REVIEW: Big Sky, Season 1 Episode Six 'The Wolves Are Always Out For Blood'

 REVIEW: Big Sky, Season 1 Episode Six 'The Wolves Are Always Out For Blood'

After the shock ending to the previous episode, it suddenly seemed a lot less clear what the remaining episodes of this season would be about. The main drive of the season has, after all, been solved. So how exactly do you continue a season when its main story is over?

Well, having watched the episode which follows the previous entry, it seems somewhat more obvious what the remaining episodes will entail. The plot looks to be curtailing into a stalking storyline, with truck driver Ronald (Brian Geraghty) keeping tabs on transgender prostitute Jerrie (Jesse James Keitel). I like this angle; it's suitably unnerving seeing this creep hiding in his car and taking pictures of Jerrie during her meeting with Jenny (Katheryn Winnick), or sticking notes on her door claiming that she 'never learns'. My only concern regarding this plot thread is whether it can fill the remaining ten episodes. There's a sense that things could become a little padded out before long.

Speaking of Jenny, she gets some lovely character moments in this episode, which help to build her character. Her heart-to-hearts with receptionist Denise (Dedee Pfeiffer) and detective partner Cassie (Kylie Bunbury) deliver some excellent character work, which add some real emotional depth to proceedings.

This episode mostly is a showcase for Cassie however, who has been deeply affected by her actions in the previous episode, and this episode does an incredible job at showing the deep traumatic spell she is under after the actions she was forced to take. Kylie Bunbury plays this perfectly, her performance really hammering home the complicated emotional place she has been left in. She really has gone through a lot.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the scene with Cassie and her horse. Cassie is out riding through the forest, when she sees her flame Cody (Ryan Phillipe). Only Cody isn't really there. He's just a vision in her head. It's an effective way of showing just how much this character is struggling; Cody is all she can think of, and she still needs time to get over how much she misses the man she loved so dearly. Annoyingly we still don't get any similar scenes with Jenny, despite the fact that he was her husband, but it's a nice scene regardless, and a good way of communicating Cassie's emotional state of mind to the audience. It also gives us a greater sense of Cassie's hobbies and interests. We learn that she is a keen horse rider, and this is the first time we have got a hint at what she gets up to in her free time.

One thing I was surprised by in this episode was how the truth regarding Cody's disappearance came to light. I wasn't expecting Jennie and Cassie to discover the result of the events that had transpired in the first episode only six episodes into the run, and again it makes you wonder how they will stretch the remaining plot to occupy the remaining episodes. The pacing strangely bares more similarities to an eight part season rather than one with sixteen instalments.

As expected, Merillee Legarski (Brooke Smith) is a major focus of this episode, given what had happened to Rick in the previous instalment, and Brooke Smith pulls in an impressive performance. Her delivery nicely conveys the mixed feelings someone who had just discovered her husband's criminal deeds would possess, whilst their said partner is lying critically injured in a hospital bed, and you feel that complexity in the intonation of her voice. Brooke Smith is a gifted actor for sure, and perhaps an unsung hero of this detective thriller.

The funeral in this episode certainly seems different to any I have been to. Maybe they do things differently over in the states, but the firing of guns and karaoke singing is not something I would typically associate with funeral services! It's a nice scene though, that allows our protagonists to settle their differences, and grow a newfound respect for one another despite how they both fell for the same man.

Overall, 'The Wolves Are Always Out For Blood' provides for a great entry in Big Sky's first season. The writing demonstrates some brilliant character work, and excellent acting ability from all involved. However with most of the plot threads having been resolved, you do have to wonder where things go from here. There's a hint at a further narrative thread in Ronald's stalking of Jerrie, but that cannot be enough to fill ten hours' worth of remaining material - surely?

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What are your thoughts on Big Sky's sixth episode? Let me know in the comments section.