28.4.09

Harper's Island: Week 3 Recap

Not a particularly eventful week here on the Island, so we should be able to get through the recap a little faster than usual. The episode opens with Abby floating in the pool. She’s greeted by Beth, a brunette bridesmaid, who may have gotten her first line this week. At the side of the pool Thomas and Trophy Wife Katherine have an early-morning drink. Then Katherine glances over at the porch and shares a knowing look with Richard (her step-son-in-law), meaning that they’re having an affair.

An affair motivated, on Richard’s part, by his hatred for Thomas as established in the next scene when Henry asks Richard how he can stand being related to Thomas. In the next scene Thomas, Richard, and Henry are skeet-shooting with a double-barelled shotgun while Madison, the creepy little girl, tears the heads off of flowers in the garden. Henry recieves a note from the hotel staff that concerns him, but then tells Trish that it was ‘nothing’. Then, after a lot of thought, he elects to throw the skeet shooting match, letting Thomas win. Henry then drops the shotgun back on a table full of them, establishing that the island is fairly well-armed.

Down at the local medical center, the Sheriff is asking about Kelly’s autopsy. In addition to a bizarre set of tattoos chronicling the Wakefield murders, there’s something else weird about the body: her eyes.

Yeah, if you were trying to really creepy me out, Harper’s Island, consider your mission accomplished. The doctor assure the Sheriff that he’ll be able to get to the bottom of the death. Whether it was consentual sex, whether she voluntarily hanged herself, et al.

Back at the pool the frat guys are messing about in the pool, and Douchey Frat guy yet again tries to put the moves on Chloe, even after almost killing her near-fiancee the night before. He fakes an apology, and Cal blows him off. The fun is broken up when the Sheriff arrives at the scene to inform Abby about Kelly’s death. Abby doesn’t take the news well, explaining that it couldn’t possibly have been suicide because she was planning to leave the island. Also, the whole hanging thing makes it seem more like she’s a new victim of John Wakefield, rather than a suicide. Even though the Sheriff thinks he had nothing to do with the death. Interestingly, Abby covers for JD, not mentioning that he was with Kelly right before her death.

Other things she doesn’t mention include the fact that someone is stalking her and taunting her about the whole Wakefield murder thing.

Inside the hotel, Henry decides it’s time to start giving his future wife a few emotional tests, asking if she’d choose him over her family. Just what was on that not that has him so upset… it’s the information that Hunter is staying at a local hotel!

Trish heads into town to buy some sexy wedding lingerie, and she’s accosted in the changing room by Hunter. Once again he proves almost irresistable, and it looks like she’s ready to run off with him when the mood is broken by the shopgirl popping in and mistaking them two of them for the happy couple.

Over at the hotel JD is getting dressed when Abby shows up to tell him about Kelly’s death. JD says that when he left she was still alive, and in a really good mood because she was planning to go to LA with Abby.

Next we see Katherine entering the private cabin she shares with Thomas. Lying on the bed is one of the shotguns. Before she can be really surprised Richard shows up. Why? Because it’s time for some twisted S&M games! Yeah, they’re not just having an affair, they’re havign a freaky twisted affair!

In Trish and Henry’s cabin Trish is modelling her wedding gown for Shae and Beth. No one seems to find it strange that Lucy, her other best friend, is nowhere to be found. Hunter calls Trish’s cell phone, and another person discovers that he’s on the island. Beth also lets it drop that Trish has had a hard time breaking things off with Hunter in the past.

Richard, fresh from S&Ming it up with Katherine, chat with Cal about how he ever got Chloe – the two of them see Chlow walking off with Douchey Frat Guy, but Cal says he isn’t worried. Because he’s planning a murder? No, because he’s planning a prank where he gets Douchey Frat Guy to go for a spa treatment that has him covered with honey, then throws feathers all over him. It’s hilarious! Although Douchey Frat Guy deserves much worse.

Henry swings by the local motel to ask about Hunter – it seems that he’d been suspecting that Hunter would show up, and asked the locals to keep an eye out for him! Searching Hunter’s room, Henry discovers that Thomas bought the ticket that Hunter used to fly to Seattle! There’s what’s supposed to be a tense moment as Henry hides in the closet with a letter opener (will he stab Hunter? Of course not, named characters seem to only die in the last minutes of the episode), but then Henry sneaks off without incident.

Things go even worse for JD, though – he’s walking in the woods when a pickup speeds along and hits him! In one of those weird movie-style car accidents that knock people out but do no lasting damage at all. Strangely the episode plays the identity of the driver as a mystery, even though it’s clearly Shane’s jeep. I guess it could have been Jimmy, who then delivers JD to Shane, but that’s not incredibly likely.

