The seventh episode of Apple TV's "Cape Fear", titled "Mongrel", is reviewed here by IGN's Michael Peyton, who argues that the series has finally settled into its identity as a "bonkers, operatic" melodrama that prioritises entertainment over realism. Having worried mid-season that the show was stalling as it slowly untangled its many plot threads, the reviewer welcomes the shift as the series drives towards its conclusion, and states he is "100% on board".

The episode picks up directly from Episode 6, with Neveah found living inside the Bowden family's walls and being taken into custody, while a drugged Zack — dosed with a brainwashing motion-sickness medication that can cause "permanent psychosis" — stabs his father Tom before being placed in a psychiatric facility. Key revelations follow: Max's stalker is uncovered as his sister, Crystal Cady, who lives on a houseboat on the Cape Fear River (echoing Robert De Niro's climactic drowning in the 1991 film), while Max drives Natalie to his childhood home in North Carolina, where his abusive father — played by Ron Perlman — once caged him for not speaking English. Meanwhile, Tom and Anna scheme to frame Neveah by planting evidence, recruiting Anna's estranged father Brandon, and a lingering hint is dropped that Max and Anna were once "quite close". New episodes stream every Friday on Apple TV.