'Harper's Island': Thwack!
I know that I say "it'll get better" every week, but this week I don't have to anymore. This marks the official episode of when "Harper's Island" gets better. The resident King of Spades is what I would consider the first major death because it's a main character and it happens at the freakin' wedding rehearsal. From here on out, the show is good. I just wish the writers had gotten us to this point around episode 2 or 3, instead of, basically, episode 6.Ten of Spades (summary)
Henry gives Trish the morning off from wedding stuff (awww) and she and her father go for a bike ride, only to stumble across some One-Eyed Willie-type booby trap and be chased by a vicious dog set on them by a creepy Phantom-of-the-Opera woodsman. It's a real bonding day for Trish and Thomas. Henry gets left with wedding decisions and he manages not to completely panic and be completely cute in the process. Malcolm spends all episode lying to his friends about Booth, because he's a giant douche. Henry goes to the church to find Rev. Fain and finds a dead raccoon on the church altar. Sheriff Mills and his deputy eventually drag Reverend Fain's body (parts) out of a nearby pond.
Nine of Spades (key players)
Turns out Jimmy and Sheriff Mills are breakfast buddies; Abby's world is all askew. Later, she stops by her dad's house and finds out he's crazy-level obsessed with John Wakefield (and possibly Wakefield still being alive). JD and Madison become mischief buddies with fireworks and then Henry finds a firework near the raccoon carcass. He tells JD they're done, but JD says he has "one more surprise" for Henry. Thomas confesses to Trish that he doesn't trust Henry, so Trish drops the "Katherine sleeping with Richard" bomb. Ouch. Malcolm, Sully and Brooks look for Booth and figure that either he left with the money or whoever killed the guy on the boat got to him. They decide to tell Henry that Booth went back to the mainland.
Eight of Spades (who died)
Thomas Wellington goes to the Big Business Deal in the sky
Seven of Spades (how they died)
The head spade that went missing in the first act went off in the third act... right into Thomas's skull. Abby turned on the lights, which released the head spade from the chandelier DURING the rehearsal ceremony. Yuck.
Six of Spades (gruesome scale)
Not so gruesome in this episode, 2 out of 10.
Five of Spades (hope you die next)
Sully and Shane were alternately barely and not-at-all in this episode, but I still don't like them. Malcolm tried to melt my cold, black heart by crying over Booth's grave, but I still think he's pretty crappy, so him too.
Four of Spades (favorite lines)
[after a vicious fall off her bike because of the booby trap]
Trish: Wait... how's my face?
[Ed's note: I add this line because I was all set to make fun of Trish... until I realized that the day before my wedding, I'd be worried about that too. Hee.]
Sully: I want to tell you something. I never had sex with Trish.
Henry: ...I know.
Sully: I just wanna make sure. Because back in the day when you guys were broken up... I tried. A couple times. And she rejected me flat out.
Henry: ...She told me.
Sully: Well, you are marrying one helluva woman.
Three of Spades (best scare)
The whole ending is fantastic. The wedding rehearsal (with "Here Comes the Bride" in the background) is juxtaposed with the Sheriff dragging body parts out of the pond (with creepy music in the background). There's a shot of the head spade in the chandelier, the tension builds, and then THWACK! Excellent job, show.
Two of Spades (lead suspects)
There really aren't that many viable suspects, when you think about it. The women aren't strong enough, and the groomsmen and Cal have no motive. That leaves us with Henry, Jimmy, the Sheriff, Shane and the maybe-still-alive John Wakefield. I really don't want to believe it's Henry or Sheriff Mills, so I'll keep my hat in with Shane and Jimmy. Though I would enjoy the twist of two killers working together and one being a female.
Ace of Spades (weekly death roster)
Cousin Ben: this was no boating accident
Uncle Marty: bridge to tear-in-halfia
Reverend Fain: someone should've given him a heads up
Kelly Seaver: you hang in there, buddy
Lucy Daramour: what a little firecracker!
Hunter Jennings: he lost the face-off
Joel Booth: he's got a leg up
Thomas Wellington: what a splitting headache
Queen of Spades (wha???)
They finally mentioned Lucy and all it consisted of was "I thought she left?" and "She did." Then at the rehearsal, apparently they're expecting her back for the wedding. Le sigh. Not exactly what I was hoping for and it came 2 episodes too late, but I guess it's better than nothing.
