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.