S01.E07: I Fall To Pieces

[AnimeMania]

Cassie and Jenny work against the clock to find Ronald and prove Legarski’s guilt, calling on Grace to join their efforts and bravely help them in the process. Just when all the pieces start falling into place, Ronald’s emotions get the best of him as he makes an unthinkable decision, even for him. Merilee plays an unwilling and life-changing role in turning the case on its head.    Original Airdate: Feb. 2     Tuesdays at 10pm ET      ABC

Please let this story line end.

RIP Momma stayed too long for her own good

[Dowel Jones]

When the attorney told the doctor "I bit the chick's head off.  I have never looked back.", I would have answered "Yeah, I wouldn't either, with a dead chick stuffed up my ass."

Momma had a nice old telephone on the end table there.  She should have known not to get between Ronald and his cereal earlier.

I didn't read the news.  How did Punxsutawney Phil turn out?  Are we going to have six more weeks of absurd plots?

Edited February 3, 2021 by Dowel Jones

[UnknownK]

It can't be that easy to snap an old ladies neck is it?

A few days in a hot tub will make soup out of you, a hot sulfer spring for a few days should have turned that dead fisherman into a bloated mess.

[Maverick]

 That's not the first time he killed his mother. 

[mertensia]

I love that no one cares that Jerrie is transgender. That she is treated as if she was a cis woman. Also that she has friends willing to keep her safe. 

Yeah, who didn't see momma's neck getting snapped coming? 

I'm also happy that Grace said "yes, I can do this" and ID'd both fly fisherman and Legarski.

Edited February 3, 2021 by mertensia

[mertensia]

2 hours ago, mertensia said:

 

Double post.

Edited February 3, 2021 by mertensia

[OoogleEyes]

I never thought that I'd see "eat cereal, angrily" but here we are. 

[preeya]

"I'm dreading the fact that he'll recover and fake not recalling anything related to his criminal activity"

I wrote this ↑ after the last episode and sure enough he's really doing it.

Also, those scenes where the young girl made the IDs is totally bogus, and that defense lawyer is equally bogus. This story-line is getting close to comic book writing.

 

Edited February 3, 2021 by preeya

[thuganomics85]

I swear, I'm starting to think John Caroll Lynch and Brian Geraghty have some kind of side-betting going on over who can ham it up the most each episode.  I'll give Brian the edge this go around (especially the cereal eating bit), but John is still right behind him, even when spending most of his scenes just lying in bed and staring into space.

Anyway, totally not surprised that Rick suddenly has amnesia now, so I'm guessing the question is going to be if he is fit to strand trial and so forth.  Of course, the real question is over if he's actually faking it or it it real now and then he'll fake it later on, because come on.  It's totally going to end with him getting his memories back and using that to his advantage.

Ronald finally snaps (sorry) and "kills" his mom, but like others, I wonder if she is really a figment of his imagination, and she'll be up and about next week.  If not, at the very least Valerie Mahaffey will probably still stick around as a corpse on a chair, since Ronald seems content to just leave her there.  He really is this show's version of Norman Bates, huh?

Nice to see that Karin Konoval has found work again already after leaving The Good Doctor this season.  Her lawyer was over-the-top even by this show's standards (who in the hell came up with that chic story?!), but she was relishing every moment of it, and I approve heartily!  Also cool seeing fellow veteran Canadian actor Alessandro Juliani here as the doctor.  They now need to get either Roger Cross as a soft-spoken FBI agent or detective or Rob Stewart as some kind of smooth-talking hitman, and I think they'll get Canadian Character Actor Bingo!

That friend of Jeri's who was boasting about how he hopes he gets an opportunity to take out Ronald/her stalker means he's totally going to be dying, right?

Glad they had Merilee be smart and not only recognize the Ronald sketch, but not lie about it and try to "get his side of the story", and instead just be like "Yeah, that psycho is upstairs right now.  Please get him!" to Jenny and Cassie.  Of course, I'm sure he'll escape before next week's title card, but I'm glad they avoided that cliche.

