Big Sky's third season has come to an eventful close, wrapping up the saga of Sunny and Buck Barnes to a rather definitive end. A lot happened in the season three finale, from murders to romantic gestures, and there was more than a little "will they or won't they" going on between Katheryn Winnick's Jenny Hoyt and Jensen Ackles' Beau Arlen. With a fourth season of Big Sky still (unfortunately) hanging in the balance, here's a helpful round-up of where we're leaving all our favorite characters at the end of season three.
Jenny Hoyt (Katheryn Winnick)
Though she's still got a complicated mom and a seemingly always absent son, Jenny Hoyt seems to be in a genuinely good place at the end of the season finale. She, Beau, Cassie and Cormac got Emily and Denise back safe, pulling them from a mine shaft where they were imprisoned by evil Buck Barnes. They'll probably need major therapy for the rest of their lives, but at least they're alive in and in one piece, which is more than we can generally say for other characters on Big Sky.
The biggest development for Hoyt this finale, though, was that she finally got a little one-on-one time with Beau, who she clearly holds a big flame for. When he comes to visit her at her house at the end of the episode, they crack open a beer and sit by the fire all comfy cozy-like. She encourages him to open up to her about his "demons" back in Houston, while he tells her he'll probably have to throw back a few more to make that happen. She's making space for him in her life and while it remains to be seen whether Beau (and Ackles) will be back on the next season of Big Sky, it is nice to see that Jenny is open, emotional, and seemingly willing to love again.
Beau Arlen (Jensen Ackles)
Beau, on the other hand, might not be ready to fully open his heart. He's seemingly still a little hung up on his divorce from Carla, which is understandable given that they share a child. Carla's on her way back to Houston with Emily, though, and Beau's still trying to figure out whether that means he should follow them or he should hang in there in Montana. The area needs an acting temporary sheriff, after all. We still don't know all of Beau's backstory, so that's something we could certainly explore more if there's a Big Sky season four, but in the meantime, we're just happy Beau got Emily back safe and sound.
Cassie and Cormac (Kylie Burbury and Luke Mitchell)
There's another new couple of lovebirds on Big Sky, and it's Cassie and Cormac. The detective asked for his help to find Emily and Denise, and while I never entirely trusted his motives, I was wrong — Cormac might be a product of Buck and Sunny Barnes, but he doesn't appear to have a duplicitous bone in his body. He'll probably be a little adrift now that his dad is dead and his mom's in the slammer — more on that later — but at least he'll have Cassie to hang out with.
Walter and Paige (Seth Gabel and Madalyn Horcher)
Cormac can also hang out with his brother Walter, given that the two become newly acquainted at the end of the episode. Walter, who somehow made it through being absolutely pummeled by a rock-clasping Buck, seems pretty stoked about the whole thing, even letting it be a sort of salve to the fact that Paige has skipped town, pretty much leaving her protector in the lurch. Walter will be legally cleared and can live life on his own terms now. Hey, maybe he and Cormac can team up and run Sunny Day Excursions. It might just need a new name.
Sunny and Buck (Reba McEntire and Rex Linn)
As it turned out, Sunny and Buck's love story was built on a mountain of pebbles rather than solid rock. When Sunny found out that Buck was the Bleeding Heart Killer she was understandably pissed, deciding to go after him to punish him for keeping Walter out of her life. When she found out he'd taken Denise and Emily things got even more heated, and the cops persuaded her to both wear a tracker and let them use her as a sort of pawn. Buck nabbed Sunny in what was supposed to be a prisoner swap and pleaded with her to take him back. Couldn't she forgive him, he wondered? He'd only just "crossed up" a little, after all?
Turns out Sunny really couldn't forgive Buck for his decades of deception and death, luring him to the place where he'd first proposed. That's where she'd stashed Walter, who went after Buck with a knife. Walter ultimately lost, and Buck and Beau took a tumble down a steep hill. As Beau lay at the bottom, Beau tried to strangle him, only to be pulled off by Jenny. That's when Sunny stepped in, shooting Buck point blank in the chest for what he'd done to Walter.
When we see Sunny later, she's being fingerprinted and is headed for jail, red hair still looking radiant and perfect. As she tells Jenny and Cassie, "some bills you just gotta pay yourself, no matter what the cost." She seems perfectly resigned to spending the rest of her life in jail, probably because she views it as a sort of penance for everything she's done up until now. She tells Jenny and Cassie she'll be seeing them, which we can only hope is true because McEntire is a joy and a delight, and having her on Big Sky this season has been great.
Tonya and Donno (Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Ryan O'Nan)
We get a great surprise near the end of the episode when we find out — gasp! — that Donno is alive and well. Tonya is wheeling him into the diner, where she presents him with a little stuffed white horse named Galdalf (per his dream) and offers to make him a grilled cheese with burnt ends. Donno's a little befuddled and confused because he vividly remembers her kissing him and tells her that he has feelings, but she sort of demurs, telling him that it was just a kiss. Eventually we learn that it was, in fact, Donno's first kiss and that he loved it so much he compares it to his "first time at Tim Horton's," citing his love of maple glazed and Boston cream donuts.
I'm not entirely sure what Tonya's deal is that she won't just give in and be with Donno, but at least his feelings are entirely out in the open now—as is the $15 million in crypto the two were working to steal, since Tonya managed to snag Avery's phone and transfer the money while Donno was being worked on by the EMTs. She wasn't going to let them walk away entirely empty handed, after all. Here's hoping Donno gets to open that fox sanctuary next season.
READ MORE: 'Big Sky' Season 4: Everything Fans Need to Know About the ABC Crime Series
