Courtesy of FOX
Warning: Spoiler Alert
Last week we were introduced to the very surface of what this limited engagement mystery will eventually reveal. One thing that did stand out was Tom (Ellie’s son and best friend to the deceased) acting very odd. Not only acting odd but deleting text messages, erasing his hard drive, etc. It is entirely too early to start floating theories, but I’d keep Tom Miller tuck away in the back of your mind. At least for now. Not saying he’s directly involved, just that it seems fishy.
I know that it’s done intentionally, but I dislike the attempt to make each and every person look guilty. From Tom Miller to the priest and everyone in between. I also love the Carver character. I am biased by the fact that he was the tenth Doctor. There’s something delicious about a man trying to put his life back together following some career threatening mishap. On that note, the Ellie character deserves some credit too. Or more accurately, Anna Gunn’s portrayal of her. Anna Gunn gets entirely too much flack for playing disliked characters (namely Skylar White). And while this is decidedly different from Skylar White, she is playing it well. Down to the inexperience of handling these types of situations.
In the Solano’s home, Ellie attempts to lighten the mood and at the same time express some information that is important. Her inexperience is apparent when she explains that their liaison is a guy who just finished his training. You don’t tell the victim’s family that they get the wet behind the ears rookie. There is an awkwardness to trying to deal with this family that Ellie knows personally, which I’m sure is intentional.
The Solano’s made a list. A list of people they believe may have some motive, reason, or angle to be a suspect. The list is comprised entirely of friends of the family. This moment is interrupted by a man collecting evidence upstairs. One piece is 500 dollars in cash under Danny’s bed. The other is something they found in the floorboard of the sister’s room. A flat piece of paper? About an inch squared? About the size of a condom wrapper.
Carver heads out to meet with Jack Reinhold (Nick Nolte). Jack seems to have remembered something. 10 days to two weeks ago he remembers seeing Danny sitting on a bench on one of the cliffs observing nature with his notebook out when a young stranger showed up. In his twenties with the hiking backpack and all. The exchange seemed pretty harmless from that vantage point. All the same, noteworthy.
OK. The package found in the sister’s room was Cocaine. I love how we are in the middle of a murder investigation and the sister of the deceased’s first thought is, “you’re not going to tell my mom are you?”
The nosy reporter from the Globe (Renee) shows up in the hopes of grabbing a desk in the bullpen of the local paper. She is not welcomed warmly as she might have hoped. She was there long enough to employee the services of Owen to show her around.
I don’t like the kid installing the phones in the precinct. Just throwing that out there.
Carver while listening to Ellie and stirring his coffee falls into some sort of trans. Ellie thinks he’s just being rude but when she leaves, we see what he sees. Shaky hands and blurred vision. He then drops the coffee and sneaks into a bathroom stall. Where he injects himself with something. My first thought was diabetes or heroin. I hope it’s neither for a number of reasons.
Chloe Solano explains to Ellie that she got the cocaine from Gemma Fisher (who runs the B&B or hotel or whatever it is). So naturally this is the next step. They need to find the source of the cocaine and rule it out as a factor.
Ellie’s loyalty to the townspeople is borderline reckless. I was concerned when Carver promised to find the person responsible (a HUGE no-no for detectives), but ever since then, Ellie has owned all of the detective faux pas since.
Gemma Fisher: I understand this was really stupid. But is there any way we can do this quietly? I could lose my license over this.
Ellie: Make a time and come down to the station and make a formal statement. You’ll be charged, fingerprinted, and released. And we’ll try to keep it quiet.
Carver: Really…?
Outside, Carver ‘gives her the business’ after that little charade. And while Ellie is personally offended at the idea that someone should be telling her how to do her job, Carver’s right. Ellie is a great hall monitor. She’s ill-equipped to handle the pressures, peaks and valleys of a murder investigation.
The mother venturing out to the supermarket considerably accurate. During a process of this severity (referring to mourning) a person is most likely going to be moved to do something familiar. Something that brings routine and order back into their lives. For sometimes no other reason than to feel something normal. There’s also a reason why victims of significant loss are not advised to attempt to resume routine duties quickly. Too many things become reminders. I knew she was going to lose it the second she walked in. I was actually surprised to see that she made it all the way back out to the car before she did, lose it. The admission that she’s pregnant was an odd turn. I see how it will complicate her psyche, but it’s importance to this story line is as of yet undetermined.
Gemma Fisher redeems herself in a lovely scene with her tending the bar. Gemma, Rev. Paul Coates and a local business man. The business man is just spouting off. Diarrhea of the mouth about the recession, whale fest and now being a ‘murder town’. Gemma rips this guy a new one in a quiet, polite, and very British manner that for the moment has endeared her to me. For the moment.
There is one really nice feature that this show keeps dropping in. Whether an accurate detail or a distracting one, they like to throw something at you visually but only for a second. The teddy bear that Chloe left on the beach sitting on a dresser after the fact. And now, Carver dropping his wallet to reveal a picture of a young girl followed by him popping pills.
Susan Wright is without a doubt the shadiest character we’ve encountered yet. And my experience in TV watching tells me we should cross her off the list then. Too easy and too soon. That said, she’s either hiding something or she’s just really sketchy. Then the moment I type that, sketchy Ms. Wright opens a closet door to reveal a skateboard. Danny was riding his skateboard which as of yet has not been found. Let not scratch her off the list just yet.
I should mention at this point that I have uttered a great many words of the profane variety. Not out of anger or even frustration. More of the ‘aww geez’ variety. Now the phone and internet guy is passing along a message he ‘received’ about water. Danny was put in water or in a boat, but something to do with water. And when asked who gave him this message, his response was “Danny”. So we’re talking to the dead now? I am the last person to make light of the subject matter, but comeon. We’re introducing a Medium into the story?
Not all is lost with the medium/psychic angle. If we suspend reality for a moment and accept that this is a legitimate angle something interesting does emerge. After an on the record interview (or interrogation depending on who is talking) the phone guy turns to Carver and says, “She says she forgives you. For the pendant.” Initially it didn’t garner any response from Carver. Then he lashes out to Ellie.
Things are turning to the worst for Mark Solano. First security video shows him waiting for someone the night of the incident which contradicts what he claimed he was doing then. Second on Danny’s hard drive was a journal. Mostly innocuous stuff but periodically cryptic language that paints Mark into a corner. What that corner is, is still up in the air. And now after watching Rev. Paul giving support to the family and the community, Mark charges out of the house as if he plans on assaulting Rev. Paul. Nothing too damaging. Some shaking and yelling. Stay away from my family, basic stuff like that.
Carver shows up at the Solano residence to follow up with Mark. Getting him to retell the story of his alibi. Which shouldn’t add up at this point. Just tell me he’s cheating on his wife. As horrible as that is to say, it’s better than being a suspect in the death of his own son.
At the ‘hut’ a house like structure towards the edge of a cliff, Ellie goes over the findings with CSI. She calls Carver in the middle of him ‘giving Mark another chance to tell him who he met that night’. The hut was wiped clean as one executing a premeditated crime would do. They have ‘elimination prints’ the finger prints taken before the investigation starts. This way when they find prints, they can cross reference them against the prints in the field.
Ellie: The prints belong to Mark Solano.
