'Phony' Episode 3 Recap & Ending Explained: What Does Ellen Find Out? 

The third episode of Phony shows us both sides of the coin. What I mean by this is, though Sonny is paranoid and trying to find out if his mom isn’t his actual mom, he’s also behaving like a weirdo and keeping secrets, just like said fake mom. So they’re basically the same person. In the meantime, Sharla is trying to do her own thing and dig some stuff up about Ellen while listening to other conspiracy theories. I understand why this show is releasing once a week, but I also wish it had all come at once, because the suspense is certainly killing me. Also, is it me, or does Connie Britton look way more like herself in this episode than she did in the first two? I’m genuinely getting confused about whether she’s actually a “Phony” or not. I am excited to find out what the truth is; that’s the truth of the matter. What we’ve got to worry about now is the body in the woods and the big party that Chloe and Sonny have gone to now. Where will this go? I have no idea. Having said that, let’s jump into this recap of episode 3.

Spoiler Alert

Phony episode 3 opens with a Chinese Whisper sequence about Shovel, the long-haired dude who found a dead body in the woods in the previous episode. I call it that because everybody tells the other person a new story about what Shovel discovered, or rather his own escapades in the woods. Shovel is certainly not the kind of guy that everybody relies on; this is especially clear judging by Chloe’s reaction. Chloe doesn’t believe for one second that the guy saw a dead body, and is certain it’s a made-up thing. In the meantime, it looks like people are happy to hear that Sonny is suspended because, as we know, he’s had a squeaky-clean reputation so far. Now people are excited that he’s kinda normal and not a mom-obsessed perfect guy. The weirdo image seems to suit him. 

At school, Chloe and Mallory end up having to compare tests in class, and while Mallory aces it, Chloe doesn’t do so well. Chloe decides it’s a good time to make a new friend and ask Mallory to help her with the test. Mallory is happy to do so. We’ve already seen that she’s a genuinely nice person, but not only has she been raised by a pastor father; he’s also homeschooled her all this while. Despite that, her social skills seem to be pretty decent, and she clearly wants to make actual friends, not just Sonny. The thing is, I don’t know if I’m reading between the lines here, but I feel like Mallory might be interested in Chloe romantically. I could be totally wrong here, but please tell me if you see a vibe too? Anyway, at the library, Vogel shows up to talk to Chloe, but he sees Mallory there and talks to her immediately, revealing an old friendship. But to make matters slightly worse, Vogel talks about Sonny and Mallory being friends, and this essentially becomes a bug in Chloe’s system that keeps glitching as time passes. I’ll explain in a bit, but her immediate remark is “you know my boyfriend?”, clearly marking her territory. Added to that, she notices that Sonny is messaging Mallory while putting her phone number into Mallory’s phone, despite Mallory saying she’s not been in touch with Sonny for a while. It’s a bit of a mess, in between which Shovel invites them (mainly Chloe) to the dead body party in the woods that he’s setting up. Fun stuff.

Now, since Sonny is suspended, he’s spending the day at home, so Ellen’s decided to take the day off to have a mother-son day in. Sonny is obviously not happy about this, but he decides to “set a trap” for her and asks her to make a dish that only his mother would know about. It’s called “Chicken Nummers” because it’s got a secret family ingredient that only the two of them know of. Additionally, Ellen’s bought Sonny a new phone and given him a new Costco card of his own, not to mention, stolen her own back from his wallet. So now, his one piece of evidence is gone. But much to Sonny’s displeasure, the trap doesn’t work.

Ellen knows that the secret ingredient is nutmeg, and she even reminds him of what happened back when he first told her that he wanted to eat “Chicken Nummers.” So much for the trap, eh? But in the middle of their conversation, something goes very wrong, and in the middle of receiving multiple calls from someone who seems angry at Ellen, she ends up cutting her finger. Sonny tries to help her and then goes up to retrieve the first aid kit, but not before noticing that something is off with the stairs because he tripped on them, and then finding a notebook, or rather a journal, of information about Sonny. The whole nummers recipe is in the book. When the doorbell rings, Sonny rushes to open it, though Ellen is not happy about it. But luckily for her, it’s just Chloe. She’s relieved, but she has to rush out of the house and asks them to wait downstairs. Seeing Chloe genuinely calms Sonny down, and they spend the night in bed together. Sonny asks Chloe not to get overworked by his recent weirdness, but she wants to make it known that if he has feelings for someone else, he should tell her first.

In the meantime, Ellen goes out under the pretence of getting her finger checked, but little does she know that Sharla is following her around. Additionally, when this “day in” started, Sonny called Sharla, asking her to tell him what to do. This is when she said this was like a reverse cuckoo situation. The cuckoo bird lays her eggs in another bird’s nest so the bird will raise her chicks on her behalf. In this case, the baby isn’t getting dropped off; the mom is getting replaced. You catch the drift? Anyway, Sonny isn’t so interested in hearing all of this, which is why he set up his trap, which didn’t work out so well for him. He’s definitely going to have to have another look under the floorboards of the stairs at some point.

Ellen heads out and withdraws some money, and then smokes a cigarette with some military-looking man. Or maybe a drug dealer; I don’t really know. A kidnapper perhaps? They seem to have an argument before he goes away and she gets caught by Jason, the school guidance counsellor. Not to look weird, she allows him to drag her into the bar nearby after having a word about going to a therapist to deal with her current situation. Ellen spends some time with her colleagues at the bar, hears about the discovered dead body in the woods, and then says she’s got to go home. She’s been keeping an eye on the tracker of Sonny’s new phone the whole time.

At the end of episode 3, Sonny turns off the location sharing on his “Find Your Phone” app before heading out to the “dead body party” with Chloe. Ironically, Chloe tells him to leave a note behind for his mum, but he does the opposite of that. On the other hand, Ellen avoids Jason’s advances, but asks him to keep talking to Sonny, claiming that he likes him. This is obviously not true, but it would benefit her. The pond’s called “Bucket Pond,” and there’s a whole shrine to the people who died there. We get a glimpse of the beaver too, before Ellen returns home and finds that nobody’s there. But, she goes digging in his room and discovers Sonny’s burner phone right when Sharla’s calling him. She overhears Sharla saying that she’s found something for him, which means things are going to get much worse for him now.