Get Ready for Big Sky’s Mid Season Finale!

How is it already time for the midseason finale of Big Sky? Tonight is a brand new episode that looks like it will be even more gasp-inducing than most of them are. Meanwhile, the cast and crew are finishing up shooting the season finale this week. We know that Jensen Ackles signed on for one season of the creepy show, so there’s no guarantee we’ll see Sheriff Beau Arlen again after this season – but let’s enjoy him while we have him! Here’s my recap of all things Sheriff Beau from the last episode of Big Sky to catch us up for tonight.

As always, there were lots of twists and turns, both in the plot and, in this episode, emotionally too. Thanks for making me care about this character and showing us his vulnerable side as well as his badass side, Mr. Ackles. Now I’m going to miss him!

Picking up where we left off, Beau and Jenny get to do some more interrogating, this time of the captured Walter, who doesn’t tell them anything and isn’t in the system, so they literally don’t know who he is.  I forgot to mention we also get some Ackles comedic chops in this episode too.

Beau: Mind if I call you Toby?

Sheriff Beau isn’t very happy that the mystery man left them with “a damn murder cluster”. They show him the photos of the people they think he killed, and he doesn’t react to Luke or Mary. When the photo of Paige is put down, however, Walter gets emotional – and Beau definitely notices.

Walter confesses to killing Paige, determined to protect her. Sometimes I really do feel bad for Walter. But only sometimes.

Cassie questions Walter later, asking about the hiker and why he moved the body and left a figurine with him.

Walter: I didn’t kill him. People always think the worst of me.

He says the figurine was meant for protection, for when the person passes over. Cassie asks why there weren’t figurines on Mary or Luke, didn’t they need protection?

Walter: Not from me.

Sometimes Walter tells it like it is also.

Beau gets to spend that time with Emily he’s been craving, and we get to see the soft Dad side of the Sheriff, which awwww. I love his trailer set up, with the beautiful scenic vista behind it and the lights strung up all around. Nicely done, Sheriff Beau, you’ve got a real flair for decorating.

While looking for a George Forman grill in her dad’s trailer, Emily finds a box with newspaper clippings. “Cop Mourns Partner”…. Oh, Beau. I want to know the story but I feel for him already. Em says she couldn’t find it, and Beau says she’s gonna have to lie and say he fed her breakfast. Emily says she had some cereal.

Em: It was stale.

Beau: You’ll live.

Their father and daughter banter is both sweet and genuine, and Ackles and Cree Cicchino make it seem very real.

Carla tells Emily there’s breakfast in the car when she arrives.

Em: If you need to talk to Dad, just say that.

Carla: That.

Beau is pretty happy to hear that Avery is still staying in a hotel, and Carla invites him to go ahead and gloat about it, but Beau actually gets serious – and tender.

Beau: All that matters is that you and Emily are okay. I care about you, you know.

Awww, Beau. He reassures Carla that he’s here for both of them, and agrees to take Emily for a while – she can hang out with Cassie and Denise while he’s at work.

As he gets a call about a body, Carla reminds him to be careful.

Beau: Always am.

Me: Oh no, Dean Winchester feels!

Beau and Jenny go check out the report of a body.

Beau: Any chance it’s somebody sleeping?

Jenny: Something tells me no.

I like that Beau is holding onto some optimism though, even with what he sees in the job he does. He seems to be a genuinely emotional man, who cares about people and wants to help. It must be hard to face the kind of thing that he has to in order to do his job – especially in this town!

They do indeed find a body, spotted by some young people. In a tree.

They agree that the worst part of the job is notifying next of kin – and it gets even harder when Poppernak calls to tell them one of the strings of his parachute was purposely cut.

They have to tell Bret’s wife, who says that he did drop in events as a stunt, and that he’d recently had a hard time after his best friend died on a fire line and Bret had to watch him burn. That news hits Beau particularly hard.

Beau: He blamed himself… yeah, I know how that goes.

Jenny glances at him, knowing that he does, her expression full of empathy for her friend.

