Smoke: Season 1, Episode 4 - Strawberry (2025)

The episode opens with Dave Gudsen giving a polished arson presentation to a room full of officers, including Michelle Calderon, and he performs the role of confident expert in front of everyone. Afterward, Michelle keeps watching him with growing suspicion, reading his charm as something deliberately controlled rather than natural.

Michelle goes to the office and starts digging into Dave's background. She discovers that he previously had another police partner, Ezra Esposito, and that the details of that partnership are sealed, which immediately makes her more wary. She presses the issue further and eventually learns that Dave had multiple prior partners in investigations, and that they all left without ever exposing him as the arsonist except for one who had actually suspected him.

At the same time, Dave's home life grows more tense. Ashley asks him to pick up Emmett after practice, and Dave agrees, but he forgets or simply fails to do it. Emmett is left waiting, and Ashley becomes furious when she realizes what happened. Dave does not respond with remorse; instead, he dismisses the importance of the mistake and argues that his work and his book matter more than a school pickup, telling Emmett, in effect, to toughen up.

Emmett ends up being brought home by Michelle, which means he overhears the fight between Dave and Ashley once he is already back inside the house. Dave and Ashley's argument escalates in front of the child, exposing how little patience Dave has for ordinary family responsibilities and how easily he retreats into self-justification when confronted.

Michelle's suspicion of Dave deepens when she pieces together more of his past and realizes how carefully his career has been managed. Dave, meanwhile, continues to move through the day with the same smooth, unsettling confidence, presenting himself as a capable investigator even as his private behavior grows more revealing and more unstable.

Dave then tells Michelle that he is going to an arson conference for the weekend and uses the conversation to make an obvious sexual pass at her. Michelle rejects him. The exchange confirms for her that his flirtation is not harmless, and that he is testing boundaries while keeping up his professional mask.

With the investigation stalled and the personal pressure building, Dave retreats into writing his novel and into his own fantasy version of events. Emmett listens to the audio of Dave's book, and in it Dave's self-insert character admits attraction to his partner, clearly mirroring Michelle and revealing how much of Dave's private imagination is bound up in her.

Freddy's storyline begins to collapse further at the same time. He shaves his head and beard, cutting himself in the process, then prepares more supplies by filling milk jugs with oil and packing them into black bags. One of the bags is marked with the bird tag, tying his preparations to the arson pattern he has been following.

Still moving through the city in his split emotional state, Dave encounters a woman at a convenience-store setting who flirts with him. He accepts the attention and goes home with her. Once inside, it becomes clear that she is into sadomasochism, and Dave steps into that dynamic without hesitation, using it as another place to shed his ordinary identity.

She is tied to the bed and blindfolded, unable to see him. Dave, dressed only in his underwear, dances in front of her to David Bowie's "Heroes," performing for his own gratification and control. He asks her if she knows what "streaking" is, then drops a liquid, likely oil or melted wax, onto her stomach and sets her on fire, revealing the violent and predatory core beneath his easy charm.

The episode closes with Freddy and Dave both moving deeper into their destructive impulses, while Michelle's suspicions and the evidence around Dave's past keep tightening around him.

Dave's ending is unsettling and self-destructive: after pushing deeper into his fantasy version of himself, he goes home with a woman who wants to be tied up, blindfolded, and controlled, and he turns that encounter into a fire-setting act that leaves her screaming before he calms her down and tells her she will not be burned or scarred. At the same time, Freddy keeps slipping back into his arsonist life, and Calderone ends the episode with stronger suspicion that Dave is hiding something dangerous.

In the final stretch of the episode, the story splits between the two men, and both are shown moving further away from any ordinary life.

Dave's final scenes begin after he has already revealed more of his past and more of his inner damage. He has talked about the disappearance of his mother, who he later learned had not vanished without explanation but had abandoned him for a younger man because she wanted "a fresh start." That disclosure hangs over the rest of his behavior, and by the end of the episode he is again acting out a version of himself that feels powerful and in control rather than vulnerable.

He goes to a convenience store, where he meets a woman who flirts with him. He follows her back to her place, and the encounter turns sexual and deliberately staged around domination and submission. She ties herself to the bed and blindfolds herself, which leaves her unable to see him while he stands in his underwear and dances to David Bowie's "Heroes." He asks her if she knows what "streaking" is, and then he drops a liquid, apparently oil or melted wax, onto her stomach and sets it on fire. She screams in fear, but he quickly puts the flame out and tells her it will not leave burns or marks. Instead of stopping the encounter, she becomes aroused and asks him to do it again, and he nods eagerly.

Freddy's ending is quieter but clearly darker. By this point, he has already been shown shaving his head and face, cutting himself in the process, and preparing more fuel-filled containers wrapped in black plastic. The episode presents that as a deliberate retreat from visibility and from the small hope he had built around ordinary ambition. His fate at the end of this episode is not a final death or arrest, but a renewed slide back into arson, with his plans in motion and his self-control breaking down.

Calderone's ending is investigative rather than physical. She has spent the episode digging into Dave's past, and after getting Harvey Englehart drunk, she learns that a previous partner, Esposito, had become convinced Dave was an arsonist. That discovery does not solve the case, but it confirms that her suspicion is no longer isolated. By the end of the episode, she is further along in her belief that Dave is dangerous, and she is not simply following a routine lead anymore; she is confronting the possibility that the man beside her in the investigation may be the fire-setter himself.

Based on the available summaries and reviews for the Apple TV+ miniseries Smoke, specifically Season 1, Episode 4 titled "Strawberry" (produced in 2025), there is no mention of a post-credit scene (also known as a post-credits scene).

The episode is described as ending with a specific, dramatic sequence involving the character Dave Gudsen and a woman: * Gudsen blindfolds the woman. * He applies a flammable substance (described in some accounts as hot wax) to her stomach. * He sets it on fire. * The woman appears to be "into it" as the scene concludes. * The episode ends immediately after this event, followed by the end credits.

Reviews explicitly state, "And that's how the episode ends," and one reviewer notes it is "not my favorite episode," but none indicate any additional footage playing after the credits roll. Therefore, based on current information, the episode does not contain a post-credit scene.

Not really. Based on the available content warnings for the series and episode descriptions, Smoke season 1 episode 4, "Strawberry," is best treated as adult-oriented rather than family friendly.

Potentially upsetting or objectionable material for children or sensitive viewers may include: - Violence and fire-related harm, including arson, destruction, burning buildings, and people in life-threatening fire situations. - Burn injuries and physical danger, with victims of fires shown with burns and scenes involving confrontations, stalking, beatings, and weapons. - Sexual content and nudity, including sex scenes, sexual themes, and exposed bodies; the series also includes an affair and sexual banter. - Strong language, with frequent use of profanity. - Drug use and other mature themes, along with cruelty and suicide-related content noted in the series warning.

For episode 4 specifically, reviews indicate darker character-focused material, including troubling personal revelations, an argument between spouses, and a scene involving sexual control/fetish elements, all of which may be uncomfortable for some viewers.