Lady in the Lake: Top 10 Differences Between the Book & TV Show
A few pages disappeared as well. Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the biggest changes made to Apple TV+’s adaptation of the 2019 novel “Lady in the Lake” by Laura Lippman.
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00:00You wanted to tell everyone's story, but your own."
00:05Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the biggest changes made
00:10to Apple TV Plus' adaptation of the 2019 novel Lady in the Lake by Laura Lipman.
00:15Since these detail important plot points in the series and the book, a spoiler warning
00:20is now in effect.
00:21I will tell your story one day, I promise.
00:24But right now, I have to focus on who killed Cleo Johnson.
00:30Number 10.
00:31Different Perspectives
00:32Who are you?
00:34I was Cleo Johnson.
00:37Set in 1960s Baltimore, Maryland, Lady in the Lake centers on two women, Moses Ingram's
00:42Cleo Johnson and Natalie Portman's Maddie Schwartz.
00:46After Cleo's lifeless body is found in the water, aspiring investigative journalist Maddie
00:50becomes obsessed with the case.
00:52I met you, and Stefan talked to me, and then when Cleo went missing,
00:57it was the same night that Stefan escaped, so they think he did it.
01:00But I'm following everything, and every time it comes back to me,
01:03it always comes back to me.
01:04Natalie, you need to stop, okay?
01:06In Laura Lipman's novel, Cleo speaks to Maddie from beyond the grave.
01:10Her ghostly narration intercuts with chapters told from the perspective of other people,
01:14such as police officers, bartenders, and even a suspect.
01:18Series creator Alma Harrell chose to mainly focus on Cleo and Maddie, drawing parallels
01:23to their lives as women in their respective black and Jewish communities.
01:26I saw you once, Maddie Schwartz.
01:31Before any of this began, I saw you.
01:33Saw you seeing me seeing you.
01:36Number 9.
01:37New Characters
01:38As with many page-to-screen adaptations, new characters were created for the Lady in the
01:42Lake TV series.
01:44Angela Robinson plays Myrtle Sommer, a local politician campaigning for a more
01:49progressive Baltimore, whom Cleo supports.
01:51I just wanted to thank you for asking me to speak yesterday.
01:55Well, you were the star of the fundraiser.
01:57I learned from the best.
01:59Another addition is Cleo's husband, a struggling comedian named Slappy Johnson, played by Byron
02:04Bowers.
02:05Myrtle and Slappy take the place of the books' Ezekiel Taylor, an entrepreneur running for
02:09Senate and the married man Cleo's involved with.
02:12Say I want to see another black man fall.
02:14Hell, I don't mind watching him jump for him.
02:17It ain't like that.
02:18What are you making me do?
02:19Nothing.
02:20Be honest.
02:21Josiah Cross' Reggie Robinson replaces bartender Thomas Ludlow, a.k.a. Spike, as mobster Shel
02:27Gordon's right-hand man.
02:29Reggie is also connected to both murders in the story and has a relationship with Cleo's
02:33longtime friend, Dora Carter, who takes the place of her roommate, Letitia Tompkins.
02:37You better hope Shel let you sing up on that stage again.
02:40You know, I'm going to sing.
02:42Shel lets Dora be Dora.
02:44Yeah, as long as Dora lets Reggie climb on top of her.
02:48Number 8.
02:49Cleo's connection to Maddie's husband.
02:51I want to thank all of you and my husband, Milton, for allowing me to represent our family
02:58here today.
02:59Who needs me up there when they can look at you?
03:01I want to thank Matt.
03:02In the opening of Lipman's novel, Cleo details a time when she was sitting in a park and
03:07saw Maddie and Milton on the steps of a nearby temple.
03:10Cleo recalls her unpleasant interactions with Milton in his teen years.
03:13As a kid, she would see him at his father's grocery store and he often made teasing remarks,
03:18sometimes racial slurs.
03:19Fine.
03:20Let's fast.
03:21I thought it was Thanksgiving, but I guess it's Yom Kippur.
03:24In the series, there's no known connection between Milton and Cleo, and she doesn't see
03:29Maddie at the temple.
