Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Smoke Episode 8.
Last week’s episode of Apple TV+’s crime drama Smoke featured some crucial plot developments, most notably the death of Freddy Fasano (Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine). Meanwhile, Michelle (Jurnee Smollett) draws ever closer to uncovering Dave’s (Taron Egerton) crimes, while his newfound fame and success following Freddy’s arrest come to an abrupt turn when he realizes the team is on to him.
Now, Episode 8, titled “Mercy,” brings the show’s lingering threads together in preparation for the finale next week. With the others breathing down his neck and finding himself alone for the first time in a long time, Dave becomes more reckless. At the same time, Michelle finds herself at a crossroads that will determine where and how she’ll end before the story concludes.
Dave Plays a Dangerous Game in ‘Smoke’ Episode 8
The episode opens with Dave going on an arson spree, setting six fires, much to Steven’s (Rafe Spall) anger. To rub salt in the wound, the fires form a smiley face on the map, creating a trail to Ashley’s (Hannah Emily Anderson) house. Steven says the team is dangerously close to being replaced, and everyone is under the impression that Dave is MIA. Meanwhile, Harvey (Greg Kinnear) finds his office raided, a broken picture of his lake house resting on his desk as a messed-up taunt. At Ashley’s house, she tries to convince Emmett (Luke Roessler) to leave and stay with his dad in Montana, at least until Dave is caught. Emmett, however, refuses. Outside, Dave stalks them, imagining setting them both on fire.
Steven and Dawn (Anna Chlumsky) are preparing to send out units around the city to find Dave. The truth is that Dave, cheeky bastard that he is, is not only not missing but actually at work, much to Harvey’s shock. He even calls Michelle to tell her he needs her at work to investigate the fires he set the night before. At this point, one can’t help but chuckle at Dave’s sheer cynicism, and Egerton is very clearly rejoicing every minute of getting to play a jerk. Michelle gets a button mic on her shirt and then leaves to meet Dave, who now knows she knows he’s guilty and is playing a dangerously twisted game.
And twisted it is. Dave begins taunting her, and Michelle confesses to reading his book and being uncomfortable with his depiction of her. The conversation soon turns tense when Dave accurately guesses that Michelle was having an affair with Steven. At the scene of the fires, Dave parades himself around, revealing that the D&C changed his method and is now using filterless cigarettes that burn all the way down, leaving no DNA evidence anymore. Meanwhile, Esposito (John Leguizamo) and Dawn break into Dave’s rental car and put a new tracker device somewhere he can’t shake it: inside the car itself, above the glove compartment.
‘Smoke’ Episode 8 Sees Dave at His Most Aggressive
On the ride back, Dave talks about how, even if they catch the D&C, they have nothing to connect him to the fires. Michelle plays along, saying she knows he’ll catch the culprit — he’s Dave Gudsen, after all! If he had been a detective, she says, he would’ve been a rockstar. Dave says he was never interested, but Michelle fires back, asking him why he applied to be a cop, then. Apparently, good ‘ol Dave applied in 2002 (making him forty-something in 2025, which is odd, but whatever) and aced the physical and written tests. Unsurprisingly, he flopped the psych evaluation, with the results claiming he had a “tendency for violence,” which is honestly the understatement of the year. Dave tries to deflect with classic evil guy rhetoric — nobody is innocent, everyone is guilty of something, blah blah — and even says Michelle herself is no victim. She says she’s no angel, but then again, she doesn’t burn dogs alive. Dave grimaces.
At another of the fire scenes, Dave and Michelle learn there was a witness. They interview a paralegal who witnessed a white man with short brown hair throwing what looked to be a cigarette out of a car window. An excessively abrasive Dave takes the interview’s direction to an uncomfortable place, prompting the increasingly distressed witness to break down.
At a diner, Dave talks about a dollar store that used to be a mattress showroom; before that, it was a pet shop; and before that, it was a seedy, little motel that burned down. We can all see where he’s headed. Dave talks about a meth-addicted woman who invited a guy to her room, shot him, and then set fire to the place. The smoke asphyxiated the elderly couple next door, while the woman’s twelve-year-old daughter, Mercy, was locked in the closet. Her biggest trauma revealed, Michelle’s armor breaks, and she openly confronts Dave with his crimes, telling him he’s “the biggest joke” she’s ever heard. “Then why aren’t you laughing?” he asks. Michelle stands up and leaves, leaving him shaken.