The bereaved wife says that the head of the Smoke Jumpers Fire Unit blamed Bret for that guy’s son’s recent death in a fire, so Jenny and Beau head off to question that guy – Frank. At first Frank seems to bond with Beau.

Frank: Is that Texas I hear?

Beau is not having it, introducing himself as Sheriff Arlen and pointedly pulling back his jacket and showing his badge. Mmm. Is there a gif yet? Apparently not. Disappointing, fandom.

Beau confront Frank, saying that Bret’s wife said he blamed Bret for his son’s death. Frank bristles, but  Beau doesn’t let up.

Beau: So you DO blame Bret.

Frank: You sonofabitch, get real Sheriff!

A lot of anger there, and you can see Beau trying to figure it out.

Beau and Jenny eventually find out -with some help and tossing the football around with Poppernak – that after the last fire season, Bret rented a storage locker. Apparently that’s a thing, taking advantage of fire tragedy for theft. Wow, humanity.

That second gif eventually ended up in the fandom looking like this.

I wonder why.

They go to the storage locker, which gives us some nice shots of Beau’s #Beaulegs.

To their dismay, they find the clerk dead on the floor – and a figure on the surveillance camera breaking into a locker!

The two give chase, but the guy jumps a barbed wire fence and gets away. (Not gonna lie, I was kinda hoping we got Ackles leaping a fence again like he did as Dean Winchester a few times…)

Beau and Jenny confront Frank again, saying his son was the notification contract for the locker full of stolen goods. Frank is pissed.

Frank: You think my guys are robbing houses? They’re saving lives! My son was a hero!

But Beau has an idea as Frank leaves, saying he hates to say it, but Frank might still be useful. He doesn’t elaborate. Hmmm, what do you have in mind, Sheriff Arlen?

We see Frank go back to the Unit to talk to his second in command, who eventually admits to killing one of the jumpers because he was disloyal. Cooper denies killing Bret, but Frank sees through him, saying he thinks his son had a change of heart and had to be taken out too.

Frank: You killed my son!

Cooper realizes he’s wearing a wire, and a fight breaks out, but Jenny and Beau rush in and break it up to arrest Cooper.

Beau holds an enraged and grief stricken Frank back.

Frank: He killed my son!

Beau (empathic): I know. C’mon.

He walks Frank out, supportive hand on his back.

Meanwhile, the murderous goings on related to Sunny and her family continue. In the award for creepiest moment of the episode, Buck takes down the Sunny Days Excursions sign and injures his thumb in the process. He licks the blood in the most disturbing way possible, then slowly draws something on the pole – with the blood. A heart!

I gasped, even though I think most of us already suspected Buck might win the award for the creepiest scariest guy of them all on this season.  Rex Linn is SO good at it, it’s truly scary!

He erases the blood heart before Sunny can see it, advising her to stop looking for Paige’s body and let it go. Sunny doesn’t listen and goes to visit Donno and Tonya at the diner, where Donno serves a customer.

Donno: Veggie burger for you. Go ahead and waste your time.

I love Donno.

Tonya wants to go after Avery and the journal pages, Donno wants to leave it alone. Sunny pays them a visit.

Sunny: I told you I had my eye on you.

Donno: Be careful, someone might cut it out. Your eye.

Me: lol

But Tonya is all ears when Sunny says she thinks Paige is still alive.

Also meanwhile, Cormac has a tough episode. It starts out promising, dancing and flirting with Cassie at the bar, but she can’t shake the nagging questions she has about his parents, and he finally leaves, saying he can’t keep talking about it and she can’t let it go.

Cassie to herself: Well done, Cassie.

So relatable.

The next day she tells Jenny that she blew it by pushing too hard, and asks how Beau is doing. Jenny, on the other hand, is not pushing too hard. She says Beau’s not talking about it (and though she doesn’t say it, she hasn’t pushed him to). Cormac listened to Cassie, though, it turns out.

He follows his mother to the diner, sitting in the parking lot with the hospital bracelet in his hand and increasingly suspicious as he puts two and two together.  He finally confronts Sunny, asking her not to lie to him this time, saying he knows that photo wasn’t of his cousin.

