Big Sky Nears the End of Season 3 with the Emotional ‘Are You Mad?’

The answer: Hell yes! Just about everyone is mad in this episode, especially Sheriff Beau Arlen. And with good reason!

(And it turns out, some people fit the alternate definition of that question too…)

Here’s a recap of the penultimate episode and all things Beau Arlen as we head into the season 3 finale! The episode is a tension-filled roller coaster from the very first moment. Sunny comes home to find bloody handprints on the wall, calling for Buck – but it’s Paige who responds, carrying a big knife. She accuses Sunny of siccing her psychotic husband on her.

Paige: I killed him, and I’m gonna do the same to you.

Sunny holds her off, then Jenny and Cassie show up and tell Paige to drop the knife, it’s over.

Meanwhile, our favorite sheriff is in his office, looking at a framed photo of Emily as a baby in a ‘Daddy’s Girl’ frame.

He calls to check on her and she answers as she comes back from the coffee shop, juggling coffees and banana bread.

Emily: Consider me checked. Talk later?

A typical father and teenage daughter interaction, but I love how nothing discourages Beau from being protective of his “little girl”.

Poppernak says they found out who the guy from the hotel was that Beau shot, and Beau expresses his anger at Avery for this whole mess, saying  “that smug sonofabitch saw an opportunity to steal $15 million” without thinking about the consequences. Officer Madge interrupts them, and Beau asks hopefully if it’s breakfast burrito time?

Madge: I stopped serving men in 1999.

Beau: Okay…

I love Madge. The quirky characters in this show are a big part of what makes it so good.

She tells them the news that Paige is alive, and Sunny is currently being held for questioning.

Jenny questions Paige in her hospital bed. She says Buck took her somewhere underground in the woods but she doesn’t’ know where. Paige insists Sunny was in on it, that’s why she went after her. When Jenny doesn’t seem to be taking it seriously enough, Paige gets upset.

Paige: That psycho tortured me! He had hearts in jars, human trophies!

That gets Jenny’s attention for sure. We knew it!!

Beau questions Sunny, saying she’d better start talking. She insists she doesn’t know anything about the bleeding heart killer no matter what Paige says, that she was trying to keep Paige safe from the people she took the money from. Beau advises her to get out in front of all this, that this is her one chance, but Sunny is more concerned about Walter – now that Paige was found alive, he should be released. Maybe, she says, he could help them find Buck.

Beau considers.

I love that Jensen gets to do scenes with Reba McEntire. And though Sunny has been complicit in some not okay things, I can’t help but feel bad for her and relate to her love for her kids (even if she totally screwed that up too…)

Also, I may be entirely enthralled with Ackles in that faux fur collared jacket, especially in screencaps like that one. He looks like he maybe belongs in Game of Thrones and I would be here for that too.

Anyway, it’s more than a little unexpected that I’ve ended up sympathizing with Walter (and even with Paige a little), but I was happy to see that Walter is indeed released from prison. Sunny arrives to pick him up and he reluctantly gets in the car with her. She says he was right about Buck and she should have listened to him, but Walter is angry and hurt that she didn’t and I don’t blame him. Of course that fire wasn’t okay, but the guy was abused and then lived in the woods his whole life so I’ve got a soft spot for him.

Sunny tries to mother Walter at last but it’s too little too late. He looks at the happy family photos of her and Buck and Cormac wistfully, saying he wishes he could have been in photos like these.

Ouch.

Walter: You made me into a monster in your mind. Did you know about him?

Sunny insists she didn’t, says that Buck is dead and Cormac won’t even talk to her, but Walter says he doesn’t need her to protect him anymore. He hugs her goodbye as she begs him not to go. I felt bad for her, she’s really lost everyone and everything, even if a large part of that was her terrible decisions.

Walter goes to visit Paige, who’s glad to see him. She says he shouldn’t have lied for her, that he could have spent his life in jail. Walter says it wasn’t that bad (which sadly may be true for a lonely guy who lived in the woods). She tells him Buck is not dead. She’s hurt and scared and Walter still has feelings for her.

Walter: Don’t be afraid, I’ll take care of this.

Will Walter be the one to save the day after all?

Poppernak and Jenny visit Sunny and tell her that Buck is still alive. She insists she doesn’t know where he is and doesn’t have any reason to lie.

I feel bad for Sunny but like I said, soft spot for Walter.

No real soft spot for Avery though.

Avery calls Carla and leaves a message, telling her he knows he messed up, but saying that she and Emily mean everything to him. He swears that Beau doesn’t know the whole story, that he’ll explain. Then one of the bad guys shows up with a gun, threatening to blow his knee caps off and then take a blow torch to his wife…and then to come for his daughter…

There’s one thing the bad guy didn’t count on though, Avery says.

Bad guy: What’s that?

Donno attacks him from behind, beating him bloody.