‘Smoke’ Episode 8 Has Everyone Reckoning With Their Mistakes
At the precinct, a guilty Harvey confesses to his daughter that, slowly and over the years, he stole from the government by lying about the money needed to fix the place and pocketing the difference. In fact, he took $256,000 and used it to buy the lake house. He says that, after a lifetime of expenses and duties, there was nothing left for him, and he really wanted something for himself: that lake house. Only one person knows about it, and his name is Dave Gudsen. Meanwhile, Steven tries to cheer Michelle up, and after some banter, she suggests going to his home; he agrees.
At Reba’s (Erin Karpluk), Dave tells her about Ashley leaving him and says it’s because he’s “always looking to the future” while Ash isn’t. Reba can see past his bull, though, and calls him out on it. She says she sees “a selfish bitch” when she looks in the mirror, whereas Dave can only see a hero in his reflection. Reba then confronts him about his crimes, showing a burn mark on her stomach and telling him he knows where the line is; he just doesn’t think it applies to him. A teary-eyed Dave silently agrees, then confesses to burning “all of it.”
Outside, Esposito and Dawn trade war stories while they stake out Reba’s house. Things take an uncomfortable turn when they realize Reba and Dave are having very aggressive sex in her kitchen. This short scene is a highlight of the episode, largely because Leguizamo and Chlumsky have such great comedic timing and chemistry, to the point where it becomes clear just how exponentially better this show would’ve been if they had been given more to do.
‘Smoke’ Episode 8 Sees Michelle Reaching a Point of No Return
Michelle arrives at Steven’s house and asks about his three children and his wife. Somewhat reluctantly, Steven answers, confessing he cheated on his family with the job long before he slept with Michelle. Over pizza and drinks, Steven and Michelle bond, and he tells her she has the potential to be “a boss” one day. For a precious moment, it seems like the two can actually become friends — at least, that’s what she thinks, even if we can see his intentions from a mile away.
Indeed, it’s not long before he makes a pass at her. Michelle tries to leave while a puzzled Steven asks what he did wrong. See, in his mind, he did nothing wrong because she invited herself to his house, which must’ve meant she wanted to sleep with him. Michelle says she thought they were friends, but he quickly drops all pretense. In a full-on screaming match, Steven says he left his wife for Michelle and tells her she’s angry that she touched the stove and got burned. Michelle fires back, telling him that not everything she does is an invitation for sex; she’s just trying to be a decent person, hard as that is. He then basically tells her he’ll keep her in exile, and all that nice talk from before was just him trying to get her into bed.
Michelle walks to the door, and Steven tries to stop her. Reactively, she punches him in the throat. Steven falls to the floor, choking. Desperately, he tries to signal for help, even giving her a pen so that she can use it to get air back into his lungs. In shock, Michelle watches as Steven chokes to death. Once it dawns on her what just happened, Michelle lets out a wail, but there’s no time to lose. Putting on gloves, she starts cleaning any trace of her presence in that house. As she cleans, a plan forms in her racing mind. Quickly, she takes a cigarette, attaches two matches to it, and sets the place on fire as memories of her good moments with Steven flash in her mind. In her car, Michelle remembers Dave left one of his gloves there during their first road trip together. She plants it in the back of the house and drives away as the flames start to consume everything.
After a solid Episode 6 and a pretty tense Episode 7, Episode 8 is a bit of a mixed bag, feeling both too crammed and anticlimactic for the series’ second-to-last chapter. The confrontations between Michelle and Dave are quite good, but the final development of Michelle killing Steven and framing Dave feels a bit rushed. Smollett and Spall do a great job selling it, but the story seems to be taking an increasingly darker approach that doesn’t feel totally earned. We’ll have to see if Smoke sticks the landing next week, but things are looking bleak for pretty much everyone.