03:30Instead, their brief interaction happens when Cleo is working as a department store model,
03:35and Maddie buys the yellow dress she's wearing.
03:37Thank you so much.
03:38I'll take the coat, too.
03:41Now, let's put you in something else.
03:45Maybe a Mary Quant.
03:47Number 7.
03:48The Numbers Game.
03:49Baltimore's illegal lottery, called The Numbers Game, plays such a significant role in the
03:54series as a whole.
03:55Surprisingly, it wasn't originally in the novel.
03:58Players of The Numbers Game often use what they call a dream book in an attempt to translate
04:04their dreams into winning numbers, while slowly losing their hard-earned money to their
04:09local kingpin.
04:10It's a major part of Cleo's life, past, present, and future.
04:14Flashbacks to her younger years show how her father's gambling habit negatively impacted
04:18their family, which is why she scolds her son Teddy for running numbers with an older
04:22group.
04:23I had my daddy put all my money on a dream I'd had, and I won.
04:32Yeah, but he left with all of it.
04:35Rigging The Numbers Game is how Shel Gordon built his illegal empire, and is a hot topic
04:40when it comes to the city's politics.
04:42And it turns out to be part of Cleo's risky escape plan that wins her money and exposes
04:46Gordon.
04:47Everything you need for your story is here.
04:50Evidence of Shel's tax evasions, payoffs to politicians, police.
04:56Number 6.
04:57Dream Sequences.
05:03Cleo?
05:14Lady in the Lake visually explores the surreal dreams and nightmares of Cleo Johnson and
05:18Maddie Schwartz.
05:19Since Cleo grew up around The Numbers Game and dream books, she tries to interpret the
05:23symbolism in her dreams.
05:25But she also has harrowing nightmares about her son's sickle cell anemia.
05:30Stop the car!
05:44We spend most of episode 6 inside Maddie's dreams, where traumatic moments from her past
05:49bleed into her present obsession with solving Cleo's murder.
05:52From beautiful dance choreography to the unsettling pursuit of a possible killer, the imagery
05:57in the sequences is trippy and terrifying.
06:00But it helps us as viewers get inside the character's subconscious, literally.
06:04There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering.
06:10Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment.
06:13Yeah, I don't have time for fragments.
06:15Number 5.
06:16The fate of Stefan Zawadzki and his mother.
06:18Good morning, Mrs. Zawadzki.
06:20I'm Maddie Moritz.
06:21I know who you are, Miss Morgenstern.
06:24One of the most intense scenes in the series happens in episode 5, when Maddie goes to
06:28see the mother of Stefan Zawadzki, the man accused of killing Tessie Durst.
06:32Knowing that she's just looking for a story, this surprise visit has Kasia on edge.
06:36And it doesn't help that Maddie gloats about her special connection with Stefan.
06:40He would have gone to the police.
06:42And they would have been here a long time ago.
06:45Well, he didn't tell me anything then.
06:49After they found Cleo Johnson's body, I called him.
06:54You were right.
06:55He loves talking to me.
06:57She snaps, stabs Maddie in the abdomen, and seemingly confesses to Tessie's murder
07:02before taking her own life.
07:03The violent struggle plays out similarly in the novel,
07:06except that Kasia Zawadzki, named Angela Corwin, is apprehended and goes to prison.
07:11I will not rot in jail for you.
07:13They would have done the same for you, son.
07:15You want me to die in jail?
07:16Is that what you want?
07:18Number 4.
07:19Maddie's history with the Durst family.
07:21All of Baltimore is out looking for her, and then I'm the meshugana?
07:25I don't know anyone else who's reacting to it this way, and I never said meshugana.
07:30Lady in the Lake follows Maddie as she investigates the murder of a young girl, Tessie Durst,
07:34the daughter of her former high school boyfriend, Alan.
07:37Through flashbacks, we see that Alan's father, Hal Durst, groomed Maddie at a young age,
07:42resulting in a pregnancy he forced her to terminate.
07:44You'll have a room to write in of your own, and we'll be free.
07:53Hal, we may have company.
07:58In the book, Tessie's father is named Bobby Fine,
08:01whom Maddie, quote, had a date or two with in high school.
