HBO’s ‘The Staircase’ Episode 7: SBI and the undoing of the case against Peterson
.jpg "Colin Firth as Michael Peterson and Toni Collette as Kathleen Peterson in the HBO Max series “The Staircase.”")
HBO Max’s new series “The Staircase” is a dramatic retelling of the 2001 death of Kathleen Peterson and the Durham murder trial of husband, Michael.
The scripted series, starring Colin Firth as Michael Peterson and Toni Collette as Kathleen Peterson, is based on the Netflix documentary series of the same, but draws on other source material and takes dramatic license — which makes for a very different viewing experience than fans of the documentary have known.
The series was created, produced, written and directed by Antonio Campos, with Maggie Cohn as co-showrunner.
HBO Max released the first three episodes — streaming only — on May 5, with a new episode debuting each Thursday through June 9 .
We’re recapping episodes. This week we have Episode 7: Seek and Ye Shall
Note: The narrative of Campos’ dramatic retelling of the Peterson saga jumps around in time. Even though many of us — locals who lived through the original coverage of the case and those who have watched the documentary series — likely know the significance of various plot points, we’ll try in the recaps to stick with the dramatic timeline and not spoil events that take place in future episodes.
Also note: Remember, this is a dramatic scripted version of events, which means some things depicted may or may not have happened the way we see.
Below the recap you’ll find links to other coverage of “The Staircase,” including a timeline of Peterson events, an update on where major players in the case are now, a closer look at The Owl Theory and more.
The killing of Dennis Rowe
NOVEMBER 2004: Episode 7 opens with a pretty scary scene.
We see a man leave his house at night, get into his car and drive away. We aren’t sure at first who it is.
Across the street, a man watches from another car as he leaves, then gets out and goes to the house and walks around to the back. We hear glass shatter. Then a light comes on inside and then goes out.
The man who had just left the house comes back and pulls into the driveway — radio still blasting Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” — leaves the car running and door open as he walks back to the house muttering “forgetting things.”
He goes into the house, leaving the front door open. We hear him say “Tyrone?” and then hear an attack.
Through the open front door, we see Tyrone Lacour beating Dennis Rowe to death. Then he closes the front door.
‘You can’t walk back from deceit’
FEBRUARY 2017: We move ahead to 2017, just where we left off at the end of Episode 6. Michael Peterson is in a conference room at the Durham County Courthouse with David Rudolf (Michael Stuhlbarg), and he’s not happy about the language in his Alford plea.
Sophie Brunet (Juliette Binoche), filmmaker Jean-Xavier de Lestrade (Vincent Vermignon) and the film crew wait outside the room.
“It’s horse [excrement],” he says. “I’m not taking the [expletive] plea.”
Rudolf asks him if that means he wants a retrial and Michael tells him it’s not what he wants, it’s what he needs. “I am not going to say that I killed Kathleen.”
Rudolf starts to laugh. “Jesus Michael, think of the money, of the years you’ll waste.”
They argue — Rudolf telling him he needs to just take the plea and cut his losses. Michael tells him he will not say he’s responsible for Kathleen’s death, and he asks for support. Rudolf tells him to look around the empty room: “This is all the support you’ve got.”
Michael wants another trial. He says the prosecution doesn’t have the same evidence they had before. Rudolf tells him they still have the lies and Michael’s character against them.
“You can’t walk back from deceit, from how people see you,” Rudolf says.
Michael says he won’t do it.
Everyone’s uneasy
June 2010: Sophie is visiting Michael in prison and she’s clearly not happy. She tells Michael she’s returning to Paris, not sure when she’s coming back. She’s noncommittal. Michael asks her when she will “come home to Durham” and she says Durham will never be her home. Michael tells her they’ll figure it out.
Next we see Martha Ratliff (Odessa Young) and Margaret Ratliff (Sophie Turner) sitting in an apartment, surrounded by cardboard boxes and toasting with wine from the ornate goblet Michael passed around the family table in Episode 1.
We learn that Margaret has left her husband. Martha tells her she needs to take the energy she has always focused on others and focus it on herself. “You’ve been through a lot and you’ve never really talked about it,” Martha tells her.
