Gracepoint: Did “Captain Jack” Reinhold Kill Danny?

Warning: Spoiler Alert

They took the gloves off in the fifth episode, of the FOX mini-series “Gracepoint,” and blows landed on bodies and faces, all throughout the Northern California sea-side community as neighbor turned on neighbor and wives turned on husbands. The episode concluded, with the spotlight directed on “Captain Jack” Reinhold, as news from the old man of the sea’s past came to light in the village. However, there are two other prime-suspects in Detective Emmett Carver’s eyes, psychic/psycho telephone repairman Raymond Donnelly and Reverend Paul Coates, who grew up with Beth Solano, as neither can verify where they were the night Danny Solano got murdered.

The network’s pushing the “Captain Jack,” angle hard right now, (also the reason this recap’s got the title you read) but the first suspect’s rarely the culprit in most detective stories. It’s also likely that the show runners will throw some “red herrings” out there to keep viewers guessing and likely, that “Captain Jack,” winds up in that category. Although things looked bleak at the end of the episode, there are too many residents of “Creepy Town,” to believe it’s Reinhold.

Other bombshells exploded during the episode, Beth telling her husband Mark, she knows about his affair with Gemma Fisher, just before heading out to address the media as a family about the death of their son. Carver’s health’s so bad, if the department realized how sick he is, they’d take him off the case. Beth deciding to give San Francisco Globe reporter Renee Clemons an exclusive interview, asking for justice for her son. Connelly’s shady past gets exposed, including his bouts with mental illness and Susan Wright seems to have another name (and gets creepier with each appearance.) They also held a memorial service for Danny in the episode, with Reverend Coates chastising his parishioners for looking at each other with suspicion.

This episode begins with the scene that closed the previous one, a boat burning in the water off shore of the town and a uniform called for Carver to head to the beach. The detective, still a newcomer’s unaware of whom the department uses to assist in this situation, but he orders the uniform to contact the harbor master to get the boat brought to shore, rather than waiting for the tide to wash it in.

The man who heads the CSI team for Gracepoint, comes across as a friendly, likable guy, but we get to see little of him as Carver dispenses with social niceties. The CSI leader tells the pair, that a piece of the boat’s covered with hair fibers, which he’ll soon analyze, they believe the boat’s the place where Danny got murdered. Carver and Miller head to the Solano’s to inform Beth of the burning boat and Connelly’s in her living room and asks why the detectives didn’t use his vision of Danny dying in a boat as evidence. Carver, grabs him by the lapels, throws him out of the house and follows him to the street. He tells “Mr. Telephone Man,” that if he sees him again, he’ll arrest him, then has Pete the officer guarding the Solano’s house follow him until he drives far away from the house. When he finally pulls over, Connelly displays his frustration, smacking his dashboard and steering wheel.

Ellie stays with Beth and tells her, that Donnelly’s intentions aren’t necessarily altruistic, he could seek publicity and a possible book deal if Beth confides in him too much. Solano falls apart, breaks into tears and tells Ellie she feels all alone in this. Miller asks if she’s told Mark that she knows he slept with Gemma, but Beth says she can’t.

It’s the morning after for Renee Clemons and Owen Burke and he’s clearly unused to having a woman in his apartment. Burke’s done some digging on the Internet, finding out that Jack Reinhold’s an ex-con, having served a sentence for statutory rape of a minor, decades before. He contacts Carver and the detective calls “Captain Jack,” to the station for questioning. The man who owns the kayak shop and works each morning with youngsters, teaching them about the ocean, thinks he’s there to discuss the stranger in the bandanna he saw Danny talking with.

Reinhold’s less than pleased when Carver asks him about his crime and subsequent prison term, asking the detective if he’s getting a little desperate. Carver wonders how he’s gotten clearance from the state to work with children since he’s a convicted sex-offender and “Captain Jack,” says that he’s not a sex-offender. Carver counters with that Reinhold’s not on the list because he committed his crime before the list came to exist. He then says he hears “Captain Jack,” enjoys photography and inquires if he takes lots of pictures of the kids he teaches?

Reinhold’s face registers disgust and he asks if they’re going to charge him or accuse him of anything and Carver asks where the old man was the night Danny got killed. “Captain Jack,” replies he read a book but doubted Carver would enjoy it as it lacked pictures, the detective asked if anyone could verify that and Reinhold responded just the book, then left the office.

Burke asks Clemons’ if she wants to join him in interviewing Reinhold on his prison conviction and she turns him down, saying “Captain Jack,” made it quite clear he didn’t like her the first time she met. She also says she’s working on other leads, declining to tell her only ally in town, she’s got an exclusive interview with Beth Solano, that Chloe arranged.

Owen grew up as one of the kids in Reinhold’s oceanography group and he’s got mixed feelings about approaching the old man on ancient history, but if “Captain Jack’s,” a suspect, he’d blow a possible exclusive interview. Reinhold’s happy to see Burke at first, but he gets angry quickly when Burke asks about his conviction. I didn’t get the feeling from this scene, that Reinhold did anything to advance him as a suspect, it seemed that he felt betrayed, by a young man that had known “Captain Jack,” all of his life. He tells Burke he was a good kid, but he’s twisted and tells him to get lost.

Renee gets far more success with the Solano family, as Chloe tells how Clemons’ rescued Danny’s stuffed animal from the memorial site. After some talk back and forth, Beth consents to talk to Clemons’ for the interview. The interview’s the front page headline for her paper and is the first thing each resident wakes up to the next morning.

