By the time Apple TV’s addictive and twisty thriller, Cape Fear, reaches Episode 8, Javier Bardem’s Max Cady is no longer the only threat to the Bowden family. The secrets that Amy Adams’ Anna and Patrick Wilson’s Tom have kept from one another are doing just as much damage.

Between Zack unraveling and Natalie questioning everything she knows about her parents, Anna is finally forced to confront what really happened between her and Max years earlier, as her husband takes the fall for their daughter shooting Max and ends up in jail. The family that once looked so polished has been completely pulled apart.

But as showrunner Nick Antosca tells Collider, that “dismantling of the family itself” has always been central to the story’s darkness. As Episode 8’s “Los tiempos de Dios son Perfectos” brings that idea fully into focus, Anna’s history with Max is revealed to be far more complicated than a simple affair or betrayal, while the question of Natalie’s paternity gives Max another way to pull her away from her parents. For Antosca, that uncertainty also reflects a larger theme running through the series: “We live in a time where the truth is very complicated, and it’s hard to pin it down.”

In a breakdown of the latest episode, Antosca reveals why he made both Anna and Tom part of Max’s original case, why Max’s possible innocence had to hang over the entire family, and how Episode 8 transforms the final stretch of the season. As he puts it, the Bowdens’ “happiness, their privilege, and their perfect life are built on his suffering.”

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