I’m really enjoying this season of Big Sky–I might even go out on a limb (or a deadly cliff?) and say it’s my favorite one yet.
However, that doesn’t mean it’s without flaws. Season 3 is so good, it’s almost too good. And yes, that’s a flaw because there’s too much going on. Every single plot line is compelling, but it’s becoming harder to follow along than it should be.
Jenny Hoyt and Beau make an incredible team—and connecting him back to the backpacker’s story via his daughter, who is deeply invested in Paige’s disappearance (as she should be) was a smart move—but it would help simplify things if they didn’t have a mystery of the week every week. If they were dedicated them to one mystery, while Cassie, Cormac, and Denise were dedicated to finding the missing backpacker, while the whole mystery of Sunny Acres Camp developed in the background, it would easier to follow along.
Jenny and Beau’s murder case could’ve spanned several episodes; there’s no reason they have to get wrapped up in something new and larger-than-life every week, especially since the mystery of Gigi, Jenny’s mom, teaming with Tonya and Donno is still out there.
I’ve said mystery a million times already, and I’ve not once referred to the same mystery. It’s an overload, and I’m afraid it might scare away viewers.
There’s a lot of good material in here, but we need to hone it in, people. Though, I do like how some of the cases connect and bleed into each other.
Here’s what “Carrion Comfort” brought to the table:
Jenny and Beau
The dynamic duo got pulled into a murder case involving a middle-aged woman who was murdered by someone wearing a wolf mask. Quite frankly, the whole opening scene was terrifying, so good job for turning Big Sky into a horror! While the signs initially pointed to Craig, the creepy man the woman was having an affair with, when they were able to rule him out as a suspect, it pointed right back to the husband, Grant, a scorned lover who definitely had access to the mask from one of the couple’s Halloween costumes. Though they say that 9 times out of 10, it’s the husband, in this case, it was the husband’s employee, Scott. I didn’t see it coming. Scott turned out to be an obsessive creep who kidnapped Grant’s daughter, Autumn, and locked her in some dollhouse he recreated to look like her childhood room. It was a really great storyline, but it wrapped up all too quickly.
Hoyt and Beau were able to save Autumn from a terrible fate, while Scott was gunned down by Hoyt. Also, the way she and Beau embraced after that action-packed scene was… telling. A romance is brewing here, I can feel it, and I’m not opposed to it at all.
Cassie and Cormac
Hunting down a dead body through the woods definitely seems like an ideal first date for Cassie. Cormac joined her, likely because he was also curious about what he would find in the woods, and eventually, the vultures led them to the missing backpacker Mark’s body. I don’t fully trust Cormac, but he also seems not to trust his own mother, so maybe his team-up with Cassie is necessary. They have undeniable chemistry, but I also don’t want to say that in case he is unhinged like his stepbrother Walter.
Anyway, now that they’ve located Mark’s decaying body, the second half of Cassie’s investigation can proceed, and it’ll lead right back to Sunny Acres.
Also, where is her son? Who does she leave him with when she goes on these expeditions?
Sunny Acre Farms
The others might be fooled by Sunny, but Em absolutely isn’t. She truly is her father’s daughter, and while everyone is basically telling her to drop her suspicions and stop creating drama, including her shady stepdad, Avery, Em is going forward with it because, at the very least, it’ll make for a compelling podcast. Trust your gut, Em!
She confronted Luke about Paige’s disappearance, and he’s not lying about there being someone else in the woods… because it was Walter.
Sunny is a mother who loves her son, despite his faults, and wants to believe that he isn’t responsible for Paige’s disappearance, but the truth is, she’s in denial. The woman needs to come to terms with the fact that Walter is not in his right mind.
In the final moments of the episode, we learn that he’s keeping Paige hostage because he’s obsessed with her!
Paige also heard everything transpire between Walter, Sunny, and Buck, who knows about Walter and doesn’t want to keep protecting Sunny’s son. She feels like she owes it to him because she brought him into this world, but Buck is quick to inform her that this boy will be her undoing. And he’s not wrong. We also learn that Walter killed his adoptive parents by locking them in a house and setting it on fire, so honestly, I’m not surprised he wants nothing to do with this.
The truth is, if Sunny were to find out about Paige, she would protect Walter over the girl, but I hope Buck wises up and protects himself and Cormac over Sunny and Walter before things get really out of hand.
And now that Cassie found the backpacker, it sure seems like the beginning of the end for Walter and Sunny.
Donno and Tonya
But that’s not all! Paige may have met a pretty grim fate during this wilderness expedition, but that’s the least of their problems as a mysterious man came to the cafe to hire Donno and Tonya to locate the couple for his boss, who wants what belongs to him. While Tonya and Donno inform him that they no longer do that kind of work, since he tells them Ren Bhullar sent him, they consider taking the lucrative deal. We knew Luke and Paige were running from something, but now, I’m even more intrigued to find out about their past. And it makes me wonder if Avery and Carla, Em’s mom, are somehow connected considering Avery has been shifty since they got to camp. What’s he not telling them?
We also met Carla briefly when she stopped by the police station, and let’s just say, she’s not someone I would ever think would be compatible with free-spirited Beau.
As for Gigi, that mystery is still developing as Tonya informed Donno she wouldn’t reveal anything about the partnership with Jenny Hoy’s mom until she was ready.
Interesting stuff, I tell you. Till next week so we can piece more pieces of the puzzle together, Cravers.
Leave any theories in the comments below!