Grace continues to be awesome.  Hell, even Danielle is miles better than what she was during the earlier episodes.  Their parents are pretty much non-entities though.

[Cristofle]

So that's probably not the first time Ronald has snapped his mother's neck, given the ongoing Norman Bates vibe. I did LOL when either she or his vision of her made fun of his attempts to hide his identity, because same. That hair dye isn't exactly a whole new appearance.

Of COURSE it took Cassie and Jenny showing the sketch to Legarski's wife, because Tubb is at best incompetent and at worst complicit. Jenny had to twist his arm into agreeing to any kind of security for Jerrie. If the wife is innocent as she generally seems to be (despite kind of out of touch with reality), I would raise holy hell in her shoes because Tubb never bothering to ASK HER if she knew her husband's accomplice is almost criminally outrageous and could have gotten her killed. 

I was glad Grace IDed the dead fisherman and Legarski because I worried the show was building up to either the body not being found or Grace somehow having a trauma block about Legarski. 

I sort of lean towards not believing Legarski, but that could be because John Caroll Lynch so often plays a creepy killer that I am naturally not trusting him. 

I continue to find Cassie and Jenny's dynamic a highlight.

Edited February 3, 2021 by Cristofle

[AnimeMania]

8 hours ago, Dowel Jones said:

Momma had a nice old telephone on the end table there.  She should have known not to get between Ronald and his cereal. earlier.

Cereal Killer, you don't want to be an old lady or a box of Cap'n Crunch in that household.

7 hours ago, UnknownK said:

A few days in a hot tub will make soup out of you, a hot sulfer spring for a few days should have turned that dead fisherman into a bloated mess.

He was wrapped in Saran Wrap before Legarski took him to Sulpher Springs, he stayed fresh.

So I took that baby chick and shoved it right up my ass! Now whenever anybody asks me "What's your problem, do you have a chick up your ass", I say "YES!"

How many months are you gonna spend working on this "free" case, I thought you had bills and employees to pay. 

[LakeGal]

I can't believe how bad the cops are in this town.  The PIs have to do all the work.  They finally got a sketch of Ronald.  But it was the PIs that had to think to show it to the killer trooper's wife.  I hope they show that sketch to the truck stops in the area.  I thought the sketch was pretty good although I think it made his face look a bit fatter.  A black & white sketch doesn't affect the fact he dyed his hair darker.  I laughed that he thought that was going to keep him from being identified.  It just looked like his hair was wet.  

We know Ronald will be gone when they get upstairs.  I am waiting for him to try and get in the hospital to get to the trooper.  

This show has it's laughable moments but I am still enjoying it.  

[Dowel Jones]

3 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

Anyway, totally not surprised that Rick suddenly has amnesia now,

He doesn't have total amnesia.  He specifically remembered that he is a Montana. State. Trooper.

[mythoughtis]

6 hours ago, OoogleEyes said:

I never thought that I'd see "eat cereal, angrily" but here we are. 

The way he ate reminded me a a child.  The grip in that spoon was so much like a kid.  Besides the fact that he was eating Coco Puffs.  
I still think his Mom was already dead. You don’t snap a persons neck  merely by touching it.  This show hasn’t shied away from violence so they would have shown the actual snap otherwise. 
 

how is it that an entire large room was filled for Cody’s wake but Merilee doesn’t have a single friend?  No one to even call her?  The adult offspring haven’t called?!

It doesn’t matter how many times Rick announces that ‘I’m a Montana state trooper’, he should still be handcuffed to the bed 24/7.  Not just when a victim shows up to ID him.  Where’s the guard that should be present too? 