“You can either let the past haunt you or you move on,” Margaret says. “I can’t change what happened and you can’t either.”
Martha tells her she can try to understand what happened, and that she felt something was wrong “even before that night” — and that’s why she’s going to “go back home.” She tells Margaret she’s going to Germany and Margaret is angry. “You’re supposed to be helping me and now I have to worry about you again.”
Martha thinks Germany is going to help her and she isn’t sure why Margaret is so mad. Margaret begs her not to go, but she says she has to.
‘SBI is dirty’
There is no year listed on the screener we received, but the next scene is labeled as taking place at the Project for Actual Innocence in NC (The year is likely 2010).
A small group gathers by a desk and a woman says: “SBI is dirty.” (Note: We determine later that this character must be based on Christine Mumma.)
Without naming the case she’s studying, the woman says she can prove that SBI withheld and misrepresented evidence, and that test results were hidden.
She says a man is serving a life sentence based on problematic SBI testimony, and they can help him. They all decide she should go to Durham.
Dennis Rowe’s autopsy
NOVEMBER 2004: Medical examiner Deborah Radisch (Susan Pourfar), who did the autopsies on Kathleen Peterson and Elizabeth Ratliff, pulls back the sheet on a deceased person to reveal Dennis Rowe. He has a deep wound on the side of his cheek, and lacerations on the back of his head.
The scene flips to Brunet getting an email alert about a beating death autopsy report in Durham County. Then we see her walking into the Durham County Medical Examiner’s office, getting off the phone with Michael (who thinks she is in Paris, not Durham).
Brunet asks Radisch about the autopsy report. Radisch tells her she didn’t send her the email and doesn’t know who did, but she explains that there is a homicide victim who died by blunt force trauma to the head, that there is a motive and suspect, and that the weapon was a heavy flashlight. Radisch tells her that it could be a robbery gone wrong, but that the men knew each other.
The big headline here is there were no skull fractures.
“The nature of Kathleen Peterson’s death is no longer an anomaly,” Radisch tells her.
When Radisch walks out of the room, Brunet sneaks a peek into the file and sees the name Dennis Rowe, and remembers the connection to Michael from one of the documentary tapes.
Brunet calls de Lestrade and tells him that Rowe is dead, killed like Kathleen — beaten in the head, no skull fractures. She asks him if he thinks Michael lied about knowing Rowe and de Lestrade answers: “Absolutely.”
Kathleen goes Christmas shopping
DECEMBER 5, 2001 - Four days before Kathleen’s death, we see her walk by Macy’s in the mall (digression: they show a Medium Brown Bag, which is a Bloomingdale’s bag, but Durham doesn’t have a Bloomingdales; and you can see a Martha Stewart Collection sign behind her, and that’s typically found at Macy’s. Anyway ...). She goes into a Christmas decoration store and buys a decorative reindeer and asks the clerk to split the cost on two credit cards.
Then Kathleen is getting her makeup done at a Bare Minerals counter. The makeup clerk tells her that his boyfriend was cheating on him and they broke up. She tells him about her first husband Fred, and how much he lied to her, and how she just wants the truth from a partner, even if it’s ugly.
The makeup artist notices her ring and asks if she’s married again. Kathleen says, “Yeah, to a real piece of work.”
“He’s the strangest most exciting person I’ve ever met,” she tells him.
Next we see her buying a watch for Caitlin in a jewelry store. The diamond watch costs $300 more than the plain one, so Kathleen gets the cheaper one (callback to Episode 1 when Caitlin opens her gift and notes she got the wrong watch).
Now we see Michael at a Christmas tree lot. He gets a phone call from his agent, who tells him that his old book “Charlie Two Shoes” is being optioned for a film.
Germany and a home filled with pain
2010: Martha arrives at Patty’s townhouse in Graefenhausen, Germany. Patty takes her to the place her mother lived when she died.
The family living there has let them come inside and look around.
“This home was filled with so much joy and so much pain,” Patty says to them in German. Martha looks at the stairs where her mother died, then slowly climbs them.
Black and Brunet
The next section (undated) has a lot of really quick back and forths — jumping from scenes with Freda Black and Sophie Brunet.
