Big Sky: Deadly Trails returned tonight with “Flesh and Blood,” the 5th episode of Season 3. Last week’s episode ended with a pretty shocking cliffhanger, the fact that Walter has the missing camper Paige hidden in his cabin. I won’t hold you in suspense, here’s what happens next.
Paige (Madalyn Horcher) sits on the bed staring up at Walter (Seth Gabel), who stands in the doorway. He asks why she didn’t scream when his mother was there. She says she didn’t know what would happen if she did. Paige learns that Sunny has been telling everyone that Paige went home and that she’s protecting Walter from the police. He claims he saved her from Luke, who was going to murder her with a rock. He reveals that he’s been the eye we’ve seen spying around the camp and he tells Paige that he’s seen Luke with other women. Paige’s ankle is bleeding and Walter redresses her bandages and applies ointment. He tells her that he has a lot of good in him and sometimes it swells up, making his head hurt. Paige suggests that he needs some direction in his life and offers to give him a secret mission. “I like missions,” Walter responds. She asks him to retrieve some of her things from camp, but doesn’t specify what. She looks uncomfortable as he kisses the back of her hand.
Beau Arlen (Jensen Ackles) is shopping for a motorbike as a surprise for his daughter Emily. Everything is going fine until the salesman (David Gibson) sees someone trying to steal one of his bikes and rushes over to stop him. Beau doesn’t realize what’s happening until it’s too late, with the salesman stabbed with a screwdriver as the thief takes off on foot. He chases him, hopping a fence and seeing him get in an orange van that drives away. Beau got a good shot of the license plate and repeats the number in his head until he can call it in.
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Cassie Dewell (Kylie Bunbury) and Jenny Hoyt (Katheryn Winnick) investigate the crime scene that has been set up around the body of missing backpacker Mark Woodman. The body is estimated to have been decomposing in that spot for up to 48 hours, although it appears it has been moved, possibly by an animal. Cormac Barnes (Luke Mitchell), who helped Cassie find the body, tells her that he needs to return to camp to help with some new arrivals, picking debris out of her hair before he goes. Jenny notices and gives Cassie a hard time for it when he leaves. As Jenny gets to work inspecting the body, she finds something in Mark’s flannel pocket and pulls it out – a hand-carved wooden doll of a backpacker like him. Cassie tells Jenny that she suspects the man with the broken truck she talked to a few days ago gave her “Ted Kaczynski vibes” and that she wonders if the blue tarp he was hiding was Mark’s body. “Let’s see what the coroner gets back from the body,” Jenny tells her.
Beau’s ex-wife Carla (Angelique Cabral) finally arrives at Sunny Day Excursions after being delayed by work. Sunny Barnes (Reba McEntire) introduces herself and sends Carla to breakfast to reunite with her husband Avery and daughter Emily. Just behind Carla is another pair of new arrivals – Tonya (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) and Donno (Ryan O’Nan), who claim to be a married couple. As Sunny offers help with their bags, Donno becomes overly possessive of his, refusing to let anybody go near it. As Tonya and Donno are shown to their tent by an employee, Cormac returns and tells his mom that the missing backpacker was found and he died. Sunny asks Cormac why he’s helping Cassie, accusing her of using him. “Maybe I want to be used,” he smiles. Sunny mutters Cassie’s name as he walks away.
Deputy Poppernak (J. Anthony Pena) accompanies Beau to the business address they traced the orange van’s license plate to. They split up, with Poppernak peeking inside a garage while Beau goes to talk with the office manager. Poppernak finds a girl named Heather (Andrea Cortés) fixing up a motorbike and shows her a photo of the van they’re looking for. She mentions that her uncle is a cop and she hasn’t seen it, but before Poppernak can turn around, he finds a gun poking him in the back of the head. “What’s this about?”, asks Trent (Grant Harvey), the man who was trying to steal the bike. Meanwhile, the office manager (Vic Browder) tells Beau that the truck in question has been parked there for a while and never moves. But Beau sees it suddenly speed by, rushing out and calling Poppernak on his radio as he tries to chase after it. Poppernak doesn’t respond.
Jenny stops by Dwewll & Hoyt with a bag containing Mark Woodman’s belongings. The coroner has ruled his death an accident, believing he fell, broke his ribs, and struggled to make it out of the woods. Cassie asks about Mark’s cell phone and Jenny shares that it wasn’t on his body. Denise (Dedee Pfeiffer) adds that she can’t shake the feeling that this is connected to the “Bleeding heart killer.” Jenny reminds them that they need to stick to the facts unless they find evidence that suggests foul play. Jenny gets a call from Beau and suddenly darts out to meet him.
