Tell Me a Story – Number One Fan

By: Ujjyani Banerjee

Kyle (Casey Thomas Brown) comes up and finds Susie (Kathryn Prescott) passed out. He sneaks through her purse, unlocks her phone and captures the PIN to Ashley’s (Natalie Alyn Lind) residence. Meanwhile, Ashley is back on the piano and Beau (Eka Darville) loves that she’s returning to her upbeat self; he even tries playing the piano for her sake. Ken (Evan Parke) spots them together and wants Beau to keep it professional. Simone (Ashley Madekwe) wakes up after spending the night with Jackson (Matt Lauria); she draws a love heart on his chest with lipstick and leaves! After writing a chapter Tucker (Paul Wesley) walks up to his window and reminisces about his childhood where he (Ezra Lerario) plays with his twin sister, Anna (Stella Pileggi), at the docks. He keeps asking Anna to not go near the water.

Tucker gets breakfast for Olivia (Danielle Campbell), but she abuses him and needs an explanation. He then reveals about his research process wherein he digs deep into his subjects’ personal lives and weaves it into a manuscript. This time it’s about love and loss. He makes Olivia reveal about losing her boyfriend, Luke, to brain hemorrhage. When she complains about being unfortunately picked as Tucker’s subject, he assures her that they both need each other and she’ll soon figure out why.

Susie arrives late to work. Kyle piggybacks in her car trunk without her knowledge and enters Ashley’s house. Simone has come to meet Cora (Julia Campbell) regarding the trust papers. She feels that Veronica (Garcelle Beauvais) changed it. Cora agrees. Apparently, Simone’s father Frank wanted to leave the whole business to her but it wouldn’t have meant well for Veronica. She even fired Cora who was Frank’s most trustworthy and well-informed employee. Despite Cora’s concerns regarding safety, Veronica wonders if Frank kept the original will inside the safety vault in the distillery and decides to check it out. Cora gives her the vault combination. Susie loves that Ashley is back to writing songs but would’ve appreciated if she actually wore the panic button, as suggested by Beau. After being coaxed Ashley admits that she might’ve developed feelings for him, but is sure of being dumped because of her scars. Susie scoffs at her worry. It’s a pleasant day and Ashley decides to write outside. Meanwhile, Kyle inches his way up to her room.

Maddie (Odette Annable) and Tucker’s parents finally meet. Rebecca (Carrie-Anne Moss) apologizes for the delay, but the Reeds understand her plight. It’s evident that Tucker’s mom Lorraine (Denise Dal Vera) has a drinking problem and Everett (Jon Briddell), her husband, despises it. Lorraine brings up Ashley’s incident and it gets awkward. Tucker switches the topic to Maddie’s flourishing career, but it fizzles out quickly. Lorraine gifts Maddie a scarf made from Anna’s cloth and this does it for Tucker as he can no longer take it. He leaves the table and rushes home. When Ashley asks Beau to accompany her for writing outdoors, he suggests Jeff (Tom O’Connell) who is his shift reliever. Ashley gets the message and takes off. Soon Beau learns that the car he clicked belongs to Kyle – the fan who was pretending to be a doctor at the hospital. Susie reveals that she just went on a date with him the earlier night. Ashley is shocked and scared. Kyle goes to the CCTV room and knocks down Jeff.

Jackson gets home and is surprised to find Simone cleaning his apartment and serving his favorite takeout. Soon both start sharing their personal dilemmas: Simone reveals about being written out of Frank’s will by her evil stepmom and Jackson reveals about Robbie Pruitt, who was both his idol and the reason that his childhood was ruined. Simone decides to check out the distillery safety vault and has Jackson tag along. They break into the distillery. Simone unlocks the hidden vault only to find her parents’ wedding rings and a box. Just as they hear some footsteps Simone pockets the rings and the box while handing a rare ‘grand reserve’ bottle to Jackson. The guard, Malcolm (Michael Anthony), greets Simone. Despite what she says about missing her dad, he realizes that the couple basically came to steal some expensive booze. He summons Veronica.

Kyle has reached Ashley’s room.  Susie is there. He incapacitates her and waits for Ashely to arrive. Tucker goes to the basement in an overwhelmed state and this alarms Olivia. He needs to sleep; so he drugs her and lies down by her unconscious side – the exact same way he used to sleep next to Anna when they were little. Veronica grills the lovebirds for their theft. She fills Jackson in on Simone’s shady past which involves identity thefts and three years in jail. Simone calls her Frank’s murderer. Veronica warns her and gives her a choice of either getting involved with the police again or leaving Nashville immediately. Even though Jackson asks her not to bow down, Simone agrees to leave. Ashley reaches her room and finds it candlelit. She finds Susie tied down and then Kyle shirtless and displaying his self-inflicted burn wounds. He expresses his love for her and Ashley accepts it calmly. She tries to inch her way towards the panic button. Kyle observes this and throws it away ordering her to come with him. He drags her down and outside the house. Ashley fights back, but her strength is no match to Kyle’s. She does manage to lacerate him with a knife while crossing the kitchen. Beau senses something is wrong when Jeff doesn’t answer his call. His worry intensifies upon finding him unconscious. He calls for backup. Ashley and a heavily bleeding Kyle are at the swimming pool where she’s thrashed onto the ground. Before he can pounce upon her, Beau shoots him dead.

Simone feels weird now that Jackson knows about her spotty past, but he assures her that he doesn’t care. Both start checking the pen drive which was inside the box. They find a PI folder which has sex tapes and pictures of Veronica with another man. Simone now has proof that Veronica is not the grieving widow that she’s pretending to be. As the police come to collect Kyle’s body, Ashley (who just met Rebecca) goes to calm down Susie. She’s in shock too and guilt ridden. Ken is proud of Beau. Tucker, who was sleeping, suddenly wakes up upon hearing Maddie outside. She needs an explanation from him. They sit at the docks. Tucker reveals that he lost Anna on these very docks as she drowned in the lake. He adds that it’s Anna’s memories that don’t let him separate from this house and make him an unlikable human being. Maddie feels for him.

Ashley is out of words for Beau. He saved her life! She kisses him, but Beau pulls back. He reveals that Ken, who’s also his boss, wouldn’t approve of this unprofessional behavior. Ashley calls professionalism overrated and kisses him again. Beau doesn’t pull back this time. They make out.