Apple TV ‘Last Seen’ Episode 5 Review - The Calm Before the Final Storm

We are reaching almost the end of Last Seen, but that doesn’t mean that the makers give us things on a platter easily. Instead, the confusion regarding Maggie and her guardianship continues, with Jenna and her husband trying their best to keep him away from Ian. Episode 5 starts with Ian being on a hospital bed after we saw what happened to him in episode 4. Even in a state of being half-conscious, we see him mumbling Maggie’s name. Meanwhile, Jenna is in a car with Maggie after the confession and a violent shootout, losing blood profusely with no visible help around. We can see the visible guilt Jenna has when she confesses to Maggie that she knew Maggie was out at a party. Jenna somehow feels that, in an attempt to hide Maggie from Ian, she robbed Maggie of the normal life she deserved like any other regular teenager. We also see Donald speaking up against his father and also getting caught stealing. The rest of the episodes just show Ian trying to get closer to what he believes will lead him to any clues to finding his daughter.

I liked how the makers chose not to show us everything even though this happened to be one of the last episodes of Last Seen. Yet they have managed to build the roads for the final episode. That tactful building is amazing to see. Slowly and steadily, things are getting better, and we will get to see whether Ian gets what he deserves or whether Jenna succeeds in keeping Maggie with her. What is also interesting to me is how Maggie will deal with all this. As of now, we see her deep concern for Jenna, the woman who raised her. This is natural. But will she be okay going back to her biological parents if everything gets settled? These are things that we will never know until the episode rolls out. Much of episode 5 went into this. I somewhat feel that the makers wanted to play safe in deciding how much content they should reveal, considering this is the second-to-last episode.

The pacing of episode 5 was moderate. I won’t deny that there were times when they got extremely slow. For example, a lot of screen time was given to Donald. Yes, his arc is complicated; however, there are other significant arcs that deserve equal or more screen time. But that is something that doesn’t really happen. Other than that, the pacing was fine.

Ian and Jenna continue to remain the center of attraction for obvious reasons. We see their tussle for Maggie getting serious as each episode passes. The character of Ian is written in such a manner that one cannot help but feel bad for him. The reason why Jenna has Maggie is wrong, but sometimes morality tends to replace grief; at least this is what Last Seen has established. The only thing left for us now is to wait for the next episode and see what happens.

Final Score - [7/10]