WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS ahead for Lady in the Lake episode 6.
Summary
Apple’s murder mystery seriesLady in the Lakechronicles the aftermath of Cleo Johnson’s death.Lady in the Lakepremiered on Friday, August 10, 2025, andopened to positive reviews, earning a 76% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes.Based on the 2019 bestselling novel by Laura Lippman,Lady in the Lakestars Oscar winnerNatalie Portman in her first-ever leading rolein a television series. Portman leads an exceptionalcast inLady in the Lakewhich also includes rising star actress Moses Ingram as Cleo Johnson, future Superman David Corenswet as Allan Durst, and Mikey Madison, the star of this year’s Palme d’Or winnerAnoraas Judith Weinstein.
Thefirst two episodes ofLady in the Lakeintroduce Ingram’s character Cleo Johnson, a mother and hard-working model and bartender who leaves her political aspirations behind to work for the ambiguous club owner Shell Gordon full-time. This is before her ultimate death, which is depicted in the opening scenes of the series.Cleo’s death becomes a point of fascination for amateur investigative journalist Maddie Schwartz (Portman)who leaves her tepid family life as a housewife and works at the Baltimore Star newspaper.Lady in the Lakeepisode 4picks up whereLady in the Lakeepisode 3left off, depicting Stephan’s escape from prison and Cleo’s murder.
Lady in the Lakeepisode 5titled “Every time someone turns up dead in that lake, it does seem to lead to you” finds Maddie deeply entrenched in her pursuit of finding Cleo Johnson’s true killer. More ofMaddie’s backstory with Hal Durstis revealed and provides additional context for Maddie’s struggle with post-traumatic stress.Lady in the Lakeepisode 6 titled “I know who killed Cleo Johnson” is the penultimate episode of the miniseries. The biggest twists of the series are revealed as Maddie recovers from her stab wound, going in and out of consciousness asthe truth about Cleo Johnson finally comes to the surface.
8Alan Reveals He Knows About Maddie’s Affair With His Father Hal
Alan suspected when Maddie and him dated in high school
Lady in the Lakeepisode 6 starts with yet again another flashback. Maddie and Alan are both drunk at a party in a flashback scene that takes place presumably in the early 1950s based onMaddie’s “Million Dollar Mermaid” costume, a reference to the movie Esther Williamswas the star of in 1952. It’s safe to say they are around 5 years out of high school when Alan approaches Maddie heavily intoxicated and starts talking about his father.
At this point, Maddie has already married Milton, butAlan drunkenly says his father’s not a good man, which sparks Maddie’s interest. Maddie asks him what he found out and Alan reveals he knew back in high school about their affair a week before prom. His dad also made a painting of Maddie naked in a lake, which was another giveaway.
7Alan & Maddie Become Romantically Involved, Hinting That Alan Is Seth’s Dad
Maddie & Alan hook up although she is married to Milton
In the same flashback scene, Maddie and Alan spontaneously begin to embrace and appear to have sex. This could have been the point of Seth’s conception since it was previously revealed that Milton is not actually his father, or this could have led to a more constant affair between Alan and Maddie that led to Seth being born. It becomes quite clear thatSeth looks a lot like Alan although Maddie is with Milton.
Seth had already found out Maddie’s secret years before as well, showing a similar character trait betweenSeth and Alan as they try to hide the harmful truth from Maddie. Alan also reveals in the flashback scene that Maddie was not the only girl that his father had slept with out of wedlock before the former high school sweethearts rashly throw themselves at each other.
6Stephan Is Cleared Of Killing Tessie Durst After His Mom Is Revealed As The Killer
Stephan is still guilty of assaulting Tessie
Stephan has been the focal point of the murders of both Tessie Durst and Cleo Johnson but has now been revealed to be a killer after all. Stephan is still guilty of attempting to sexually assault Tessie Durst butStephan’s mom was the one who killed herand dumped her body in the lake. This is particularly eerie because she attended Tessie’s funeral alone earlier in the series.
The search for Cleo Johnson’s murderer is still onas Stephan’s name has been cleared of that crime. Although he is still guilty of what he did to Tessie Durst and will likely not be seen outside of the prison walls again anytime soon Stephan already told Maddie that he has no idea who Cleo Johnson was but it was difficult to believe anything he said.
5Slappy Is Arrested For Being A Suspect In Cleo Johnson’s Murder
Slappy’s outburst at Cleo’s funeral makes him an easy scapegoat
With Stephan’s name cleared, police start investigating other suspects, one of which is Slappy Johnson, Cleo’s carefree comedian husband. While Slappy clearly didn’t do it, his outburst at Cleo’s funeral makes him an easy scapegoat, which is exactly what ends up happening. Right after Slappy gets arrested, Reggie offers Cleo and Slappy’s son Teddy some groceries and a wad of cash, which raises his suspicions, butReggie won’t admit anything to him.
It’s unclear whether Slappy or the rest of Cleo’s family knows the truth about her whereabouts, which could present a massive problem for Cleo now that her husband is left to pay for her faking her own death scheme. With the murder of Cleo Johnson being mostly forgotten about until Maddie got involved, Cleo’s cover is now at risk of being blown, all because Maddie wanted to tell her story even though Cleo never wanted it told.
