TV Recap: “Big Sky: Deadly TraiIs” Season 3, Episode 4 – “Carrion Comfort”

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “Carrion” means “The decaying flesh of dead animals.” Knowing that, the title of the latest episode of Big Sky: Deadly Trails makes more sense – “Carrion Comfort.” Jenny doesn’t get much time to process the return of her mother as a new murder case keeps her busy. Cassie, meanwhile, finds herself on an impromptu date with Cormac, the flirtatious son of Sunny. Here is your detailed recap of Season 3, Episode 4.

A woman named Jody Cutter (Marisa Brown) cleans up after dinner, accidentally knocking an empty wine bottle off the counter. While cleaning up the broken glass, she cuts her finger and, after washing it in the sink, heads to the side yard to throw it away in the garbage bin. The back gate is swinging open and she calls out to ask if her daughter Autumn is there. With no response, she approaches the gate to close it, triggering the motion-activate light. It shuts off as she returns to the bin but suddenly turns on again. A person stands there in a wolf mask holding a knife, making a “Be quiet” gesture with their hands. Jody screams.

Jenny Hoyt (Katheryn Winnick) seems on the verge of tears in the passenger seat as Beau Arlen (Jensen Ackles) drives them to the crime scene. She’s overwhelmed by the way her mother Gigi double-crossed them and ran off with $30,000. “She helped us catch a murderer,” Beau consoles her. “Maybe we can call it a wash.” Deputy Poppernak (J. Anthony Pena) greets them outside of the Cutter home, filling them in on the details. Jodi was 46, her body was found by her daughter Autumn, and the time of death is estimated to have been around 2:00 am. The body has been moved and Jenny speculates that she was murdered near the garbage can and dragged to her current position. Bloody fingerprints on the gate belong to Jodi and after hearing about the broken glass, Jenny speculates that she cut herself by accident before she was murdered. None of the neighbors heard anything unusual, but Beau wants to ask around. Popernak informs them that Jody’s husband and daughter are inside the house.

Sitting with Jody’s family in their living room, Jenny finds that Jody’s husband Grant Cutter (George Newbern) is overwhelmed by guilt for working late at the bike shop he owns. His daughter Autumn (Paige Searcy) gets upset when Jenny asks if anyone can corroborate his story. “My dad would never hurt my mom,” she defends him. Grant tells them his employee Scott was with him. “I just don’t know why anyone would do something like this,” he cries. After confirming that they haven’t recently hired anyone new to work on the home or if anything is missing, Jenny turns to Autumn to ask where she was. Autumn spent the night at her boyfriend’s house and she told her mother where she would be. “Was she ok with that?”, Jenny asks. Autumn looks down at her phone before saying “Yeah.” Grant asks if this could’ve been a random attack. “Unfortunately, in cases like this, it’s usually someone the victim already knows,” Jenny tells him. Outside the home, Jenny and Beau both noticed Autumn’s suspicious glance at her phone. “Something’s not right about the house,” Beau adds, saying that his gut tells him this wasn’t a random murder.

Breakfast is served at Sunny Day Excursions and Cormac (Luke Mitchell) enjoys his cup of coffee. “Have you seen your father this morning?”, Sunny Barnes (Reba McEntire) asks her son. Buck hasn’t seen him but says he’s probably doing his morning trail check to make sure there aren’t any bears or rattlesnakes. Cormac is heading into town today for a supply run and Sunny warns him about how much he shares with the locals. “Those folks don’t need to know what’s going on with our guests, with Paige especially,” she cautions. Speaking of the missing camper, Cormac tells his mom that he didn’t see any fresh tracks on the trail back to town. “If Paige left at night it would’ve been a heavy-footed trek in the dark,” he says. Sunny suggests that Paige took an alternate route and asks him to keep quiet about it. “If Paige has a problem, let her vent on Yelp,” she jokes.

Sunny greets her guests at one of the breakfast tables, finding Avery (Henry Ian Cusick) and Emily (Cree Cicchino) discussing their plans to possibly go to the lake after they search for Emily’s missing knife. Sunny brought her a new one, but Emily brings up the sentimental value of the engraved knife her father gave her. She asks Sunny if Paige got to New York okay. “She sure did,” Sunny lies. “Paige made it back safe and sound, so you don’t have to worry anymore.” Emily doesn’t believe the story. Looking over, she sees Luke (Anirudh Bisharody) eating alone in a chair with a bandage on his head. She notices that Mary (Sofia Embid), who shares their picnic table, keeps looking back at Luke and that he is returning her stares.

