Offset

**Offset** is the seventh episode of the first season of the *Shining Girls* television series. It aired on the Apple TV+ streaming TV service on May 27, 2022.

## Synopsis

*A fresh lead sparks a breakthrough in the story. After Kirby drops a bombshell on Marcus, she goes to help a new friend.*

## Plot

Sometime before Sharon (Kirby) was attacked by Harper in 1986, she appears happy, confident, and unafraid. After taking the subway home from work, she arrives to find her mom Rachel has popped by to take a shower since the water at her place was turned off. The pair bicker for a bit, but that doesn’t keep Rachel from being happy for Sharon after learning that her daughter’s been assigned her first solo byline at the *Chicago Tribune*. That evening, Sharon takes her dog Tokoyo for a walk near the beach. Seconds after Tokoyo pulls the leash from her hand, Harper lunges at her from behind.

In 1992, Kirby is relaying the details of her attack to Jinny while Dan sits with them. When Kirby says it felt like Harper was one step ahead of her, Jinny replies that her encounter with him the night before felt the same. In Jinny’s case, however, he wasn’t there for her. Instead, he was there to send a message to Kirby. Jinny relays Harper’s message that whenever he feels something, Kirby will know. After learning that he said this around the same time Dan’s car changed, Kirby realizes that Harper is the primary force behind her shifts in reality. When Jinny asks what Harper meant about coming back, Kirby explains that he took her old museum key and left it inside the body of another woman he murdered. He also isn’t “going” to kill her. He already has, but not just yet.

Later, Kirby watches the tape she got from Leo with Dan and his son Freddie. They once again hear Harper mention a place called *Teenie’s* and decide to check it out. As they’re leaving, Dan mentions that Kirby seems much happier/accepting of her marriage to Marcus despite barely knowing him a couple of weeks ago. Kirby responds that she recognizes how strange it is, but now sees their union as a choice she was potentially going to make one day. Dan replies that she should tell Marcus the truth about how she feels/sees their marriage and see if he’s okay with it.

After arriving at the *Sun-Times*, the pair begin searching through the paper’s records to check if *Teenie’s* was mentioned anywhere. During their research, Kirby sees Marcus and decides to update him on the story. When she mentions *Teenie’s*, Marcus is immediately able to recall that it’s an old meatpacking plant. He also did the photo work for a unionization story at the plant that Dan wrote. When Kirby counters that Dan never wrote about *Teenie’s,* Marcus replies that he likely just can’t remember the assignment due to his severe substance issues. He also asks to accompany them when they visit the meatpacking plant, but Kirby insists she and Dan will be fine. Kirby then decides to sit Marcus down and explain her bizarre shifts in reality; specifically how she doesn’t remember any of their history together prior to his birthday party. She may not know him intimately now, but they’re together because she was likely going to fall in love with him in the future. Marcus is completely thrown for a loop by all this. He also comes to the conclusion that the case (and working with Dan) is severely affecting his wife’s mental health. Realizing that Marcus is nowhere near ready to understand what’s happening to her, Kirby squeezes her husband’s hand and leaves.

When Kirby and Dan arrive at *Teenie’s*, Kirby notices that the cutwork on the pigs matches the precision of Harper’s cut into her and his other victims. After speaking to the shift manager (whose brother owns the plant), they’re surprised to learn that he knows about a former dancer who worked at the plant. He also refers to her as “the poor girl who was killed here.” The shift manager takes them down to the slaughterhouse, which the plant no longer uses since the meat can be delivered from a more sanitary location via refrigerated trucks. It was shut down 10 years ago, but there are plans in place to turn the area into cold storage. The shift manager then explains that Klara’s body was found in 1920 inside the drainage tank. Her corpse was covered in radium, which caused it to glow. Dan assumes Harper dumped her body in a tank filled with blood and feces to cover up his crime, but Kirby knows better. Instead, he did it to punish her.

