S03.E02: The Woods Are Lovely, Dark and Deep

[Guest]

Quote

Helena is turning into a real family town. When disgruntled “reformed” realtor Tonya calls the police on a squatter living in one of her homes, Jenny arrives only to discover a shocking connection to her past tied to the case. Across town, Cassie and Beau work to track the still-missing backpacker and Sunny works to protect a secret of her own hidden in the woods. Meanwhile, Beau’s daughter Emily takes a campground investigation dangerously into her own hands, but has she stumbled upon a story far more nefarious than she could have imagined?

Air date: September 28, 2022

[AnimeMania]

[tessathereaper]

This was a great episode.  They are starting to really build the intrigue, now it looks like Luke and Paige are involved in something shady?  And why was Avery, Beau's ex-wife's husband and daughter's stepfather, sneaking about their tent? I definitely liked the scene with Beau and Emily, he's a bit over protective though. I wonder if that's a kind of contrast to Sunny, who takes being a protective mama bear a bit too far.

So far Walt hasn't actually done anything - yes he freaked out the poor camper who fell off the drop but he didn't push him.  He didn't know what to do to help him. I think it's possible he's just disabled, it unnerves people so they think he's creepy and get frightened.  Even Sunny, at this point while she's certainly didn't do anything to help the camper, nothing she would have done would have saved him at that point, he clearly had serious internal injuries, he died within a couple minutes of her finding out about him. BUT given that she clearly was not even going to try to help him, even if she could have, that definitely suggests something's up with her.

I also liked the B-case with the whistleblowers.  The actor posted a picture of him, Jensen and Katheryn in the interrogation room about a month ago and mentioned they stayed late to be there for his coverage.  

Edited September 29, 2022 by tessathereaper

[Myrelle]

13 minutes ago, tessathereaper said:

This was a great episode.  They are starting to really build the intrigue, now it looks like Luke and Paige are involved in something shady?  And why was Avery, Beau's ex-wife's husband and daughter's stepfather, sneaking about their tent? I definitely liked the scene with Beau and Emily, he's a bit over protective though. I wonder if that's a kind of contrast to Sunny, who takes being a protective mama bear a bit too far.

So far Walt hasn't actually done anything - yes he freaked out the poor camper who fell off the drop but he didn't push him.  He didn't know what to do to help him. I think it's possible he's just disabled, it unnerves people so they think he's creepy and get frightened.  Even Sunny, at this point while she's certainly didn't do anything to help the camper, nothing she would have done would have saved him at that point, he clearly had serious internal injuries, he died within a couple minutes of her finding out about him. BUT given that she clearly was not even going to try to help him, even if she could have, that definitely suggests something's up with her.

I also liked the B-case with the whistleblowers.  The actor posted a picture of him, Jensen and Katheryn in the interrogation room about a month ago and mentioned they stayed late to be there for his coverage.  

IA!

Things are ramping up already! 

I really liked this one too.

And Jenny's little "Beau..." when he was on his own in the house(and kicking in the door! a la another character played by Mr. Ackles and whom we know and love oh so well)showed just how much she's come to care for the new sheriff already.

Loved that. So much.

The Supernatural easter eggs were abundant in this one.

Loved that too.

Again, more when RL allows...

[Myrelle]

Oh, and yes! Loving the side mysteries, too! 

[tessathereaper]

31 minutes ago, Myrelle said:

IA!

Things are ramping up already! 

I really liked this one too.

And Jenny's little "Beau..." when he was on his own in the house(and kicking in the door! a la another character played by Mr. Ackles and whom we know and love oh so well)showed just how much she's come to care for the new sheriff already.

Loved that. So much.

The Supernatural easter eggs were abundant in this one.

Loved that too.

Again, more when RL allows...

Yes I forgot to mention that.  I noticed her worried little "Beau" when he was in another part of the house and she heard the door kicking etc.  She was worried about him.

