HARPER'S ISLAND 1.5 & 1.6 - "Thwack" & "Sploosh"
In "Thwack", bride Trish (Katie Cassidy) and her father Thomas (Richard Burgi) take a bike ride through the forest to relieve pre-wedding stress, only to find themselves thrown into a survival nightmare when a log trap rams them off their cycles, and a strange man releases a German Shepherd that chases them into the back of an abandoned car. Fortunately, Thomas manages to kill the dog with a smashed bottle he finds, and the pair return to the hotel badly shaken. It's here that Harper's Island strains some credibility, as neither character think to alert the authorities about their ordeal, and don't even question the fact someone primed a booby-trap that almost killed them! It's a shame when people don't react realistically on this show, as it just makes everything feel rather silly and hard to believe in.
The investigation into serial-killer John Wakefield takes a step forward, when Abby (Elaine Cassidy) visits her family home alone and discovers her father's attic is full of paraphernalia on the Wakefield murders and a spate of copycat killings along the mainland coast. It's a little alarming to get an insight into her dad's obsession with the man who killed his wife (whom he claims he shot dead), and at this point we're still unsure if he's telling the truth. The fact Wakefield is being played by Callum Keith Rennie is enough evidence for me that he's alive, and that the Sheriff's lying about his demise for some reason. Maybe he just wanted to alleviate the community's fear that Wakefield could return?
A holdover from last week's episode is Malcolm's (Chris Gauthier) remorse over burying Boothe in the forest, after his friend accidentally shot and killed himself. Malcolm has kept the stolen $250,000 Boothe was tasked with hiding, to fund his entrepreneurial ambitions, but wakes up racked with guilt. He also finds that his room's en suite shower has been turned on while he slept -- perhaps a sign that the killer has decided to toy with him now?
A prime suspect for all the murders appears in the form of loner J.D (Dean Chekvala), the unsettling and immature brother of grinning groom Henry (Christopher Gorham), who develops a friendship with little Madison (Cassandra Sawtell) during this episode. The pair set off firecrackers as a prank in one scene; a fragment of which Henry later finds inside the church close to a dead maggoty raccoon. It's the second dead animal Henry's found during stay on the island (following the stag's head in his bath), and the firecracker remnant would appear to suggest his kid brother's playing macabre practical jokes...
The cliffhanger ending to "Thwack" undoubtedly put the entire series on a fresh footing, as a large portion of the ensemble gather at the church for an afternoon wedding rehearsal, and Abby unwittingly trips a booby-trap that releases a spiked chandelier from the ceiling that splits Thomas Wellington's head in half! Simultaneously, in scenes that interspersed with the church to ratchet up the tension of Wellington's shock demise, Sheriff Mills (Jim Beaver) finds a wire leading into a lake with the missing Reverend Fain's dismembered limbs and head attached -- unequivocal proof that Mills' greatest fear has come true: there's another killer on the loose...
Blessed with a climax so grizzly and electrifying, expectations were sky-high for the sixth episode, and "Sploosh" mostly delivered. With the latest murder witnessed by so many people, there's less pussyfooting around as the aftermath of event hit home. The chandelier was clearly rigged to be a deadly weapon (by someone who knew where everyone would be positioned during the ceremonial run-through...) and, now the reverend's dead body has been found submerged in the lake, it's clear everyone's lives are at risk.
J.D is again written as the obvious suspect, almost immediately seen lurking around the church miming to Madison to keep quiet about his presence. This episode plays continuously with the idea that J.D's the killer, but -- unless it's an elaborate double-bluff -- I don't think it's very likely.
With 25 characters introduced on Harper's Island, I still have a few mental gaps about people's relationships to each other. A great example is this episode's subplot about how Thomas Wellington's wife Katherine (Claudette Mink) was having an affair with his daughter's husband Richard (David Lewis); a betrayal he was made aware of by Trish last week, and is now made common knowledge following his death. Richard thus has an alibi to kill Thomas so he could be with Katherine, and he does himself no favours by telling his daughter Madison to lie to the Sheriff when she's questioned over the day's events. However, Richard is swiftly removed from suspicion by virtue of becoming this episode's last-minute kill -- harpooned through the chest and comically yanked off-screen.
Abby appears to clear J.D as a suspect after he talks her into accompanying him into the forest, where he's discovered the body (well, both parts of the body) belonging to his stepfather "Uncle" Marty, who was chopped in half in the first episode. Abby manages to persuade Henry that his brother isn't responsible for Wellington's murder, and the childhood friends both start to suspect that Sheriff Mills is hiding something about Wakefield's death. That night, the pair dig up Wakefield's grave and, to their surprise and the audience's, find skeletal remains in the buried coffin. Of course, who's to say that's Wakefield's body? As I claimed last week, you don't cast Callum Keith Rennie as Wakefield and only use him for archive police mug-shots, so I'm guessing he's alive. But he must have an accomplice, as it would be a poor end to a murder-mystery if the culprit was revealed to be... well, the perpetrator from last time that everyone suspected from the start, back for revenge.
Overall, this double-bill was enough of an improvement to get me excited about the latter half of the season, mainly because everyone's aware of the threat they're facing. The mystery is starting to sink its teeth, too, which makes it easier to overlook the silly, far-fetched moments that undermine the plot at times. I even enjoyed the somewhat incongruous subplot where Cal (Adam Campbell) found out that his lost diamond engagement ring was found by a local man who has immediately proposed to his own girlfriend. After telling Chloe (Cameron Richardson) what happened, it was fun seeing them get the jewel back, with Chloe pretending to be a "wronged woman" and essentially ending the unreasonable finder's engagement.
20 September 2009
BBC Three/BBC HD, 9pm
written by: Tyler Bensinger (1.5) & Robert Levine (1.6) directed by: Steve Gomer (1.5) & James Whitmore, Jr (1.6) starring: Elaine Cassidy (Abby Mills), Christopher Gorham (Henry W. Dunn), Katie Cassidy (Trish Wellington), Cameron Richardson (Chloe Carter), Adam Campbell (Cal Vandeusen), Richard Burgi (Thomas Wellington), Jim Beaver (Sheriff Charlie Mills), C.J Thomason (Jimmy Mance), Dean Chekvala (J.D Dunn), Matt Barr (Christopher "Sully" Sullivan), Gina Holden (Shea Allen), David Lewis (Richard Allen), Cassandra Sawtell (Madison Allen), Claudette Mink (Katherine Wellington), Brandon Jay McLaren (Danny Brooks), Chris Gauthier (Malcolm Ross), Amber Borycki (Beth Barrington), Sarah Smyth (Lucy Daramour), Ben Cotton (Shane Pierce), Ali Liebert (Nikki Bolton) & Beverly Elliott (Maggie Krell)
