Murdaugh Death In The Family Episode 5 Recap: What’s The Truth Behind Stephen's Death?

As shown in the fifth episode of Murdaugh: Death in the Family, the bond between Alex and his family slowly gets broken apart as disturbing secrets of the Murdaughs start surfacing in the form of the family’s golden boy, Buster Murdaugh’s involvement with the mysterious death of his high school classmate, Stephen Smith. It should be mentioned that the series takes liberty in the depiction of the events to make the narrative more dramatic and sensational, which does not always align with real-life incidents that inspired the series. Previously, representing the Beach family, Mark Tinsley cornered Alex by demanding ten million for settlement money. Following Gloria’s tragic demise, Alex capitalized on the tragedy by convincing her sons to sue his insurance company, only to take the settlement money for himself. Alex’s greed prompted him to use the money for selfish reasons, courting more troubles for his family in the process.

Spoilers Ahead

Stephen’s Case Stirs Up Old Wounds

The episode begins with a flashback in 2015, where Stephen’s relation with his mother, Sandy, and sister, Stephanie, is highlighted. Stephanie and a couple of Stephen’s friends know about his secret lover, who is referred to by him as Prince, and Stephen long anticipates a meeting with him. Much to Stephen’s disappointment, Prince stands him up, and it is implied that it is not the first time he has done that. 

Cut to the present timeline in 2021, Mandy’s report about Buster Murdaugh’s possible involvement in Stephen’s death has shaken up things around South Carolina. In a state with a generally conservative dominant demographic, it is no wonder that the authorities didn’t care about the mysterious death of a gay teenager, and whatever link was there involving Buster Murdaugh was promptly buried even before the media got a whiff of it. However, at present, Mandy’s dogged determination to pursue the truth behind prolonged cover-ups of the Murdaugh family has prompted commoners to actively raise their voices against the Murdaughs.  Already facing a bit of a personal crisis as he is hiding the truth of being kicked out of USC upon failing exams from his family, Buster suddenly finds himself haunted by ghosts of his past as Stephen’s case resurfaces after all these years. Maggie, who is always at her family’s side to trivialize every heinous act of crime, tries her best to comfort her son, but Buster finds no such assistance from his absent father, Alex, who is too occupied with popping pills and evading responsibilities. Alex’s financial scams are finally catching up to him as he has to prepare for his court hearing within a month, where his shoddy bank records will reveal the extent of his corrupt, unethical actions. He tries his best for damage control by seeking an audience with the judge, and given his family’s reputation at present, that meeting goes as well as one can guess. Maggie’s efforts to hold the family together perpetually end in failure thanks to Alex’s whimsical, irresponsible attitude regarding the entire situation, and the rift between them widens. 

Paul’s perspective on Buster’s situation is interesting, as he finally seems to have found a kindred spirit in his elder brother; even though Buster maintains that, unlike Paul, he didn’t actually commit any crime and is being wrongly dragged into this mess. The growing public disdain against the Murdaughs is no longer something the family can overlook, and it reaches boiling point during a local fest when Genevieve, one of Stephen’s close friends, calls out Buster in public for his involvement in her friend’s death. According to her, Buster is Prince—Stephen’s secret lover—and the general speculation is Buster had him killed in fear of shaming his family in public for his sexual orientation. Randolph and Maggie try to reach out to Alex to no avail, and a nervous Buster leaves in fear of public outcry. 

Maggie Finally Severs Ties With Alex

In Alex’s absence, Maggie has no other option but to seek help from Randy, who tries to talk sense to his brother and advises him to gather himself in order to take care of his family. This rubs off on Alex in a wrong way, as he feels belittled, and later he tries to intimidate his wife to get back at her. Moreover, Randolph meets with Alex to convey his utter disappointment with how he chose to waste his potential and reveals to him that Randy will take over their law firm in the managing director role. Alex blames Paul for the series of disasters, and his bitterness towards his younger son is shown as, after the meeting with his father, Alex shoves Paul away, who takes a nasty fall. 

Buster, who was watching his father’s temper tantrum from afar, takes pity on his brother and offers to take him back to their place. On their way, Paul insists on stopping at the place where Stephen lost his life years ago, where a shrine has been erected in his remembrance. This scene is the highlight of the episode as Paul’s crippling guilt surfaces during his conversation with Buster. Realizing how morbidly depressed his brother is at the moment, Buster confesses his own troubling predicament of flunking at law school to make Paul feel less miserable about himself. The Murdaugh brothers are on better terms, although it won’t amount to much given what is about to happen to Paul in the near future. 

Suspicious of Alex’s increasingly erratic, careless attitude and continual absence from his family, Maggie had his phone location tracked, and she found out Alex had been cheating on her. This proves to be the last straw in their relationship, as on the day after, Maggie decides to finally leave Alex for good, but not before showing Paul what his father has been up to these days by throwing his pills of drugs in the yard. As Maggie leaves, a shameless Alex collects the pills with his son watching him, all flabbergasted. Maggie hopes to finally break free from the vice grip of the Murdaughs, but it remains in question whether she will truly be able to do so. 

What’s the Truth Behind Stephen’s Death?

Randolph meets with Buster and chastises him for leaving the fest like a coward after being confronted by Genevieve. As Randolph recalls, Murdaughs have a long and rich history of denying accountability and evading allegations using their power and influence. It doesn’t matter to Randolph whether Buster is responsible for Stephen’s death or not; his only concern is to keep his family name from remaining unmaligned. Randolph also promises to take care of Buster’s university situation by using his influence. The root of the rot runs deep in the Murdaugh family, and the generational legacy of immorality, corruption, and cover-ups is testament to that.

Meanwhile, Mandy investigates further to learn about the identity of Stephen’s lover, Prince, and following a clue shared by one of Stephen’s friends, she finally deduces the identity of the person in question. As it turns out, a certain Josh was Stephen’s secret lover, who took his own life in shame after his family learned about his affair, and this happened months before Stephen’s death. A married man who had a kid, Josh gave in to self-loathing after his wife came to know about his relationship with Stephen. Mandy shares this intel with Stephen’s mother, Sandy, and becomes extremely surprised when Sandy reveals she no longer holds Buster to be accountable for Stephen’s death. Sandy makes a pretty flimsy excuse that she has come to know of one of her son’s classmates who held a grudge against Buster and lied to the highway police about him. Mandy realizes the fear of Murdaugh’s influence has gotten to Sandy, and she chooses not to pressurize her about the matter. Mandy mentions they need to pursue the authorities to open the case to seek justice for Stephen, although it is pretty evident to her that will be a tall task with the Murdaughs pulling the strings from the shadows. 

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