[tennisgurl]

I was worried for a second that Merilee would try to cover for Ronald, but I am glad that she told Cassie and Jenny right away that he was there. I thought that they would walk back some of the plot to keep Ronald on the run and get Legarski off, like he would spin a story about how he was trying to save the girls when Cassie shot him and they cant find the body of the fisherman and they try to write off the women's account based on trauma* or something, but it looks like the big question will be if he can stand trail with amnesia (which I totally saw coming) or if he's faking it or will end up faking it later on to try and get a lesser charge. They are also really close to Ronald, but I bet that he will escape at the last minute, but at least Merilee knows who he is now. 

A lot of this is still pretty ridiculous and draggy, but this new batch of episodes is already an improvement over the first run of episodes from before winter break. The plot is moving forward and has become less repetitive,  the characters are more likable, and the team up of Cassie and Jenny has been very welcome. I am glad that they finally got some closure with everything that went on with Cody and can finally work together again, they have great chemistry together. 

Grace is the best, as always, she is handling all of this pretty amazingly. I felt so bad for her when she was saying how she feels like its her fault the fisherman died. There was less Danielle, but she was being very supportive of her sister and is keeping it together pretty well, which is certainly way better than when she was pretty much nails on a chalkboard when the show started. I am actually kind of curious about Danielle's boyfriend/Jenny's son, how's he doing with all this? We saw him briefly with Danielle at the funeral, but we haven't really heard much from him, despite his dad recently dying and his girlfriend disappearing. You would think we would at least get a scene between him and Jenny. I guess we have enough going on already, but it just feels weird. 

So Legarski's union rep is...a lot. She was like "I can ham it up just as much as Legarski can!" and came in super hot with her bizarre chicken up the ass story. What a weird flex, how do you even respond to that? I guess everyone needs representation, even scumbags, but what is her endgame here? It seems like she wants something besides just being Legarski's legal counsel, it seems like she has some other agenda. Like Merilee said, its clear that he's guilty, is she just here to cover the unions ass in case people start asking why this went on for so long, or start questioning if other troopers are involved? Merilee really does need to get a lawyer, spend more time getting legal representation and looking at out of state property and less time hovering around your shitty husband and making eyes at your Taxy Dancing boyfriend Merilee. 

The only shocking thing about Ronald killing his mom is that she wasn't dead this whole time. Of course, maybe she really was dead, and when Cassie and Jenny get to his house, they find her skeleton in the living room and its obvious she's been dead for years. 

*Yeah it sounds stupid, but I've seen shows that have pulled stupider things out of their asses to try and keep villains around long past their expiration date.

[shapeshifter]

I happened to catch just this episode last night, and one line has been echoing in my brain ever since. One lady told another to hang an American flag because it suggests the people who live there have guns. Interesting. 🤔 

[luvthepros]

1 hour ago, mythoughtis said:

You don’t snap a persons neck  merely by touching it.  This show hasn’t shied away from violence so they would have shown the actual snap otherwise. 
 

 

We didn't see it but we heard it. No doubt to me that her neck was snapped at that moment.

[Cristofle]

2 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I happened to catch just this episode last night, and one line has been echoing in my brain ever since. One lady told another to hang an American flag because it suggests the people who live there have guns. Interesting. 🤔 

And not gonna lie, especially in Montana, that's exactly what I'd think, heh. 

Merilee immediately outing Ronald was maybe the smartest thing she's ever done thus far. 

[Jadzia]

I was just watching this episode while I was on the elliptical and when i came upstairs Mr.Jadzia said “Wow, that show had you riled up.” Turns out he heard me yelling at the tv about why did the 16 year old victim have to go into her tormentor’s hospital room to identify him? Didn’t she ID him at the scene? Couldn’t she have just ID’d him from a photograph?

And why did it take so long for them to come up with sketch? They mentioned getting the info from the girls during the last episode. It’s not like the artist added color or photoshop it for days. But I guess if they had that sketch earlier then Merrill would have identified the trucker already and we wouldn’t have had any of the events in this episode. 