Cassie Dewell (Kylie Bunbury) visits the Sheriff’s Department with the photo of the missing backpacker that was emailed to his parents. Beau asks if the location of the photo is near his daughter Emily’s camp and she says it’s a few miles away, but that she believes it to either be an old photo of a doctored one. Jenny will have their tech guy look into it. When Cassie leaves, Popernak calls Jenny and Beau to his desk to show them a video submitted by a neighbor of the Cutters. He had a game camera on his trash can to try and catch some raccoons, but this video caught a person walking by with a bloody sleeve and wearing a wolf mask.

As Jenny and Beau exit the Sheriff’s Department, they are approached by a woman named Carla (Angelique Cabral) – Beau’s ex-wife. Jenny introduces herself and Beau announces that they’re in a hurry. She asks to have a minute alone with Beau and Jenny steps away. She asks Beau why he stopped by the campsite where their daughter Emily is supposed to be bonding with her stepfather. “I was going to tell you about that,” he confesses, bringing up the missing backpacker. “There’s nothing to worry about,” he comforts her, reminding her that Emily is going to spend the weekend with him when the camping trip is over. After Carla leaves, Jenny returns. “Interesting,” she muses. “What?”, Beau asks in defense. “You’re still in love with her,” Jenny smiles. Beau denies it.

Sunny finds Buck (Rex Linn) on the trail examining the bleeding heart carved into a tree. “It’s not like you to miss breakfast,” she tells him. “It’s not like you to lie to me,” he scorns, saying he knew something was up with her recent late-night walks. “You promised me Walter would stay in the woods,” he grimaces. “He’s dangerous, Sunny.” She defends Walter and says he has nothing to do with Paige. When Buck asks if he’s connected to the missing backpacker, all she says is “You’re wrong about Walter.” Buck is angry and reminds Sunny about her son, saying “Your boy murdered his parents.” We learn that Walter is not Buck’s child and that he was given up for adoption. He locked his adoptive parents in their home and set it on fire. They agreed to protect him under the condition that he remain in his cabin in the woods. “This is crossing a line that I don’t want to cross,” Buck warns his wife. “Don’t make me have to choose between my husband and my child,” she pleads. “I’m not,” Buck defends. “Cormac is our child, he’s not.” Sunny agrees to talk to Walter. “You’re going to do more than that,” Buck warns. “End it, or I will,” he promises.

Jenny and Beau return to the Cutter house and find Autumn in the garage with her boyfriend Derek (Terrell Wooley). Beau asks where Grant is and she doesn’t know. They show her a photo of the man in the wolf mask and Autumn hesitates before saying she doesn’t recognize the mask. They ask Derek to roll up his sleeves and he seems reluctant to do so, but eventually does. He doesn’t show any signs of wounds on his arms that would’ve caused the blood stains the masked individual had in the photo. Jenny asks if they know anything else that could help with the case. “Just tell them,” Derek encourages Autumn. “I don’t want my dad to find out,” Autumn confesses. “I saw my mom with another guy.” She and her boyfriend caught Jody having an affair and Autumn asked her mom to end it before her dad found out. “The dude was weird,” Derek shares. Jenny asks for a name.

A man in a suit (West Liang) enters the Blue Fox Diner and takes a seat at the counter. Donno (Ryan O’Nan) offers him some coffee and the man greets Donno by his name. “Do I know you?”, Donno asks in confusion. “You will,” the man answers, opening his blazer to reveal a gun in a holster. Tonya (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) has been eavesdropping while working in her booth and gets up to intervene. “Is there something I can help you with?”, she sweetly asks. “Ren Bhullar gave me your name,” he reveals, name-dropping the cartel boss who transformed Tonya from a meager waitress into a local business tycoon. “Said you might be able to help me with a problem my boss has,” the stranger adds. “I don’t know what Ren told you, but that’s not what we do,” Tonya responds, but the man slides an envelope forward. “Deliver them to us and you will be very well compensated,” he promises. When he leaves, Tonya opens the envelope. She and Donno stare at photos of Luke and Paige.

Cormac visits a supply store on his errand run and finds Cassie shopping for rock climbing equipment. He asks what she’s doing and she tells him she’s going to climb Dead Man’s Drop to look for clues about the missing backpackers. He tells her she won’t need rope because he’s going with her and he knows of a better way to examine that cliff.

Walter (Seth Gabel) chops firewood outside of his cabin and is startled when he hears someone approach. He holds his axe in defense when Sunny reveals herself. “You need to pack your things,” she says, “I need to move you out of here tonight.” He asks why and she brings up Paige. He defends himself, saying he knows nothing about her, but Sunny says people will start looking for her. Sunny wants to move him to a different cabin by the creek that’s more secluded. Walter argues that it’s just a trailer and it’s full of mold. Sunny notices a bloody piece of cloth in Walter’s wood bin and she asks whose blood it is. “The backpacker,” Walter confesses. She is very angry about this, taking it and saying she will get rid of it properly. “Get your things packed up,” she announces. “I’ll be back for you after dark.”