08:04The man who took advantage of her was Alan Durst Sr.,
08:07and she briefly dated his son, Alan Jr.
08:09If I were my son, I'd take you to New York.
08:13Hang out in Greenwich Village.
08:15Then I'd help you find your way into some serious newspaper.
08:18By combining the characters of Bobby and Alan Jr.,
08:21the series ties Maddie's traumatic past to Tessie,
08:24explaining why she feels such an emotional connection with the case.
08:32If you went missing, wouldn't you want Alan to help me find you?
08:35Oh, so you want to look for Tessie, so you can count on the Dursts to look for me if I go missing?
08:40Why are you always so angry at me?
08:42Another layer to Maddie's deepened history with Alan Durst
08:45is that he's the biological father of her son, Seth.
08:48During an argument, Maddie reveals the truth to her son.
08:51However, it turns out that he already knew,
08:53which explains his clear resentment towards her.
08:56You read my diaries.
08:58You just left them in your closet without a lock or anything.
09:01I mean, if you didn't want anyone to read them, you could have put them somewhere hard enough.
09:04When?
09:06When? When did you read them?
09:08The day before my apartment swap.
09:10A later episode shows us a flashback to a party where a recently married Mrs. Schwartz
09:14hooks up with her high school flame, Alan.
09:16In the novel, Maddie recalls being intimate with Alan Durst, Sr., one night,
09:20and Milton, the next, both nine months before Seth was born.
09:24But unlike in the series, she, quote,
09:26never doubted it was Milton's.
09:28I'm going through something, and all you care about is your own comfort,
09:31just like Milton. You're both the same. I can't understand why.
09:37What do you want?
09:39I want to take down Shel Gordon.
09:41At the end of Episode 6, a groggy Maddie wakes up in the hospital
09:45to an unexpected visitor disguised as a cleaning lady.
09:48It's Cleo, still alive and in hiding from Shel Gordon,
09:52who ordered Reggie to kill her due to her unwitting involvement
09:55in the attempted murder of Senator Myrtle Sommer.
09:57She explains that the body found in the lake was her friend,
10:00Dora Carter, who overdosed.
10:02Mr. Gordon wanted me dead, so he sent Reggie.
10:07When Reggie found Dora's body before he got to me,
10:11his mercy in her body kept me alive.
10:14Laura Lipman's novel has the same twist ending,
10:16except Shel's reasoning for wanting Cleo dead was that he saw her
10:19as a threat to Ezekiel Taylor's chances for being senator.
10:22The series also shows Reggie and Cleo working together
10:25to bring Shel down, which isn't in the book.
10:28If I go down, Reggie, you're coming with me.
10:35You understand?
10:38Or, you can help keep us both from drowning.
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11:00Number 1. The life of Cleo Johnson
11:03Alma Harrell's decision to expand Cleo Johnson's character
11:06in Lady in the Lake is the biggest departure from the novel.
11:09Instead of an omnipresent narrator,
11:11Moses Ingram brings Cleo to life as a fleshed-out, nuanced character.
11:15And it seems the world has given me a choice.
11:17I can hold on to my dignity,
11:24or I can provide for them.
11:27Just don't seem to let me do both.
11:29We see her being a caring mother of two boys,
11:32working multiple jobs while her husband is unemployed.
11:35The book paints her in a different light.
11:37She's judged for being a single mom working as a bartender and dancer
11:40in Shell Gordon's gentleman's club, The Flamingo.
11:42But if I worked for you, I wouldn't have to work for Mr. Gordon.
11:46No one leaves a man like Mr. Gordon unless he wants them gone.
11:52The series changed it to a jazz club called The Pharaoh,
11:55where Cleo is a bartender and Shell's bookkeeper.
11:58On top of modeling at a department store and volunteering for Myrtle Summer,
12:02Cleo Johnson is much more than just the Lady in the Lake.
12:14Did you watch The Lady in the Lake?
12:16Let us know in the comments below.
12:18Meet me Friday before sunset, south side of the lake.
12:23And you'll have a front page story in any paper you want.
12:27Do you agree with our picks?
12:29Check out this other recent clip from Ms. Mojo.
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