REVIEW: Big Sky, Season 1 Episode 14 'Nice Animals'

 REVIEW: Big Sky, Season 1 Episode 14 'Nice Animals'

The previous episode of Big Sky ended with one half of our lead duo experiencing quite an ordeal. A truck was driven into the motel where private detective Jenny Hoyt (Katheryn Winnick) was staying, an event which would be sure to leave even the strongest of individuals traumatised. It was quite a shocking visual to end the episode on, the kind of television cliffhanger that leaves you desperately waiting to see what happens next.

The aftermath is a bit of a mixed bag. In my previous review I assumed it was Ronald (Brian Geraghty) who drove the truck, due to his obvious associations with those vehicles, but instead we find out this week that it was Rand (Ryan Dorsey). It's a shame because it would have been an interesting way to link the Ronald stuff more closely with the Kleinsasser plot. However, I do like that the aftermath has major repercussions, with Angela dead and Jenny unsurprisingly shaken by what had just occurred. It injects some heightened stakes into the drama, and is another way of enforcing that the Kleinsasser family really aren't people you want to deal with. 

Jenny's confrontation over this incident with Sheriff Wagy (Sebastian Roche) really highlights just how impactful it's going to be on the rest of the show as a whole. She points out how he is indirectly responsible for his own worker Angela's death because of his involvement in covering for the Kleinsassers, which draws immediate parallels to Rick and how he helped Ronald with the kidnapping of the women earlier in the season. It's great that this has a knock-on effect on Wagy's willingness to cover for the Kleinsassers and results in him deciding he doesn't want to protect them any more, as it shows real character growth that's natural and doesn't feel forced. 

Perhaps the most gripping character out of the Kleinsasser family is Cheyenne (Britt Robertson). She seems to be playing the Kleinsassers and Sheriff Wagy somewhat, dropping cryptic hints here and there of her knowledge regarding the family situation. She even tells her mother Margaret (Michelle Forbes) about how she saw John Wayne (Kyle Scmid) murder Blake, and I always find these sort of characters the most interesting to watch. With these sort of schemers you never know what they're going to do next, or who they're going to manipulate to reach their ultimate end goal. With Cheyenne it appears that she wants control of the ranch, which works really well as a motive, as we've been shown previously how much it means to the family unit as a whole. 

As mentioned in my other reviews, the Kleinsassers essentially seem to be a family of backstabbers. This is further emphasised by the conversation between Margaret and Horst (Ted Levine), where Margaret admits that she knows the truth of what happened to Blake. The script goes to great pains to show just how toxic this relationship is, with Horst comparing his wife to dog meat and Margaret whispering in his ear that she's going to kill him. They're the most dysfunctional romantic couple since the Joker and Harley Quinn, and it makes their relationship seem quite dark and hopeless, as though they're both waiting for the other to make the first move.

Ronald decides to take his family camping this week as a ruse for the hiding of Mary's body, and I must admit it is quite a clever way of writing a means for Ronald to hide her body without his loved ones getting suspicious. Too often in these shows we just see these serial killers randomly pop out without explanation in the middle of the night, and return only for their partner to be none-the-wiser, which  just ends up making you wonder what would happen if they woke up and discovered their partner wasn't there, so it's nice to see the writers of this show avoid that cliche here. Taking the family off to the woods is a really convincing means of giving Ronald the ability to hide the body without him suddenly being gone from his new family too, as woodland areas tend to be so vast in size that you could imagine it wouldn't be quite so hard for a serial killer to hide a body without being noticed. 

Although Ronald does get spotted burying the body. By Scarlet's kid Phoebe (Zoe Noelle Baker), no less. I worry for that kid, because we know Ronald has form for doing horrendous things to children, given how he caged the paper boy who had figured out who Ronald was. It's another powerful cliffhanger for the next episode, as it keeps you anxiously waiting to find out what Ronald's next move will be. That the one to discover Ronald's actions is a kid adds some interesting personal stakes to the final moment too, as it raises the question of whether Ronald will even have it in him to kill the child, or if he has grown too attached. It's possible that he may just take pity on her.

Overall, 'Nice Animals' is a strong fourteenth episode in Big Sky's first season. It gives us some exciting new developments in the Kleinsasser case, whilst also developing the ongoing situation regarding Ronald in a manner that has you fearing for the characters in his immediate vicinity. I'm not sure I'd wan to be Phoebe right now, because I think things are about to get very nasty indeed. 

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