I think the only actual easter egg was the salt.  I think the rest of the stuff is just coincidence.  But giving Bread and Salt as a housewarming gift is apparently a real thing, along with wine, but in the case of our 3 Musketeers, it's tequila(or whisky? I didn't actually get a good look at the bottle)

[MAK]

I'm glad they're getting into the mystery of the season and ramping up the creepy factor. The first two seasons started out with such focus on the villains, and the first episode of this season, although hinting at more to come, was relatively mild. 

Luke and Paige talked about "the money,"  is it the same money that Jef  with one F has with him? And is Avery involved with the aeronautics company that he is trying to expose?

Loved the interactions between Beau and Emily.  The housewarming gifts were fun.

[mythoughtis]

Sunny’s son is definitely in trouble for something because Sunny told him he was supposed to stay wherever she had put him.  She’s also definitely hiding  him from her spouse and other son.  I think he is too young to have been a killer in the 20 year old case though. 
 

Several good mysteries here.  One not so good mystery is where Cassie’s young son is.  With her Dad dead, no one is there to watch him.  She’s unpacking in her new home and he’s not there and there has been no mention of him. In fact the last mention of him was last season when one of the teenagers was an occasional babysitter for him. 

[tessathereaper]

53 minutes ago, mythoughtis said:

Sunny’s son is definitely in trouble for something because Sunny told him he was supposed to stay wherever she had put him.  She’s also definitely hiding  him from her spouse and other son.  I think he is too young to have been a killer in the 20 year old case though. 
 

Several good mysteries here.  One not so good mystery is where Cassie’s young son is.  With her Dad dead, no one is there to watch him.  She’s unpacking in her new home and he’s not there and there has been no mention of him. In fact the last mention of him was last season when one of the teenagers was an occasional babysitter for him. 

I think she said in one of the scenes with Denise that she had to go pick up Kai, so maybe he's supposed to be there, just not on screen? He has a lot of sleep overs with friends I guess?  I mean they probably shouldn't do the kids shouldn't be seen or heard thing, at the end of last season I mentioned that, but maybe her mentioning him means he'll start showing up up within the next few eps?

[PBnJay]

This episode was much improved over the premiere IMO. I thought the whole thing was pretty good. As suspected, Desmond does have "something" going on, which is fine with me. I also caught the salt Easter egg, and thought that was appropriate and clever at the same time. Now I have a housewarming gift for all future home-buyer friends. 

The only part I don't like is every scene with Jenny. Man, I don't like anything about her, especially her being a cop and wearing freaking HIGH HEELS on the job. She can run and keep silent wearing those clunkers? She sounded like a herd a elephants "sneaking" around in that house. And maybe RuPaul can run fast in heels but no other person I know can. She's suppose to be a cop, not a runway model. 

Reba's face only distracted me part of the time this week, so that's good too.

[mythoughtis]

The high heels are ridiculous.  They are in Big Sky country.  What good do high heels do on trails, in the woods,  etc?  They don’t even go with the rest of what she is wearing anyway: low cut tank tops and a open shirt over it.   I don’t understand why neither her nor Beau wear a uniform like the previous sheriff did.  At least dress like someone her age and position instead of a broke college student.  

[tessathereaper]

I think within the show it's because they are portrayed more as detectives so they get to dress in "plain clothes", because that's generally what police departments do, so that's how the writers handle it.  I'm not really sure if Sheriff's departments work that way but well the sheriff runs it and if he wants to dress in plain clothes, whose going to tell him no? LOL And Jenny has been in plain clothes the whole time which means the previous sheriff let her.

I don't look for realism in Big Sky, LOL.  There's really never been much on this show that's all that realistic. LOL  More of a go with the flow of the story type thing.

[BornToDie]

The episode was fine, but I was pretty close to muting the scenes involving the whistleblower because I found it boring.  Jensen looked good, as always.  I don’t know if Beau’s daughter goes missing next week, but I did have to roll my eyes a bit about her possibly being in peril.  I am liking the progression of the glamping  storyline so far, but I’m hoping it’s not going to last the whole season.