Elsewhere, Gary, who is Jinny’s coworker at the planetarium asks why she was so freaked out the night before. Jinny explains that a man stalked and cornered her on the roof, but doesn’t tell him much else. Gary then asks if she wants to get lunch. Jinny is about to reject him like she initially did, but realizes that going against her instincts and saying yes may change the future. She accepts Gary’s invitation and heads out with him. At the same time, Harper takes in a show at the planetarium, where a narrator explains that “all it takes is one star to change the course of the galaxy.” When the show concludes, Harper is simultaneously shocked and infuriated to discover that Jinny isn’t in the audience, which is the place she’s supposed to be prior to him killing her. Later, Jinny does a soundcheck with Theo, who is one of the planetarium technicians for a big presentation she’ll be making that evening. Four billion years into the future, an irreversible collision will occur. At this point in the presentation, Jinny’s microphone suddenly stops working. When she asks Theo if he can fix it, there’s no response from the motionless silhouette inside the sound booth. Instead, the song “Lonesome Lover” by Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln begins echoing through the room, which was the same song that was playing at the dinner party Jinny attended minutes before she was killed originally. The music is soon replaced by a recording of her own murder in the future. While Jinny doesn’t specifically know what she’s listening to, the sound of her own voice screaming in terror as she’s being attacked and gutted is obviously terrifying. She runs outside and finds Theo, who profusely apologizes for stepping out to go the bathroom. When he came back, the door to the studio was locked.

Across town at *Teenie’s*, Kirby hears/feels the vibration that proceeds a shift in reality. Seconds later, the defunct slaughterhouse she and Dan are standing in morphs into a cold storage unit 10 years ahead of schedule.

Jinny flees back to her office, where Gary reports that her phone has been ringing nonstop for the past several minutes. Jinny picks up to hear Kirby asking if she’s okay and if Harper was there. Jinny confirms that he was, but refuses to leave work on account of having to make a big presentation that evening.

Back at *Teenie’s*, Kirby and Dan visit the plant’s manager, who pulls up the union cards he has from the time before the dead dancer was found in the slaughterhouse. They quickly find a card bearing Klara’s name and photograph. After a bit more digging, Kirby finds a card with Harper’s photograph on it. The name is listed as “John Smith” (due to him being underage when he worked there), but both she and Dan know it’s him.

Over at the *Sun-Times*, Marcus shows Abby his wife’s journal of seemingly mundane observations. He previously thought she wrote it in simply to clear her head, but he’s justifiably concerned now after what she said to him earlier. He also attributes Kirby’s mental deterioration to the story she’s working on with Dan and asks Abby to remove her from it. When the editor refuses, Marcus tells her about how uncharacteristically angry and vengeful he became after learning what happened to Kirby in 1986. The sensation made him feel like someone he didn’t even recognize — and he wasn’t even the person who had to suffer through it. Now he’s having to watch the attack destroy Kirby all over again, this time in front of his very own eyes. Marcus’ earnest plea then takes a forceful turn when he pointedly asks who he’s supposed to tell about Kirby’s mental state if Abby won’t listen to him.

That evening, Kirby and Dan sit on his front stoop. Both of them struggle to wrap their heads around the physical proof of Harper’s existence and murderous activities since 1920, and that he looks the same now as he did then. During the course of their conversation, Dan begins to open up about his substance abuse and how it used to affect his work. Dan also admits that when he writes a story about someone dealing with severe trauma, the empathetic part of his brain shuts off, which helps him forget about the person and compartmentalize the tragedy. Kirby asks if that’s what he’ll do with her once they finish their story. Before Dan can answer, Freddie calls him upstairs. Unbeknownst to them, Harper managed to follow Dan home and has been listening to their conversation from just a few feet away. He starts to move toward Kirby when Dan goes upstairs, but decides against it and walks away.

