Tyler Perry’s ‘Ruthless’ Episode 3 Recap: The Holy Ground
In episode two of Tyler Perry’s Ruthless, Brian’s wife, Lynn, goes to the Rakudushi compound without telling him, in order to try and find the missing girls, but instead becomes kidnapped and drugged by the cult. However, Lynn is returned to her home, where Brian finds her in their bed passed out. She is then rushed to the hospital while Brian tries to get answers.
Warning: Discussions of rape and sexual assault are described below
At the start of episode three, a woman walks through the sleeping quarters telling the children to wake up. A teacher speaks to Ruth’s daughter, Callie (who has been renamed Ruby, but doesn’t answer to it). “Please allow us to help you and to be happy.” But Callie insists that she wants to go home and be with her father. The woman points out how the other kids love The Highest. They go outside and give him high fives. He’s very charming and gentle with the children and invites Callie to join them but she refuses. He says “See, it’s fun out here in the sunshine.”
At the hospital Brian speaks with a doctor about Lynn. Doctor Wise thinks she is a drug addict but Brian says that his wife doesn’t do drugs. The doctor reveals that she found all kinds of a drugs in her system; PCP, LSD, valium. “Is there something I should know?” Brian informs her that she was visiting someone and was drugged. The doctor also says she found a lot of bruising and asks Brian if he hits his wife and says she has called the police. Brian’s boss, Mack, comes in to break the tension and vouch for Brian, explaining to the doctor what happened to Lynn. The doctor says that there is something very difficult that she needs to discuss with Lynn first before letting Brian see her.
Andrew goes to visit Tally in her prison and bring her food. She is a mess after her beating in episode two and has been sleeping on a rusty mattress covered in cardboard. She refuses the food because she knows it is drugged.
She has been demoted from elder and wants to get her daughter and leave. “They’re evil. He is evil," she says of The Highest. Tally says she’d rather take her chances on the street and she asks Andrew to leave with her. She finally reveals what the cleansing is and it’s as bad as we imagined. She says that cleansing is when The Highest drugs you and rapes you. “You’ve only been here for three months, I’ve been here for three years. I know what I’m talking about.”
Dikhan, the right hand of The Highest, walks in on them. Andrew doesn’t tell him what Tally has said, but instead says "She lies, she begs. She says that she’s sorry.” Andrew tells Tally that she must get up and bathe because the Highest has a prophecy and that she will need to be presentable.
Outside the prison Dikhan and Andrew talk about his cleansing and Dikhan warns him that once you are cleansed, you never talk about it. Ever.
Later on Andrew sneaks around the compound and peeks in a house window and sees the Highest raping one of the boys. The sight makes him throw up and Dikhan appears again and asks him if he is sick. Andrew plays it off saying that he is getting used to the afternoon dosage of their drug. Dikhan tells him that it is time to meet in the pavilion and when Andrew leaves, he closes the window to The Highest’s bedroom.
The doctor goes to visit Lynn and asks her when was the last time she had sex with her husband. She says yesterday. She asks if it was “rough sex.” Lynn says not really. The doctor tells Lynn that she has a lot of bruising on her inner thighs, but Lynn has no idea how it happened and asks if she was raped. Lynn says she doesn’t want to tell her husband. The doctor tells her she has seven different hallucinogens in her system and that they should do a police report, but Lynn insists that she doesn’t want to.
Brian finally gets to see Lynn and he asks about the bruises the doctor mentioned. She says they are just on her knees. He asks what the Rakadushi did to her but she says she doesn’t remember. He asks her why she went there and she says she had a life in the military before they got married and that she can’t just throw that in the background. “It was the girls in the file, I just wanted to help.” She finally asks to be taken home.
Back at the compound Ruth goes to visit Tally and bring her food, but she refuses it again. Ruth tells her there is nothing out there in the world for them, that the Highest has given her peace. Tally warns her about the food being drugged and tells her that they gang raped her. “They are going to kill us,” she warns. “Tally breaks down how everything works with the cult, how they sacrifice the boys every time they get into the trouble and wait for the girls to come of age so that they can be trafficked and sold. That is how he pays for everything.
Does Ruth believe her? Watch ‘Ruthless’ on BET+ to find out!
