Lifetime’s Secrets of Eden : The Highlights Reel

A jab at the abusive husband who strangled her to death doesn't seem like an appropriate tidbit for Pastor Drew to throw into Alice's eulogy. It was almost as awkward as if he threw in a anecdote about her broken arm along with the ones about her positive attitude. "And when Alice's murdering husband put her in a cast she said, 'that's ok, think about all the cool signatures I can get!'"

There are some things that should concern every detective, and one of those things is someone very eager to clean up a crime scene. Pastor Drew claims he wants to be the one to get the blood out of the decorative pillows to spare Alice's daughter from any more mental scars, but still. Crime scene clean up will always seem like cover up unless it's done by professionals.

When Alice visits Heather's pagan angel hippie store Heather is all warmth and smiles, but Alice wastes no time reminding her she's considered the town crazy, batting away her introduction with a tone that says, "You're famous here! Your possible insanity is my favorite topic of conversation when I have coffee with friends!"

As flashback Alice skips along in a breezy skirt on a summer day having kicked her abusive husband out, she's sure that all her problems are in the past, and that she's sure to live a long, happy, un-strangled life. And if you listen real closely you can hear someone whisper foreshadowing.

Opting to forgo subtly when cluing in the audience to Pastor Drew's participation in Alice's husband's murder (or at least the attempt to make it look like a suicide) we get to see Drew deleting what he thinks could maybe, possibly be incriminating web pages. Someone could get suspicious if they saw he was looking at, "Facts About Gun Residue," or "Avoid Detection" but really it's all circumstantial. He could have just gotten curious during a CSI marathon.

When Pastor Drew and Alice start their clandestine affair during a counseling session there's the expected tender-love instrumentals and the slow yet passionate pace that's meant to say, "I really want you, but I really respect you too." Then there's a moment when he pulls down her bra strap to reveal some really nasty bruises her husband gave her. You can see that he's horrified, and when he kisses them it would be really sweet, if he wasn't her spiritual leader, and they weren't in the middle of counseling, and she wasn't so obviously emotionally vulnerable. However much he cared about her, the situation made all his actions seem like manipulation.

In the concluding twist we find out it was the daughter, Katie, and not Pastor Drew who killed Alice's husband. Katie called Drew after the fact and he agreed to clean everything up and advised Katie to point the detectives towards him so they wouldn't suspect her.

In the last scene he delivers Katie to freshman orientation, where she offers him a hug and a, "Thanks for everything." Thanks for everything seems like something you say to someone who helped you clean the garage, not helped you get away with murder. The last line, Katie's interior monologue seemed extra cold as she walked towards the promise of "frosh pub night." Someone's going to have no problem finishing the last of her roommate's soda without feeling guilty.