Big Sky Season 1 Episode 4 Review: Unfinished Business

So close, and yet so far.

Cassie and Jenny were able to work as a team on Big Sky Season 1 Episode 4, and although they may have taken some backroads to get there, they found the barn and were THAT close to rescuing the girls.

But this is the first stretch of a long road, and we didn’t end this hour with the rescue we’re all rooting for. However, Cassie and Jenny are on the right track.

Cassie At Home - Big Sky Season 1 Episode 4

The show has finally decided to remember who its leads are, and they delved a bit further into Cassie’s background.

We know very little about Cassie beyond the fact she’s a hardened, smart woman who is good at what she does.

We also know she’s a mom and that she had an affair with Cody, but that’s it.

Now, we know more about her background and the losses she’s endured, and it’s clear she’s hiding behind that tough exterior.

There’s a greater story being told on Big Sky Season 1, but the small character moments are where the series shines, and Cassie’s quiet scenes with her father discussing the real complexities of life and what it means to be a human were very powerful.

In her line of work, she’s surrounded by brutality and just general unkindness, and it can make you jaded to the world.

For that matter, she and Jenny are barely hanging on as they search for the girls and Cody as well. But these women are strong, and they are going to see this through.

It would be easy for the show to neglect their personal lives in favor of just having the ladies work the case, but allowing us a peek into who these women are adding a lot to a show like this.

Since the pilot, Cassie and Jenny have been fighting, literally, but they have chemistry, and they play off each other well. It’s easy to see how these two could have been real tight if it’d hadn’t been for them both falling in love with Cody.

Of course, they got just close enough to spark some antennas but were unable to hear the girls desperately screaming for them when they searched the barn.

But they’re onto Rick, and they’ve been onto Rick, and Rick is spiraling faster than anyone could have anticipated.

State Trooper Rick Legarski is a real piece of work. And it’s almost impressive how he’s able to unpeel a new level of depravity and inhumanity every time we see him.

But we were hit with the full whammy, as his ignorance, misogyny, and racism were on full display here.

A master of deflection, a hallmark trait of a true sociopath, saw Ronald rambling on about the injustices being levied against him when he’s killed two people and facilitated the kidnapping of three others, all within a few days.

See what I mean? Open season on the badge. My, my, my.

Rick

Laughs By Firelight - Big Sky Season 1 Episode 4

Rick is very slowly losing his grip on reality. Of he and Ronald, Rick seemed like the much smarter one, but as the pressure mounts, he’s wilting away. And it looks like Ronald is emerging as the one with the grand plan.

Not sure I saw the Rick and Ronald partnership going up in flames as fast as it did, but it’s adding a fascinating dynamic to things. Ronald underestimates Rick, a theme that has probably followed him his entire life.

Hell, I even underestimated Ronald. Who thought he’d be devious enough to attach himself to Ronald’s wife?

Merrilee lives with a crazy person daily, and now she’s being conned by an equally crazy person, and you have to wonder how off her people skills are.

Working Together - Big Sky Season 1 Episode 4

Ronald’s long game here will be something to watch, especially as he continues to deal with Helen, who’s getting more and more suspicious of her son.

Oh, sweetheart, I continue to believe there’s more good in you than bad. But the day I come to believe otherwise, that there’s more bad in you than good, that’s a terrible day for me. For you.

Helen [to Ronald]

Their relationship is a trip, and each installment gives us a scene or a quote that makes you audibly gasp.

It came here when Ronald poured his cereal over Helen’s head when she dared to question him about his shadiness.

Helen knows enough about Ronald to know he’s got major issues, and it feels like she’s waiting for definitive proof of his wrongdoing before she strikes. Or that could be what the show wants us to think.

Looking Over His Shoulder - Big Sky Season 1 Episode 4

Either way, things are liable to come to a head with them sooner rather than later because she’s not letting it go, and Ronald is at his wit’s end.

Both men are about one wrong word away from completely losing it.

After spending a lot of time with the girls on Big Sky Season 1 Episode 3, there was less time spent with them, but the moments we got continued to show their will to survive and outwit.

Grace is just so smart, and even while in an indescribable amount of pain, she’s leading the women and trying to figure out ways to keep them safe. But none of them realize they’re mere hours away from being moved.

And that’s going to lead us into the winter finale, which is shaping up to be a crazy hour of television because you know they’ve got a few more tricks up their sleeve.

Odds and Ends

Ryan Phillippe alert! Cody showed up in a flashback with Cassie, as the two sat around a fire singing, eating, and kissing. Their relationship was a lot different than we were led to believe in the pilot.

Denise did something right, but she’s still on my radar.

Camping Out - Big Sky Season 1 Episode 4

Rick’s crazy self descending the staircase towards a sleeping Merrilee with a hammer was so campy. Do you think he actually kills his wife or does something to scare the crap out of her, leading her closer to Ronald?

Glad the show made it known that most of the women being abducted are Indigenous. This is Montana, where there is an alarming number of missing Indigenous women, and the show could do a much better job of bringing that to the forefront.

It feels like the season just started, but we are approaching the midseason finale, which means we need to hear all your predictions for what’s to come next!