Big Sky: Recap of S03 E01 – “Do You Love an Apple”

Big Sky: Recap of S03 E01 – “Do You Love an Apple”

Air Date:  Wednesday September 21/22

Big Sky returned on Wednesday Sept 21st for its season 3 premiere.  Besides the addition of new cast members, Big Sky has made some format changes.  The show is now subtitled Deadly Trails.  Included with the overarching season storyline involving Sunny Day Excursions, there is also a weekly case to solve.  The weekly who-done-it gives viewers a chance to see Beau, Jenny and the team in action and meet some of the townsfolk.

Quick Recap of Season 2

The Legarski brothers are both dead.  Scarlet is in the wind, leaving Phoebe with family and the syndicate-implicating hard drive with the authorities.  Jenny’s son Justin is still away at college.  For his protection, Cassie left her son Kai with an Aunt, after she and Jerrie found photos of Kai in Rick Legarski’s home.  Veer Bhullar is killed by his son Jag, while sister Ren takes over the family business after buying out Alicia.  Jenny let Travis go on the condition that he turn himself in once he finds Kate Garza.  Jerrie remains in Idaho.  Sheriff Tubb is out of commission after being shot but calls in a new temporary Sheriff named Beau Arlen (Jensen Ackles, who is among several new faces this season).  There has been relative peace and calm in Helena, Montana for a few months but that all seems likely to change.

Questions moving into Season 3

• • • Beau says he means to attend grief counselling.  Why does he need grief counselling?
    • Is it just about his marriage ending or something more?
    • What happened to Beau and Carla’s marriage?
    • What kind of relationship does he have with his daughter Emily?
    • What are those things in Beau’s past that “he isn’t particularly proud of?”
    • Will Travis find Kate? Will he turn himself in afterwards?
    • What is the “syndicate” and who is John Milton?
    • Will Tonya and Donno continue to work for Ren Bhullar?
    • Jenny’s son Justin is off at College in Michigan.  Will he be returning?
    • For his protection, Cassie left her son Kai with an Aunt.  Will he be returning?

S03/E01 – Episode Recap

GL ABC BS Missing Person

At the opening of Big Sky season 3 episode 1, we see a lone backpacker Mark Woodman (Zack Tinker) who goes up on Deadman’s Drop trail and encounters a dangerous looking stranger brandishing a knife (Seth Gabel) asking for help to butcher a dead deer.  Once at the top of the trail, Mark discovers the stranger has followed him.  As the stranger approaches, we see Mark backing away until he stumbles and falls off the edge of the cliff.

At the Office of Dewell & Hoyt, Jenny (Katheryn Winnick), Cassie (Kylie Bunbury) and Denise (Dedee Pfeiffer) are having a chat when Cassie announces that she and Lindor (Omar Metwally) broke up and that he and Jerrie (Jesse James Keitel) make a good match.  A call came into the office about a missing backpacker and Denise shares the details, suggesting that Cassie check-in with Sunny Barnes.  Sunny Barnes (Reba McEntire) and her husband Buck (Rex Linn) are the owners of the new glamping outfit called Sunny Day Excursions.  Beau shows up to return Denise’s casserole dish and hitches a ride back to the station with Jenny.

GL ABC BS Beau Jenny In-Truck

The in-truck banter between Beau and Jenny reveals a few interesting facts. For one, Beau has a mental “punch list” that includes his daughter’s new stepdad.  For another, when Jenny says she’d like to meet Beau’s ex-wife he says that Carla and Jenny would not get along and “no good would come of it.”  Soon they pass a man jogging down the side of the road wearing nothing but his underwear and socks.  It turns out to be Corrections Officer Hank Miller (Brian Sutherland), claiming that his prisoner has escaped.

GL ABC BS Dad’s Ranch

This episode also reveals that Tonya now has a thriving real-estate business and owns the Blue Fox Diner, who employs Donno as chef.  Cassie drops into the restaurant to inform Tonya that she wants to buy her father’s ranch.  Tonya resists but Cassie says she will chat with the other potential buyers to reveal facts about the ranch Tonya would rather keep hidden.  Tonya relents and before the episode is over, we see her accept and sign off on Cassie’s offer.

Back at the office Denise’s memory is triggered when the Basin Trail was mentioned regarding the missing backpacker. It was the scene of a gruesome murder 20 years ago where a young girl’s body was mutilated, and her heart was cut out. Denise shares the details with Cassie.

In our second instance of in-truck banter, Beau reveals that he and Cassie have bonded over the last two months and get together for movie night. He insists they are just friends and invites Jenny to join them, which she does.  As they are about to have their movie night, Beau excuses himself to make a call to his daughter, who blows off the call with a text message.  Beau shares his worry that he is missing out on Emily’s life.  Jenny and Cassie offer some sage advice before they settle in to watch a horror movie.

