Episode 8 of Gracepoint
left viewers on a real cliffhanger. The closest encounter with the killer of
Danny Solano yet left Detective Emmett Carver’s (David Tennant) life in the
balance and there was an agonising two-week wait to see if he would pull
though.
Indeed he did, and the opening of Episode 9 finds him as crotchety
and demanding as ever, still pushing Ellie Miller (Anna Gunn) about even from
his hospital bed. However, the consequences of his collapse are serious. Not
only did they lose an opportunity to apprehend their suspect, but now Carver’s
seniors know the seriousness of his heart condition and he has just 24 hours
left on the case. Of course, this makes the driven and increasingly desperate detective
all the more determined to finish the job, and he will snatch at any lead
going. Including, it seems, revisiting the testimony of psychic Raymond Connelly
(Adam Greydon Reid), who stresses ever more strongly that the killer is someone
close to home. He also has more revelations about Carver himself, although
Carver will not give him the gratification of knowing whether he is right. However,
the consequences of the chase at the hut are that the police now have a clearer
picture of their target – male, tall, fit and strong with a size 10 footprint.
And what is more surprising, the culprit themselves seems to have made the call
in about the intruder – the number was found to be that of Danny’s missing
smartphone. Are they taunting the police? Or were they intending to turn
themselves in then had a change of heart?
Meanwhile, the detectives have Susan Wright (Jacki Weaver)
in custody and Miller, whose interrogation techniques are now as steely and
unremitting as Carver’s - further evidence of her transformation from friendly
local sergeant to hard-faced investigator - has succeeded in chipping away at
the enigmatic woman’s stony carapace. Susan’s back story, when it eventually
emerges, is simply shocking. This mother of two, whose daughter was abused and
then killed by her father, Susan’s husband, when trying to protect the younger
child from his predation, has been living under a false name in order to escape
the accusations levelled at her. Before he killed himself in prison, Susan’s
husband claimed that she had known all along and turned a blind eye. Susan
denies knowing anything, something that Ellie cannot comprehend. “How could you
not know?” she demands of Susan, incredulously. It seems obvious to her that a
mother should know what is going on under her own roof. But, as it emerges, she
herself has no idea what her own husband Joe (Josh Hamilton) does all day; nor
did she have any idea that her eldest son Tom (Jack Irvine) and Danny had
drifted apart as friends.
Elle also states, “I’m a mom too and I’m sure that whatever
my child did I’d want to protect him”. But so does Susan, who has other shocking
revelations. Her biggest bombshell of all is that she gave birth to a son, who
was taken from her and put up for adoption. This son, she says is Vince
(Stephen Louis Grush), and Susan lives in fear that Vince carries with him his
father’s wickedness and anger. She is convinced that she saw Vince carrying
Danny to the beach. She took the skateboard, which she knew that Vince made for
Danny, to protect her own son and to give him a reason to talk to her. Vince,
however, won’t acknowledge her, and his adoptive mother is too far gone in her
own dementia to acknowledge Vince as anything but her own flesh and blood. It’s
is only after Detective Carver presents him with Susan’s casefile that Vince realises
his dreadful heritage, and this makes him more determined than ever to reject
her.
Vince is certainly the villain of the week this episode, and
never before has the Solanos’ close family friend appeared so sinister. His
relationship to Danny is called into question many times. “Vince loved Danny
and put him on his arm,” his mother tells Ellie. Vince has in fact had Danny’s
name – the name of his employer’s son - tattooed on his right arm, which Carver
finds beyond belief. Then there are the secret hunting trips with Danny, which
Dean Iverson (Kendrick Sampson) reveals to Danny’s shocked parents, along with
the observation that the pair were ‘like brothers’ together. Even Mark (Michael
Peña) is apparently starting to suspect his former friend. Vince isn’t even shy
at displaying his disgust towards Susan in the form of a vicious threat through
the cell bars, under the gaze of Detective Miller. He seems resigned to his
fate, or maybe too distraught by the discovery of his past to care what happens
any more.
Meanwhile the Solanos are continuing their journey back to
normality, though with some hitches along the way. Beth (Virginia Kull) is
still dithering on the fate of the baby and reveals her fears about Mark’s
infidelity and her ability to keep the baby safe to Paul Coates (Kevin Rankin)
who is all too pleased to comfort her: Paul is not one to pass up the chance to
hug Beth easily, after all. Her visit is spotted by Mark, who confronts her
with typical aggression. But Beth professes her love for him and her belief in
the family and both agree that one trip to the bowling alley won’t fix
everything. At the moment they seem on the track to recovery and hopefully next
week’s revelations won’t derail that, especially as Ellie’s sister Sara (Janet
Kidder) now claims to have seen a hatted man carrying a large wrapped object around
the side of the Solano Plumbing van on the night of the murder. Only two people
drive that van, and it is typically parked up at Vince’s.
While Ellie is professing disbelief that Susan didn’t know
what was going on within her own family, she herself seems to have missed the
transformation of her own boy Tom from quiet unassuming pre-teen to
blackmailing devil child right under her nose. Paul has Tom’s smashed computer
and refuses to return it. In return Tom gives him an ultimatum – he will reveal
that Paul hit Danny on their camping trip – and Danny did return with a swollen
face, as Mark previously revealed. Paul ignores the consequences and passes the
laptop to Carver, who for the moment seems to have knocked Paul off his own
suspects list. Still, Paul is careful to
make sure that Carver knows he didn’t
hit Danny. Just in case.
Whatever Carver does with his new evidence, he needs to make
it fast as his last day on the case is running out, and to make matters worse
the press have got wind of his health issues, thanks to (who else?) Renee Clemons
(Jessica Lucas). With a warning by Owen Burke (Kevin Zegers) that he will go
public with the story, Carver is forced to give him and his editor Kathy Eaton
(Alisen Down) an exclusive on what really happened in Rosemont, and we learn
that he is far from the distant uncaring father he appeared when Julianne
showed up, but he has put her own needs above his own health and professional
reputation.
“I’m done,” states Carver, leaving the Journal offices, and
as the day draws to a close with the killer still unidentified, it appears that
he may well be.
The finale of Gracepoint
airs on Thursday 11th December at 9pm ET on FOX in the USA and on
Global in Canada, and on Friday 12th December at 8.30pm on the
Universal Channel in Australia.
Comments
Post a Comment