What happened to Sonny's mom in Phony? Every clue so far points two ways at once
Phony has spent three episodes daring you to decide whether Connie Britton is playing a mom or a stranger wearing her face. The show keeps handing out evidence, and every single piece of it cuts both ways.
Three episodes into Hulu's Phony, nobody has told Sonny Cooke (Sam Nivola) whether he's right. He woke up from a car crash convinced that his mother Ellen (Britton), who also happens to be his high school principal, had been swapped out, and the town around him sees the same Ellen it always has. Episode 3, "Reverse Cuckoo Situation," dropped on October 27, and it adds more to the pile than it takes away.
If you've been keeping a list of clues, good news: there's plenty on it. The catch is that every one of them comes with two perfectly reasonable explanations, and the show seems to enjoy that very much.
The clues from episodes 1 and 2
The premiere week built the case, per Laughing Place's recaps of the first two episodes:
- The shoulder squeeze: Sonny and his mom have a private "I love you," two squeezes on the shoulder during a hug. At the school dance, Ellen doesn't squeeze back, twice. Either she doesn't know the code, or she was busy reacting to her son knocking his best friend to the floor mid-waltz.
- The photos: Ellen's picture on the school website has been updated, while the one on her Costco card still shows the mom Sonny remembers. Either it's a new face, or a principal got new headshots.
- The break-in: Someone broke into the house while Sonny was in the hospital, and a back-door pane is taped over. Ellen told the police it was students messing around. Either someone let themselves in, or it really was kids.
- The password: At her computer, Ellen clicks "Forgot password" to get into her own savings account, then moves out tens of thousands of dollars. Either she doesn't know the password, or she forgot it like everyone does, and the transfer is a separate mystery.
Even the adults split down the middle. Guidance counselor Jason Chang (Kelvin Yu) admits he's noticed something different about Ellen too, and then it turns out Ellen asked him to report back anything Sonny says about her.
The clues from episode 3
"Reverse Cuckoo Situation" gets its title from private investigator Sharla (Meera Syal), who suggests Sonny give this woman what she seems to want: a son. So Sonny sets a trap, per Laughing Place's episode 3 recap:
- The soup: He asks for "chicken nummers," the soup his mom made him as a kid. Ellen looks nervous, then remembers the secret ingredient, nutmeg, and that she made it after his second bout of meningitis. Then Sonny finds her old journal lying open to the recipe.
- The cash: Ellen tells Sonny she's going to urgent care. Sharla follows her to a bank instead, where she withdraws an envelope of cash, and then to a bar called The Artful Dodger, where she hands it to a man in a beanie.
- The cigarette: Chang spots her at the bar, asks if she's seeing a therapist and tries to kiss her in the parking lot. She asks him to keep her cigarette a secret.
The soup is the best trick the show has pulled so far. A real mom remembers the nutmeg, and a very well-prepared stranger has the journal. The episode hands you both at once and walks away.
"Phony is something genuinely new on TV."
— Judy Berman, TIME, via Rotten Tomatoes
The one clue that only points one way
The marsh is the exception. Both of the first two episodes end with a vehicle on the far bank and someone loading what looks like a body into it, with a beaver as the only witness. In episode 3, Shovel (Nation Sage Henrikson), the teenager who saw it while running from the police, tells Mallory and Weldon about it, and the teachers don't believe him.
Whatever is going on with Ellen, someone in this town is moving a body. The show just hasn't said whose.
Episode 3 also ends with the first real crack in the stalemate. Ellen comes home to an empty house, hears a buzzing burner phone in Sonny's drawer and answers it.
"Sonny, I have something for you."
— Sharla, on the burner phone, in episode 3
Ellen asks who's calling, and Sharla hangs up. Real mom or not, she now knows somebody is investigating her.
Our bet
The show is clearly built so both answers keep working, and Britton told Good Morning America she's enjoyed playing "this mom in all of her versions." That phrasing does a lot of work. Our money is on the cash, the body and the missing password being one story, and on the woman at the stove knowing exactly whose recipe that is.
Episode 4, "Vibes are Rancid," arrives November 3, and the eight-episode season wraps December 1. Sonny has a PI, a burner phone that's no longer secret and a mother who just answered it.
Previously we wrote: Who killed Jason in Black Doves? His death was a cover-up for the ambassador's