The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window Season 1 Episode 1 Recap

Anna Whitaker prepares a chicken casserole. When she takes the casserole out of the oven, she forgets to wear oven mitts—her hand gets burned, dropping the dish, and flashbacks of her past flood over her.

While sitting on a couch looking out her window, Anna places frozen peas on both her palms to relieve the pain from the burn. She narrates how her husband left her due to her quirks: an overactive imagination, a drinking habit, an inability to let go of the past, making plans but cancels them, never wearing a jacket but complaining about being cold, and sometimes speaking British when she’s not.

From the window, Anna sees Carol, her neighbor, about to take her kids to school. She rushes and calls out to Elizabeth, her daughter, “Honey, we’re gonna be late for school.” She finds herself standing outside Madison Elementary in her pj’s, so a few moms seeing her, including Carol, give her strange looks. Carol comes up to her and reminds her she has a date with Mark, a big client of Scott, Carol’s husband, that night. Anna tries to refuse to go to the date, but Carol reminds her to move on—it’s been three years.

Arriving back home, Anna sees people moving into the house across hers. She opens yet another bottle of wine, filling a huge wine glass up to its rim before sitting again on her couch. She stalks her ex-husband, Douglas, on Instagram but sees nothing new. She fondly remembers their wedding night and how they were so happy once. A voice gets her attention, and she sees a man with her daughter about the age of Elizabeth—they’re her new neighbors across her house.

Anna receives a call from Sloane saying she needs Anna to paint a piece for her upcoming art show.

Anna gets ready for her date. She passes by Elizabeth’s room and asks for her opinion about her dress. As she’s about to leave, she asks for a kiss from Elizabeth, but she says she can’t kiss her because she’s dead—Anna is hallucinating.

Anna ends up not going to her date. Instead, she just spends time in the bath. She receives a voice message from Carol, who’s furious because she stood Mark up.

She stalks Douglas again and sees a picture of him with a woman. A noise from the outside gets her attention. She goes to check and stops at the door to the attic. Seeing nothing, she scoffs and says she needs a drink. She stalks Douglas again, but she stops when she sees the dad from the house across the street half-naked. She stares closely, but the man closes the curtains, and she’s back to herself. She falls asleep on the couch.

The next morning, she gets awakened by a knock. It was the dad, handing her flowers. She thought it was from him, but it turns out the flowers are from Sloane to inspire Anna to paint again. “I’m Neil,” he introduces himself.

After visiting Elizabeth’s grave, Anna finds Emma, Neil’s daughter, by her front door. She’s selling chocolates for her new school, so Anna buys five boxes. Anna asks her some questions, and she finds out Elizabeth’s mom has died. Anna promised her a chicken casserole.

Anna nearly burns her hands again, trying to take the casserole she made for Emma out of the oven. Crossing the street with the casserole in her hand, she stops when the rain suddenly pours—she has ombrophobia: a fear of rain. She drops the dish and passes out. Neil comes to her rescue and brings her back home.

Anna thanks Neil and tells him she was bringing them a casserole. She tells him Emma told her about her mom. His wife drowned, and Emma saw the entire thing, Neil shares. She reciprocates and tells him she lost her daughter three years back. Changing the subject, Neil tells Anna the paintings on her wall are pretty. When Anna tells him she painted those, he is amazed—his wife was really into art. Anna tells him she hasn’t painted for a while. Neil is about to leave when he gives Anna unsolicited advice: he thinks she should paint again, telling her she’s too good.

Anna goes to the attic, where her art room is. She looks through her old materials when a bird suddenly appears, making its way out of the attic. Panicked, Anna takes her medication.

Anna reads a book by her windows when she sees Neil working out. She hallucinates and sees him walking to her door and ending up having sex with her. Back to reality, she’s still alone, and Neil didn’t even go out.

The next day, Anna finally brings Neil and Emma a casserole. Neil invites her to eat with them, and she ends up staying for a while until it is Emma’s bedtime. She offers to read her a story while Neil cleans up.

Anna is about to go home; Neil hands her the casserole dish. When their hands touched, they both let go of the casserole, dropping it to the floor breaking it into pieces. Their hands touch again as they both clean the mess up. Feeling awkward, Anna decides to leave, but not before Neil thanks her for everything.

Before Anna goes to sleep, she sends a follow request to Neil on social media.

In her attic, a shadow moves.

Our Thoughts

This episode is a good one for a pilot. It has made us wonder what happened to Anna’s marriage, how Elizabeth died, and if her death has something to do with the divorce or it was the other way around. Just the same, we wonder if Neil’s wife really died by drowning. Lastly, the shadow in Anna’s attic looks like that of a person. Who might that be? Overall, this episode made us curious and excited to watch the next one!