Cormac: Who is he?

Sunny: His name’s Walter. He’s your brother.

Sunny tells him the whole story – how she was young, couldn’t take care of Walter, left him at a church, but the family treated him badly and hurt him. When she got the chance to have him back, she wanted to be a mother to him, have another chance, so she hid him away.

Cormac (devastated): You lied to me all these years.

She apologizes, and Buck admits to knowing about it too, but asks Cormac not to blow up their family.

Cormac: He’s a killer…

Buck: It’s over, nothing we can do about it now.

Poor Cormac. And although I don’t want to, I feel a bit for Sunny too, after hearing her story. That whole family…. What a tragedy, truly.

Avery has a tough episode too, but it seemingly ends well. He meets with the head of the bad guys, who give him another 24 hours to crack the code and get access to the $15 Million. If he doesn’t? Someone will break into the house in the middle of the night and Avery will wake up alone…maybe it will be by  gas…maybe Carla and Emily with a long thin wire pushed in the corner of the eye…

EWWW no not Emily!!! Protect her at all costs!!!

I almost feel for Avery, except it seems like his greed going after the $1 Million reward got him into this mess – and put Emily and Carla in danger too. He tries to talk Carla into going away to an air B&B that he rented with Emily in an attempt to protect them, but she refuses, saying he lied to her and things will just have to play out. I admire the way Carla keeps her boundaries, gotta say.

Emily shows herself to be more and more like her dad, hanging out with Denise and discussing UFOs but actually interested in the real life case. She brings them donuts in the morning.

Em: not to stereotype or anything, cops and donuts…

Denise: Are we cops??

Cassie: No.

But everyone is up for a glazed donut.  Em, contemplating the photo evidence board, says that maybe there’s something they missed in the cabin, that people keep sentimental things.

Em: My mom keeps her old wedding dresses in the closet. Yes, plural.

Me: Hmmm

(Not that mine isn’t in the closet, but…both of them, Carla? Hmmm)

Cassie goes back to the cabin on Emily’s hunch.

Unbeknownst to her, Sunny is already there, saying goodbye to her son. She hides when Cassie arrives, clutching a knife and looking totally unhinged, and why does Cassie always end up by herself in the dark investigating without any backup?? Cassie finds a loose board in the floor and something under it.

Back to our favorite Sheriff. Jenny and Beau crack open some beers for movie night outside his trailer.

Jenny: You okay?

Beau laughs at first, trying to put on a front of it’s all okay.

Then he opens up a bit and says more seriously that Frank would have done anything for his son. Anything. No matter what.

Jenny: So would I, for mine. So would you, for Emily.

Beau sighs.

Beau: It doesn’t feel like I’m there for her…that stepfather of hers is questionable at best… I just don’t know what to do about it…and I don’t like that.

I love the vulnerability that Ackles shows us here, the depth of how worried Beau is about his daughter and his need to be there for her, his guilt about not being able to do that in the way he wants to.

Jenny reminds him that Emily is strong, because he taught her to be.

Jenny: Give yourself a break.

He changes the subject asking where Cassie is, and Jenny says maybe with Cormac.

Beau: Oooh, some juicy details you wanna share?

They clink their beers just like Sam and Dean. I really like the way they support each other and genuinely care about each other, not in a romantic way but in a human way.

Cassie soon joins them, with a manila envelope she found under the boards of the cabin – in it are news clippings about the house fire that killed a couple.

Cassie: His name’s Walter.

Meanwhile, Sunny sings a sad song, a fire burning in front of her.

Emily stares at the photo board.

Avery wakes up and finds the code for the $15 Million, calling the bad guy to tell him the good news.

Cormac drinks, alone.

Someone joins Sunny, says she has a beautiful voice.

Sunny turns around – to see Paige!

I love how this show always has a last minute plot twist to leave you with your jaw on the floor. Cannot wait for tonight’s new episode!

Caps by spndeangirl

Gifs by justjensenanddean, sensitiveham, let-me-be-your-home and lyconite

–Lynn

You can read Jensen Ackles’ thoughts on fandom

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