Avery: Wouldn’t a gun have been easier?

Donno says he’s out of practice and had to be sure he still could do it.

Donno:  I still got it.

I love Donno.

At Cassie’s office, she and Denise and Emily try to figure out the map of all the hearts and where the bunker might be in there – looking at it like a sort of treasure map.

Cassie updates poor Cormac, who seems pretty devastated (understandably) hearing that his father’s a murderer. He’s also feeling guilty, saying he should have seen it. Cormac tells Cassie a story of being ten years old out hunting with his dad, waking up to see him staring at a patch of dirt in a weird trance. The next day all he would say is that something bad had happened.

Cassie: That’s not on you, you were just a kid.

Cormac wants to help though, and is able to add two hearts to the map.

Cassie: I know you want to, but don’t push everything down. Feel it, all of it. Trust me.

It’s good advice, that most people on this show don’t take.

Cassie joins Beau and Jenny, who are searching the woods, but the dogs have lost Paige’s scent.

Cassie  fills in the two missing hearts and that allows them to find the bunker where Paige was held.

Beau climbs up – I always appreciate when they let Ackles do the physical stuff because damn, he looks good doing it.

He tosses down a flash bomb, then leaps down himself in a very Dean Winchester move.

They explore with flashlights, also a very Supernatural looking scene.

The bunker is empty, but to their horror they find the jars of hearts, marked with names. LIZZY. BLAIR.

Beau: What the hell?

In another part of the woods, Buck staggers along, bloody, then falls down. A friendly little white dog finds him and leads its hapless owner to Buck. The guy is concerned, offering to help Buck to his truck nearby and of course you know immediately when he says that that his days are numbered. Sure enough, Buck breaks his neck and then picks up the dog and I think every single viewer’s heart was in their throat because little white fluffy LuLu is adorable. But psycho that he is, Buck just puts the dog down on her dead master and limps off to the truck.

Later, Beau and Jenny and Cassie find the poor guy’s body (and presumably LuLu)

Buck steals some super glue at a convenience store and SUPER GLUES his leg wound ewwwww.

Meanwhile, Carla is trailed by bad man Tex in his snazzy classic car.

Denise prepares to go to the coffee shop; Emily tells her to avoid the creeper, “some guy in a suit who complimented me on my drink.” Just then, the lights go out, and we see someone with a gun approach Denise and Emily.

Oh no, not Denise and Emily!!!

At the time, I thought it was one of the bad guys following them and wanting the money from Avery…

Carla, who definitely has guts, confronts Tex in his car, saying she knows he was following her – she apparently made four left turns to be sure. Smart!

Carla: The next place I’m going is to visit my ex husband at the sheriff’s station.

He drives off; she walks away, rattled. She does go to Beau’s office, and at first he asks if it can wait, in the midst of the increasingly confusing case.

But when she tells him she was followed, he snaps to attention, asking where Emily is.

Carla says she talked to her at work that morning, but hasn’t heard from her since.

Uh oh.

Just then, Cassie returns to the office, calling for Denise and Emily – who are gone. She answers her phone when Beau calls, asking if Emily is with him? When he says no, she knows something’s wrong. Their stuff is all there, but they’re not.

Cassie: Something’s not right.

Carla gasps, horrified.  Beau holds her, the two of them terrified together. He tells her to stay there.

Beau: I’m gonna go find her. I promise.

He looks beside himself, and Jensen lets us see just how scared he is – and how angry.

I know not everyone is Team Carla, but I like the way her and Beau have come to respect each other, and how united they are in their determination to protect their daughter, who they manage to put first no matter what.

Beau and Jenny go to Cassie’s office, and realize the power was cut so there’s no surveillance footage. Beau realizes it probably has to do with Avery taking the money.

Beau: I need to find Avery.

Jenny asks if he wants them to go with him.

Beau: No. get a response team ready, but I don’t want anyone doing anything WITHOUT CHECKING WITH ME!

We’ve never heard him raise his voice like that, sounding on the verge of losing it, and it shocks us just like it shocks Jenny and Poppernak.

Beau bursts in Avery’s door and physically confronts him, enraged. Terrified.

Beau: WHERE IS SHE?

Avery: Who?

Beau: Emily! Someone took her!

Avery: No!

He looks almost as shocked and terrified as Beau; I think Avery really does love Carla and Emily, but that hasn’t stopped him from being reckless and foolish and putting them in danger.

Beau is practically shaking Avery, vibrating with rage and terror.

Beau: I swear to you Avery, if anything happens to her, I’m gonna destroy you!

Avery tells him to wait, that he’s meeting the bad guys that night to make a deal. He insists that he doesn’t know if they have Emily, which just increases Beau’s frustration.

Beau: Where’s my daughter, Avery??

He’s unhinged, barely holding it together. Avery insists that he wants Emily back too.

Beau: Then you had better start listening to me and doing EXACTLY what I say.