I was glad they addressed the fisherman in this episode because last week they were acting like Legarski had only killed one person.  Him having no recent memory and acting horrified at what he did is giving me some Harrison Ford Regarding Henry vibes. But I agree with the poster above who think he will get his memory back at some point and then continue to fake it. Him randomly quoting lines from Jaws is hilarious. 

[blackwing]

I am fully convinced that Legarski is absolutely faking it.  I believe he knows exactly who he is and what he did, and he’s pretending so he can  escape charges.  No doubt the cops will let him go.

That “Dr. Wang” was the most Indian looking Chinese doctor I’ve ever seen.  Between this and “Robert Hsieh” on the last season of “How to Get Away With Murder” being played by an Iranian actor, what is with ABC shows and the casting?  I suppose it’s possible that the doctor could have a Chinese father and an Indian mom, but really, all of Asia is not interchangeable.  

[CrystalBlue]

I liked Merrilee's newfound gallows humor and her practicing of it lines.  Also, now is really not a good time.  Fortunately, she recognized her would-be suitor and didn't hesitate to reveal his whereabouts.  Of course, Ronald will be gone by the time the PI Duo make it upstairs.

[Laurie4H]

In the last 3 years of his life Legarski became a kidnapper, sex trafficker, and murderer?   He must be faking his complete innocence because nobody just becomes a sociopath.  Unless the brain damage miraculously altered him into a decent person.  

[Cristofle]

1 hour ago, Laurie4H said:

In the last 3 years of his life Legarski became a kidnapper, sex trafficker, and murderer?   He must be faking his complete innocence because nobody just becomes a sociopath.  Unless the brain damage miraculously altered him into a decent person.  

If he is faking, which I lean towards thinking he at least partially is, he's actually being SOMEWHAT smart about it because while he's completely playing dumb about any crimes, he's still a misogynistic creep in the way he talks to his lawyer. The show did clarify that Legarski and Ronald are two different kinds of psychopaths (even the girls said Legarksi was "way worse"); if Ronald was twisted out of years of emotional and possible sexual abuse (going off the creepy scene with his mother in the bed), I think Legarski just...is the way he is. He's always been that way. And it's possible/likely that even if he DOESN'T remember the last three years, these crimes were not his first serious violent offenses. He did not hesitate to murder Cody or the fisherman; I seriously doubt he even magically started murdering people a couple years ago. 

Edited February 4, 2021 by Cristofle

[blackwing]

Sheriff Tubb has to be in on this, right?  Nobody is that incompetent.  The lady that told Cassie and Jenny that there were other ways of getting access, was that the boss lady we saw earlier (Cruz?) or is that a different lady?

If as many here are saying, Ronald killed his mom years ago and is having Norman Bates delusions, and Legarski gets sent home free as a bird because he is pretending to have lost three years of his life and acts horrified when he learns what he did... then what a slap in the face to anyone who is suffering from mental illness.  “Act crazy and you too can commit heinous crimes and just say you are not at fault because you’re crazy!”

Looks to me that this is the path we are headed down, and with a 16 episode season, I am not looking forward to how long they draw this out.  We already know that both of these shitstains are 100% guilty.  But no doubt Ronald escapes Merrilee’s house and is in the wind and Legarski gets sent home to recuperate   And meanwhile Cassie and Jenny grow increasingly frustrated with their attempts to seek justice.

I’m sure the season will end with these two killing each other.  I don’t know how much more of these two I can tolerate, especially Legarski.   Assuming there is a season 2, I would be out if either of them survive the season.

 

[Jadzia]

3 hours ago, Cristofle said:

If he is faking, which I lean towards thinking he at least partially is, he's actually being SOMEWHAT smart about it because while he's completely playing dumb about any crimes, he's still a misogynistic creep in the way he talks to his lawyer. 

Oh yeah, I forgot to comment on that. Why on earth was he calling his lawyer "stout" when that actress was not in any way stout? He also said that stout women have a hard time finding husbands which I found ironic since she seemed about the same size as his wife. Did the writers intend to cast a larger woman for that role?