4Shell Confronts Reggie About Cleo Knowing The Christmas Lottery Numbers
Shell starts to lose his trust in Reggie
Maddie and Ferdie Platt both ask questions to Shell Gordon about the Christmas lottery that Cleo won, which sets Shell off on Reggie. He confronts Reggie because he knows that he was the only one who knew the rigged number, which somehow Cleo also knew.Reggie affirms that he didn’t have anything to do with itand tells Shell he’s being honest, saying he “took care” of Cleo on Christmas Eve.
Shell says it was foolish for Reggie to leave Cleo’s body at the lake fountain, which makes him start to lose trust in Reggie. At this point, it seems like Reggie is telling Shell the truth, but the revelation that Cleo is actually alive hints that he may have made good on his behind-the-scenes deal with Cleo. The question then becomes,whose body was found in the lake fountain if it was not Cleo’s?
3Bob Bauer Visits Maddie At The Hospital & Tries To Steal Her Story On Stephan’s Mom
He tries to pull information out of Maddie on her hospital bed
Maddie’s co-worker atThe Baltimore Starcomes by with seemingly innocent intentions and flowers. He explains the Tessie Durst situation, claiming that Stephan finally talked and confessed he tried to sexually assault Tessie but didn’t go through with it, which forced his mom to kill her. There wasblood under Tessie’s nails that matched the blood type of Stephan’s mom, which was conclusive enough to declare her the murderer.
This still doesn’t explain what the deal was with the man dressed as Santa Claus holding the fishbowl that Tessie saw in the first episode unless that was just a delusion. Bob asks Maddie what Stephan’s mom said to her and what happened in her house. Maddie is clearly in pain and still out of it. He keeps harassing her before the nurses force him to leave, which shows thatall he cares about is stealing Maddie’s headline.
2Officer Bosco Told The Police Captain About Platt’s Affair With Maddie
Officer Bosco, who had expressed some romantic interest in Maddie in previous episodes, caught Ferdie leaving Maddie’s apartment one night through the fire escape. Instead of keeping it between the two of them or sorting it outside of the station,Bosco rats out Ferdie to the police captain. He tells him it’s best to resign quietly or else both he and Maddie will face legal consequences, implying that Maddie would be humiliated to be exposed sleeping with a black person.
Bosco has expressed some racist discrimination against Ferdie, giving him a hard time specifically because of the color of his skin. As Ferdie drove to the station that day, a KKK rally was occurring in town which resulted in someone throwing a bottle at Ferdie’s car window. Bosco has several motivations for getting Ferdie off the force, such as jealousy and racial discrimination, but ultimatelyFerdie knew the risk of getting involved with Maddie and now faces the consequences.
1Cleo Johnson Is Revealed To Be Alive & Visits Maddie At The Hospital
The most shocking part ofLady in the Lakeseason 6 arrives in its final moments as Maddie wakes up from a dream in her hospital bed to discover the actual Cleo Johnson standing over her. Maddie had been going in and out of dreams throughout the episode, which stylistically looked at central key characters such as Reggie, Ferdie, and Cleo through interpretive dances and musical numbers. In one of Maddie’s dreams, Cleo was dressed as a nurse and was present as Maddie gave birth to a baby that was covered in newspapers,symbolizing how Cleo’s death gave birth to Maddie’s journalism career.
Another one of Maddie’s dreams sees her diving into a lake and pulling Cleo up to the surface, saving her without a second of hesitation. This is one of the last things she dreams before she faces the real Cleo who is dressed as a nurse in her hospital room, just like in one of her previous dreams. This time, however, Maddie is not dreaming, andCleo is discovered to have faked her own disappearance and death to presumably get out of Baltimorewith the money she had won from Shell’s rigged lottery. Even though Reggie was shown dumping a body into a lake, it turns out that the body was not Cleo’s inLady in the Lake.
Lady in the Lake
Cast
BASED ON THE NOVEL BY LAURA LIPPMAN, LADY OF THE LAKE IS A FICTIONAL DRAMA MINISERIES BASED AROUND THE REAL DISAPPEARANCES OF A YOUNG GIRL AND A WOMAN, COMING TO APPLE TV+. THE STORY CENTERS AROUND MADELINE SCHWARTZ, A DISSATISFIED 1960S HOUSEWIFE OF TWENTY YEARS WHO ENDS HER MARRIAGE IN SEARCH OF A LIFE WITH MEANING. MADELINE, BETTER KNOWN AS MADDIE, SEEKS TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD - TO DO SO, SHE HEADS DOWN THE PATH OF AN INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST AFTER SOMEHOW HELPING THE BALTIMORE POLICE FIND THE BODY OF A YOUNG GIRL IN THE LAKE, CLEO SHERWOOD. LADY IN THE LAKE HAS NOIR ELEMENTS AND EXPLORES STATUS AND RACE IN A MURDER MYSTERY IN A DIFFERENT PERIOD. THE SERIES HAS BEEN DELAYED DUE TO AN INCIDENT IN LATE 2022 BUT IS STILL SET TO COME TO APPLE TV+ IN THE FUTURE.
