Geez Louise, have we ever had a body count this high in a single episode before?
So here I am, trying to be all objective and professional in my review, but no matter what I try to write, all that comes out is NOOOOOOO!!! Cal and Chloe! ::wails:: I am not in my happy fangirl place right now. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Wakefield certainly stopped hiding his light under a bushel, didn’t he? After all the sneaking around and offing people in secret, he just burst into The Cannery and killed Nikki (unfortunate victim #1 for the episode) in front of everybody. Minutes later, Shane (unfortunate victim #2) died while holding off Wakefield so the others could escape. That was a little surprising at first because Shane isn’t really known for his self-sacrificing nature, but on the other hand he has shown a strong loyalty to Jimmy, who was still unconscious and unable to escape or defend himself.
Cal and Sully have come a long way, haven’t they? After teasing us with Cal saying he’d teach Sully how to treat the bullet wound, I feel horribly cheated over not actually getting to see that scene, especially since it turned out to be a major bonding experience for two guys who couldn’t stand each other up until now. Afterward, Sully was able to joke with Cal the way he does with his college buddies and Cal, who has been hilariously clueless about male bonding rituals up ’til now, was able to recognize the teasing as the overture of friendship it was. Sully was even able to admit to Danny that he’d totally underestimated Cal and had a new respect for him. The writers might as well have just hung a neon sign on Cal saying ‘Next Victim.’
Each of the remaining groups (the group that fled The Cannery, the group that had gone to confront Sheriff Mills at the inn, Cal and Sully who’d gone after the sailboat, and Jimmy who wandered in on his own) converged on the church after hearing the church bells and assuming one of the other groups was ringing them. No such luck. They did find a dead deputy (unfortunate victim #3) though, and in the ensuing chaos of everybody meeting up with everybody else, Chloe disappeared.
Wakefield had taken her because he wanted to know if Cal would die for her. Of course he would. Cal rescued Chloe from the drain in the tunnel system where Wakefield had locked her up and immediately proposed to her. She said yes. Then Cal (unfortunate victim #4) died trying to protect Chloe from Wakefield. His last words were to tell Chloe he loved her before Wakefield stabbed him to death and tossed his body into the river at the bottom of a ravine. In a scene that paid homage to Alice Munro’s suicide in the 1992 film The Last of the Mohicans, Chloe (unfortunate victim #5) refused Wakefield’s gesture to step back off the walkway she was standing on and instead chose to let herself fall to her death to be with Cal. ::sobs into tissue::
There have been a lot of deaths on this show over the course of eleven episodes, but Cal and Chloe were the first characters to die that I really cared about. I was really hoping that Cal surviving being shot was a good omen because I wanted these two to survive and get married when it was all over. And yet it never occurred to me that they wouldn’t share the same fate. I never doubted that they would either both survive, or die together. I was really rooting for the former. ::sniffle:: The last two hours of this show had better be really awesome to make up for stomping all over my heart like this.
Meanwhile, suspicion was cast on Jimmy when Madison found Jimmy’s mug shot among the things in Sheriff Mills’s attic (where she and her mom were hiding while everyone else went to the church) along with some articles suggesting that Wakefield wasn’t acting alone. I could go either way on this. Jimmy is certainly in the right age range to be Wakefield’s kid, and he’s the only one besides Madison who’s encountered Wakefield more than once and walked away every time, but Jimmy has also supposedly been on the island the whole time, so he couldn’t have been following Wakefield around the country on a killing spree. And Jimmy has been friends with Shane forever, so the mug shot could be from something as innocuous as backing up his friend in a bar fight Shane started. On the other hand, I’m still waiting for an explanation for the gun and satchel of money Uncle Marty brought to the wedding. Maybe Jimmy is involved in some criminal activity that has nothing to do with Wakefield’s revenge killing spree. I’ve thought for awhile that there was more than one motive at work, as well as more than one killer.
Before I go and sniffle into more tissues (Cal and Chloe!), I have to mention how much I love Callum Keith Rennie as John Wakefield. To be honest, I’ve been a fan of Rennie’s for many, many years and I’ve always been impressed with his range. With a long history of lumbering Jason-like homicidal maniacs to follow in the footsteps of, Rennie’s portrayal of Wakefield was absolutely chilling in how competent and businesslike he was. He had a plan and some people he wanted to kill, and he just got down to business and did it. There was no psychosis or mania in his demeanor–just a guy doing what he’d set out to do. He even seemed amused by Shane’s attack on him at The Cannery (victims–they’re so cute when they fight back).
With only two hours to go and very few characters left, everybody (including Wakefield) had better watch their back. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go and find another box of tissues.
Loading ...