Case of the Week

GL ABC BS Poppernak

After Jenny and Beau pick up the near-naked corrections officer Hank Miller, he claims that his prisoner Faith Cole (Bianca Stam) seduced him, overpowered him, and took his uniform, gun and patrol car. What we eventually learn is Faith helped to raise her ex-boyfriend’s daughter Madelyn (Aspen Martinez) and considers this young girl to be her own.  Faith learns that Madelyn has been left in the care of her ex-boyfriend’s brother William Camp and his wife May, who are making plans to emigrate to Ireland, taking Madelyn with them.  In a desperate attempt to stop this from happening, Faith escapes from Hank and kidnaps William Camp to get to Madelyn.  She has every intention of taking the child and going on the run.  Beau and Jenny are on her trail and drive up to Camp’s place when somehow he gets dropped from his apartment balcony onto Jenny’s truck.  Beau attends to Camp and waits for the ambulance to arrive while Jenny (much to Beau’s dismay) inspects the apartment without any backup.  Poppernak comes through with an address of where Camp’s wife works, and they head over there.  The stakes are high when Jenny and Beau arrive on the scene and the confrontation almost escalates to a shoot-out, but Faith relinquishes her gun.  It’s very telling that Beau asks Jenny to give Faith time to say a tearful farewell to Madelyn.  He is clearly a man with a softer side.

Deadly Trails

The long-burn mystery for Big Sky this season will be played out on the “deadly trails” backdrop of Sunny Day Excursions, a new glamping outfit designed to offer visitors a luxury back-country experience.  Sunny and Buck Barnes are the proprietors.  They also have their son working with them, Cormac Barnes (Luke Mitchell).

GL ABC BS Cassie Cormac

Cassie shows up to chat with Sunny about the missing backpacker and judging by the exchange it would seem they know each other.  Sunny asks if Cassie will be bringing her son Kai to camp, offering her a law-enforcement discount.  We see an exchange between Cormac and Cassie that might be something to watch for.

Before Sunny addresses the glamping troupe we learn of a shed-hunter that was recently mauled by a grizzly in the area.  Sunny and Buck decide to double-down on the bear-aware speech.

The guests checked-in at Sunny Day are Avery (Henry Ian Cusick), his stepdaughter Emily (Cree Cicchino) and his wife Carla (Angelique Cabral) who may join later as she was called away to work in California.  We come to understand before the episode is over, that Carla and Emily are in fact Beau’s ex-wife and daughter.  There is also a couple named Luke (Anirudh Pisharody) and Paige (Madalyn Horcher) who are bickering over her vacation choice (Luke wanted Cancún).  The others that round out the group don’t feature in the storyline of this episode. Perhaps they will feature in the next one.

GL ABC BS Blood on Paige

Paige and Luke, still bickering, end up near the signpost for Deadman’s Drop and find a tree with a heart shape carved into the trunk, painted red.  At this point we don’t know if it’s paint or blood.  Turns out Paige and Luke are being spied on by Emily, who explains to Sunny that she is trying to settle on a theme for her podcast and thinks “secrets and lies” is a good topic.

Night has fallen and Paige is sitting fireside without Luke when Sunny asks about him.  They talk about “having a good man” and Sunny alludes to a past with a man that wasn’t so good.  But now she has Buck.  Paige leaves to find Luke and tries to entice him out of his bad mood when blood drips down from above onto Paige’s face.  Buck and Sunny investigate and discover a mauled coyote on the ridge and chalk the incident up to “circle of life.”

At the end of the episode, we see Sunny burn the missing person leaflet about Mark Woodman.  She then delivers a plate of smores to the woods saying, “Momma brought you a treat!” and we see the stranger come out from behind the trees.

New Questions

1. Beau says that Jenny and Carla would not get along. Wonder why?
2. Cassie and Cormac exchange a meaningful glance. Is this the start of something?
3. Sunny and Buck talk about a shed-hunter that was mauled by a grizzly bear last month. Was it a grizzly?
4. Paige and Luke find a heart-shape carved into a tree trunk and painted red. Is it paint or blood and who did this?
5. Is the heart linked with the 20-year-old mutilation case where the girl’s heart was cut out?
6. Sounds like the stranger in the woods is Sunny’s son. What’s the story there?

“Do you Love an Apple” is an old Irish folksong, and it comes up four times in this episode.

1. Song plays on an old cassette player found by our missing backpacker, Mark Woodman.
2. Song plays again when the stranger comes up behind Mark at the top of Deadman’s Drop.
3. Song plays again just before blood drips down onto Paige’s face from the cliff above.
4. Song plays again, but this time it is being sung by Sunny as she delivers a plate of treats to the stranger in the woods.

Each week look for the following:

1. This week’s episode recap.
2. The case of the week.
3. The Deadly Trails saga.
4. New Questions.
5. Poppernak’s running list of nicknames.

Watch ABC for the next episode of Big Sky Deadly Trails, this Wednesday Sept 28 at 10 pm.