HARPER'S ISLAND 1.12 & 1.13 - "Gasp" & "Sigh"
Henry Dunn did it. Maybe his surname was an esoteric clue? Yes, the handsome groom whose wedding to Trish (Katie Cassidy) turned into a massacre, was working alongside his father John Wakefield (Callum Keith Rennie) all along. The father who got Abby's (Elaine Cassidy) late-mother pregnant years before she was born, forcing Sarah Mills (Sarah-Jane Redmond) to secretly give up Henry for adoption to save her marriage to the Sheriff (Jim Beaver).
As revealed in glistening flashback, half-siblings Henry (Christopher Gorham) and Abby grew up close friends, but Henry harboured deeper feelings and a fantasy of living alone on the island with Abby forever. Having grown into an adult (surviving his biological father's first "rampage" on the island), he was later discovered by the surviving Wakefield, who had traced his offspring and realized his son shared the same homicidal urges, so started tutoring him in the art of serial-killing. Yes, Henry was the "John Wakefield copycat" the Sheriff had been tracking across the mainland through newspaper reports, with father and son preparing for a savage return to the island -- Wakefield to settle an old score with love-rival Mills, Henry to slaughter his friends and family so he can live an incestuous fantasy with inamorata Abby.
Okay, so a lot of the back-story didn't make much sense and motives stretched plausibility a touch, but that's par for the course in most mystery/slasher films. Harper's Island made it work within its own pulp context, mainly thanks to the marvelous performance of Christopher Gorham, who managed to flit between genial Henry and psycho Henry with consummate ease and sell a reveal that felt mildly stupid to begin with. With Henry's identity revealed fairly early, it was a particular delight of these episodes to watch him sidle up to those who trust him, before revealing the truth and adding them to his victim list.
Looking back, there were fun hints and clues that Henry was the villain: his crack clay pigeon shooting skills abandoning him whenever Wakefield was in sight, those mystery scratches on his forearm Trish tended to, and (most notably) the fact he was seen covered in blood yards away from dying brother J.D. The latter moment rang certainly my alarm bell at the time, but the event was brushed aside so swiftly the next episode that I never gave it a second thought. I mean, Henry was always the most likeable guy with the most to lose from this nightmare (his perfect wedding celebration, his beautiful bride), so I never genuinely entertained the possibility of him being in league with Wakefield. Amusingly, and with the gift of hindsight, irrational Mr. Wellington was actually right to view his prospective son-in-law with suspicion...
"Gasp" and "Sigh" benefited from the fact most of the characters had become endearing, too, unlike so many of the kills in the first six episodes. This is an unavoidable flaw of the murder-mystery format -- exacerbated by a film's brevity, so at least Harper's Island had just shy of 10 hours to flesh people out. Quite a few were still very sketchy, but a decent handful felt like real people, so it's been great having a five-episode run where most of the deaths had weight to them. Here, nice guy Danny (Brandon Jay McLaren) put up a decent fight against Wakefield after he escaped from jail, before having his face impaled on a paper spike, and Henry's best-friend Sully (Matt Barr) learned the truth during a walk through the forest with his comrade -- viciously attacked by Henry and Wakefield like a pair of vicious dogs, seconds after his world crumbled at the news.
As a concession to being on network US television, eerie child Madison (Cassandra Sawtell) and her insipid mother Shea (Gina Holden) both escaped unharmed, heading to the mainland in a motorboat. But plucky Trish wasn't so lucky; after escaping Wakefield at her house, she escaped through the forest wearing her wedding dress (a classic horror motif) before running into her fiancé, who nonchalantly broke the news of his deception before stabbing her. Again, prime characters like Trish were the ones you almost expected to survive this ordeal, so her death left a pit in my stomach, particularly in sympathy that her lover became her killer.
I enjoyed some of the surprises and unpredictable developments, too: from Wakefield being captured in the opening teaser, the four-hour countdown to the mainland police arriving after they were finally contacted by radio, Henry killing Wakefield once his dad had served his purpose, and the final act with Henry holding Abby against her will on the deserted island and genuinely believing they can live happily ever after. Jimmy (C.J. Thomason) had been kept alive to sign a confession for Henry that he was Wakefield's accomplice, and the way he manages to escape and rescue Abby from Henry's clutches was also nicely handled. I especially liked how Henry got his comeuppance, impaled by Abby on the pebbly beach where the seed of Henry's psychosis was sewn by her childhood whisper.
Overall, these final few episodes of Harper's Island achieved their aim and provided us with an answer I didn't predict. My thoughts drifted to Sully as the culprit on one occasion, but now it seems ridiculous to have ever contemplated anyone else but Henry! And that's the sign of a mystery well crafted. It was tense, exciting, action-packed, unpredictable and, while silly and requiring a suspension of disbelief, its resolution was hugely entertaining. Some of its success was definitely down to the BBC's decision to air its in double-bills, as British viewers coasted through the rockier early episodes at twice the speed of US audiences, so the show never felt particularly sluggish to me.
Finally, the coda -- camcorder footage of the main characters wishing Henry and Trish good luck for their wedding, before setting off to the island to celebrate their nuptials -- was a spine-chilling and perfect way to cap what's been a pleasant surprise these past seven weeks. I'm so glad I took the trip to Harper's Island.
18 October 2009
BBC Three/BBC HD, 9pm
written by: Christine Roum & Robert Levine (1.12) & Jeffrey Bell (1.13) directed by: Seith Mann (1.12) & Sanford Bookstaver (1.13) starring: Elaine Cassidy (Abby Mills), Christopher Gorham (Henry Dunn), Jim Beaver (Sheriff Charlie Mills), C.J. Thomason (Jimmy Mance), Matt Barr (Christopher "Sully" Sullivan), Sarah-Jane Redmond (Sarah Mills), Brandon Jay McLaren (Danny Brooks), Callum Keith Rennie (John Wakefield), Gina Holden (Shea Allen), Cassandra Sawtell (Madison Allen), Ava Hughes (Young Abby), Alex Ferris (Young Henry), Ryan Grantham (Young J.D), Adrian Hough (Joseph Dunn), Nadine Wright (Cheryl Dunn), Kwesi Ameyaw (FBI Agent Hanson), Barbara Kottmeier (Agent Ana Perez) & Peter Ciuffa (Man In Seattle)
