Big Sky, Episode 7: I Fall to Pieces

In these past few episodes there’ve been a lot of wasted scenes between Ronald and his mother. Most involve him yelling at her as she reminds him of things he already knows, such as, “Legarski may use you as leverage to make a plea deal,” etc. In this episode we have two such scenes–one in the kitchen as he yells at her over cereal, and a second one in which he’s listening to metal/rock in his truck cab and she comes tapping on the window and asks to chat. Finally, Mama tells Ronald that she’ll call the police and turn him in. He grabs her and snaps her neck. He then proceeds to lay her lifeless body into a living room chair.

That whole scene enraged me. His mother, who knows her son better than anyone, should not have confronted him with this. By that point he had already grabbed her around the throat one time before and left his hand mark on her neck. Plus, she knows he’s a kidnapper and frequently refers to him as a sexual pervert. He’s not the sort of guy you want to anger. She should’ve waited until after he left the house and then called the police to warn them that he was headed to Legarski’s house to look for incriminating evidence and to possibly kill Merilee. But nope, she confronts her psycho son and gets her neck snapped. Ugh.

Jerri is afraid that Ronald is coming to get her. She sleeps with a baseball bat facing the door to her house. Can you blame her? She goes to see Jenny and Cassie to show them the note he left her. They all agree that Jerri should go stay at a friend’s house, so she goes to stay with the waitress from the restaurant she frequents. The waitress’s husband is a burly guy with a gun, so Jerri feels safer. A good piece of dialogue comes from Cassie this week when she tells Jenny that they should put an American flag in the yard of the waitress with whom Jerri is staying. When Jenny asks why, Cassie basically tells her that the American flag is usually seen at houses where people observe their Second Amendment rights. Haha.

The most annoying dialogue comes from Legarski’s doctor, who gives a press conference during which he divulges stuff no real-life doctor should or would tell the press. He basically violates every privacy clause in the HIPPA handbook. Legarski’s lawyer calls the doctor out on his violation of doctor/patient confidentiality, and then she tells the doctor a story about how bullies threatened to stick a chick up her butt when she was a child. She says she bit off the chick’s head in response and spit it in the bullies’ faces. Strange story. Even stranger lawyer. She hangs around the hospital and talks to Rick and his wife. Seems she would have other things to do. Lawyers are usually pretty busy, at least that’s my impression of them. Legarski, whose dialogue this week includes phrases like, “We’re gonna need a bigger boat!” tells his lawyer that she’s stout and that it’s hard for stout women to find a husband. Not only is this woman no stouter than his own wife, but she’s not stout at all. Plus, all kinds of women find husbands. Around the globe, thousands of stout women are being loved long time right now by their men and their women. I get that the writers want to make it obvious that Rick’s mind is gone, and I get that the dialogue is supposed to be funny, but I’m not buying his act. I get the feeling he remembers a lot but pretends not to. For starters, when he first awakens, he asks his wife, “Who shot me?” but then later he claims he doesn’t remember being shot. If he can’t remember being shot, then how does he know someone shot him?

Ronald has attempted to disguise himself by coloring his hair a darker shade of brown. He looks the exact same, except for the hair. Worst. Disguise. Ever. He already has a nondescript face. If I were him, I’d just grow some facial hair and leave town.

This is completely irrelevant to anything that happens this week, but I love Ronald’s mother’s house. It’s painted one of my favorite shades of blue, and it has a wide front porch. So peaceful-looking.

His mother wears old-fashioned dresses, the kind with full skirts that would look tres chic with a petticoat beneath them. She probably bakes a killer apple pie with a homemade crust.

Grace helps out police by taking them to the place in the woods where Legarski killed the fisherman. They recover his body, and she identifies him. She also goes to the hospital and identifies Legarski, though he doesn’t seem to recognize her. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was faking it, though.

The episode ends with Ronald going to see Merilee. He’s there to search for the hidden compartment in the house where Legarski hides his evidence of their crimes. He finds a compartment in an upstairs wall by punching a hole into it. (wtf?!) Meanwhile, Merilee, unsuspecting, is making tea for two in the downstairs kitchen after sending Ronald upstairs alone to use the restroom. Why couldn’t they just have at least one downstairs bathroom like regular folks? Anyway, Jenny and Cassie show up and show Merilee a composite sketch the kidnapped trio helped police make. The sketch looks exactly like Ronald, and wide-eyed Merilee tells them that he’s upstairs.

End episode.

See you again soon!