Just who is Big Sky's bleeding heart killer? That's the hot topic in this week's episode, "Come Get Me," which finds Hoyt, Cassie, and the rest of the Big Sky characters hot on the heels of the person they believe to have killed at least five missing or murdered people over the past however many years.
Things kick off with Denise, head down in her scratchers, stumbling onto a break-in at the Dewey and Hoyt office. She goes inside because she has no common sense, only to stumble upon a guy in a ski mask ransacking the joint. Why he's doing this in broad daylight and coming in and out through the front door is anyone's guess, really, but we digress. Denise tucks herself under a desk to hide from the big-booted man, then calls the police when he leaves. She also finds a big, bold "come and get me" love note written in blood on the office wall, which... ick.
The Bleeding Heart Murder gets more interesting
Hoyt, Beau, and a bunch of CSIs eventually arrive, only to realize that the only thing missing is the case files from the Bleeding Heart Murder. Denise tells everyone she just made a post on a message board dedicated to the case, but noted it had previously been inactive since 2012. Beau and Hoyt deduce that means someone's got notifications turned on, and instead of going to the ISP to determine who that is, they decide to instead look into their own case files on the murder. It's a roundabout process, but trust and believe they'll get there eventually.
Cassie's now working out of the sheriff's office as well because the break-in gave her PTSD about her dad, so she joins Hoyt and Beau in a look at the old files. There, she gets her first glimpse at a photo of the actual heart, which... had she not seen that before? Or did she not get what the "bleeding heart killer" meant? She tells the group she's seen a heart like that in the woods recently, and they deduce that this killer must be back, active, and maybe involved in the recent murder of that fallen camper. We also learn a little more about the killer, like the fact that he used a curved blade knife that was never recovered and that he carved out murder victim Blair's heart. (Ew.) Beau says, "maybe I should pull Emily out of that camp," and then doesn't actually do it for the rest of the episode. What a good dad.
Anyway, after the trio discovers there's a missing case file, they go in search of whoever checked it out last. Turns out it's a former sheriff who snagged it because he believed if he hadn't, it would have been destroyed. He's dead set on the killer being Blair's former boyfriend, Joe Walker. He was unaccounted for at the time of Blair's death and his dad, Hiram Walker—a name we have to be learning for some reason that will pay off down the road—was some sort of fancy commissioner at the time. After the sheriff started investigating Hiram's son, the bigshot pops got the sheriff put on desk duty, somehow cost the sheriff's wife her job, and was just generally ruthless. Thus Hoyt and Beau decide that Joe's looking pretty good for this murder and decide to seek him out.
A new suspect emerges
They end up finding him in his cabin out in a clearing, where they quickly discover he's been cooking meth. They also find him hiding in the ceiling and yank him out for questioning. He's squirrely, to be sure, but he points fingers at Blair's own father, Mr. Luken, who he says was rude, controlling, and had given Blair bruises that caused her to cover up at prom. Hoyt and Beau seem to buy his story and decide to go after him, only to discover that Cassie is already there after going on a plainclothes hike with Denise to somehow find a tree and some rocks that look like a photo she has. She found a necklace instead and went to take it to Blair's dad, which turns out to be a bit of bad and/or good timing.
What Cassie finds is that Blair's dad is both scary and suspicious, with a bunch of knives and his very own murder board looking at theories about Blair's murder. She thinks he killed his daughter because, of course she does, but he breaks down in tears instead, telling Cassie that he just broke into their office to get their attention because "the killer's still out there" and "somebody needs to keep looking." Cassie tells him she's here and she's listening, and eventually, after Hoyt and Beau burst in guns out, they seem to agree as well.
Sunny and Buck get more suspicious
That's a lot, but that's not even half of the action on this week's episode because we also have to deal with the goings on with the glamping crew. Sunny and Buck regret Mary's murder, but Buck also seems weirdly calm about it, telling Sunny, "She was going to hurt you." They decide to pin Mary's murder on Luke, ginning up some cockamamie plan for a Supermoon night hike to lure all the other campers out into the woods where they'll all just happen to stumble on Mary's body and some well-placed evidence that points the finger at Luke as the killer of both Mary and Paige, who Sunny's actually not sure is actually dead.
Sunny takes off to start planting evidence, and we see steely-eyed Buck trying to wipe blood off his hands only to stop, seemingly sort of relish the blood, and then sniff it with a weird sense of joy on his face. We also hear these weird sort of whispery voices, and it's all very creepy. It's also a pretty good indicator that something majorly wrong is up with Buck, who, to this point, actually seemed like a fairly solid dude.
