Is Rick Legarski really dead? Will Cassie and Jenny save the girls from being transferred? What will Ronald’s mom do with the knowledge that her son helped kidnap the girls? Those are the burning questions I had at the end of the shocking fifth episode of ABC’s Big Sky, which aired on December 15th. After a short break, the series returned tonight with it’s 6th episode, “The Wolves Are Always Out for Blood.” Here is a play-by-play recap of the latest episode.
We pick up right where things left off, with Cassie having just shot Rick Legarski in the forehead. On the ground, he takes pained breaths and his fingers twitch as Cassie runs to the girls to comfort them. Sheriff Walter arrives and finds Rick on the ground with captives tied in the corner. With the girls safely in police custody, Cassie tells the sheriff that the girls said there’s another man out there. Cassie is asked to surrender her gun as evidence and the sheriff asks her and Jenny to let the police handle things going forward. Ronald drives past The All In looking anxious.
Rick is taken into surgery and later that night, the police dig up Cody’s truck. As Jenny approaches it, she sees Cody’s blood on the glass and her husband’s dead body inside. Cassie is right there watching as they both confirm that the man they love is really dead.
While watching the news, Helen and Ronald see a story that says a long-haul trucker who was involved in the abduction of the recently found girls is still on the loose. Ronald tells his mother that he’s trying to think of a plan, but it seems that she has no intentions of turning her son in.
Grace watches the rain from a hospital window as Cassie comes to visit her and Danielle. She tells them that a sketch artist is working on a drawing of the trucker as she questions them for more information that could help. Grace tells her he doesn’t look like a psycho and he has a sweet demeanor. Starting to have a panic attack over the realization that she may have fatally shot someone, Cassie steps out of the room and sees Merrilee down the hall.
In a waiting room, Cassie and Merrilee talk and Merrilee starts to blame herself for not truly seeing her husband. Meanwhile, Denise comes to Jenny’s house to console her, bringing her all of Cody’s belongings from the office. Jenny tells Denise they’re going to have a small service and Justin overhears, entering the kitchen. Denise reminds Jenny that Cody died on a rescue mission that Jenny completed, so his death wasn’t in vain.
Recounting the events that lead her to shoot Rick Legarski with Sheriff Walter, Cassie becomes defensive when he’s surprised to hear that she shot him before he lifted his gun. Meanwhile, Ronald calls Merrilee to express his condolences and she is uncomfortable that he called. With Helen standing by, Ronald was able to learn that Rick is still alive, although he hasn’t opened his eyes.
Cassie is riding a horse in the rain and has another memory of her flirtatious relationship with Cody. Back in the office, Jenny has mapped out all of the rigs that were at the truck stop on the footage from the night Jerrie was taken. Denise tells her she shouldn’t be in the office and should be home grieving, but Jenny tells her she has to be strong for Justin.
At the Legarski home, the police search through the home in search of any clues that tie Rick to the case, even ripping apart the floorboards. Ronald gives his truck a new paint job, painting it blue and disintegrating his old license plate in acid. At the hospital, a nurse asks Merrilee what Rick’s favorite music is in case it helps his brain come back.
At the diner, Jenny finds Jerrie and asks how she’s doing. Ronald pulls up in an SUV and takes pictures of Jerrie, seemingly infatuated with her. Jenny goes to the hospital to talk to Merrilee, who breaks down and says she’s sorry for Jenny’s loss. Back at home, Helen sees on the news that the police are tearing apart Rick Legarski’s home. Ronald says they did all of their phone calls on a burner phone and he knows where it is in the house. He decides he’s going to find a way in to get it before the cops find it. When Helen objects, he has a vision of strangling her again that seems to bring him joy.
Grace, Danielle and Jerrie attend a small service for Cody where Jenny and Justin scatter his ashes into the wind. Cassie is also there with her father and her son Kai. A barn party follows to honor his memory where Jenny and Cassie come to a new level of understanding. Already a widow herself, Jenny asks Cassie for some advice on how to move on. When Jenny tries to sing Cody’s favorite Neil Young song for the crowd, she breaks down and Cassie joins her to help finish the song. Jerrie also joins in.
Back at the office, Cassie tells Jenny that Grace will come in tomorrow to help make a better profile of the unknown truck driver. The two review the wall of rigs Jenny made and Cassie asks her to be her new partner, taking Cody’s place as a detective. She agrees for just this one case.
Merrilee arrives at her home to find it a complete mess, with a photo of her and Rick shattered. Ronald pulls up wearing a black cap to look for a way to sneak in, but Merrilee sees someone in the darkness out of her window. While walking home to her trailer, Jerrie hears someone calling her name running after her wearing a black baseball cap. She runs, but it ends up being someone she knows named Jimmy, who wanted to make sure she got home okay. He says she can still talk to him, but she says those days are over. Arriving at her trailer, the words “You don’t learn” were written on a note on the door, something Ronald said to her.
The last scene of the episode returns to Rick Largarski on his hospital bed with his eyes closed. His heart rate becomes faster on the monitor and the episode ends with him opening his eyes.
Will Ronald get into the Lergarski household to hide Rick’s burner phone? Will Rick turn him in and blame him for the entire operation? Will there be enough evidence to put Rick Legarski away for his involvement? Is Jerrie safe with Ronald stalking her? Who is Jimmy? And what ever happened to the person Rick Legarski had waiting to take the girls off his hands? We will hopefully find out next week in “I Fall to Pieces,” airing Tuesday, February 2nd at 10/9c on ABC.
You can catch up on past episodes anytime on Hulu.