Jack of Spades (sorry)
Sorry about the late post. We had some high winds that knocked out power, so I had to wait until it came back to do my recap.
Zap2it Elite Sheet Must Reads from the Web's In-Crowd
Post a comment
Most talked about posts
Advertisement
Zap2it Twitter Talk
Recent posts
Thanks for the update. Now that the show is on Sa****ay night I forgot it was on so I missed it. Sorry to see the father was killed. Now there is no one over 40 left on the show except the Sheriff.
It's getting exciting now. I don't even think Jessica Fletcher could help the guests now.....
O.k. so now that everybody has finally figured out there is a killer running around. No way there going to dismiss this this as a prewedding prank:) Let's pause a moment to reflect. forget who will get killed/is the killer. And talk about clues. We don't need no stinking clues. One of the commercials for this show says we have seen clues, but have we? Other than someone saying something odd or being in an odd place is there anything that points to the killer? I thought I saw one tonight when Henry reached for the firecraker at the church. The apparent book next to it seemed like it might have been. But having dvred the episode, on review it turned out not to be a book. It was a box of garbage bag's of the same color they were using. Still I suppose the killer could have left it, after all the deputy only found the Rev. hearing aid. Still I'm going to say we have seen nothing to indicate the killer. So far this is more slasher flick than murder mystery. So am I wrong? Has someone spotte what they think is a clue? Will they pull a hah you didn't notice a this this or this when we learn who the killer is? Are the clues still to come? Or do you find the writting so bad we should just go with Madison as the least likely to have done it?
I'm still confused about the Lucy scenario with Trish saying that she had left and would be back for the wedding. Where was the note saying that she was leaving for a couple of days? We saw Uncle Marty's false cell phone message so why wouldn't they show something falsely coming from Lucy too? Or is this a clue that Trish is involved as part of a team of killers.
Also, when Trish and her father got up after their fall and climbed the hill back to the bikes, wouldn't they have seen the log with the ropes attached? Even if it was moved back into striking position by the killer, wouldn't they still be able to see it and realize someone had targeted them?
At least now everyone knows that people are being murdered so the pace should pick up a bit.
I still have Jimmy pegged for involvement somehow.....
yeah, i thought it was weird they didn't see the log----and i hope they kill that annoying little girl off next---she's a horrible actress.
I'd like a few more clues too. Henry; I don't see the motive but I'm with the Dad, I don't trust him. The motive I'm going with is an Islander that resents everyone that 'abandoned' them after the murders; Shane's too obvious so I'm torn between a couple of possibilities. Jimmy and/or The Sherrif, maybe together but if it's only one of them it'd be Jimmy. I think that's too obvious though. The other possibility is more of a long shot but my first choice was Maggie, the inn keeper/wedding planner. She'd be able to give out false information about Lucy leaving and keep Henry occupied to stop him looking for Trish, etc. She'd be the one in contact with the reverend so she should be the first one to spot he was missing and she was very eager to jump in and replace him allowing her to place everyone so that her chosen target got the chop so that would be motive for getting rid of the reverend. All the other victims have been visitors except for Kelly so maybe she figured something out or saw something; or maybe it's because she was going to leave too. Hmmm, I think I'm beginning to convince myself, so everything else is a red herring? So of course she will be killed next week! She would need at least one accomplice though. I thought Wakefield was a red herring at first but they've shown his photo and it's Callum Keith Rennie; they'd hardly show him and then not cast him so I expect (hope) he will show up at some point. Was he a local or just a visitor; I haven't been paying close enough attention? I definitely think he's alive (even before I saw the trailer for next week). Maybe Millie had a thing for him and is punishing everyone for driving him away so that would make sense as she couldn't do it alone. If it's the two of them, Abbey and the Sherrif are the big targets (and Jimmy will save the day); the whole wedding is just a distraction. Well, I do enjoy murder mysteries so I hope this does well enough for an encore.
shane in quarantine? BS.
The show isn't on the schedule anymore. Cancelled????
I think it's Wellington's wife and her boyfriend. All the other killings are a red herring.
so andrea, thats what you get for watching ahead a few episodes.. clearly that slip up last week when you wrote the guys saying booth went home for a family emergency was based on this episode..
its all good but just be careful next time!