Note: The following contains spoilers for “The Watchful Eye” episode 5.
Freeform’s “The Watchful Eye” dives deeper into the mysterious depths of the Greybourne and its residents in its fifth episode, when several well-kept secrets spill out during a day laden with emotion and turmoil and as the family commemorates Allie’s birthday.
While a thick tension goes unsaid between Matthew and Tory for the first half of the series, as Tory reminisces on her and Allie’s childhood memories with Matthew, Tory reveals she and Matthew were involved in a some sort of romantic entanglement before Allie and Matthew were married — a bombshell that felt “delicious and messy” to EP Emily Fox.
“We had always felt like there was some tension between Matthew and Tory that required an explanation,” Fox told TheWrap, adding that Allie and Matthew likely met as a result of their relationship, and began dating after Tory and Matthew’s dalliance “hadn’t really gone anywhere” since Tory was entwined with Otis. “Rather than tiptoe around it, and pretend that there had never been anything, I think we decided just to let it have happened.”
While this insight explains the tense remnants of a romance that still exists between Matthew and Tory, it also adds dimension to Allie and Tory’s ever-complicated relationship as Fox explains “there was still a little part of Tory that carried a torch.”
“Maybe it helped explain why she was sort of jealous of her sister, because her sister was really effortless … so easygoing and … was the cool, fun sister,” Fox said. “For Tory, that’s so galling that this guy who maybe she wasn’t even that interested in … ends up with her sister, who all she has to do is brush her hair and go outside and everyone falls in love with her — it’s infuriating.”
Episode 5 also pulls back the curtain on Scott’s murky motivations that are tied up in more than just financial gain when Elena learns that her partner in crime is related to Allie and was in contact with her before her death.
While Scott aims to obtain the treasure that has been withheld by his family when his mother was cut off by their wealthy counterparts, Fox confirmed that Scott “has always known that he was a Greybourne” — a piece of knowledge has irrevocably shaped Scott’s mental state.
“Scott’s mom had raised him with this understanding, like we were supposed to have everything and instead, we have nothing and we’ve been fooled,” Fox said, likening the situation to the controversy surrounding Meghan Markle’s half-sister, Samantha Markle. “When you grow up in that kind of an atmosphere where you’re constantly living in the shadow of something that you’ve lost, that you never had, but that you’re entitled to … he’s a little messed up in the head.”
As a result of this messaging, Scott has become an “opportunist” to claim his right to the family’s fortune by means of Elena, who Fox says he sees as a “golden ticket” to infiltrate the Greybourne and his twisted family. Despite their plan, Fox notes that Scott and Elena’s relationship “isn’t purely transactional.”
“There’s a powerful attraction there,” Fox said. “But they’re also both … desperate to fix a problem and fill a void, and they both come into this thinking, ‘well, money will fix it.’”
By the end of the episode, what Elena knows as the secret meeting in the Greybourne’s basement has been completely turned upside-down without a trace of what it once was as historic artifacts are replaced with threatening images of Elena and her family.
While this change slingshots Elena into a new realm of danger, Fox notes that “there’s more to learn beyond that moment, but that moment is significant.”
“The Watchful Eye” is now streaming on Hulu.