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Sunny and Buck (Rex Linn) argue over the risk of protecting Walter. “We made a deal that Cormac would never know about any of this,” Buck reminds her, asking his wife for the full story of the deceased backpackers. She tells him Walter was just trying to help the man and that there was nothing anybody could do for him. Buck brings up the adopted parents Walter murdered as evidence of Walter’s character. “They weren’t people worth saving,” Sunny says. Buck questions whether Walter has anything to do with Paige’s disappearance and Sunny says he wouldn’t do that. Sunny tells Buck that Cassie saw Walter when he was trying to move Mark’s body. Her plan is for them to make Walter move further away and she asks Buck if he’s with her. “Always babe,” he responds, “‘Til they bury me deep underground.”
Jenny arrives at the auto garage and Beau fills her in that it looks like Poppernak has been abducted. He keeps trying to call his cell phone and they suddenly hear a faint ring. Searching the garage, they find his phone under a tool kit. Jenny finds Poppernak’s radio nearby. Beau says this must be bigger than just a stolen motorcycle ring.
Inside the van, Poppernak is having a hard time breathing and Heather takes the handkerchief out of his mouth. He asks them to let him go. The van stops and the driver, Wyatt (Matthew Menalo), lifts open the back. Trent tells him he shouldn’t have brought his girlfriend along, motioning to Heather. She reminds Trent that she’s there to get her mom’s “stuff.” They get out of the van in front of a bank. Heather asks Trent if he would really kill a cop. “Maybe,” he replies. Heather holds Poppernak at gunpoint as she and Trent enter the bank and approach a desk. The teller (Megan Le) is warned not to do anything stupid by Trent as he tells her to get the key and take them to the vault or the cop dies. She opens her drawer and pulls out a magnetic key, but she also pushes the panic button under her desk, triggering the silent alarm. Trent notices. “That would be stupid,” he says before shooting her. He fires warning shots at the ceiling and orders everyone in the bank down on the ground. “This wasn’t the plan,” Heather freaks out. Trent tells her it’s time to prove how tough she is as they proceed to the vault, warning everyone that if they move, the cop dies.
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At the Sheriff’s Department, it doesn’t take long for Beau to be given a dossier on Trent, who has successfully robbed three banks in the past six years and has always gotten away on a motorbike. He calls the team together, assigning two officers to every local bank, thinking they are getting ahead of the planned robbery, which is already in progress. Beau tries to comfort Jenny by saying that Poppernak is probably boring his kidnappers with some facts about birds. Madge Crowder (Melissa Chambers) steps in to inform them that Green Meadows Savings and Loans is the only bank that hasn’t answered any of their calls.
Luke (Anirudh Bisharody) sits in a lounge chair outside listening to music on his headphones when Emily (Cree Cicchino) approaches him. She has been thinking about the man Luke saw in the woods before Paige disappeared and he tells her again that he doesn’t remember anything, warning her to stay out of it. She asks why he gets so threatening when she asks questions and he tells her that Paige isn’t innocent. The new arrivals, Tonya and Donno, ask if they can join them in the seating area and Tonya asks if Luke and Emily are a couple. When Emily tells them that Luke came with his girlfriend, Tonya asks where she is. “She had to go home,” Luke says, getting up and saying he’s going for a hike. We see Sunny watching them all with suspicious eyes. A short time later, Luke returns to his tent to find Tonya sitting on his bed. “Where’s your girlfriend, Paige?”, she asks. Luke turns around to find that his exit is blocked by Donno, who holds a hatchet. Luke tells them that Paige left with what they’re looking for. Tonya asks what that would be. “$15 million,” he says, “she took it and left.” Tonya warns Luke to stay at camp and that if he tries to leave, Donno will chop him up.
Mark’s parents, Elise (Gretchen Ho) and Norm (Greg Lutz), sit in Cassie’s office as she gives them their deceased son’s belongings. She asks about the wooden doll, handing it to them, and neither of them recognize it. She asks if Mark could’ve purchased it on his travels. Elise tells her that Mark hated that kind of stuff and wouldn’t even have accepted it as a gift. Their son was a careful and skilled climber, they don’t believe his death was an accident. “I’m going to find out what happened to your son,” Cassie says, “I promise you that.”
Trent and Hannah pull out safe deposit boxes feverishly as Poppernak watches with his hands tied. Trent tells Hannah they have 25 seconds to get out and she tells him she can’t find what she’s looking for. He finds a big stash of cash and says it’s time to go. Hannah says she’s still looking for what she came for. “I’m sick of your mommy issues,” Trent says, standing in the doorway of the vault. He aims his gun and is about to shoot his accomplice when Poppernak hops into the door and forces it shut, trapping them inside. Heather points her gun at Poppernak. “What the hell did you do?”, she asks.
