Big Sky (1×04) Unfinished Business Review

For our review of the last episode of Big Sky, click here.

Synopsis: Unsatisfied with the investigation now that the girls’ disappearance has made headlines, Cassie and Jenny take things into their own hands. (CTV)

At the start of this week, ABC announced that Big Sky was getting an additional 6 episode order on its original 10 episode first season. The premise, which seemed intriguing, continues to baffle as it continues at an incredibly slow pace stretching its plot thinner and thinner each week. Finally, the protagonists are working together, but the series, which calls itself a mystery drama, is lacking in the former as everything becomes more and more predictable.

In “Unfinished Business,” news of the girls’ disappearance has now made its way onto the radio and that is not good news for Ronald and Legarski. They decide to act fast and find a way to move the girls to Canada to avoid prying eyes. Unfortunately, that isn’t soon enough as both Cassie and Jenny continue to work on peeling away at Legarski’s mysterious exterior. They try to go undercover at the truck stop where Jerrie went missing, but nothing comes of it other than putting eyes on their investigation.

Meanwhile, Ronald’s mom is getting suspicious causing Legarski to become antsy, Ronald decides to befriend and court Legarski’s wife Merrilee and Grace is struggling with an infection from her two arrow wounds. This all comes to a head in the final moments as Cassie and Jenny literally stand above where the women are being held, but cannot hear their screams and Legarski is seen approaching a bedroom menacingly with a hammer in hand.

Unfortunately, this just feels tedious at this point. Jenny is finally seen as  a main character on what was assumed to be her series. It took 4 episodes to get to that point. Meanwhile, Cassie feels very one-dimensional and rigid making her character hard to connect with. This is more or less due to a lack of development for these women as plot continues to supersede character moments.

The biggest issue is of course the series’ desire to be centered around mystery and thrills yet setting itself up for failure from the beginning. Revealing that Legarski and Ronald are working together occurred way too early in the  season which takes away from the growing paranoia and mystery of this case. As the audience, we know who the bad guys are at the point and so the work of the private investigators feels like a way to catch up the rest of the characters.

As a series focused on PIs, it would have made more sense to slowly uncover this huge conspiracy as more players become involved. Legarski could have still been a prominent characters, who is humanized throughout the season thanks to his own personal problems, but used as the PIs connection to law enforcement. His continued inability to cut through red tape for them or mistakes could have made them more suspicious of him over time. Everything just feels like wasted potential at this point.

Detective’s Report

• Who will prevail by season’s end?
• Why is Ronald the way he is?
• Will Ronald let Jerrie go?
• When will Jenny and Cassie figure it out?

What did you think of “Unfinished Business”? Let me know in the comments below!

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Dylan Phillips