The Girl from Plainville episode 4 review: What awaits Michelle in the future?

Hulu's true-crime drama, The Girl from Plainville, just came out with the fourth episode of the show, this time diving into Conrad's, played by Colton Ryan, past and his previous suicide attempts while simultaneously tracing new developments in the case post-Conrad's death.

The episode, titled Can’t Fight This Feeling, is shot in a similar fashion, with the two timelines confusingly overlapping and diving deeper in an attempt to explore the nuances of a rather odd crime. Releasing on April 5, 2022, this is one of the more intense and emotional episodes of the show so far, but it has its problems.

Read on for a detailed review of The Girl from Plainville season 1, episode 4.

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The Girl from Plainville episode 4 review: Reaching the halfway mark

The sad tale of Conrad's death continues in this episode by exploring the troubled boy's past when he attempted suicide. Michelle Carter's, played by Elle Fanning, behavior in these past snippets, including the text exchanges between her and Conrad, slowly start to indicate the inherent toxicity in her behavior.

Like the previous three episodes, the story is narrated in a two timeline manner, which seems a bit confusing as some jumps are more abrupt than others. While the past timeline evokes sufficient emotional responses by taking a look at Conrad's troubled teenage years, the present timeline relies exclusively on Fanning's capabilities to pull through.

The story is well-known, so naturally, it unfolds predictably. With police increasingly piling evidence against Michelle, this episode sees her get arrested for questioning in the timeline after Conrad's death. Additionally, the lawyers dive into the task of finding a motive that could be linked to Conrad's demise.

The past timeline seems a bit messier in this episode, with an extended sequence depicting Michelle's fallout with her friend Susie, played by Pearl Amanda Dickson. The show continues the text conversations between Michelle and Conrad, but the innovative depiction of the texting scenes seems to slowly lose its charm, and in this episode, it starts to feel like a drag.

In both the timelines, the ending of the episode is the most enjoyable part. While the past timeline depicts Conrad's heartwarming story, the present timeline sees the prosecution trying to pin a case of manslaughter on Michelle, which seems like a death trap for her now.

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Technical aspects of the true-crime miniseries

The Girl from Plainville had encouraging technical accuracy, but it seems to have fallen short over time. For example, the live-action texting scenes seemed intriguing at first but over time lost their charm, becoming a monotonous drag.

The story is tragic, and the script does justice to it. However, there are certain inadequacies that the show still carries. This void is almost exclusively filled by some great acting from Fanning and Ryan. Another problem with the script is that it jumps to and fro in the timeline very abruptly. This creates a sense of disorientation, which is not very pleasing for a crime show.

Apart from that, the camera and sound were great, but that has become a staple in most TV shows, owing to technological advances. There is still a lot of story to cover, so The Girl from Plainville still has plenty of time to improve. As of now, the show is watchable but lacks satisfaction.

The latest episode of the show is now available on Hulu.