“Who is Pam Hupp?” asks Keith Morrison as Pam (Renee Zellweger) is walking into a courtroom as the star witness to Betsy’s murder in NBC’s The Thing About Pam episode three. As Pam walks in we’re provided a glimpse into her imagination. A sign drops down with “Pam” on it. Suddenly she’s the judge and then the bailiff.
Pam’s actually sleeping and dreaming of all of this when her husband, Mark (Sean Bridgers), wakes her up because she’s talking in her sleep. She confesses it’s because of the trial and he assures her she’ll be great. It turns out she’s not worried about herself. In fact, she’s sure she’ll be great; she’s worried about everyone else.
Attorney Joel Schwartz (Josh Duhamel) and his assistant, Nate Swanson (Ben Chase), go over Pam’s story and timeline. Pam and Betsy called Mark at 7:04pm and then 21 minutes later Pam calls Betsy claiming she’s at home. Nate points out it’s not possible for Pam to be home then. Cell phone records show Pam was less than three miles from Betsy’s house when she made that call.
Joel believes they’ve got Pam for the murder but he’s not satisfied. He wonders why they received the cell phone records just two days before the trial and still haven’t received the luminal photos. “So, what’s the other shoe?” asks Joel.
Pam’s walking with her neighbor Minnie (Patricia French) out of Zumba when she informs Minnie they won’t let her into the courtroom until she takes the stand. She appears to be dumbfounded by that. Minnie seems to be more concerned about whether Pam will still be on TV. Pam’s able to manipulate Minnie into doing what she wants by claiming Mark has work and her kids are busy. Pam wishes she could find out what’s going on in the courtroom and Minnie takes the bait. Minnie agrees to stand in for Pam and be her eyes and ears in court.
Before they go their separate ways, Minnie reveals Joel’s associate contacted her asking if Pam’s car was there all night.
District Attorney Leah Askey (Judy Greer) sits down with Betsy’s daughter Mariah (Gideon Adlon) at the restaurant where Mariah works. Mariah reveals they’re broke and that Pam said she can’t give them money until after the trial. She asks Leah if that’s true, and the DA doesn’t seem concerned as she looks over her menu. She suggests Mariah shouldn’t worry about Pam; she’s just trying to do what she can to help them.
Mariah mentions her dad and Leah acknowledges she understands she loves her dad, but now she needs to do right by her mom. Mariah asks what she means and Leah says she needs to testify.
The news of the murder and upcoming trial spreads and a reporter from Chicago, Cathy Singer (Alice Barrett Mitchell), picks up the story. Cathy calls DA Askey and leaves a voicemail. After hanging up Cathy asks a colleague to get her the number of the defense attorney and see what she can dig up on Pam since she was the last one to see Betsy alive.
DA Askey’s at a birthday party when she spots Pam. Pam confides in her that the defense is scaring her neighbors and she doesn’t know what to tell them. Askey assures her he’s just desperate. Askey says, “You see the lady at the claw machine?” as the camera pans to Leah’s daughter and a woman helping her play. Leah explains the woman is the judge for the trial. Leah reveals their daughters are on the same softball team and she went to school with Judge Mennemeyer (Heather Magee).
Joel pays Russ (Glenn Fleshler) a visit in jail and brings him comic books. He lets Russ know they have a copy of the prosecution’s witness list, and they’ll be calling Lily and Mariah to the stand. Joel asks if he’s been in touch with them and Russ admits he hasn’t.
Joel explains the prosecution will go after his character, every fight they had…everything. He tells Russ any information he has will help, asking if either girl has shoplifted or anything like that. Russ says he won’t do that to them. Russ seems to think the girls won’t say anything bad about him; he was good to them. Joel warns him he’s facing life in prison. Russ claims they aren’t perfect but he’s innocent and he shouldn’t have to throw his kids under the bus.
Joel and Nate show up to meet with Leah Askey and Judge Mennemeyer and are surprised to see Pam walking up with the DA.
Askey gets down to business and requests that the insurance policy is kept out of court. She also wants to preclude any evidence pertaining to a witness – Pamala Hupp. Joel jumps in and insists that’s impossible since Pam was the last person to see Betsy alive and four days before her death Pam was made Betsy’s estate’s sole beneficiary. The judge asks if there’s any evidence of coercion or anything of that nature involved when Pam became the beneficiary. Of course, the judge grants the state’s motion to suppress.
Joel and Nate are sitting outside the courtroom when Pam walks up and tosses a Payday candy bar in Joel’s lap. “A little something for you boys. Good luck in there,” she says as she keeps walking.
Joel delivers his opening statement as Minnie sits in the audience texting Pam the details of what’s going on in the courtroom. As we hear the state’s opening statements we learn all of the state’s witnesses are gathered in one room. Mariah keeps coughing and Pam brings her a bottle of water, attempting to seem like a doting friend.
