At the end of last week’s episode of Big Sky, it seemed like half the cast died. Scarlet, Wolf, Mark, and Ronald all left us with the impression they might never be heard from again. Well, the 13th episode of the hit ABC drama is here and in “The Shipping News,” we sort of know for sure who is dead and who’s not. But then again, this is Big Sky, so anything is possible. Here’s a recap of this week’s exciting episode.
Dr. Cowley’s home is buzzing with police activity. Jenny Hoyt (Katheryn Winnick) finds Cassie Dewell (Kylie Bunbury) recuperating in the back of an ambulance. Jenny fills her in that Mark Lindor is going to be fine, but Phoebe and Scarlet are gone. Cassie can’t believe that’s possible, but Jenny says they will find them. The bottom line is that Jenny wants Cassie off the case and wants her to rest. “You got him,” Jenny says, presumably meaning that Ronald Pergman is dead.
Mark Lindor (Omar Metwally) is in an ambulance on his way to a hospital for his gunshot wounds. He asks the EMT (Joshua Caleb Horton) where Wolf Legarski is and he’s told he’s in the other ambulance. Cut to the other ambulance where Wolf (John Carroll Lynch) is being tended to by another EMT (Brian Landis Folkins), who bangs on the roof, signaling to the driver to pull over. “Scarlet and the girl, where are they?”, the EMT asks, removing Wolf’s oxygen mask. Wolf discovers that he’s handcuffed to his gurney, realizing that this EMT really works for the syndicate he made his deal with to get Ronald. With Wolf unsure of Scarlet’s whereabouts, the EMT tells him how lucky he was that the bullet missed his vital organs. “You might have survived,” he says, getting up. “What now?”, Wolf asks, looking concerned. “John Milton sends his regards,” the EMT says as he puts a clear plastic bag over Wolf’s head. Wolf suffocates and goes still. The EMT bangs on the roof and the driver gets back on the road with the sirens on as if nothing happened.
Max (Madelyn Kientz) and Rachel (T.V. Carpio) emerge from Lone Pine Medical Center to find Max’s friends waiting for her. Rachel gives Max some privacy as she hugs Harper (Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson), Madison (Lola Skye Reid), and Bridger (Jeremy Ray Taylor). It’s a goodbye parting for Madison and Bridger, whose parents are sending them to boarding school for the rest of the year. When they leave, Max and Harper kiss, and Harper escorts Max back to her mother.
(ABC/Anna Kooris)
Jag Bhullar (Vinny Chhibber) inspects the first pill off the assembly line as Tonya (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) tells him her team can produce 4,000 an hour. Ren Bhullar (Janina Gavankar) congratulates Tonya on a job well done. When they are left alone, Jag tells Ren that he has a meeting with Dietrich so she will need to oversee the first delivery. On their plan to find out more about their father’s girlfriend Alicia, Ren says she is having lunch with her and Jag says he has someone running a file. They are interrupted by Donno (Ryan O’Nan), who caught Stone (Travis in disguise, played by Logan Marshall-Green) lurking outside. Stone carries the black duffel bag full of the missing drug money and gives it to Ren, unwilling to reveal how he got it. She pulls two bundles of cash out of the bag and gives it to him as a reward, asking him to help Tonya and Donno ensure that the first drug delivery goes smoothly. Donno looks at Stone suspiciously.
Sheriff Tubb (Patrick Gallagher) meets with Jenny in his office, upset that she left her partner Deputy Poppernak alone at the crime scene to tend to Cassie, who is not her partner. Jenny apologizes and Tubb reminds her that their top priority right now is the Bhullars. Just then, Tubb gets a call from Poppernak, who has learned the location of Max and Rachel’s kidnapper.
Deputy Nix (Zach Rose) and Deputy Harris (Reuben J. Lee) search inside Bob’s house, communicating with Deputy Poppernak (J. Anthony Pena) through the radio. Jenny arrives just as Nix and Harris call them in to see something. In the basement, Nix and Harris reveal the dummy Bob made, joking that it would be the perfect companion for Poppernak to share his boring stories with. Jenny is annoyed by their behavior, but she notices wires in the corner and gets concerned. She doesn’t have enough time to communicate her fears as Nix and Harris begin to move the dummy mockingly, raising its arm and detonating a bomb inside. Jenny grabs Poppernak and pulls him down behind one of the clear tarps in Bob’s basement. She saves their lives, but Nix and Harris aren’t so lucky. Poppernak is also wounded, blood leaking from his head.
Dietrich (David Meunier) goes to Travis’ motel looking for him, explaining that he received a request for a meeting from Verr Bhullar and hoping that Travis knows what it’s about. Travis says he doesn’t know, but his advice is that the meeting is a trap. He says the Bhullars don’t need him anymore, but Dietrich believes he will be murdered if he doesn’t attend the meeting. He’s optimistic that the length of his relationship with Verr will save him. Travis gets a phone call and steps away.
