Gracepoint: Collateral Damage

Warning: Spoiler Alert

A very interesting beginning scene with Carver leading a caravan of people retracing Danny’s steps the night he died. An impressive visual, but it did nothing but raise more suspicion on suspects that probably didn’t do it. Television math.

Owen cannot stop himself from consorting with Renee. Maybe her intentions are good, maybe they’re not. She’s a reporter for a significant paper and she probably has to adhere to a certain tenacity for the story to have that job. Right, wrong or otherwise, it’s a bad idea on Owen’s part.

Watching Mark Solano trying to rationalize the motivation of his infidelity and that it was not a reflection on Beth but still somehow her fault might just be the most painfully awkward thing I’ve ever seen. It’s not you it’s me. We don’t have the time tonight for me to articulate how messed up I think that is, but come on. If he had said, “life got stale, I’m an idiot” maybe that would’ve gone over better.

Man Rule #73: Never dictate to a woman what she must or can’t do with her body.

I understand why Mark thinks they should keep the baby, but telling your wife you have to keep it not 30 seconds removed from a conversation about why you chose to cheat on her with another woman, probably not the best idea. Each week I keep repeating the same thing routinely. “This Mark is a real piece of work”.

Even Owen should not be surprised in the least that the big paper took some creative liberties with his article. That is day one stuff. The second he handed over the paper to Renee, this small story line was destined to end badly. “Admitted Pedophile” was all but a guarantee.

Owen’s mother and Miller’s sister is amazing, in a bad way. I don’t believe for a moment that she saw anything. And using the idea that she saw something as leverage to weasel a grand from her own sister is horrible. Hopefully I’m right. I wouldn’t put it past them to write in a delinquent of a character that actually ends up holding a large piece of the puzzle.

Well, that took longer than I expected. Beth finally decides to pay a visit to Gemma. The entirety of the scene is Beth throwing high ball glasses at Gemma’s feet while Gemma apologizes repeatedly. Then Beth threatens Gemma and leaves. The threats don’t end there. Jack Reinhold shows up at the station to defend himself against the allegations from the San Francisco paper article. And in his attempted defense suggests that Carver tell Miller to tell her nephew to watch his back. Yeah, that will endear you to the detectives on the case.

Dean finds Chloe walking alone and suggests she should listen to him because he has something about Jack. As it turns out Dean claims that Jack used to touch them. Nothing overtly sexual, but definitely (slightly) inappropriate. Naturally, Chloe calls Renee. Dean supplies them with a list of other former Wildlife kids to would attest to similar experiences. Owen wants no part of it. Finally. Renee it seems must be after the story that makes her career. Owen needs to stop caving. This may have been step one.

Side note. Again trying not to give you too much about my personal life (since I’m sure that’s not why you’re reading this now), I still have an issue with the realism of the situation. Virginia Kull (plays Beth) is the only actor on this entire show that is acting the way the respective people effected by this tragedy would act. Her performance carries the show. Everyone is playing their character admirably well. However, when it comes to how people act regarding the death of a child, the realism goes out the window. Except for Beth.

Jack finally opens up to the detectives but not until after he has a paparazzi problem. Real quick, tell me if you’ve heard this one before. A man of legal age gets involved with a girl of a slightly lesser age (let’s say a few weeks short of legal age). Their relationship is exposed and the guy does time for statutory rape despite his assertion that it was consensual. Then when he is asked if he ever made contact with that girl again, his reply is predictably, “seen her again, I married her”. Sound familiar? Its been done at least three other times that I can think just off the top of my head.

The creepy lady makes a return. In the post office, Tom is sent in by his father to avoid hearing the pitch on why Jack should be removed from the Wildlife program. Tom notices the crazy lady’s dog and she engages him in conversation. Until this point, I just assumed she was there to throw us off the scent. If Gracepoint had a weekly power rankings, I’d put everything on her. She’s creepy, she has a skateboard that looks very similar to Danny’s in her closet. She’s creepy. And now she is soliciting the Detective’s son. Oh, did I mention, she’s creepy.

And she appears to be a chain smoker. The CSI has only uncovered one piece of relevant evidence thus far. Three cigarette butts. Then we find Owen trying to pawn his father’s boat. Which is miraculously stolen. Which might answer the question of whose boat was burning at the close two episodes ago. Then looking over (looking like the Grinch Who Stole Christmas after creating his plan) at where Owen stands wondering who stole the boat, is the creepy lady smoking. Either they are laying this out nicely, or there are at least one or two red herrings along the way.

The petition to have Jack Reinhold removed from his duties in the Wildlife program have escalated to a lynch mob, lead by Vince (Mark’s apprentice). Mark does intervene the moment before Vince makes this meeting physical. Mark then lays out what information is out there about Jack and demands to know what they are supposed to think. Jack then tells an interesting story, the details not being literally important, but the conclusion is that for a number of reasons, Jack and Mark are very similar with their wives and children. Then, regardless of guilt or innocence, Mark suggests that Jack move far away from Gracepoint.

It’s looking like a very real possibility that Owen’s father’s boat was stolen by the real killer. Problem now is that Owen is destined to become a suspect. At least for a little while. That and Hugo (CSI tech) is a sleazy guy. Asking Ellie Miller out for drinks knowing full well that she’s married and then responding with, “so that’s a deal breaker for you?”

Miller gets Carver up to date on the missing identity of the boar owner. Which he is moderately blown away over. Then after he collects himself, asks Miller to makes sure her brother-in-law hasn’t been back in town and to ask Hugo if he can pull any additional prints of the pieces of burned boat.

Miller: Sir? Uh…would you mind asking Hugo for me?
Carver: Huh?
Miller: Yeah, he actually uh, just made a pass at me…
Carver: Why would he do that?
Miller: Thank you. Very much.
Carver: You’re married.
Miller: I know. He-he knows that.
Carver: A fling with a crime scene investigator could be interesting.
Miller: What? What does that mean?
Carver: Attention to detail. Used to having their hands everywhere.
Miller: Gross. That’s…
Carver: Dirty Hugo.
Miller: That is so gross. That is nasty. But thank you for that visual by the way.
Carver: You’re welcome.

Next we find Jack Reinhold playing the piano (a reference to how he and his wife met, teaching her piano). While that plays we see a short montage of varying characters. Including Mark and Beth Solano sitting down together going through baby pictures of Danny. And it concludes with someone throwing a brick through Jack’s shop. Jack walks out to see who it was and the camera pulls back to reveal they have spray painted the word “pedophile: on his deck.

Wow, this episode is not without a significant amount of awkwardness. Seriously, I feel like I need to rewind that whole scene just to figure out if I’m going crazy or was that actually what I thought I heard. Yep, exactly what I thought it was the first time. Ultimately both Carver and Gemma mislead each other over the intentions of their small talk. Eventually leading to Carver asking Gemma if she’d “like to relax in his bed tonight”. After a little reaction to that, her first thought is ‘what if you pass out on me’? Then the silly miscommunication becomes real concern for the likelihood that Carver could pass out or die before the investigation is concluded.

Jack ventures out to find tomorrow’s newspaper reads “Jack Reinhold’s Child Bride and Deceased Son: Photos Reveal a Dark Past”. Jack then walks slowly towards the ocean tightly gripping a family photo of him, his wife and his son. The next scene confirms the assumed. Jack killed himself.