Askey brings up the victim had three life insurance policies and Joel calls for a mistrial. Both Joel and the DA approach the bench and he reminds them the life insurance policies were prohibited from being presented, therefore he requests a mistrial. The judge doesn’t grant it and instead tells the DA to call her first witness. (It’s disturbing to see the judge so obviously siding with the prosecutor.)
Russ wonders what’s going on and Joel replies, “They are taking away all of our defenses. Let’s just hope you were right about your daughter.”
The DA begins by asking Mariah if she knows the defendant. She states he’s her dad and he raised her. The DA clarifies, saying, “So, he’s your stepfather.” Leah asks Mariah to describe their family dynamic and Mariah admits they bickered a lot. Sometimes the fights weren’t bad and sometimes they’d yell across the house, cursing at each other. She confesses she was fearful at times.
Mariah’s outside the courtroom when Pam asks if she told them about the yelling. Just then Joel, Nate, and Russ exit the courtroom, and a tearful Mariah attempts to go to her dad. Pam holds her back and suggests she let him go.
Pam receives a text from Minnie that one of the officers was dismissed. That’s followed by Detective McCarrick (Mac Brandt) coming into the room, angry. He claims Joel’s too afraid of him, and Pam takes the opportunity to bring up that Joel’s trying to claim she wasn’t in her own driveway at the time. He reminds her they can track any phone. There may be a hint of concern from Pam at that moment but it quickly vanishes when the detective thanks her for being “so cool” with all of it.
The DA questions Detective Merkel (Jesse Scott Egan), asking if Russ had any blood on him. He reveals Russ did not and she follows up asking if they checked to see if anything seemed cleaned up. He claims that in the luminal photos it appears someone tried to clean up in the kitchen. Joel objects because the state’s never provided the defense with those photos.
Askey withdraws the question and Joel asks the detective, “When you reviewed these so-called photos what did they reveal?” Detective Merkel admits they didn’t reveal anything. He further admits the camera malfunctioned. The detective alters his story and claims he saw the cleanup area with his own eyes.
Joel tries to confirm there isn’t any actual proof but the judge cuts in and tells Joel to move on. (This judge is super shady and not even hiding her bias.)
Joel questions Captain Lang (Adam David Thompson) about sending officers to confirm Russ’s alibi. Askey jumps in with a hearsay objection. The objections continue until the trial turns into a circus and the judge calls for a lunch break.
Joel and Nate have lunch and Nate describes what just happened in court as brutal. Joel admits a reporter was correct when they described his career as representing murderers and bad people. Nate suggests this is Joel’s one good thing since Russ isn’t a murderer.
Joel and Nate attempt to come up with a better defense after being forced to admit Pam’s caught everyone up in her web of lies. Joel points out she hasn’t managed to snag them in her web.
Pam takes the stand and claims Betsy came over one day complaining that she’s fat. Pam determined her friend wasn’t fat; she was bloated and that’s a sign of cancer. She begins to cry as the DA brings up it was Pam who told Betsy to go to the doctor. Russ says, “What?!” in disbelief.
Pam testifies that after Betsy was diagnosed, she stepped in to be by her side. Betsy kept her busy driving her places and Pam explains she’s not even supposed to be driving. Askey asks her to explain and Pam claims she’s disabled after losing some discs in her back.
The DA wants Pam to describe Russ and Betsy together, and Pam claims Russ would smoke around Betsy. Russ leans over and tells Joel he never smoked around Betsy. Pam then starts in with the story that Betsy was afraid of Russ.
It’s Joel’s turn to cross-exam Pam about her statement that Russ was “degrading,” yet she told officers she only met Russ three times. She claims she doesn’t know and Joel asks if she remembers telling the officers that. Pam attempts to get out from under her lies by claiming she doesn’t remember because she has a brain injury.
Next, Joel wants to know why she took Betsy home even though Betsy told her she had a ride. Pam, again, lies and says Betsy didn’t have a ride. Joel fast-forwards to when they called Mark at 7:04pm, reminding her she told the police she didn’t go inside the house. Pam now says she did go in. Joel points out she changed her story. She claims she didn’t change her story; she just didn’t remember because her friend was just murdered.
DA Askey inserts her opinion and Judge Mennemeyer agrees, even going as far as to say Joel is bullying the witness. Joel brings up how four days before Betsy was murdered Pam was changed to the beneficiary of her life insurance policy. The DA objects because that was prohibited from being brought up, but Joel points out it is no different from the DA trying to claim this is why Russ murdered his wife over the policy. The judge allows him to continue but she wants to hear what he has to say outside the presence of the jury.
Joel shocks everyone when he asks Pam why she told the insurance company the change in beneficiary was due to Betsy’s oldest daughter being on drugs and her youngest daughter’s history of blowing money. Pam claims she didn’t say that.