Black: The woman from earlier in the episode — the one who is going to Durham to investigate SBI shenanigans (we learn her name is Evelyn Ivins) — walks into a dry cleaner shop and and says “Freda Black?”
The clerk behind the counter is Black, and she looks far less polished than during the trial. She looks up and says, “You have something that needs cleaning?”
Brunet: Brunet is putting a microphone on Durham Police detective Art Holland, who investigated the Peterson case.
Black: Ivins sits down with Freda in a restaurant and Black is pounding back the wine. Ivins asks her about her former employer and Black says she doesn’t “kiss and tell.” Even if she’s now working for a dry cleaner and Durham DA Jim Hardin (Black’s old boss) is now a judge, Ivins asks?
Brunet: Brunet asks Holland more questions about investigating Kathleen’s death, but her line of questioning quickly leads to Dennis Rowe. Holland wants to know what the interview is really about.
Black: Ivins wants to know more about the relationship between the Durham DA’s office and the SBI. Ivins says she found that the DA’s office writes performance reviews for the SBI, and that makes it hard for the SBI to be objective. Black admits the relationship may be problematic but it’s not illegal, and Ivins says not until the SBI shades evidence to fit the DA’s needs.
Brunet: Brunet is chasing the angle that Tyrone Lacour could have killed Kathleen.
Black: Black is telling Ivins about her motivation for being a defense attorney — wanting to help the needy — and how frustrating it was for her defending the wife-beaters and the men who did terrible things to women.
Brunet: Brunet is working to fix Holland’s mic while he theorizes a scenario in which Lacour could have tried to rob Michael Peterson but ends up killing Kathleen. But there were no signs of an intruder, Holland says, because Lacour “knew Peterson in the same way Dennis knew Peterson.” Brunet is surprised to hear this. “Lacour didn’t need to break in because he’d been there before,” Holland says. Holland tells Brunet that Michael had been with a lot of men around Durham, and he’s intrigued by this Lacour theory.
Black: Black tells Ivins she decided to switch teams so she could make a difference in the DA’s office. “It felt good, mostly. Sometimes it didn’t,” Black said. Black says that if she believes someone did something wrong, she should do everything in her power to stop them. Ivins tells her that three men in the state have been executed based on faulty SBI evidence, killed for crimes they didn’t commit. Black says, “Is that true?” Ivins tells her she’s working on a specific case and wants Black to testify to the quid pro quo relationship between the Durham DA’s office and the SBI. Black says she has an order of napkins to press and leaves to return to her job.
Martha learns the truth in Germany
2010: The woman who testified about Elizabeth Ratliff’s death in Peterson’s trial tells Martha about things Michael and Patty did when she was a baby. She tells Martha that she had tantrums and Michael was angry because he couldn’t control her, and she explains how Michael and Patty tried over and over to give Martha away to various couples, while keeping Margaret.
Martha is horrified. She asks Patty about it and Patty explains as delicately as she can that Martha was “a nightmare,” and that she and Michael tried to love her but could not love her enough.
Patty: “I live my life trying my best and also believing everyone else is trying their best, and that is all people can do. That’s all we can expect from them. I extend this philosophy to all my children and even to Michael. When I feel disappointed I know it’s simply my belief in a reality that never truly existed.”
Martha: “I just wonder if all of this hadn’t happened, who would I be?”
Patty tells her that if things had been different, she (Martha) would be different, and then adds: “For what it’s worth, I really love who you are, and I look forward to knowing the Martha you will become.”
Nortel holiday party
DECEMBER 2001: Kathleen stands before the Christmas tree, dressed up for a party. Michael tells her about his book being turned into a movie and she’s excited, then underwhelmed by his $10,000 option.
She and Michael arrive at a super fancy Nortel Christmas party. Kathleen finds out from her assistant that Nortel has sold a company it just bought and they can’t figure out why that would happen.
Meanwhile, she sees Michael acting cozy with the male bartender, and when he brings her a drink he tells her he had to “butter-up the bartender” to cut in line. “He’s cute,” Kathleen says. “I could get his number,” Michael replies. “For who?” Kathleen says, and Michael smiles.