[tennisgurl]

I don't think the sheriff is in on it, he is probably just written as being an incompetent idiot so that Jenny and Cassie can solve this whole case, but I do kind of raise an eyebrow at the union rep. She is being really cagey about what she is actually trying to accomplish here, and while her trying to get Legarski to shut up as much as possible makes sense as a lawyer, I almost wonder if she is actually with whoever he was planning to sell the girls to, or is part of the bigger trafficking operation, and she is trying to feel out how much of a liability he is and what he might tell the cops about the operation. 

[Tachi Rocinante]

If I was a doctor and some twunt lawyer snapped her fingers in my fucking face I would have laughed and walked away.

Took me a second to realize that was Gaeta from BSG.  Butterfingers!

[tennisgurl]

1 hour ago, Tachi Rocinante said:

If I was a doctor and some twunt lawyer snapped her fingers in my fucking face I would have laughed and walked away.

 

I really have no idea what the response to that lady should be, if your a doctor or just some random person. 

"Chicken up the ass chicken up the ass snap snap snap..."

"Ma'am, this is an Arby's..." 

[saber5055]

So a teen girl has to ID a body pulled from a chemical hot spring where it's been for ... how many days? I guess in Montana they haven't heard of DNA, which would be more reliable than a kid girl out in the woods. I was watching that episode and couldn't tell you what the fisherman looked like, how could Grace know for certain. Especially since it seems there are plenty of bodies floating around in those hot pools, according to the cop.

Does Ronald even do real trucking? He doesn't work for any company, just kidnaps girls as income?

[KaveDweller]

33 minutes ago, saber5055 said:

So a teen girl has to ID a body pulled from a chemical hot spring where it's been for ... how many days? I guess in Montana they haven't heard of DNA, which would be more reliable than a kid girl out in the woods. I was watching that episode and couldn't tell you what the fisherman looked like, how could Grace know for certain. Especially since it seems there are plenty of bodies floating around in those hot pools, according to the cop.

Does Ronald even do real trucking? He doesn't work for any company, just kidnaps girls as income?

DNA would identify the guy's name, but Grace was supposedly identifying that the body belonged to the guy she saw killed. Otherwise a lawyer could argue that some other psycho with an arrow killed the body they found.

Her identifying Lagarksi made no sense though. She already said he was the guy who kidnapped them. They may want an ID like that for the trial, but what good does it do in the hospital?

[dwmarch]

The new lawyer character came straight over from David E. Kelly's lawyer-verse. I wouldn't be surprised if she worked at Crane, Poole and Schmidt.

I gained an appreciation for Merilee here. She's been humoring Ronald but she's always known something was off about him. And once she found out what it was she didn't hesitate to armed, angry strangers into her house to chase him out.

I also liked that the body was relatively well preserved despite having soaked in a nasty-looking sulfur pool for a few days. I was expecting the opposite where they would go so far as to drain the thing but wouldn't find the body and the police would go back to being mad at the PIs.

Edited February 6, 2021 by dwmarch

[Shermie]

Quote

Why on earth was he calling his lawyer "stout" when that actress was not in any way stout?

Stout is an odd word, something older people might say. I'd say she was sturdy, though. Maybe it's her strong jaw emphasized by that pyramid hairstyle, or her general commanding presence. 

Agree that Ronald's mother has been dead a long time, based on the age of the "tech" in the house. The snapping sound was him snapping a neck bone of her skeleton. How old is Ronald - 45? So maybe he killed his mother 30 years ago when she changed from sleeping with her little boy to "sleeping" with her teenage son. He never changed anything in the house after that, hence the old tech. Her tv and phone are older than that yet, but since she's an old-fashioned woman (look at her prim clothes), she would have kept her perfectly good tv and phone for years. (And truth be told, those old tvs last forever, way better than the slacker crap they sell now)

As for Legarski, yeah, he's faking it. We'll get the trope of him sneakily looking away or something so we know he knows. 