Thank you, Big Sky, for the extreme close ups that don’t just show us how beautiful he is, but how much emotion he’s trying desperately to hold back and hold it together.

Back at his office, Jenny tries to calm him down.

Beau: I can’t believe I let this happen…

Jenny assures him that she’s here for him, she’s got his back, a call back to their first meeting.

Beau (choking back a sob): That’s my baby…

I don’t know if it’s Jensen’s delivery or being a parent of a “little girl” named Emily myself, but my eyes were as brimming with tears as his were at that moment. It wasn’t hard for Jensen to tap into those emotions either, thinking of his own daughters I’m sure, but it must have been tough to turn all that emotion off, as he’s said before.

Beau says as much as he doesn’t want to trust Avery at all, he has to play this out with Avery.

Jenny: Okay then, that’s what we’ll do.

Beau and Avery go to visit Tonya and Donno, who are surprised to see them together.

Tonya: Ooh, old husband bonding with new husband?

Beau says they’re not there to arrest them as Donno eyes the large knife on the counter.

Tonya: No bonding, no arrests…

Beau: My daughter and Denise have gone missing.

Donno (deadpan): Put them on a  milk carton.

Beau, to their surprise, says he needs them to back Avery as they planned.

Beau: The only thing that matters to me is Emily and Denise.

Avery: The money is yours, all of it.

Beau: Are we on the same page? Emily and Denise do not get hurt.

He holds out his hand to shake on it, and Tonya takes it.

Donno hesitates.

Donno: I don’t like being in bed with law types and sneaky English. He probably hunts foxes…

Tonya promises, after this they’re out.

Donno reluctantly shakes Beau’s hand and uh oh I have a very bad feeling about all this…

Avery corrects Donno as they leave.

Avery: Scottish.

It’s one of the few moments I actually liked Avery. A little.

So Avery, Tonya and Donno meet with the bad guy and Tex and the Toronto Triplets. Who are a duo.

Donno: They’re not really triplets.

I know you know, but I love Donno. Ryan O’Nan is one of the writers of the show too, and I bet he’s almost as fascinating as the character he plays.

Avery has a wire on, Beau and Jenny and the team listening in. Avery goes off script almost immediately and Beau curses him.

Beau: Sonofoabitch thinks he’s a lot smarter than he is.

Turns out he’s very right about that. Also, insane eyelashes, just saying.

Avery: Where is my daughter??

Bad guy: Where is my money?

Avery pulls a gun, off script again.

Beau: What the hell is he doing?

But he lets it play out, having little choice.

Tex surprises everyone by suddenly having some twisted ethics, saying “you took his daughter?” and then walking out, saying he draws the line at kids.

The bad guy promises that if Avery puts down the gun and shows him that he can access the money, he’ll tell him where Emily is. Avery holds up his phone – all he has to do is push a button to make the transfer.

Bad guy: You must really love that girl.

He has the information he needs, so he shoots poor foolish Avery. Tonya shoots him. The twins start shooting back; Donno returns fire, pulling Tonya behind a table to keep her safe. When the twins are down, Tonya realizes to her horror – and MINE – that Donno has been shot and is bleeding profusely.

Tonya: Donno! Somebody help!

Donno: Remember when I stabbed you with that stake? Not killing you was the best thing I ever did…

Tonya sobs and kisses him.

Tonya: No no, stay with me please, please somebody help!

Jenny and Beau and the team burst in, guns drawn.

Beau goes straight to the mortally wounded bad guy, demanding “Where’s my daughter?”

Bad guy: I don’t have her… someone else…

Beau: WHO??

He dies, and the realization and the horror dawns on Beau.

Beau: Buck has them.

Me: OMG

We see Emily and Denise tied up in the back of the truck, mouths duct taped, as Buck drives, country music playing. He is batshit crazy, reminiscing about his wedding day with Sunny, yelling at them to be quiet when Emily starts screaming.

Buck: Listen to me, because I am the Alpha…and I am the Omega… and I have a call to make.

Me: Has he been reading too much fanfic??

Sunny’s phone rings.

Sunny: Buck, is that you?

Buck: Are you mad?

OMG Big Sky, you’re killing me! And the previews for tonight’s season finale seem to show Sheriff Beau so desperate to save his little girl that he doesn’t see a trip wire until it’s too late…. That better be misleading, Big Sky! I swear, I did not intend to care about these characters and damn it, I do! I don’t want Beau to die and I don’t want Donno to die (Avery can stay dead, that’s okay. Sorry, Henry Ian Cusick).

Tonight the season finale airs – don’t miss it on ABC!

Caps by raloria/spndeangirl

Gifs by justjensenanddean and sensitiveham

–Lynn

You can read Jensen Ackles’ thoughts on

fandom and Supernatural in his chapters

in Family Don’t End With Blood and There’ll

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