Alicia (Constance Zimmer) and Ren are at the end of their lunch at the diner that Tonya used to work at, with ren having introduced her father’s new girlfriend to Huckleberry Pie. Ren tries hard to get information out of Alicia, who is ungiving with her information and ultimately tells Ren she needs to talk to her father. When Ren rolls her eyes, Alicia talks about a better way for them to get along, which confuses Ren. “It has been so great to get to know each other,” Alicia says as she gets up to leave.
Travis responds to Jenny’s call, finding her crying in her truck outside of Bob’s house. She shows him an ID they found in the house, with Bob’s full name being Robert McIntyre. Travis looks on the bright side, saying Bob should be easier to find now that they know his legal name. Jenny, on the other hand, is dour and says she needs to do something about the death of two deputies.
Dietrich sits across from Verr Bhullar (Bernard White) and Jag, with Donnon and Dhruv (Yuvraj Dhesi) behind them. Jag takes control of the meeting, sternly scolding Dietrich for allowing one of his employees to steal drugs and money from them “What now?”, Verr asks, and Dietrich says he hopes things can go back to normal. Verr tells him that he may be useful to them again in the future, but he needs to be taught a lesson that he’s not their equal. Dietrich stands up in offense and Dhruv is quick to point guns at him. Verr tells Jag to teach Dietrich a lesson, implying to Dietrich that how he takes his punishment will be a sign of whether they work with him again or not. Jag looks fearful of having to inflict pain and Dietrich is unflinching as he gets up and stands facing Jag. When Jag throws his first punch, Dietrich offends him by asking “Is that how you hit?” Jag hits him again and says that’s enough, but Verr reminds his son that Dietrich threatened his sister and Jag continues beating Dietrich until he is on the ground. Verr stands up and drags the bag of money to Dietrich. “I believe this belongs to you. Consider it severance until you can make yourself useful again.”
(ABC/Anna Kooris)
Tonya prepares the drivers, Bryce (Travis Hammer) and Jamison (Jackamoe Buzzell) for their first delivery, with one box of drugs hidden within their normal meat deliveries. They each have an envelope with the bonus stop they secretly make during their route and she adds that they will be notified once the packages are delivered. Jamison is verbally outraged at the secrecy of what he’s delivering and he and Travis get in a testosterone-infused argument. When the drivers leave, Travis tells Tonya he doesn’t trust Jamison and they make a plan to follow the two trucks on their first deliveries. Tonya will follow Jamison. Donno wants to accompany Tonya, but she refuses his offer to join her. As the trucks leave, we see that Bob (Alex Knight) is watching through the trees.“Look what we have here,” he says to himself.
Jenny visits Poppernak in the hospital, who has broken ribs and a concussion. She promises to get the guy responsible and Poppernak worries that while he recovers, nobody is around to watch Jenny’s back. He thanks Jenny for saving him.
Ren’s quiet time in her trailer is interrupted by Jag’s sudden appearance. He is stoic, pretending to look at blueprints on the wall as Ren talks about her frustrating lunch with Alicia. He snaps at her, saying it’s not important for them to know about Alicia and accusing Ren of being a control freak. She notices that he is clenching his fists and asks him what happened. “I don’t want to talk about it,” Jag snaps. Ren asks if he is okay. “Just be grateful you weren’t there,” he says as he leaves.
Tonya is following behind Jamison, who pulls to a stop when he comes to a burning carousel horse in the middle of the road. When Jamison gets out of the truck, Ren steps out of her car and asks why he stopped. He goes in front of his truck to inspect the burning horse. There’s the sound of a gunshot, and then Jamison falls over in front of his truck. Bob steps out from around the truck and walks towards Tonya with his gun aimed at her. Sensing that she’s not a threat, he opens the back of the truck and sees boxes of meat stacked floor to ceiling. He asks Tonya if there are drugs amongst the steaks and she nods her head. “Good answer, means you get to live,” he says as he gets in the truck and drives away.
Shortly after, Jenny and Sheriff Tubb are at the crime scene. They’ve learned that the dead man next to the burned carousel horse was a truck driver and that his truck is now missing. Jenny finds a shell from a gun near the scene and takes it for fingerprinting.
(ABC/Anna Kooris)
Donno serves Tonya tea and scones back at Ren’s house and she asks him for advice on how to tell Ren the bad news. He tells her she should’ve killed the hijacker to avoid this situation and he warns her that Ren isn’t one to give second chances. Just then, Ren enters the kitchen and asks Tonya how the drop-off went. When Tonya tells her what happened, she throws the teacup Donno gave her against the wall in a rage. Tonya promises to get the shipment back. “You better,” Ren threatens, “This is not the kind of thing that my father will tolerate. Neither will I.”