Abby goes to talk to the Sheriff about the case, and then the Sheriff heads over to Shane’s to question him about Kelly’s murder. Shane plays dumb, and the Sheriff doesn’t find the loop of rope he’s got over his shoulder suspicious at all. After the Sheriff leaves, Shane drags JD out of his trunk, ready to commit some evil act! With a rope! I wonder what it could be! It’s episode 3 and Shane is acting ridiculously evil, so now we can oficially remove him from our list of suspects.

Hunter pays Thomas a visit, and decides it’s time to put all his cards on the table. If Thomas doesn’t pay him fifty thousand dollars, he’ll tell Trish about the way he was conspiring with Thomas to break up the wedding, forever ruining their relationship. Over in Kelly’s cabin she recieves a note from Hunter, telling her to meet him in a certain room so that they can work things out. She gets close to going to the room, but leaves at the last moment, and we discover that it was actually Henry testing her. And she passed? Maybe?

Abby continues her little investigation into Kelly’s death, asking Nikki her thoughts – she repeats the information that Kelly was sure Wakefield was still out there, possibly driving her to suicide. Abby thinks that someone actually was stalking Kelly… maybe Shane, the abusvie ex-boyfriend? She immediatley heads over to Shane’s only to find him out in his far too creepy barn, preparing hang JD!

This creepy hovel brought to you by CBS!

Shane shows up, carrying a knife, and even though he’s emotionally distraught, Abby is able to calm him down pretty quickly by revealing that Kelly was murdered! Then she announces it was Wakefield, and he responds that ‘You’re as daft as she was!’

Really? Daft? Is no one copy-editing these scripts? Or does someone just need to take the Thesauri from the writers’ room?

For some reason the Sheriff is outside during this confrontation, and then rushes in to save the day. This action accidentally knocks JD off the chair he was on, but a little co-operation between Sheriff and Shane manages to save his life.

Over at the inn it’s time for yet another party! Henry confronts Thomas about the Hunter information, but says he won’t tell Trish. At another end of the party Cal decides to taunt Douchey Frat Guy, who vows revenge. Henry talks him down, reminding him that he deserved to get hit. Then Hunter shows up at the party to pressure Thomas, and, I guess, reveal to everyone else that he was at the wedding? Then it’s time for Henry’s toast, wherein he announces that there’s no way the evil Thomas can stop the wedding, but he says it in the nicest way possible.

Down at the dock Hunter unmoors his boat and accepts a cheque from Thomas in exchange for never contacting Trish again. Happy with this deal, Hunter boats off into the night. He doesn’t get very far before he notives a strange bag wedged under the dash of the boat. It’s Marty’s bag, full of money and his gun! Hunter is pleasantly surprised, but we in the audience know that the killer planted it there for one reason or another. Just then the boat’s engine dies, and when Hunter goes to check on it, a shotgun rigged inside the engine compartment blasts a hole in his chest! And according to the medallion on its stock, it’s one of those shotguns from the morning’s skeet shooting!

Then it’s back to Kelly’s house for one last scene as the Sheriff looks for evidence. He finds a golden bear sitting atop a jewelry box on a bookcase. It has red eyes, just like she did! Inside the box he finds a news clipping about the time he shot John Wakefield. Then the Sheriff gets a call from the coroner, who reveals that the red colour in Kelly’s eyes was created by having Ink injected into them! The same red ink used to circle the eyes in the picture of the sheriff in the newspaper article, and write the message: You Found Her Now Find Me.

Creepy!

Just one murder this week, although it wasn’t for a lack of trying on Shane’s part. The alibis for Hunter’s murder are…

No one!

That’s right, since Hunter’s boat was sabotaged and booby-trapped, presumably by doing something to the fuel line, the idea was clearly for Hunter to be able to start the boat and get a little away before the engine died, so that it could be guaranteed he would be the only one around when the shotgun went off. We can be pretty sure that Abby isn’t the killer, since she spent all day running around chatting with people, but even that’s not certain.

Possible motives? Henry might want Hunter dead, Thomas certainly had a motive as well, although the key element here is that a person had to know that Hunter was on the Island in order to kill him. Yes, Hunter exposed himself pretty openly at the party, but since he went straight from there to the dock, no one had time to rig the shotgun then. Which means the killer had to be someone who knew he was there earlier in the day. Trish, Henry, Thomas, Beth, Shae, or whoever one of those people told about Hunter’s appearance.

So what purpose could Hunter’s murder have served? Depending on which shotgun was used, the murder weapon could easily have Richard’s, Henry’s, or Thomas’ fingerprints on it. Is Henry being framed? Why put the money in the boat? If this body is meant to be discovered by the authorities (how else can you explain killing him in a way that’s almost funtionally impossible to cover up – the killer would have to be following on another boat!), is Marty being set up for the murder, or Hunter set up for Marty’s?

Mysteries abound, and I can’t wait for Thursday’s episode!

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