Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Smoke Episode 4. Apple TV+’s crime drama Smoke keeps moving at a steady pace, with Episode 4 continuing the character drama and putting the investigation on hold. Following a character-driven Episode 3, the fourth chapter follows a similar approach, with the three main characters making a significant breakthrough in their stories and revealing something new about themselves. Smoke is at its best when the actors are shining, and Episode 4, titled “Strawberry,” is a great example.
‘Smoke’ Episode 4 Showcases Michelle’s Ingenuity

Image via Apple TV+

The episode opens with Dave Gudsen (Taron Egerton) doing what he loves most: showing off. He’s teaching a group of firemen, mentioning the four-year-old Old Sully’s fire that killed five people and left several more injured. Dave then distracts the class by asking a young woman personal questions about her routine. Suddenly, a few small fires erupt on the sides of the room, which Dave uses to illustrate how fire is “chaos,” and “my chaos wins.” The class is impressed, and so are we, kind of. It’s a showy presentation, and Dave has the room eating out of the palm of his hand. Notably, one member of the audience doesn’t seem so impressed: Michelle (Jurnee Smollett). Next, we see Michelle meeting her brother, Benji (Mishka Thébaud), at an underground cockfighting ring. The two briefly discuss their mother, with Benji telling Michelle she could’ve visited their mom in prison, to which she reacts negatively. Benji then says he’s stopped drinking following their altercation in the previous episodes. The two make peace, but Michelle seems curious about the dead roosters. At the Gudsen home, Ashley (Hannah Emily Anderson) and Emmett (Luke Roessler) have dinner and make weekend plans. When she mentions that Dave is coming, too, Emmett’s enthusiasm dims. Meanwhile, at the office, Michelle has a new idea about how to track the grocery shop bags Milk Jug uses: bird tags. The plan is to place the tags in the bags, stack them in numerical order, and have a clerk write down the numbers at the beginning of each day. If they find a tag at a crime scene, they can watch the surveillance and count the customers until they find the arsonist. Harvey (Greg Kinnear) is impressed, not least because the tags are six cents apiece. Late at night, Dave and Michelle bond over a few drinks. He reveals he’s been married twice before, while she vaguely hints at her struggling relationship with Steven (Rafe Spall). We also learn a crucial bit of Dave lore: his mom disappeared when he was 15, only for him to discover she had actually abandoned him for a 27-year-old substitute teacher because “she deserved a fresh start.” To cope, Dave pretended she was indeed dead, a fact that shakes Michelle.
‘Smoke’ Episode 4 Takes Us Deeper Into Dave’s Crumbling Marriage

Image via Apple TV+

We last saw Freddy (Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine) anxiously waiting for news about his managerial candidacy. Late at night, he’s still waiting, although he is visibly tired and vacant. He goes to Brenda’s (Adina Porter) salon and asks her to change his hairstyle so that “no one can see me again.” She asks him to return at 5, but is visibly disturbed by his off-putting behavior. At the Gudsen home, Dave clumsily tries to apologize to Emmett, who seems receptive to his efforts but remains distant. Ashley asks Dave to pick Emmett after practice that afternoon, and he accepts. Later, Dave reveals he’s going to an arson conference for the weekend, making an unsubtle pass at Michelle, who turns him down. She goes back to the office, where she discovers Dave used to have a partner, Esposito, but the details of his departure are sealed. Emmett shows up, but Dave forgets to pick him up. Instead, Michelle offers to give him a ride home, and Emmett accepts. The two bond over a book Emmett is reading, and he actually opens up to her about his father leaving.

Related

Taron Egerton’s New Apple TV+ Crime Drama ‘Smoke’ Is Already Making a Major Change From the Procedural Format

Dennis Lehane’s gripping crime drama with 69% on Rotten Tomatoes boldly reinvented the genre.

At home, Dave keeps writing his novel. A furious Ashley confronts him about not picking up Emmett, but Dave doesn’t even seem remorseful. He says his plans — catching the two arsonists and publishing his book — are more important than picking up Emmett, and that the kid needs to “man the f—k up.” Ashley fires back by being honest about Dave’s book: it’s mediocre, pedestrian, and predictable. She’s a librarian, after all, and knows what good books look like; his isn’t one.
‘Smoke’ Episode 4 Reveals Dave’s True Nature

Image via Apple TV+

At a bar, Michelle gets Harvey drunk and gets the tea on Esposito, who shot himself in the left foot during target practice. Harvey fired him, but Esposito sued them and retired with full pension and benefits. Harvey also reveals that Esposito became very conspiratorial, convinced that Dave was an arsonist. At home, Emmett listens to Dave’s book, in which his self-insert character confesses his attraction to his partner, clearly based on Michelle. Meanwhile, Freddy has shaved his head and beard, cutting himself in the process. He fills more milk jugs with oil and places them in black bags, one of which must be marked with the bird tag. At a convenience store, as he gets ready to cause another fire, Dave meets a woman who flirts with him. They go back to her place, where it’s revealed she’s into S&M. Tied to her bed and blindfolded, she can’t see Dave, who’s in his underwear dancing to David Bowie’s “Heroes.” Dave asks her if she knows what “streaking” is before dropping a liquid, probably oil or melted wax, on her stomach and setting it on fire. She screams in fear, but Dave quickly extinguishes the fire and reassures her that it won’t leave any burns or marks. Aroused, she asks him to do it again, and he enthusiastically nods. Overall, out of the series’ nine episodes, this is probably one of the slowest. A few key character details come to light, but the pacing is admittedly not as fast as previous weeks. It’s a delight to see Ashley putting Dave in his place regarding his absurdly mediocre book, though, and the episode features some of Egerton’s strongest and most disturbing acting thus far.