In ‘King George,’ episode 3 of ‘Gaslit,’ Martha (Julia Roberts) attempts to escape herself from imprisonment in California, while her husband, John N. Mitchell (Sean Penn), and his cronies scramble in Washington to cover up their wrongdoings. The FBI launches its preliminary inquiry into the Watergate scandal. Meanwhile, the burden of disposing of the evidence falls on John Dean’s (Dan Stevens), who finds himself at the center of the plot by the end of the episode. Here’s all you need to know about the third episode of ‘Gaslit.’ SPOILERS FOLLOW.

Recap of Episode 3 of Gaslit

A flashback begins the episode. When a young Martha complains to her father about her bullies, he gives her his pocket watch. He believes that King George III of England bestowed the watch on their ancestor (hence the title). That conversation evidently had a profound impact on Martha, and she established her future image on the premise that her family was royalty and she was a princess. Martha clung to the story even after discovering that her father had lied to her about the watch because fiction was preferable to truth. Martha’s father is heavily indicated to have committed suicide.

Martha is locked inside her hotel room in 1972, and she badly wants to get out. She attempts but fails to attract the attention of other hotel guests. Although her kidnappers forbid her from watching the news, Martha obtains a newspaper and hears about the Watergate arrests. When she realizes McCord was one of the robbers, she contacts Winnie McLendon and informs her of her kidnapping. Peter, one of the kidnappers, cuts the call and then physically assaults her. Martha is gravely hurt as she falls on a glass table during the ensuing scuffle. Peter then administers a tranquilizer to her and leaves her comatose until her family returns.

Meanwhile, Dean has fallen into his own trap. His ambition prevented him from escaping the cover-up when he should have. And now he’s in too deep to get out. Mitchell, Dean, and the others discover that Hunt has a safe in the White House containing documents containing highly sensitive information, and it is Dean’s responsibility to destroy those documents. Meanwhile, FBI agents Angelo Lano (Chris Messina) and Paul Magallanes (Carlos Valdes) are tasked with investigating the Watergate burglary. Although they initially believe the operation was carried out by a group of highly trained and sophisticated individuals, it doesn’t take long for them to realize Liddy and Hunt are somehow related to the break-in. This leads them to a different conclusion: the folks they’re looking into are actually extremely unintelligent.

When Martha finally awakens, she finds that the security guards have left and her family has returned. Mitchell states that after learning what the agents did to her, he fired both of them and resigned from the Nixon administration. While she appears to forgive him for the time being, the worst is yet to come. The phone call Martha made to Winnie will be crucial in bringing down a presidency, and she will be demonized by the government for it.

Ending of Gaslit Episode 3: Who Is L. Patrick Gray? Why does Dean enlist his assistance?

L. Patrick Gray (John Carroll Lynch) is the acting director of the FBI, based on the real-life historical figure of the same name. After attempting to get rid of the documents himself, Dean decides to enlist the help of others, settling on Gray. Dean applies the same persuasion techniques that Mitchell and others used against Gray to persuade him that he had to do this to prove his devotion to the Nixon administration. They had previously worked on him, and now they are working on Gray. Gray painstakingly burns all of Hunt’s records at the end of the episode. Gray’s recruitment has another purpose. The FBI is already on the verge of solving the riddle. Gray’s involvement in the scheme allows him to effectively halt the probe.

According to Liddy, with Mitchell’s departure, Dean is now in charge of the entire plot. His future activities will determine whether or not the Nixon government survives the impending storm. Dean appears to believe that involving Gray in the scheme will put an end to the inquiries. He is very likely correct. He should be concerned about the media, not law enforcement, because the true demand for truth will come from there.