Pandora’s Box
2004: Brunet sits in a diner and is joined by Det. Holland. He tells her the Lacour theory was good, but he has “the perfect alibi” — the night Kathleen died, he was in jail.
Holland asks Brunet if she has “come around” and knows Kathleen didn’t die from a fall. She says life is complicated, and Holland says, yes and sometimes it’s not.
She dismisses him and he leaves.
She visits Michael in prison, who is surprised to know she’s “back.” She tells him she never left Durham and he tells her she didn’t have to lie to him.
She tells him that she knows he slept with Dennis Rowe and that Rowe is now dead, killed by blunt force trauma with no skull fractures. Michael says that’s unbelievable and Brunet says even more unbelievable is that the man who killed him is another man Michael knew, Tyrone Lacour.
Brunet tells Michael that she was so sure she was onto something — that Lacour had killed Kathleen — but all she had done was “open Pandora’s Box.”
Michael admits he lied about knowing Rowe but says he doesn’t know Lacour, then changes his mind and says “it’s possible.”
Then he tells her he doesn’t want to be the reason she can’t have the life she wants, and he gives her an “out” from their relationship. “I’m not her, I’m not Kathleen,” Brunet tells him sobbing. “I want the truth, just like she did, and I won’t share you, not in that way.” Michael tells her that she won’t have to share him.
She tells him she needs time to think.
Brunet returns to Paris
Back in Paris, Brunet greets de Lestrade with a hug and she looks over his new project, which she tells him needs a lot of work. She promises to have better focus.
She tells him things with Michael are complicated, and she must know what happened that night. De Lestrade tells her that perhaps this is why we suffer, because we believe even complicated love is better than no love.
She watches “Staircase” footage in which Rudolf asks the defense team if they think Kathleen knew about all the men, and Rudolf jokes about men never successfully hiding anything from their wives.
Deaver goes down
We hear Ivins telling someone that with Black’s help they can prove their case, but there’s also a systemic issue, and that this unnamed person isn’t the only victim.
We flip to SBI agent Duane Deaver in the SBI research warehouse and suddenly uniformed police bust in (maybe State Highway Patrol, based on uniforms, maybe State Capitol Police) to raid the place.
We see Bill Peterson sitting on his couch watching a news report in which Greg Taylor, wrongfully convicted of murder, is exonerated because of SBI misconduct. Ivins announces there will be audits of other SBI cases.
Then we see Bill busting into Rudolf’s office ranting about the SBI and how now they have proof that they were corrupt. Rudolf says they’re all corrupt, that’s why they do their own tests and why he costs so much.
“We can’t give up,” Bill says. “Hey nobody said anything about giving up,” Rudolf says. “But you did,” Bill reminds him. “Three years ago, you left my brother to rot in there.”
Rudolf shows Bill a Legal Review magazine with Hardin on the cover, and says he keeps it because he’s not in it, and that thinking about the mistakes he made in the trial is his motivation.
“The SBI didn’t [blank] us, but an SBI agent did,” Rudolf tells Bill, then outlines the ways in which Deaver lied about his experience, meaning he perjured himself. That means they can ask for a hearing for a retrial, Rudolf says.
“I don’t care what it takes or how long,” Bill tells him. “You’re going to make up for these mistakes and you’re going to figure out how this helps my brother, and you’re going to do it for free.”
More Alford waffling
FEBRUARY 24, 2017: We’re back at the Durham courthouse. Rudolf walks out of the conference room and tells Brunet that Michael isn’t listening to reason.
He tells Brunet that Michael is being a fool and that it’s a very real reality that he could go back to prison.
She goes to Michael and reminds him that they’ve talked about all this, and that he has to lie about that night to get what they want (freedom). She tells him that whatever he decides, she will be there, but she tells him that the DA doesn’t care about the truth, and that “the table is crooked.”
Michael asks to speak to de Lestrade alone.
‘You used to be a really good time’
DECEMBER 2001: We see Kathleen’s assistant fetch her to a meeting at Nortel. The atmosphere is super tense — people in the office are sitting with their heads in the hands, looking despondent.
She walks into a conference room and sits with two men who tell her they must deliver bad news. Kathleen appears to brace to be fired, but instead is told there will be no end of year bonuses.
