Smoke Recap ‘Weird Milk’: Not Yet
- Cherish
- Jul 4
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 11
In the third episode of Smoke, currently airing on Apple TV+, Detective Calderone finds a small piece of evidence that the D&C arsonist carelessly left behind.
Smoke Season 1 Episode 3 Recap and Review
The third episode of Smoke was light on the pursued and more focused on the pursuer, but it allowed us two brief glimpses on what it was like to look in from the outside of a person drawn to the abyss. The first was young Lee, who was still trying to be realistic about Freddy’s prospects at becoming manager. When a fire suddenly broke out, Freddy just stared at it rather than put it out. Lee had to push him aside, and when confronted about his inaction, for the briefest of moments, Freddy’s slender frame twitched into a half-lunge. Lee may freely speak as though his words – the harsh, the supportive – fell on deaf ears, but there was a man who could snap back inside Freddy.
The second was Gudsen, whom Calderone was secretly investigating as the D&C arsonist. Someone set fire to a woman named Maxine Dolan’s BMW. As Gudsen questioned her, there was this framing of the camera that made it look like he stepped into her personal space as he handed her his card. There was a whiff of something through that conversation, especially when Calderone interjected her own questions, and she noticed from the other side of the torched vehicle. But Gudsen was all politeness and reassurance, and when the camera shifted, you could see there was ample space between Gudsen and Maxine.
I remember this question from when I read my first serial crime book as a teen – what was he like? The neighbours and co-workers of men later found out to be serial killers would often describe them as quiet, with a shrug. There wasn’t really anything that made them stand out, that made people suspect the depth of darkness within. It was, of course, entirely different when their family lives were investigated, especially their childhood.
So, I appreciated these small narrative choices that slowed down where in real life, we’d probably just pass through it without noticing it. Calderone, with the awareness of an investigator, noticed the minute shifts in energy in Gudsen. The witness never did.
Gudsen’s wife Ashley probably did, too. When she found Gudsen cleaning her son’s room, the way she suggested that he go work on his novel whilst she finished up there bore the hallmarks of words very carefully chosen. She knew there was darkness within her husband that she made an effort not to wake.
Gudsen’s time at home gave Calderone the opportunity to conduct her investigation without having him on her shoulder. She investigated him the way the two of them investigated the other firefighters, by looking at fires he responded to and fires he missed. She also very dedicatedly checked out the locations of the diversion fires. Remember that she had previously noted how the incendiary device the D&C arsonist preferred was not reliable, and that there were probably unignited devices they just have not found yet. That meant the possibility of fingerprints and DNA.
It was a needle in a haystack search made easier when Calderone figured out that D&C likely stopped at red lights and flicked his cigarette devices out from his window. She was able to relatively narrow the search, and finally found one precious unignited device. But bureaucracy was bureaucracy even in a high profile case. The evidence did not come from an active investigation as Calderone has not been able to connect the scene where she found it to the D&C arsons. The lab could not run the tests she wanted.
Gudsen, too, continued his investigation into the Milk Jug arsonist. What he found, inspired perhaps by thinking about how the scene would play out in his novel, was that the milk jug had remnants of black plastic attached to it. There were only two stores that used black plastic bags. They had narrowed down the location where Milk Jug purchased his milk to two stores. Calderone suggested a higher tech way of tracking him using QR codes, but of course there was no budget for that.
The Milk Jug arsonist has not set any recent fires because Freddy had been busy with trying to move his life forward using a more traditional route. But Lee was right. The interview did not go well, and though Freddy said he received word for a second round of interviews, his inbox was empty. This was not going to happen for him. Would it perhaps be his trigger to return to his fire setting ways?
The episode’s beating heart was Detective Michelle Calderone. I have admired Jurnee Smollett’s physical performance as Calderone, and the power of it was evident even in this episode that delved more into her past trauma and the internal pain that drove her to keep going. She was the job. She was also a traumatised kid who testified at her mother’s parole hearing, because she wanted her own mother to remain in jail. When she watched her niece blow her birthday candles, the tiny happy fires were in stark contrast to the repeated flashbacks of a horrific fire she endured whilst trapped in a closet that was locked by handcuffs.
‘Weird Milk’ was the show inching closer to becoming a whydunnit with regard to D&C. It was also a long look at his pursuer whom he happened to call his friend.
Rating: B
Strays
🧑🚒Word of the episode: denial – disbelief in the existence or reality of a thing.
🧑🚒Calderone’s attempt to brush off her recent shooting incident did not quite work with her therapist.
🧑🚒Calderone: ‘Some people call me that. I prefer thorough.’ Lol.
🧑🚒Young Emmett is still very upset at his father Gerald for moving away.
🧑🚒I’m seeing two different spellings of the detective’s last name – Calderon and Caderone. Apple TV+ uses Calderone so I’m going with that. Michelle’s family who did not want her to testify against their mother were Grace, Hope, Benji, and Rose.
Episode Title: Weird Milk
Episode Writer: Molly Miller
Episode Director: Joe Chappelle
Original Air Date: July 3, 2025