Shining Girls finally offers up some answers with an hour dedicated to Harper’s disturbing backstory.

After an episode that finally felt as though it were really moving the story of the series forward, Shining Girls Season 1 Episode 5, “Screamer,” takes several unnecessary steps back.

Shining Girls’ fourth episode is a much more propulsive, linear, and all-around interesting hour. (And it’s one I hope viewers who may have felt lost during the show’s opening episodes stuck around to see.)

Three episodes in, it’s too early to say whether Apple TV+’s ambitious, mind-bending thriller “Shining Girls” will stick the landing. But, gosh, I hope it does.