The Lowdown S2E3 Recap: “Truth’s Easy” — Explanations Are Hard

The following recap contains spoilers for The Lowdown S2E3, “Truth’s Easy” (written by Duffy Boudreau and directed by Scott Teems)

The Lowdown S2E3 begins with Lee (Ethan Hawke) stumbling out of the woods after he ran away from McMann (Shave McRae) at the end of last week’s episode. He tries to flag down a car, sees a sign warning that hitchhikers might be escaped inmates, and starts walking down the road. His phone is dead, so what else is he going to do?

Of course, he keeps trying to hitch a ride by sticking his thumb out at passing cars, and one eventually stops for him. He and the driver agree not to kill each other (sounds fair enough), and Lee finally has a way back to his van, which is still parked outside of Secrets.

The driver (named Dale and played by the inimitable Steve Earle) offers Lee a Subway sandwich, saying that he himself just eats one of those a day. Lee declines, but takes the opportunity to charge his phone, and notices a coffee mug that says “Truth’s Easy” on Dale’s dashboard. Lee, self-styled truthstorian he may be, isn’t so sure about that, but Dale offers his wisdom, which feels grounded in its simplicity: Lying just ain’t worth the trouble.

Apparently this man makes a habit of sitting at the bar sipping a Diet Coke, just waiting to give a ride to some drunk who needs one, and he’s just got done dropping off a couple of regulars. You’d imagine this probably means Dale is a recovering alcoholic himself, or at least, I would, but it’s possible my impression is being tinged by Steve Earle’s character in The Wire.

Regardless, it’s a great scene, even if it ultimately does little to advance the plot of The Lowdown Season 2. It resonates with what seem to be the stakes of the season, thematically. Dale happens to share a first name with the man whose murder Lee spent Season 1 investigating. He won an award for the journalism at the beginning of Season 2, but immediately worried about this making him a sellout. He calls himself a truthstorian but has been lying to his daughter Francis (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) her entire life, telling her that his father, Lee Sr. aka Frog (Tommy Lee Jones) is dead. It’s no surprise to me that Lee tries to say that his dad is dead to him (so the lie was 17% true), but Francis isn’t buying that. And, in the middle of all of these things, there’s a man who gives Lee a mug that reads, “Truth’s Easy.”

Back to his van with a working phone, Lee discovers a bunch of messages from Ginger (Betty Gilpin), whom he’d been texting cryptically during his adventures with Chili (Paul Schneider), until his phone died. He says he’s coming right over, until he gets a call from Deidra (Siena East) informing him that Francis is at Sweet Emily’s with Frog. He has to get his daughter away from that man first, and he does. More on that storyline later.

Meeting up with Ginger, Lee informs her that Mekko must have escaped prison, because McMann (a prison guard) yelled asking where Mekko is. Ginger doesn’t buy that Mekko would, or could, have swiftly disappeared to Mexico, so she and Lee head to talk to Mekko’s uncle, Otis (Gary Farmer).

Otis is very amicable and quick to tell Lee and Ginger that Mekko showed up at his house the previous week, startling him in the middle of the night. He says he gave Mekko food, clothes, and his last $200, insisting that his nephew is now in the wind. He thanks Lee and Ginger for the hotdogs they bought him, and claims he has to run home to watch American Idol.

Ginger isn’t buying it, perhaps because the conversation seemed too easy, perhaps because Otis claims that the main character in The Outsiders (whom he incorrectly calls Pony Guy) was based on him, or perhaps because she distrusts his claim about American Idol. The vibe seems off.

So, Ginger and Lee follow Otis to a hospital, where they meet Mekko Jr. (Mosiah Crowfoot) and his mother, Angie (Shyla Lefner). Ginger didn’t know that Mekko had a kid, so that’s awkward, given that the two had been talking for a couple of years (and doing some phone sex). But, more to the point in terms of plot, Angie says that Mekko seemed like he was ready to go after someone. He was mad about being left alone with a dead kid for hours.

There is no record of a “kid” dying recently at the prison. Apparently a 19-year-old named Nathan Spence died in the county jail, but that’s an entirely different place so Ginger dismisses the idea that there could be a connection. Lee isn’t so sure, and neither am I, given that The Lowdown has provided this young man with a name.

Back at the bookstore, Lee gives his dad a talking to, but it doesn’t go much of anywhere. The long and short is that Lee Jr. remains suspicious of Lee Sr.’s intentions, while the latter claims he just wants to get to know his granddaughter. Apparently, Lee had his dad committed years ago, so I am curious for more details about that.

Regardless, Lee heads off to dinner at Samantha (Kaniehtiio Horn) and Johnny’s (Rafael Casal) place, where Francis remains mad at him for lying about Lee Sr. Lee tries to explain without going into too much detail, Samantha tries to exculpate herself for going along with the deception, and Johnny offers a story about his dad missing one of his baseball games, which falls way short of the kind of thing Lee’s dad apparently did to him.

After dinner, Lee hears something outside of the house, and it turns out to be the guy that Ginger shot last week, Lonnie (Austin Amelio). They fight until Johnny intervenes, putting Lee’s attacker in a sleeper hold and knocking him out. Then, he searches the guy’s pockets to learn that he’s apparently a Deputy, and freaks out about whether he just choked out a cop.

Lee has a chipped tooth, and the episode fades out from there.

Marty (Keith David) hasn’t been a major factor in The Lowdown Season 2 so far, but as his subplot continues I feel like I need to address it. I’m sure this will all factor into things in a way I can’t yet foresee.

Last week, Lee ditched the story about an archaeological dig that he was supposed to be working on by handing it off to Marty. This week, Marty arrives to the site to learn that Lee lied to the guy in charge of the dig, Lane (Richard Robichaux), indicating that Marty has a deep interest in this stuff. Marty has to fake a back injury to avoid being pressured into brushing dirt off of objects in the ground. He finds the whole thing to be boring as hell.

As he gripes about the experience at Sweet Emily’s, however, Ray (Michael Hitchcock) makes his entrance into The Lowdown Season 2, informing Marty that he has connections to the rich folks who like to buy illicit artifacts on the black market—the Oklahoma Illuminati. Now, Marty is intrigued, and so am I. It wouldn’t be The Lowdown if there weren’t some nefarious muckety-mucks involved.

New episodes of The Lowdown premiere on Wednesdays at 9pm ET on FX and Hulu.

Caemeron Crain is Executive Editor of TV Obsessive. He struggles with authority, including his own.

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