Detective Carver shows up at the Miller’s for dinner, wearing a suit, bearing a bottle of wine, a bouquet of flowers and a box of candy. Ellie says she’ll call her superior Emmett for the evening, but Carver hates his first name, then goes off on a tangent about first name’s only purpose is for making people seem more personal and friendly. We also find out Carver’s divorced with a 17-year-old daughter that lives with her mother.

There’s a bit of awkward silence and Ellie’s husband Joe asks Carver if they’ll solve this case and Carver looks him right in the eye without doubt and says yes. Ellie takes that as a cue to leave the room for a minute, but tells her husband that’s the end of police talk. When she leaves, Carver asks Joe if Ellie likes him, then says he thinks he irritates her. (you think?) Joe tries to cover by saying you’re here for dinner and Carver responds by telling Miller he’s a terrible liar. Miller smiles and says, yeah, but you’re an awful boss and the unthinkable occurs as Emmett Carver laughs. Ellie asks what’s so funny when she returns, but they decline to tell her.

As Carver’s heading back to the Inn he’s staying at, he gets woozy and light-headed and sits on a village bench, seeing the sign for the Inn just feet away, he got up and went to his room. Still sick when he gets there, he looks in a bureau drawer for something, then collapses face down on the floor. He wakes up in the emergency room, with Inn-Keeper Gemma, sitting in a chair by his bed, reading the day’s paper.

The detective freaks out when he awakens and asks Gemma to promise not to tell anyone, as they’ll take him off the case. She tries reasoning with him, saying he needs to get well, but he gets dressed and has her take him back to the Inn. By the time Detective Ellie Miller arrives at the station, Carver’s sitting at his desk and explains the bandage on his forehead, to a slip in the shower that morning.

She asks if she can get permission to share the drifter’s picture with the parks department and Carver says that’s a good idea. She then asks if she can attend Danny’s memorial service that afternoon and Carver thinks she’s going on duty, but she informs him she’s not. They then discuss the interview Beth gave to Clemons and that they’ll soon be inundated with reporters from across the country.

If you’re looking for nightmares, you might want to spend an afternoon with Susan Wright as her face might frighten Dracula and the personality to match. She heads over to Gemma’s Inn, attempting to get a job, saying that Chloe Solano’s not much help with what her family’s going through. Testifying to how nice Miss Fisher is, as she maintained civility and a friendly demeanor throughout the conversation. She thanks Wright for applying and says she’ll get back to her. However, when she runs Wright’s Social Security number it shows it belongs to a Ruth Ehrlich. She visits the editor of the Gracepoint newspaper Kathy Eaton and shares the info with her and Eaton says she’ll do some digging.

Eaton soon runs into Wright, as she’s putting a flyer advertising she’s looking for jobs cleaning houses, in the village square along with all the other public notices. Seeing Eaton watching her, she asks if she’s allowed to do that, as everybody else does and Eaton replies, of course Susan, or should I say Ruth? Wright fixes her with a glare that could crack a mirror, she and he dog then slink away.

Vince Novick stops at the Solano house on the way to Danny’s memorial service and drops off his venison dinner for all to eat after the ceremony. Mark’s the only family member not going and he puts the dinner in the oven to stay warm while all the others go to the church.

It seems that most of the village’s shown for the memorial and Coates thanks them all for attending, but then proceeds to berate his parishioners and the town in general for all the suspicion since Danny’s murder. He blames the suspicion on outsiders, but it’s clear that he’s blaming Carver for the community’s lack of unity. Carver tells Miller that he’s holding a press conference including the Solano family that evening and Ellie and family head back to the Solano’s home for the venison dinner.

We still see the pain on Beth’s face as she attempts to enjoy the dinner and all their friends, she catches Ellie’s son Tommy looking at a picture of Danny and looking sad and she relates to his pain. After the meal, she and Tommy talk and she asks her son’s best friend for a hug.

The front door rings and Mark lets  “Captain Jack,” into their house. Almost crying he tells Mark and Beth that he would never hurt Danny and despite the terrible things they’ll soon hear about him he didn’t kill their son. Ellie tries to get Reinhold out of the house by restraining him, when we notice through the picture window the front lawns covered with news photographers, one pressed up to the window, snapping away. Mark runs out to his yard, grabs the came and throws it on the sidewalk smashing it, Novick screams for the photographers to leave.

That night Kathy Eaton’s sitting in her office and she hears a noise and walks into the newsroom. After checking around and seeing nothing, she starts to head back to her office, when she’s startled to see Susan Wright in her path. Wright tells Eaton that she’s going to stop asking questions about her and Eaton asks why she would consent to that? Wright glares at the editor and says “I know men who would rape you.”

The press conference in which Carver and the Solano’s address the media’s about to begin but as they’re walking out to the table they’ll sit at, Beth tells Mark she knows about him and Gemma Fisher. He’s stunned and Carver has to push him to get going. As Carver heads to the table, Miller stops him. She tells him that Oregon police just contacted her, this case reminds them of one in their town 15-years earlier and Jack Reinhold used to live right near there. As Beth starts talking to reporters, we watch  “Captain Jack,” burning pictures of kids including Danny Solano in a barrel.

The Story Continues Next Thursday Night at 9:00 pm on FOX.