I'd like it if Merrilee was the criminal mastermind behind it all. Bwah-ha-ha!

[Dowel Jones]

Is there any mention of 'stout' in the movie Jaws?  I don't recall, but that could be it.  Or maybe Legarski is winging it so that he appears incompetent for trial.

[shapeshifter]

4 hours ago, Shermie said:

Quote

Why on earth was he calling his lawyer "stout" when that actress was not in any way stout?

Stout is an odd word

Perhaps he is using the descriptor “stout” to throw her off, to distract her,  to undermine her sense of self, and ultimately to gaslight her. 

Edited February 6, 2021 by shapeshifter

[sempervivum]

20 hours ago, Shermie said:

He never changed anything in the house after that, hence the old tech. Her tv and phone are older than that yet, but since she's an old-fashioned woman (look at her prim clothes), she would have kept her perfectly good tv and phone for years.

You can't see it in that shot above, but I was catching up with this episode last night and noticed that the refrigerator is at least 60 -70 years old, too, though it looks new. 

I wondered about Ronald's attempting to disguise his truck. I get repainting it and destroying the plates, etc., but don't trucks have VIN #'s like cars? How would he fake/alter those? And don't modern trucking companies have everything GPS'd for tracking? I would assume the police would be able to get records from any hauler in the locale, and work back from there. Like so much of this, the plot doesn't bear scrutiny.

I hope Merilee and Jerrie stick around, they're by far the most appealing characters on his show, imo. Can't stand the actual lead females.

[CrystalBlue]

3 hours ago, sempervivum said:

You can't see it in that shot above, but I was catching up with this episode last night and noticed that the refrigerator is at least 60 -70 years old, too, though it looks new. 

I wondered about Ronald's attempting to disguise his truck. I get repainting it and destroying the plates, etc., but don't trucks have VIN #'s like cars? How would he fake/alter those? And don't modern trucking companies have everything GPS'd for tracking? I would assume the police would be able to get records from any hauler in the locale, and work back from there. Like so much of this, the plot doesn't bear scrutiny.

I hope Merilee and Jerrie stick around, they're by far the most appealing characters on his show, imo. Can't stand the actual lead females.

There.  You said it.  ITA.  Jerrie and Merrilee are my favorite women too, followed by Grace.

You're correct about the disguised rig, but I guess it gets Ronald a free pass to pursue his truck driving passion and side hustle of kidnapping and human trafficking by not getting pulled over in the first place.  Unless he can file down or burn out the VIN, it wouldn't be able to be matched but it sure will look suspicious if it has been tampered with.

[Dowel Jones]

Many, if not most, vehicles have a VIN imprinted on a secret location on the frame, generally known only to the manufacturer and law enforcement, to mitigate the destruction of obvious VINs.

[luvthepros]

20 hours ago, Dowel Jones said:

Many, if not most, vehicles have a VIN imprinted on a secret location on the frame, generally known only to the manufacturer and law enforcement, to mitigate the destruction of obvious VINs.

The VIN on our SUV is visible from the outside the vehicle looking through the windshield.

[mythoughtis]

52 minutes ago, luvthepros said:

The VIN on our SUV is visible from the outside the vehicle looking through the windshield.

Yes, but that one can be damaged.  There’s one that you’d only find if you knew where to look. 
I doubt that Ronald did anything to any of the vins.  The victims don’t know the vin.  They can ( maybe) only describe the truck and possibly the plate.  One issue that Ronald doesn’t seem to consider is the flaw in putting a fake plate number on the truck.  Police can run the plate against databases regardless of state and without stopping the truck. Furthermore, he has to stop at interstate weigh stations  and they could run the plate there.  A plate that doesn’t match the vehicle or owner would be a serious issue.  The truck would be impounded.