The judge, utterly blind to justice, says she doesn’t see the connection here. She thinks it’s unfair for Joel to keep pointing the finger at someone who was never even a suspect.
As Pam’s getting off the stand and walking out, Nate asks Joel if she had that limp before because she’s suddenly limping. Joel tells him no.
Pam nervously waits for Lily (Olivia Luccardi) and Mariah. As they come out, they accuse her of lying. She dodges their accusations by claiming she didn’t lie, she just spared them the truth because she didn’t want to hurt their feelings. Lily demands Pam give them the money or they’ll sue her. Pam claims she promised their mom she would take care of them.
The girls are leaving as Detective McCarrick arrives. Pam asks him what she’s supposed to do. She set up a trust and now they want to sue her. McCarrick assures her he’ll take care of it.
Pam runs into Minnie at home as she’s getting into her car. Minnie (who’s busy feeding squirrels) seems to be more starstruck than anything, praising Pam for being so wonderful on the stand and comparing it all to a movie. Minnie adds that everyone’s talking about it and even Dateline has been around. That piques Pam’s interest and Minnie reveals the Dateline producer approached her and gave her a card. The producer’s name is Cathy and she’s doing a whole show on Betsy.
Pam demands to know what Minnie told her. Minnie explains she said Pam is and now Cathy wants to speak with Pam. Pam is obviously disturbed by all this and can’t believe Minnie keeps talking to all these strangers. Undeterred, Minnie asks if Pam’s excited about the closing arguments and Pam admits she’s not.
Once more to the courtroom we go and Joel questions one of Russ’s friends, Sean Walker (Dickson Obahor), who was with Russ on the night of the murder. Sean explains he met Russ 15 years ago playing games and they meet at his place every Tuesday for game night. Sean describes the kind of games they play and how it works.
As Joel specifically asks about the night of December 27th, we’re treated to scenes of each person present going over that night’s events. One woman states they spoke with the police three times. Joel points out their stories have never changed. Sean confirms Russ was with them from 6pm to 9pm on December 27th.
Joel’s next witness is a computer forensics specialist. He describes being able to check Russ’s location through his phone pinging off cell phone towers. Russ was at least 10 miles from his home at 9:09pm on December 27th. Joel asks if he was able to put Russ at or near the Arby’s at the time of the timed stamped receipt. The specialist says yes.
As Joel and Nate exit the courtroom, Joel seems to think DA Leah Askey’s realizing she’s blown it. Nate doesn’t think she has that in her character. Joel brings up that she never touched on how Russ could have committed the murder. She never touched on the alibi witnesses, never explained the Arby’s receipt, or addressed game night. Plus, she never told a cohesive story which means there’s reasonable doubt.
Askey’s closing argument begins by focusing on who Betsy was. The scene switches back and forth between her closing argument and the defensive’s closing argument. Joel brings up the lack of proof and that there weren’t any wounds on Russ. There wasn’t any blood on his hands or under his fingernails.
Incredibly, Askey drops a bombshell in her closing argument. She claims Russ’s friends went to Arby’s and then they all met up to exchange the receipt and phones. Obviously, Joel objects stating the DA just accused four people of murder without any evidence. It’s not in the least bit surprising that the judge allows Askey to continue.
A now angry Joel gets up and shames the DA for being so desperate she’s blaming four innocent people of being accomplices to murder. He begs the court to find Russ not guilty.
The judge reads the verdict and Russ is found guilty of count one, murder in the first degree. He’s sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The detectives celebrate with a standing ovation while Betsy and the prosecutor look smug.
The Dateline producer catches up with Joel and Nate outside the courtroom. Joel apologizes they couldn’t give her a good story; she disagrees and feels there’s more to this and is planning on sticking around town. Joel thinks that’s good because he’s not done. He doesn’t imagine Russ will get a fair trial in this town but vows not to stop until Russ is free.
As episode three wraps up we see Pam at what appears to be a plastic surgeon’s office. He’s drawing on her face while describing how he’ll fix up her appearance.
Aafter returning home, Pam’s on the phone calling about the trust she set up for Betsy’s daughters when she spots Minnie picking up a shoebox. Minnie loves the neighborhood squirrels and she’s shocked to find a dead squirrel inside the box. Pam tells the person on the phone she wants to transfer the whole account to her personal checking.
As the man on the other end asks her to hold Keith Morrison says, “She can hold, but for how long?”
- The Thing About Pam Episode 1 “She’s a Good Friend” Recap
- The Thing About Pam Episode 2 “She’s a Helper” Recap
- The Thing About Pam Episode 4 “She’s a Loving Daughter” Recap
- The Thing About Pam Episode 5 “She’s Not Who You Think She Is” Recap
- The Thing About Pam Episode 6 “She’s a Killer” Recap