Jenny and Beau arrive at an antique store, calling out to ask if anybody is there. With no response, they begin looking around. This isn’t an ordinary antique shop, with demented-looking dolls and taxidermied exotic animals. They come upon an alcove full of scary animal masks that look similar to the one worn by Jody’s killer. In a mirror, they see a man stand at the entrance to the alcove holding a Labrys, blocking their exit. Jenny and Beau draw their guns and the man places the medieval double-bladed axe on a shelf. “Is this about Jodi Cutter?”, Jody’s secret lover Craig Plotnik (Grayson Berry) asks. “I would never hurt her. She was the love of my life. It doesn’t make any sense. She was still alive when I left.” Craig was at Jody’s house that night for a romantic dinner. Beau asks him to roll up his flannel sleeves and his arms are clean. They lower their guns as Jenny asks about the wolf mask. “I sold it to her.” The mask was worn by Grant for a couples costume last Halloween with Jody as Red Riding Hood.

Cassie and Cormac race each other on 4-wheelers through the woods to Dead Man’s Drop. “Not bad for someone who’s new to ATVs,” Cormac flirts. “My dad had a 3-wheeler and he’d let me drive it when I was a kid,” Cassie shares. Cormac asks what they’re looking for, adding that he hopes it’s not a dead body.

Jenny and Beau arrive at Grant’s bike shop. As they look around, they see a photo of Jody dressed as Little Red Riding Hood sitting in her husband’s lap, the wolf mask on the table. An employee named Scott (Aaron Staton) reveals himself and tells Jenny and Beau that they just missed Grand, who is at the shipping warehouse picking up a delivery. Jenny asks Scott if he was with Grand the night Jody was murdered. He says he was and that Grant only left for a brief time to pick up some pizza. “Grant’s a good man,” Scott adds. “He loves Jody.”

Emily finds Avery and Luke having a tiff, with Luke storming off. “Luke overheard you talking to Sunny about Paige and thinks you’re growing suspicious about him,” Avery warns his stepdaughter. He reminds her that they don’t have the full story. Emily asks if he wants her to stop trying to find out what’s going on. “I didn’t say that, did I?” He reminds her that her mother joins them tomorrow and asks her to keep this a secret from her. “She thinks we’re up here riding horses and having fun. Let’s keep this on the down low, shall we?”

Donno has created a new pie and brings it to Tonya to try, saying that he won’t put it on the menu, it’s just for her. She tells him it’s really good as she thanks him for leaving his life with the Bhullars behind to stay with her in Montana. “You’re the best partner I could ever hope for,” she adds, making him uncomfortable with her compliment. He asks if they’re going to take the job to find Luke and Paige, warning that it’s a slippery slope and that in his experience, head-hunting jobs typically don’t receive payment until a dead body is surrendered. Tonya asks him to do some research on the targets before they make a decision. He asks about Gigi, concerned that they’re working with the mother of Jenny Hoyt. “You wanna tell me where you’re going with that?”, he asks. “I will when I’m ready,” Tonya answers.

Deputy Popernak calls Jenny and Beau to share that the shipping warehouse hasn’t seen Grant all day. On a hunch, they head to the Cutter house and find the front door ajar. They split up to search the home with their guns drawn. Jenny goes upstairs and finds bloody hand prints in Autumn’s bedroom. Beau heads to the kitchen and finds Grant on the floor, bleeding from stab wounds. He calls Jenny over and asks her to call an ambulance, Grant still has a faint pulse. Cut to the Emergency Room where Jenny and Beau wait for Grant to be helped. Forensics is running tests on the blood in Autumn’s room, but there’s been no sign of her. A nurse (Ramona King) announces that Grant is conscious and they go in to ask if he knows where Autumn is. “Scott took her,” he sobs. “Scott is in love with her. I should’ve listened to Jody.”

Cassie and Cormac find a few drops of blood on a rock. Cormac says it could be from a deer, but Cassie asks where the carcas is. “If you were going to hide a body out here, how would you do it?”, she asks. “That’s a hell of a question to ask on a first date,” Cormac blushes. “I don’t know, and I hope I never find out. You might want to look over there.” He points to the sky where a kettle of vultures circles above the trees. Cassie wants to head in that direction and Cormac says they won’t reach that spot until after dark. “Your mom give you a curfew?”, Cassie jokes. “You’re not going to make this easy, are you?”, Cormac asks.