Jenny visits Travis’ motel and tells him that Bob’s fingerprints matched the bullet shell found by the dead truck driver. Jenny questions why Bob would hijack a truck with drugs on board when he had enough money to disappear (she doesn’t know that Travis got the bag of money from him in the previous episode). Jenny asks Travis if Dietrich could be involved, asking him to join her to go ask him.
They find Dietrich where he always is, at the Boot Heel. He says he hasn’t heard from Bob and Jenny asks him to call her if Bob turns up. As they leave, Bob steps out of the shadows, asking Dietrich if they’re friends again now. “No, but I am sick of people telling me what to do,” Dietrich says. “We sell some drugs.”
(ABC/Anna Kooris)
Verr, Alicia, Ren, and Jag sit in the living room having bison burgers for dinner. Verr asks Ren to explain what happened with the lost shipment. Ren turns the conversation around, asking why he is so quick to leave Canada now when she’d been trying to get the family to relocate for years. Their conversation is interrupted by Donno, who has an important phone call for Verr.
Jenny and Travis meet with Sheriff Tubb, who questions if Dietrich would really contact them if Bob turns up. Travis believes Dietrich has no choice since he is his only protection from prison. Tubb asks Travis why he hasn’t made any arrests yet when he’s so close to the Bhullars that he has all the evidence he needs. Travis says he’s spent half a year on this and can take down the whole cartel with a little more time. When Travis leaves, both Sheriff Tubb and Jenny watch him suspiciously. Jenny notices Tubb’s expression and asks what he’s thinking. “That you don’t trust him either,” he replies.
Dietrich and Bob play cards while waiting for the buyer, who is an hour late. When the door finally opens, it’s Donno and Dhruv who enter, guns drawn at Bob. “What is this?”, Bob asks Dietrich. “I told you we weren’t friends,” he responds as Dhruv knocks Bob unconscious and picks him up to carry him out. He tells Dietrich that Verr thanks him and will be in touch. Dietrich smiles.
Bob wakes up handcuffed to a chair in a barn as Donno fills a metal tub with acid. Ren and Tonya are standing by and Ren notices that Tonya and Donno have become flirtatious. Bob tells them that if they kill him, they will never know his secret. Ren thinks he’s bluffing and tells Tonya that they always make a last-ditch effort to save themselves, patronizingly asking him what he knows. “For starters, you have yourselves a mole.” Bob tells them the mole is a cop and that it’s Stone. Ren looks furious.
Travis has just gotten back to his motel when his phone rings. Ren sounds chipper and happy, asking to come over to discuss something important.
Jenny is at her desk, looking over Bob’s fingerprints and finishing a drink when a woman knocks at her door. It’s Lila Dodge (Esodie Geiger), Travis’ supervisor from the state. Jenny had left her a voice message, but Lila says this conversation would be better had in person as they both have concerns about Travis. Lila asks Jenny if she can have a glass of whatever she just had, suggesting that she will likely need a refill herself.
Travis arrives at Ren’s home and she leads him to the back patio. “We have company,” she says, pointing out the man at the table. “I believe you know Bob.” Donno has a gun pointed at Travis. Ren asks Travis for his gun and with his hands in the air, he tells her she’ll find it in the small of his back.
Drinks in hand, Lila tells Jenny that Travis has never checked in with her the entire time he’s been undercover. “What did Travis tell you about the Bhullars?”, Lila asks. Jenny recalls that Verr killed Travis’ partner and that this case is personal to him. Lila opens a folder and shows Jenny a photo of a woman. She explains that her name was Kate Garza and she was Verr’s mistress, but also Travis’ informant. He fell in love with her. Jenny asks where she is now. “No one knows. One day she just disappeared. The assumption was and still is that Verr found out she was an informant and had her killed.” Lila believes Travis is looking for more than just answers, implying that he means to get revenge.
Bob cuts and chews a t-bone steak, which was meant to be his last meal. Ren asks Stone if he’s a cop and he denies it, calling Bob a psychopath trying to save himself. Bob puts down his knife and fork, saying they should switch places and this should be Stone’s last meal. Travis looks at Ren and asks if a cop would do this. In a quick move, he grabs the steak knife and plunges it into Bob’s neck. Bob bends over the table, choking to death. Ren looks at Stone with questioning eyes.
Big Sky returns Thursday, March 31st at 10/9c on ABC with “Dead Man’s Float.” I leave you with the official episode description.
As Jenny urgently attempts to prove the Bhullars are involved in the drug-related death of a teenager, her suspicions about Travis continue to grow, putting their relationship on thin ice. Meanwhile, Veer discloses the real reason behind his visit to Montana, and a surprise visitor resurfaces strong feelings from Lindor’s past.