[Quiet1]

3 hours ago, tessathereaper said:

I think she said in one of the scenes with Denise that she had to go pick up Kai, so maybe he's supposed to be there, just not on screen? He has a lot of sleep overs with friends I guess?  I mean they probably shouldn't do the kids shouldn't be seen or heard thing, at the end of last season I mentioned that, but maybe her mentioning him means he'll start showing up up within the next few eps?

And what happened to Jenny's kids/kid? I know she had a son at least. Wasn't his girlfriend the one who went missing in the first season?

[Nick24]

I enjoyed this episode, too.

I loved Beau/Emily scene. This is clear he loves his daughter very much. It felt like Beau was about to grab Emily and run away in the woods. He was being so nervous.

So, they're putting Jensen into food scenes. I mean, is there any virus among the producers which makes them write such scenes? Jensen's great at eating, but c'mon, poor boy must be already tired of it 😄

Salt from demons😂

And Emily, a little tip, when some man is washing the blood off his hands, you don't make photos, you try to run as far as you can to get help.

Well, I'm really interested in all these mysteries they've set up. 

Edited September 29, 2022 by Nick24

[luvthepros]

First of all, why did Emily's step dad allow her to go off on her own in the woods? I was yelling at the TV at how stupid they both were.

Edited September 30, 2022 by luvthepros

[KaveDweller]

57 minutes ago, luvthepros said:

First of all, why did Emily's step dad allow her to go off on her own in the woods? I was yelling at the TV at how stupid they both were.

That was incredibly stupid and unrealistic. Even a terrible parent would not do that, and Desmond has not been shown to be a terrible parent. I guess it was a plot device.

Also incredibly stupid was Emily taking pictures of the bloody dude.

[sweetandsour]

In the beginning of season 2, I think, Jenny said something about her son Justin being away at college.  That does check out with his age in season 1.

Cassie's son Kai is much younger, but without Cassie's dad around to ostensibly be with Kai off-screen, they just need to go the full SEAL Team route and send Kai off to hockey boarding school.  As so many kids obviously go to these days.

One huge thing this season has going for it is no annoying teenagers.  I don't consider Emily to be annoying.  But wow, were those kids in season 2 not fun to watch.  I preferred watching T-Lock compared to them.  T-Lock!!!

It was stupid and disgusting that Sunny still had literal blood on her hands hours after her nighttime encounter with the missing camper.  Had she not washed her hands thoroughly because she has blood on them, or for any other purpose until later in the morning?  She was handling the camp's food right before Rex Linn noticed the blood.  She wasn't touching the actual surface of the food, but she was touching the plastic wrappers and containers.  That.  Is.  Disgusting.

Donno's art of distraction made me laugh.

Has it been mentioned here that the actor who plays Luke (the seemingly murdering boyfriend covered in blood) is Ravi from 9-1-1?  I'm happy he's getting more work with real screen time.

I would not be surprised if the writers have Jensen say, "carry on, my wayward son" to another character at some point.

[thuganomics85]

I kind of love that they aren't even pretending to hide the Supernatural easter eggs here.  We've now got Beau giving Cassie salt for her housewarming gift and her making a "demon" joke about it.  I guess all that is missing is having Beau declare his undying love for pie and we would have completed the Dean bingo card!

The mystery surrounding the Barnes family continues to intrigue.  It sounded like Walt didn't actually want to harm the hiker, but he clearly did something in the past that concerns Sunny.  And she has no issues letting an innocent die in front of her to protect her son.  Also curious about Buck and Cormac and their involvement.  On the surface, it looks like Buck doesn't have a clue about any of this shadiness, but while Cormac might not know the specifics, I have a feeling he might suspect something is going on with his mom and is getting suspicious.

Looks like Luke and Paige weren't just some kind of bickering couple, but have their own secrets as well.  And Luke may or may not have just killed her.  We'll see: I can see this being a misdirect.

I'm actually liking the Beau/Emily relationship quite a bit.  Emily isn't just the atypical teen on TV who hates her dad, but actually does seems to like/love him, even if she finds him annoying at times (in a more realistic way for children and their parents.)  Meanwhile, Beau might be overprotective at times, but he knows this and does seem to be taking steps to try and improve himself about that and not smother her.  Granted, it was only one scene so far, but I found it all refreshing.