While searching for her missing knife, Emily finds Luke by the creek again. She apologizes and he asks what she wants, adding that he doesn’t know where Paige went. “You said that she left,” Emily responds. “Yeah, but there was someone else out there. Do you believe me?”, he asks. Luke swears that he would never do anything to hurt Paige or anyone. “I really need you to stay out of this,” he adds. “You don’t know what you’re dealing with.” When Luke leaves, we see Emily stop the voice memo on her phone, having recorded the conversation with Luke.

Police cars surround the Cutter house when Jenny and Beau arrive. Popernak tells them the house has been cleared but Jenny and Beau want to have another look around. Beau says that he used to help a friend build houses and the dimensions of this house have never felt right to him. They head up to Autumn’s bedroom and Jenny notices wet blood on the door handle. Hearing a thumping noise, they draw their guns and slide the closet door open. It looks like a normal closet, but sliding the hangars apart, they find a sliding door that leads to another bedroom. It’s pink, with a shelf full of dolls. A music box plays twinkling sounds as they see a pink bed with a canopy. Jenny finds Autumn unconscious on the floor, her ankle chained to keep her there. Jenny tries to wake her up to ask if she knows where the key is. “This was my room,” Autumn mutters in confusion, seemingly drugged. Beau looks around and sees a collection of preserved used bandaids with Autumn’s ages next to each one, placed in chronological order. “He’s been planning this for years, since she was a child,” Beau says. The lights in the secret room suddenly go out, the only source of light a rotating nightlight that casts stars on the ceiling and walls. Jenny and Beau pull out their guns. Scott crawls out from under the bed with a knife, standing up and stabbing Beau in the shoulder. Jenny fires her gun but misses and Scott knocks her to the ground. Beau attacks Scott and gains control of the knife, driving it into Scott’s chest. He collapses and Jenny gets back up, noticing Beau’s bleeding shoulder. Scott suddenly jumps back up, knife in hand. Jenny shoots three times into his chest and he collapses for the last time.

Cassie and Cormac reach the spot the vultures were circling after night fall, using flashlights. He tells her today has been fun as they search. Their date comes to a dark conclusion when they find the body of missing backpacker Mark Woodman face down on the ground, bloody spots on his back.

Back in the ER, Autumn has a tearful reunion with her father, both crying. “I’m so sorry daddy,” Autumn sobs, taking the blame for her mother’s death. “No, it’s my fault,” Craig consoles his daughter. “I should’ve protected both of you, and I’m so sorry.” They hug and cry as Jenny and Beau step into the hallway to leave them alone. “Why’s it feel like the monsters always win, even when we get them?”,” Beau asks. Jenny says that at least they have each other. “A loving dad can’t protect you from everything, but it goes a long way,” she adds. Beau asks if she’s talking about Craig or someone else.

Donno tells Tonya that he knows where Paige and Luke are, saying they registered with fake last names at a local camping site. “Sounds like they’re trying to stay low,” Tonya says. “Yeah, they’re bad at it,” Donno laughs. “Which means it should be easy,” Tonya adds, agreeing that they will take the job.

Sunny returns to Walter’s cabin, bringing Buck along. “Why’d you bring him here?”, Walter asks in anger at seeing his mom’s husband. “I don’t want him here.” Buck scolds Walter for raising his voice to his mother and Walter lunges at Buck. A fight ensues and Sunny quickly breaks it up. “That’s my son, my child, and if you touch him again, God help me, I’ll bring down a cold hell on your head the likes of which you’ve never seen before,” Sunny snaps at Buck. He warns that Walter will be her undoing as he leaves the cabin. Walter tells his mother that he’s not leaving. She moves to hug him and he flinches before accepting her hug. “I love you, Walter, I really do,” she says. He nods his head as she leaves him alone. But he’s not alone… we see a woman’s eye looking through a hole in the wall. He opens the door leading to the bedroom. “They’re gone,” he tells the woman who has been quietly watching. It’s Paige (Madalyn Horcher).

What happens next? We’ll have to wait for next week’s episode, titled “Flesh and Blood.” In the teaser, we see Walter promising to protect Paige, a truck on fire, Jenny picking up a wooden doll from the body of the missing backpacker, Cormac telling Sunny that the backpacker’s body was found, Tonya visiting Luke in his tent, and Cassie looking at the bleeding heart carved into the tree. Her voice says “I’m looking for a creepy guy found near your camp,” but we don’t see who she was posing the question to. We’ll find out on Wednesday, October 19th, when the next episode of Big Sky: Deadly Trails airs on ABC.