In the store, she was captivated by the seahorses. A man with a swollen black eye engages her in conversation.

A month later, two saleswomen discuss Tessie's disappearance. Maddie enters a department store with blood on her yellow coat from a poorly wrapped butcher purchase. She wants to buy a yellow dress displayed in the front window. The saleswomen treat the Black model in the store, named Cleo, poorly. Cleo reminds them of her approved early leave but they rudely retort that they'll dock her pay.

Later that afternoon, Cleo speaks at a political meeting. She disapproves of her son running numbers for a local gambling ring and later becomes angry with her husband, Slappy, for not finding a job or parenting their two sons. Her frustration leads her to move herself and the children to her mother's house.

Cleo works at night keeping books for a crime boss named Shell Gordon, who owns a popular nightclub. Shell is displeased with her political involvement, fearing that Myrtle Summer, the candidate Cleo supports, might hinder his illicit operations. At the club, there is talented but heroin-addicted singer named Dora. Also there is Reggie, Shell's right-hand man and the man with the black eye from the pet store.

Meanwhile, Maddie prepares dinner for her family, including her husband Milton, their son Seth, and a friend, Wallace. A dispute arises when she accidentally uses a dairy platter for lamb, rendering it non-kosher. Milton insists on discarding the meat, leading to a struggle that results in Maddie breaking a plate and cutting her hand. Maddie runs to the bathroom, crying, and has flashbacks while scrubbing her blood-soaked coat. In one flashback, she's younger and naked, watching a man try to clean a blood-stained bedspread the same color as her coat. In another, she's in a yellow prom dress. Milton eventually enters the bathroom, and they argue about her role as a housewife versus her desire for more. Maddie then packs up and leaves, crying.

With the help of a jeweler friend, Maddie rents an apartment in The Bottom, a predominantly Black neighborhood. She becomes fixated on Tessie's disappearance. Unable to join a search organized by her synagogue due to her gender, Maddie and the jeweler's daughter, Judith, embark on their own search and discover Tessie's body.

Maddie sends Judith for help, insisting she must stay with the body, saying, "You'd understand if you were a mother."

Cast & Characters[]

Main[]

Supporting[]

Quotes[]

You'd understand if you were a mother.

Maddie

Gallery[]

References[]

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