Meanwhile, Avery is slyly confronting Donno and Tonya, making it clear that he knows that they're up to something around Paige and Luke and the $15 million. They seem a little shook, but what do they expect when they're a) totally weird and suspicious and b) making all their murderous plans either out in the open or in very non-soundproofed canvas tents?
Cormac walks in on his mom quickly popping up after snagging Paige's phone from under a false floorboard, and it's clear he's very, very suspicious of what's up with her. She sends him to town on a bogus errand that even he knows is absurd, and he seemingly finds the floorboard through a quick stomp around the area she vacated. We don't see him actually look inside, but even if we had, all he would have found (I think?) is a gun, so at least Sunny could explain that away.
Darius Rucker and Lyle Lovett play suspicious characters with a love of country music and "artisanal pickling"
Donno and Tonya are increasingly annoyed with how hard this supposedly easy seek and find is turning out to be and, after Donno tries to bail, Tonya decides to try and negotiate for twice as much money. They venture into town to the Boot Heel where she meets up with the creepy guy who came to them in the first place, plus Lyle "Tex" Lovett, Darius "Possum" Rucker, and some other weird dude. Tex and Possum are singing a little "Down In The Valley" when everyone comes together, pretty much just because if you're going to cast Lyle Lovett and "Wagon Wheel" crooner Darius Rucker in your TV show, you're probably going to want them to sing because they've got golden pipes. The pair get a couple of funny lines off, like Possum's bit about originally wanting to go into "artisanal pickling and BMX" and Tex's semi-sinister note that if he had his druthers he would have gone into "haberdashery, mostly."
The weird bad dude tells Donno and Tonya that he doesn't want to pay them more and that they'd better kill Luke that day, lest they burn up inside their own restaurant mysteriously. When the scene ends, it's the last we see of Rucker or Lovett in this episode, so here's hoping that there's more of them in episodes to come. You can't just introduce trackers with weird skills and then just never make use of them, especially if they're country music icons.
What's up with Paige and Walter?
Back, back, back at camp, Emily catches Luke stocking up on snacks in the kitchen tent. He tells her that, "there are bad people on this trip. If you want my advice, get out of here. I know I am." He dashes off and she follows him fairly closely, though when we come across her hours later in the dark she's seemingly nowhere near where he is and fully lost herself, but more on that later.
After a pretty dodgy conversation with Emily's worried mom—seriously, what mom wouldn't sympathize with another mom whose kid was missing?—Sunny starts walking to Luke's tent to plant Paige's phone. Upon approach though, she hears Donno and Tonya inside (again, non-soundproofed canvas!), bemoaning the fact that Luke's bag is gone and that he's seemingly on the run. Sunny hides alongside the tent, and the pair dash out. Sunny then sneaks in herself (through the front flap in broad daylight not checking to make sure anyone sees her...) and plants Paige's phone under Luke's mattress.
As lost Emily stumbles through the very dark, not very Supermoon-y woods, she manages to stumble on Mary's dead body. She screams bloody murder only to have Buck ramble up on a horse. "Emily," he says, "What are you doing out here?" She tells him someone killed Mary, and he says, "Show me."
A few scenes later, we see him ramble up to camp on his same horse, Mary's dead body slung over the back. (Ew.) Somebody call the cops, he loudly announces. "Someone killed Mary." The assembled campers notice that Buck also has Paige's bag and quickly ask, "Where's Luke?" Sunny loudly says something to the effect of, "That's a good question! Somebody better find him!," because she's not suspicious-seeming at all. For sure.
Quickly, we realize that someone has indeed found Luke because after we see Donno tracking him through the woods, we find Luke somehow running into a dirty, sweaty Paige out in the woods. "Hey baby," she tells Luke. "Did you miss me?" Luke doesn't know it, but Sunny's creepy son lurks right behind him, letting us know something bad is about to happen. Unfortunately, the credits quickly pop up, and we don't get to actually see what that is, but I would wager, given what's already happened with Paige, that Walt (who, by the way, is played by Seth Gabel, who is married to Bryce Dallas Howard in real life) will probably keep Luke alive and imprisoned somehow just so that he and Paige can mess with him. This will all work out poorly, to be sure, but that's Big Sky for you. Someone's always got to be in danger, messing up, or suspicious. Unfortunately, we'll all have to wait two weeks to find out what's up because the next episode, "Duck Hunting," isn't on until November 16.
READ MORE: Kylie Bunbury: Here's Where You've Seen Cassie from 'Big Sky'