Man, I would not want to be in Avery's shoes if something happens to Emily and Beau finds out he left her go off on her own!  Also, a small moment, but I loved that we saw a brief shot of him getting a kick out of the face-off between Luke and Cormac at camp.  Just funny seeing his character get all caught in the drama and be like "Ooh, are we going to see a fight?!!"

Jenny/Beau's case of the week was by the numbers, but fun.  Knew that the marshal was up to no good, because they got a somewhat recognizable face (Teri Reeves) to play her.

Donno for the win!  Sorry, Jenny!!

Another surprisingly fun episode.  Still has some of that "classic" Big Sky camp, but it so far hasn't gone full tilt into ridiculous territory that the majority of season two did.  There's still time for things to go south, but I'm cautiously optimistic right now.

[Coleyb]

15 hours ago, mythoughtis said:

Sunny’s son is definitely in trouble for something because Sunny told him he was supposed to stay wherever she had put him.  She’s also definitely hiding  him from her spouse and other son.  I think he is too young to have been a killer in the 20 year old case though. 
 

Several good mysteries here.  One not so good mystery is where Cassie’s young son is.  With her Dad dead, no one is there to watch him.  She’s unpacking in her new home and he’s not there and there has been no mention of him. In fact the last mention of him was last season when one of the teenagers was an occasional babysitter for him. 

In this episode Cassie said she was dropping him off or pick him up at a camp. 
 

And the last time we did see the son was during Cassie’s father’s funeral in s2. 

Edited September 30, 2022 by Coleyb

[tessathereaper]

21 hours ago, Quiet1 said:

And what happened to Jenny's kids/kid? I know she had a son at least. Wasn't his girlfriend the one who went missing in the first season?

She has a son, her son is now in college, he was I think 17 or 18 when the show started.

[tessathereaper]

17 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

That was incredibly stupid and unrealistic. Even a terrible parent would not do that, and Desmond has not been shown to be a terrible parent. I guess it was a plot device.

Also incredibly stupid was Emily taking pictures of the bloody dude.

I think the idea is he's still not that experienced being a parent.  I assume her mother does most of the parenting so Avery just sort of is "around".  So to him he probably really considering it, "well she's only walking a couple hundred feet up that path, no big deal and I REALLY gotta go. What could possibly go wrong?"

[Morrigan2575]

I only started watching for Jensen and Reba but, the show is pretty entertaining. I like the season long mystery arc as well as the case of the week story. The characters are pretty fun and I like the chemistry between all of them. 

My guess is that Walt isn't really a killer,  he's disabled which puts people off. I think he scared the girl which lead to her being injured and Sunny killed her to "protect" her son. I am curious about Cormac and Buck, do they know about Walt? Do they think he's dead or at a hospital somewhere? 

[MAK]

12 hours ago, Morrigan2575 said:

I am curious about Cormac and Buck, do they know about Walt? Do they think he's dead or at a hospital somewhere? 

Or maybe he's Sunny's kid from before she met Buck? More secrets! So many possibilities!

[Morrigan2575]

1 hour ago, MAK said:

Or maybe he's Sunny's kid from before she met Buck? More secrets! So many possibilities!

I wondered about that as well but, couldn't figure out the ages and, if it was possible.

[Thomas Crown]

On 9/30/2022 at 2:38 AM, thuganomics85 said:

Donno for the win!  Sorry, Jenny!!

Another surprisingly fun episode.  Still has some of that "classic" Big Sky camp, but it so far hasn't gone full tilt into ridiculous territory that the majority of season two did.  There's still time for things to go south, but I'm cautiously optimistic right now.

I agree a very fun episode and I glad they found a way to keep Donno on the show. 

[tessathereaper]

I think neither Buck nor Cormac know exactly what is going on, they know something is up but I don't think they know about Walt.  I agree I think Walt is from a pre-Buck era in Sunny's life.

[Myrelle]

I'm so relieved that it appears that they are not going to go with the bratty teenager thing with Beau's daughter.

