After Life Season 1 Episode 3 Recap

For a feature story, Tony and Lenny interview a man who had a pipe leak stain that looks like Kenneth Branagh, an old director. While Lenny is taking a picture of the man beside the stain, the man tells them that his wife will be happy about him getting featured. He says she’s been down lately because she has been mugged, and the muggers hit her head with a hammer.

While walking back to the office, Tony tells Lenny that he’s disgusted by the thought that the man calls the local paper for the stain, but not for the mugging of his wife. Lenny was about to tell him about his date with the fat kid’s mom they featured the other day, but Tony left him when he saw Julian talking to a woman.

Tony confronts Julian about the money he stole and asks him if he spent the money on a prostitute. The woman says she’s not a prostitute but a sex worker. Julain admits to buying drugs, and when Tony asks for his share, Julian says he’ll bring it by his house later that day and leaves. The woman tells Tony to go easy on Julian because he lost his girlfriend to a drug overdose. The sex worker tells Tony she’ll do anything for 50 quid.

Tony brings the woman home to wash the dishes. After her chore, Tony talks to her and gets her to reveal that her real name is Daphne and that she does what she does because of money. They talk about how Julian is an addict and how Tony does not believe in the concept of addiction.

Tony visits his dad, who asks about Lisa once again. Tony tells him to remember that Lisa is dead because he gets hurt every time he asks about her. His dad’s caregiver tells him that he’s a cunt for always being bitter and angry. She also tells him that his dad can still be hurt even when he hardly remembers anything.

Tony talks to Anne in the graveyard again and rants about the caregiver. Anne tells him that he’s only bothered because what the caregiver said was true. She says that he should apologize for arguing with a nice person.

In yet another therapy session, Tony tells his therapist that he wants to stop being sad.

Tony teaches Sandy the basics of writing a feature and how his process works. Lenny’s about to show them photos of his date with the fat mom’s kid when Matt announces going to a new comedy bar as a team-building activity.

Lenny tries to show the pictures again when Brian, a local who’s always trying to get into the paper, comes. After Tony trashes all his ideas, he finally leaves. Kath pitches an idea about crystals, and when Tony trashes it, they end up arguing about god.

At home, Tony watches yet another one of Lisa’s videos where she asks him to bring the dog to the beach, and he obliges. On the beach, he remembers when he played a prank on Lisa while they were there. In his memory, Lisa asks him to go to the water, and he goes into the water with his clothes still on and goes on to the deep until the dog brings him back to reality.

At the comedy bar, the comedian joked about suicide and noticed that Tony wasn’t laughing. He asks him about his story, and he shares that his wife died of breast cancer and that he thinks about killing himself all the time because he thinks there’s no point in living.

Matt brings Tony home and tells him that he’s tired of worrying about him wanting to kill himself all the time. Matt says he’s trying to make him happy.

Tony watches footage of Lisa dressing up Brandy, their dog. The doorbell rings and tony lets Julian in. Julian apologizes for stealing money. Tony tells him that he can’t believe they have a lot in common – losing their partners, wanting to numb the pain, and being losers. He says that when he looks at Julian, he sees himself. Julian tells him that they’re not that alike.

Our Thoughts

Tony’s unexpected friendship with Anne seems to be good for him. Seeing him smile even for just a while is refreshing; that does not happen very often. Brandy has proven to be an effective lifesaver for Tony, as she has saved him so many times from killing himself. We feel sad for Lenny because he looks like a good man who wants to share stories, but he doesn’t get listened to. It makes us worry because he might be feeling isolated. Lastly, joking about suicide is not a good thing, so we side with Tony on not laughing at that insensitive joke.