Sharp Objects 1x07 Falling

(spoiler-free!)

The penultimate, stunning episode of Sharp Objects set the stage for finale particularly for the confrontation between Camille, now barely hanging on, having lost everything with only her desire to deliver justice and protect Amma remaining, and Adora, who we all saw for the monster she truly is, in ways that book readers might not have expected.

This episode we finally found out the truth or at least a part of it - Adora has been poisoning her daughters. She is the reason Marian died. She is poisoning Amma. And she wants to poison Camille. Camille kept resisting her all those years, a main reason why she is Adora's least favorite daughter and why Adora never loved her. The nurse who took care of Marian explains to Richard, sent there on a tip from Jackie, that Adora has Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a condition (that we also saw in last year's Phantom Thread) that causes her to poison her children in order to be seen as a noble caregiver by others. As someone who read the book twice I cannot help but feel that the reveal was anti-climatic for the viewers unfamiliar with the story and the scene with the nurse should have come after Camille has her montage of memories near the end.
We see Adora trying to take care of Camille in the beginning of the episode. Camille gets away. She goes to Amma's room and Amma is all docile, playing off her hungover as being sick for Adora's sake. Amma plays Adora's game allowing Adora to make her sick, echoing what we heard from Amma last episode that sometimes when you let someone do something to you, you are doing it to them. Camille tells her not to do that and leaves.

To make some really bad choices again.

Camille wants to get a quote from John so she tracks down him in a bar. The two talk, laugh and soon end up in a motel together. John starts undressing Camille and reading her scars out loud, moving her to tears. Camille hasn't been touched like that in years and while it's clearly wrong for her to be sleeping with a main suspect who is about to arrested, and a teenage boy, she takes that one chance she has to be seen and fully loved, unlike with Richard. And of course as always when Camille experiences joy, she will have to pay for it.
Richard bursts through the door to find Camille in bed with John. John gets arrested by Vickery and even he withstands judgment of Camille, but not Richard. He starts insulting her and he calls her a slut and a drunk who had "one bad thing happen to her".

OK, back up just one moment, Mr. Shadowed Penis.

You just read through Marian's medical records. So you can probably imagine what it was it like living with Adora as her mother. You also know Camille's roommate committed suicide. "One bad thing"? A "slut" A "drunk"? Mr. drinks in a bar and goes to rehab to find info about a chick he slept with once and knows for a few days instead of looking for a killer of little girls?

FUCK OFF!

It was just heartbreaking seeing Camille beg this complete douche for forgiveness.
Yet Inept Dickie Boy still leaves Marian's file for Camille to find. What the hell is happening here? He is a cop. Why isn't he arresting Adora? We also saw him go to the hospital and check Amma's records so he knows Adora is also poisoning her youngest daughter. The police in Wind Gap is just beyond incompetent at this point. In the book it was Camille who talked to the nurse so it made way more sense. It's a bizarre and unnecessary change in the adaptation, one that I cannot understand. The way it goes in the book is that Camille starts putting things together - her mother being bit by one of the the girls, the fact that she keeps 'taking care' of the girls - and she tracks down the nurse. Then she goes to Richard and finds out he was already suspecting Adora because of James Capisi's story about Woman in White etc. So why the change? I love Flynn but she does those things. Like with Scoot McNairy's character in Gone Girl. In the book there is no sob story about him being on sex offenders registry and being unable to find the job, it only appears in the adaptation. Why another change to prop up the male character, Gillian? WHY?

Camille finds the the medical records and reads through them and then rushes to Jackie who confirms her worst suspicions. There's a moment where Jackie comments how bad her bloody marys are but Camille still drinks them - interesting reflection of Camille being so conditioned into thinking she has to take what is offered, seeing how rejecting what her mother was offering her caused her rejection by her.
The fact that Jackie knew that Adora was poisoning Marian is more spelled out than in the book where Jackie simply tells Camille to get out of that house. Here Camille is mad at Jackie for not doing more and storms out, leaving devastated Jackie behind. I hope this is not the last we see of Jackie.

Now Camille knows. It is her own mother who killed Marian. Camille has a breakdown in her car (beautifully played by Adams!) and calls Curry tearfully shouting that it was her mother who did it. Camille imagines Adora as Woman in White, thinking her mother killed not only Marian but also Ann and Natalie. Camille starts thinking back on events and remembers a chilling moment when she saw her mother bit baby Amma's cheek, causing her to cry. Curry tells her to fly home immediately but Camille hangs up, determined to go back and rescue Amma.
This episode also dropped a bombshell that wasn't in the book by implying that Alan is well aware of what Adora is doing. He thinks of happy time with Amma, dancing with her and he tears up. We also got few interesting developments with Vickery - Jackie kept teasing him about "other girl", the lyrics of the song he listens in the car talk of "cheating". Richard actually manages to be semi-competent for a moment and asks him about how Marian died and Vickery immediately disregards that as gossip. But perhaps there is hope - last we see him he sees Amma's friends skating. They tell him Amma is sick. He repeats "sick", perhaps the truth about Adora finally dawning on him.

The episode ends on the montage of Camille's dream of looking inside Amma's dollhouse (which opened the episode), Alan tearing up, Camille arriving home and Amma, defiant, with a crown of flowers on her head, looking at Marian's urn. There's also a very nice little detail in the last frame, someone on reddit pointed out to me - the painting on the right? The girl in it waves her hand, as if she was saying goodbye.
There's so much left to show. There are literally 10 pages left in the book but they are so packed with information they could easily do two episodes out of them, but unfortunately it looks like the finale is only 49 minutes long. I am not sure about some of the changes they made from the book already, all of them in this episode. Hopefully they do the novel justice with the ending. My one wish? That we get Adora's diary entries. That was the most disturbing thing about her character for me.

On the next episode....

1x08 " Milk" (FINALE) - Concerned for the safety of Amma (Eliza Scanlen), Camille (Amy Adams) puts her own life in jeopardy as she gets closer to the truth behind the shocking mysteries surrounding the Wind Gap killings. Written by Marti Noxon & Gillian Flynn; directed by Jean-Marc Vallée