That scene with Beau and Emily and Avery was awesome. I really liked the interaction between all three of them. The father and daughter stuff was too cute and felt Real to me. And Avery sure is doing a fine job fooling everyone, I think. I honestly don't want him to be a baddie, but leaving Emily alone in the woods was an even bigger indicator of that than his snooping around in the annoying couple's tent was, IMO.

And speaking of that annoying couple, twe now know that there's more to them than met the eye, at first. Glad for that because I was ready to write them off as the worst part of this season. At least now we know that they're as sketchy as anyone at the camp, including Walter, who I can't help feeling is a red herring, too, and as someone else here mentioned already.

The big mystery is definitely deepening.

I also loved all that sleuthing around in the house by Beau when he and Jenny went after the fake FBI gal. That man knows how to move, doesn't he? 😉

Nice banter and chemistry again between Cassie and Beau on their hike up the mountain trail, but my money is still on Beau and Jenny for any romantic fireworks. As I mentioned earlier, that scene of her concern for his well-being in the house while they were separated was so very loaded and I loved it.

Loved all the side characters again too. They all just do it for me-Tonya and her little sly smiles, Donno and his "distractions", and Denise's adorable nickname for the adorable new sheriff.

And then we had another last scene of our three amigos together again, but this time with the added weight of what's happening to Emily and the undelivered phone call from her worried dad.

I do love having a little show to look this forward to every week again, so big thanks to Big Sky for that. 🙃

[tennisgurl]

I'm impressed, this season is actually off to a really good start. The mystery is really interesting so far and is really being set up well, and while we are still getting some of the classic Big Sky craziness and stupid choices, I am really engaged so far. Interesting that it seems like Walt didn't actually mean to kill the poor hiker, so is he a killer or just mentally ill? Sunny certainly didn't act surprised to see her son standing with a dead body at least, so has this happened before? It seems like her husband and other son have no idea about Walt, is he from a previous relationship? Was whoever Walt's father is the killer from twenty years ago? 

I know that Jenny hates them, but I am thrilled that the show found a way to keep Tonya and Donno around, they're a great double act. Donno is a man of many talents, killing for hire AND expert sandwich maker. 

The plot with Luke and Paige has certainly thickened, they aren't just bickering over normal couple stuff, they're involved in something sketchy. And maybe Avery is too, given he was searching their tent, but I hope he isn't a total bad guy. 

I think one reason I am liking this season so much more than the previous ones is the lack of bratty stupid teenagers. Emily seems like a nice kid and not an idiot, her scenes with Beau were really cute, although next time she spots someone in the wood seemingly covered in blood, maybe don't stand there taking pictures for too long? Or at least turn the sound off?

The whistle blower plot was fun, its nice that we are seemingly getting a few more cases of the week this season, the last few arcs have been so chalk full of crazy that there was never enough time for anything outside of the main mystery.

[KaveDweller]

20 hours ago, Myrelle said:

Nice banter and chemistry again between Cassie and Beau on their hike up the mountain trail, but my money is still on Beau and Jenny for any romantic fireworks. As I mentioned earlier, that scene of her concern for his well-being in the house while they were separated was so very loaded and I loved it.

I just hope they don't get too into a love triangle and have Jennie and Cassie at odds. Their friendship is a highlight of the show for me.

[tessathereaper]

On 10/4/2022 at 6:29 PM, KaveDweller said:

I just hope they don't get too into a love triangle and have Jennie and Cassie at odds. Their friendship is a highlight of the show for me.

They aren't.  They aren't setting Cassie and Beau up at anything more than friends, they've had her show interest in Cormac, 

[Morrigan2575]

On 10/6/2022 at 10:03 AM, tessathereaper said:

They aren't.  They aren't setting Cassie and Beau up at anything more than friends, they've had her show interest in Cormac, 

Oh yeah. Cormac is hot and hopefully not evil. 😍 Cassie should definitely get some of that.

I kind of want a season ending reveal that Beau and Denise have been dating because that would be hilarious and add extra dimension to all the dropping off of dishes.

Edited October 8, 2022 by Morrigan2575