She breaks out in nervous laughter that soon turns to angry tears. She tells them that she just sat at her desk and watched Nortel’s stock drop 27% in four minutes (and it’s still dropping, she notes). “So who cares about bonuses,” she says. “I just lost my retirement, all of it. Nearly a million dollars.”
Later she meets Michael at a neighborhood Chinese restaurant (the now defunct Pao Lim) and tells him they are celebrating. She tells him about the stocks and how “everything’s gone” — retirement account, Paris plans, all their dreams.
“You’re [blanking] me,” Michael says. “We’re poor?”
Michael tells her not to worry, the movie will come through, and she tells him that his getting rich off of a Hollywood movie deal is never going to happen. He tells her it will work out and she says the only way it’ll be OK is if she makes it OK, and she’s too exhausted to do that.
Michael becomes angry and tells her she’s playing Joan of Arc and that she “used to be fun ... used to take care of yourself, you used to be a really good time,” but now she’s just stressed all the time. She goes off. O F F. About her responsibilities, about his kids, everything.
At the end she tells him she thought she married a man, but she married a boy who is only good for getting drinks at the bar.
Then it’s Michael’s turn to go off, and he tells her he’s tired of being her whipping boy.
She storms out and he follows her to the parking lot, telling her she shouldn’t drive. She drives anyway. He gets in the car with her and with classical music blaring, she drives like a maniac toward home. Once home, Michael tells her he’s going to sit in the car to hear the rest of the song.
Kathleen is still fuming as she goes into the house and gets ready for a shower and bed.
Of course the shower doesn’t work because the plumbing is still bad because of the bats, which never got removed because they didn’t have the money.
She screams in anger and goes downstairs in her slacks and bra (rockin’ a six-pack, we might add). She locks the front door, goes into the garage for the leaf blower, and returns strapped for war. She lowers the attic ladder and climbs.
A window busts out of the attic and hundreds of bats fly away, while Michael watches in shock from the front yard. Kathleen tosses the leaf blower down in the hallway, declares victory and walks away. (Note: Kathleen does all of this with no worries at all about rabies, and leaves the attic door open and no bats fly into the house. For all the critiques of fact vs. fiction in this series, this is what I have the most trouble accepting.)
On the eve of freedom
DECEMBER 9, 2011: We see Margaret standing in front of the Peterson house the night before the hearing for a retrial, and watches as the new homeowner tinkers with a nativity scene.
Then she drives to the Clarion Inn hotel and sees Martha going in, and waves. She greets Todd and Clayton and Clayton’s kids outside.
It feels like a somewhat happy family reunion, with everyone excited for the day ahead.
Recaps of HBO Max ‘Staircase’ episodes
HBO’s “The Staircase” Episode 1: The death of Kathleen Peterson and an arrest
HBO’s “The Staircase” Episode 2: Peterson prepares his defense, the French arrive
HBO’s “The Staircase” Episode 3: Building a case, Peterson’s trial begins
HBO’s “The Staircase” Episode 4: The verdict and another version of Kathleen’s death
HBO’s ‘The Staircase’ Episode 5: Prison life and a fight about documentary’s balance
HBO’s ‘The Staircase’ Episode 6: The Owl Theory takes flight + preparing for Alford
More coverage of HBO’s Peterson saga ‘The Staircase’
You can find more coverage of the HBO Max series “The Staircase” and the trial of Michael Peterson at newsobserver.com/topics/staircase. Here are a few of the stories:
▪ HBO Max’s “Staircase” series: What to expect (vs. the Netflix option) and how to watch
▪ The “Staircase” Peterson saga in pop culture: movies, TV, books and podcasts
▪ “The Staircase” updates: Whatever happened to key people (and Durham house)
▪ A “Staircase” timeline: From Kathleen Peterson’s death to her husband’s trial and plea
▪ Who is Larry Pollard from HBO’s ‘Staircase’? The Owl Theory, ‘smoking feather’ and more
▪ HBO’s ‘The Staircase’: Who was Kathleen Peterson and where did she work?
This story was originally published June 2, 2022 at 9:00 AM.
