A Cruel Invitation & a Risky Investment Feature in 'Alice & Jack's Third Episode

Suit up, friends, it’s time for the wedding of the century: Alice and… (checks notes) some poor schmo named Danny (Tommy McDonnell). It’s two years later in the world of Alice & Jack, after she declared herself too wounded for love and trounced Jack’s foolish heart. An invitation in the mail announces Alice’s nuptials and Jack is ripped open all over again. Naturally Alice is waiting for Jack’s call, and they meet at a park where Alice insists she’ll hear everything he has to say. (Oh goody, more talking.) Jack is angry that Alice would send a simple invitation and not reach out to him more personally. This is more than tedious — it’s ludicrous that he’s still not over her, and we’re supposed to care. Alice herself points out it’s been two years, and the unspoken implication is Jack should have moved on. 

Jack presses to know if Alice fell out of love with him. She answers no; it’s just that her new love is different. Jack seethes and makes Alice declare she’s moved on from him. Alice stops him when he tries to leave, not wanting things to end this way. He painfully wishes her well. Later that day, Alice is waiting when Jack arrives home. He hears her out rather than throwing her out. Amidst the tale of how she met her fiancé, Danny, she asks Jack to give her away at the wedding or to be her “Man of Honor.” (The gall of this woman!) Understandably, Jack declines those positions and says he can’t be there to watch her pledge herself to someone else. “But it won’t be real if you’re not there,” she whinges. Jack doesn’t want it to be real.

Once again, that should be the end of things. But Jack, in his infinite wisdom, chooses the “path of acceptance” instead of anger and agrees to be Alice’s Man of Honor. We jump to the wedding weekend at a countryside manor. Alice visits Jack’s suite to meet his plus-one, who turns out to be a 4-year-old Celia (Emmeline Martin). Danny comes in to collect Alice for wedding photos and suggests Celia should be the flower girl. Danny and Jack step away to size each other up while Alice and Celia take photos. Danny is impressed with Jack for showing up, and grateful; he says Alice’s current happiness is possible due to her experience with Jack. Danny seems to be a genuinely good person. (Probably too good for Alice.)

At the rehearsal dinner, Jack is prodded into giving a toast and goes on adoringly about Alice, making it clear he is still madly in love. “Be ready for nothing to make sense, and yet for everything to make sense.” Alice is deeply moved. After the toast and into the afterparty, she is still transfixed, gazing at Jack in a way that spells trouble for Danny. Jack has excused himself from the party to put Celia to bed. For just a minute, he is a loving father in a very endearing way; they have a bedtime ritual and a special poem they recite together. 

On the floor are Celia’s alphabet blocks, which she was using to spell her own name. But Jack sees Celia has rearranged the blocks – now they spell A-L-I-C-E. This is both a portent and an aha moment: he named his daughter an anagram of Alice! That poor child. To no one’s surprise, Alice then knocks at the door. Jack joins her in the hall, and Alice begins to project all her doubts about marrying Danny and how he’s not Jack. Jack jokes with her but concedes he’s not the right person to talk with about this. He says he’ll support whatever decision she makes, and then she kisses him, full on the mouth. “Last one,” she whispers. (Eye roll.)

On the day of the wedding, Maya, the coordinator, and Jack share a moment of being Alice’s tortured admirers. When Jack goes to collect Alice from her suite at the appointed time, Danny blows past Jack and yells at him to get out of his way. Jack rushes in—the wedding dress and veil are in plain sight, but Alice has flown the coop. The wedding is off.

We skip ahead three more years. In that time, Alice has gone completely radio silent. She initiates contact again because her investment company will make a bucket of money in oil futures, and she wants Jack in on the profits. He is appalled she would reach out with something so trivial after ghosting him. He confronts her about the wedding: he did everything she asked, and then she just disappeared. He thought she was dead. She tries to explain, but her reasoning is nonsense. She shifts to enticing him with her insider financial knowledge and, when pressed, admits she’s hoping to make him loads of money as an apology. 

Eventually, the offer backed by Alice’s market data is too much for Jack to resist, and he tells Alice he wants to put in all his savings, plus a loan he’s taken out. When Jack inspects the investment contract, Paul attempts to be the voice of reason. He reminds Jack that his life has been calm and happy since Alice left and that he’s getting investment advice from a psychopath. Jack argues if this works, he can provide for Celia instead of Lynn’s new husband, whom Celia seems to like better than her father. Paul is frustrated that Jack won’t learn his lesson about Alice, while Jack insists he has. (Sure, that’s why there are three more episodes after this.)

Over the next several months, Jack and Alice’s employees fret over the market. Lynn mocks Jack’s investment while her new husband, Mark (Ben Dilloway), generally shows himself to be an all-around better dad than Jack. When the market finally turns in their favor, Alice declines Maya’s request to cash out, demanding they hold firm. Lynn thinks Jack should cash out, but he’s holding out for the most significant return possible. Lynn accuses him of being as greedy financially as he was emotionally. (Zing!) Two months pass, and it looks like Maya is about to have a heart attack as she watches the stocks. Alice checks her texts for signs of Jack. Then the market price suddenly stabilizes, and it’s time to move: Alice yells, “Sell everything!” In seconds, her gamble pays off: They’ve made a 1200% profit.

Alice calls to deliver the stellar news. Jack screams in triumph, and his friends cheer him on. It’s kind of nice to see Jack having some unbridled joy, even if he is a prat. The yelling hurts Alice’s ears, so she removes her earbuds, then looks wistful and worried. She must be thinking of some new way to harm Jack. We’ll just have to wait until next week to see how it manifests.