Beau and Jenny enter the bank with their guns drawn, announcing to all of the hostages that they are with the Sheriff’s Department and asking everyone to stay down. A bike engine revs and Beau steps back outside as Jenny approaches the shot bank teller, who is breathing. She calls for backup and, hearing a noise, proceeds toward the vault door. She finds the magnetic key on the ground and taps it, opening the door to find Poppernak held at gunpoint by Heather. After warning Jenny to drop her gun, Heather gives Jenny her demands – the contents of her mother’s safe deposit box and a way out of the bank. Meanwhile, Beau takes off on his motorbike in pursuit of Trent, who evades him with traffic in a cross street. When Beau passes the orange van, he pulls over.
Avery (Henry Ian Cusick) and Emily play cards with Carla in their tent. Carla teases her daughter about seeing her talking to a cute boy earlier, meaning Luke. Emily glares at Avery, suspecting that her stepfather said something to her mother after promising not to. Carla notices the glare and tells Emily that Avery didn’t have to say anything, she has eyes. “I’m not, like, into him if that’s what you’re asking.” Emily tells her mom about her podcast, now saying that the theme is relationships. “I’m not entirely sure that his girlfriend made it home,” she adds. Carla is very worried by this, telling Avery they should tell Beau. Avery calms her down, reminding her that Sunny says everything is okay. He refers to himself as a professional worrier, reminding her that he installed a panic room in their home. He asks Carla to trust him.
Jenny tries to keep Heather calm, telling her the bank doesn’t have all of her money on hand, but they’re working on getting it for her and a getaway car. She asks Heather to let Poppernak go, but she mentions that she can’t let her bargaining chip go just yet. Poppernak reminds Heather that he saved her life when he pushed the door shut. Heather reveals that her own mother cut her off from her inheritance. “I get how she hurt you, Heather, but don’t let her ruin the rest of your life,” Jenny cautions. Heather says it’s too late, realizing that there isn’t really a car coming for her. Jenny recognizes that she’s about to panic and possibly do something stupid. She grabs a safe deposit box and uses it to knock her out.
Cormac visits Dewell & Hoyt, telling Cassie that her call made his day. “I’m looking for a creepy guy near your camp, drove a blue and white Suburban,” she tells him after some brief flirting. “That doesn’t sound a thing like me,” Cormac smirks, saying he’s never seen a blue and white Suburban there. She shows him the wooden doll they found on Mark’s body and she asks if he’s ever seen anything like it before. He shakes his head no, but as he turns the doll, he notices a red heart on the bottom of its feet. He says he’s seen that on trees around the trails. “Where, exactly?”, Cassie asks.
Jenny, Beau, and Poppernak celebrate his rescue at The Boot Heel. When Poppernak gets up to buy another round of beers, Beau asks Jenny how she’s doing. “Today got me thinking about my mom,” she says, with Heather’s story feeling similar to her own. He reminds her that relationships are a two-way street and she jokes about his “Cowboy wisdom,” adding that she likes it. “Well, we don’t really blush in Texas, but I will just accept that compliment, and maybe we just get drunk,” Beau laughs as they clink glasses.
Buck is about to walk out of his tent with two big red gasoline tanks. Sunny reaffirms that she loves their son Cormac, but also loves Walter. “I sure am gonna miss that old gal,” Buck laments. Sunny reminds him that the blue and white Suburban contains too much DNA evidence and this is their only chance. When Buck hears a twig snap outside, he pokes his head out and shines a flashlight, momentarily seeing Walter’s face through the trees. He warns Sunny that her son is out there creeping around.
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Luke has just showered in the bathroom tent when Avery comes in, repeating words he read in Paige’s journal. Luke seems confused, but Avery reveals that he was an investor in Etherial and he knows a seed passphrase to a crypto account when he sees one. Luke accuses Avery of being a pervert sniffing through his girlfriend’s underwear, but Avery defends his snooping as trying to keep his stepdaughter safe. He tells Luke that he can protect him so long as he tells him everything. “There’s nothing to tell,” Luke says. “I just want to enjoy the rest of this trip.”
Cassie searches the woods that night with a flashlight. She comes upon a tree with a red heart carved into it. And then she’s distracted by a loud “whoosh” sound and a bright light in the distance. Moving to the edge of a clearing, she finds the blue and white Suburban going up in flames. What she doesn’t see is that she’s being watched… by Walter.
Big Sky: Deadly Trails will return on Wednesday, October 26th at 10/9c on ABC with “The Bag and the Box.” In the preview for the next episode, we see Cassie bringing Beau and Jenny to see the burnt remains of the Suburban, Cassie confronting Sunny and Buck about it because the vehicle was registered in their names, and one of the campers announcing that they found Paige’s bag in the woods. I’ll be back next week with another recap. In the meantime, you can catch up on past episodes, now streaming on Hulu.