Dan takes Freddie and Kirby to the *Sun-Times*. When they arrive, Kirby tells Bertie to ask his contact if they can pull the police report for Klara’s unsolved murder. He nervously agrees to do it before informing Kirby that Abby wants to see her. Kirby steps inside Abby’s office and is informed that she’s being forced to take a leave of absence. Kirby takes this as a polite way of being fired, but Abby assures her it’s only so she can “take care of herself.” After a couple months, they’ll reassess her position at the paper. The *Sun-Times* will also continue working on Kirby and Dan’s story, but without her. Dan sees what’s happening and tries to convince Abby to rethink things. After Kirby walks out of the office in a haze, Dan throws a hail mary by revealing that she found the serial killer. Predictably, Abby doesn’t believe their story about a nearly 100-year-old serial killer who still looks like he’s in his 20s. Dan tries to confirm the ID, but his history of substance abuse is more than enough to make Abby dismiss it. She also refuses his request to publish a photo/sketch of Harper in the paper.

Meanwhile, Kirby heads downstairs and finds that Marcus has already cleared out her desk. He pleads with her to come home and work on rebuilding the good life they had together. Kirby replies that the life he knows isn’t hers. She also refuses to give up on the story; even if it means doing it on her own without the backing/resources of the *Sun-Times*. The pair part ways with Kirby saying she’ll get her belongings out of their apartment that evening.

Rachel comes over to help Kirby pack so they can take everything over to her place. As the two talk, Kirby remembers that she was attacked on the same night she learned about getting her first solo byline at the *Chicago Tribune*. She then realizes that Harper specifically and maliciously chose that day to kill her. Rejuvenated by anger and resolve, Kirby says she has to go and asks Rachel to finish packing for her. Before leaving the apartment, she takes the wooden pegasus that Harper gave her as a child.

Meanwhile, Jinny struggles to keep her focus at a dinner party preceding her big presentation that evening at the Adler Planetarium. Just like before, an issue with the telescope forces her to leave the party to fix it just as “Lonesome Lover” begins to play. This time, however, the person who walks through the door is Kirby instead of Harper. While both women are relieved, Kirby is also confused.

Back at the *Sun-Times*, Dan is given the 1920 police report about Klara that Kirby requested before being put on leave. He and Freddie find a receipt from 1981 (which baffles both of them) along with a street address, which happens to be where Sid’s is located. Dan arrives at the bar and leaves his son in the car telling him that he’ll return soon. As Dan wanders through the massive building, he eventually finds the message Harper wrote to Kirby years ago (SHARON’S GONE LIKE THE SMOKE) along with a poster from 1920 advertising Klara’s show. While Dan is staring at the poster, Harper walks up and asks how he found her. Before Dan can answer, Harper stabs and slices him through the torso. He then wrestles the dying reporter to the ground and takes his jacket. As Dan takes his last breath, Harper thanks him for the new clothes and departs.

While this is happening, Jinny rushes back inside the planetarium to give her presentation. When she arrives, however, everything is completely different. Her clothing has changed from a formal dress to 90s casual. No one knows who she is, including Theo, Gary, and the security guard. Gary is now the one giving the presentation instead of her. Completely stunned and disoriented, Jinny walks back outside to find Kirby.

Back at Sid’s, Freddie sees Harper leaving and recognizes him as his dad’s “friend”. He calls out to him and asks if he saw Dan inside the bar. When Harper walks over to say he didn’t see his dad anywhere, Freddie asks why he’s wearing his father’s jacket. Harper lies again, this time claiming that the jacket is his and bidding the boy farewell. Before walking away, he deliberately leaves a bloody handprint on the car window.

## Cast

### Starring

* Elisabeth Moss as Kirby Mazrachi
* Wagner Moura as Dan Velazquez
* Phillipa Soo as Jin-Sook
* Chris Chalk as Marcus
* Amy Brenneman as Rachel
* Jamie Bell as Harper Curtis

### Guest Starring

* Erika Alexander as Abby
* Julian Obradors as Freddie
* Alex Goodrich as Bertie
* Nate Burger as Gary
* Deanna Reed-Foster as Sheila
* Gary Houston as Brother
* Don Forston as Teenie's Floor Manager

### Co-Starring

* Jack Lancaster as Archival Assistant
* Patrick Rooney as Theo
* Vasily Deris as Worker
* Carter Shimp as Mike

## Images

### Cast Images

Kirby MazrachiDan VelazquezJin-SookMarcusRachelHarper CurtisAbby