Episode Title: "Questions and Antlers"
Writers: Phil M. Rosenberg & Mike Flynn; Story by Byron Balasco
Director: Ron Underwood
Previously on "Happy Town":
Henley Boone (Lauren German) successfully blackmailed the town matriarch, Peggy Haplin (Frances Conroy). However, she was far less successful at her attempts to leave the town of Haplin behind. Meanwhile, Rachel Conroy (Amy Acker) faced intense pressure to remember what happened to her while she was a captive of the Magic Man, but she was unable to provide any useful information.
Both women turned to the town's movie memorabilia salesman, Merritt Grieves (Sam Neill) for help, with mixed results. Merritt was able to get Rachel to remember small pieces of info regarding the Magic Man, but while attempting to take a train out of town with Henley's blackmail money (on her behalf), Merritt was choked from behind and nearly killed.
In the woods of Haplin, teen lovers Georgia Bravin (Sarah Gadon) and Andy Haplin (Ben Schnetzer) discovered a trailer they believed could have belonged to the Magic Man. While they were sneaking around inside the trailer, it was driven off by Dan Farmer (Peter Outerbridge), a state police investigator previously believed to have left town.
Story:
Sheriff Tommy Conroy (Geoff Stults) is confronted by Jerry Friddle's widow with information that implicates Big Dave (Abraham Benrubi) as his killer. This is a huge problem, since he not only knows that Big Dave is the killer, he helped cover it up! That night, he has an intense dream in which he and Dave are together as children and Dave enjoys killing a deer just a... well... way too much. Over at the movie memorabilia store, Merritt has some nasty marks on his throat from his near-choking experience. Henley is pissed that her money was stolen, but she thinks that she knows who attacked Merritt because he said that he smelled cinnamon.
Out in the forest, Dan Farmer discovers Georgia and Andy in his trailer and drugs both of them with truth serum to discover why they were there and what they found. He introduces himself to them as the "best cop ever" and seems to be really crazy. He says that he is tracking down the Magic Man and that he previously drugged Georgia to discover what she may have seen. Incredibly, after he releases them, the teens seem to think that his methods might be worth trying; given the perpetual failures of the local law enforcement to find the Magic Man.
Merritt receives a personal visit from Peggy Haplin, who warns him not to assist Henley. He successfully woos her and goes on a date with her, seemingly winning her trust. Meanwhile, Henley tracks down Greggory Stiviletto (Warren Christie) and tortures the truth out of him: he attacked Merritt and stole her money on Peggy Haplin's orders in order to draw the person Henley is working for into Haplin. Later, Henley and Merritt meet and seemingly conspire to get her inside the Happlin homestead.
After spending hours interrogating John Haplin (Steven Weber) regarding a possible connection to the Magic Man, Roger Hobbs (Robert Wisdom) accuses him of Jerry Friddle's murder as well. Tommy panics and tries to tell Roger that John isn't the killer. But Roger has already worked out that Big Dave is the killer and he wanted to force Tommy to arrest him. While attempting to flee, Big Dave accidentally discovers where the Magic Man hid his victims, but is unable to show Tommy where it is. Dave panics while waiving a shotgun around, forcing Tommy to shoot and kill him. Later, Tommy reveals to his wife that he had purchased a plane ticket to help Dave escape from justice. One last attempt to save his friend.
Breakdown:
This is actually one of the better episodes of "Happy Town." But it's not like the characters suddenly spoke and behaved like actual human beings — that's kind of a big problem on this show — but there were definitely entertaining moments throughout.
I can see why Andrew Haplin would prefer the help of a crazy, would-be supercop (who kidnapped him AND his girlfriend!) after watching the so-called police work by Tommy and Roger during the last few weeks. I also agreed with his father, John's assessment of them as "idiot cop and moron cop." Their interrogation techniques are really pathetic.
Although Roger gets a pass, because he was using shoddy detective work to hide his actual detective work, regarding Jerry Friddle's murder. A few episodes ago, he was clearly suspicious of Tommy's story about why he had dirty shovels in the back of his car. And from there, he worked out not only that Big Dave had killed him, but why he did it as well.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Roger Hobbs: the only good detective in Haplin.
But shouldn't that level of competency come from our main character? You never saw Jack Bauer drag Chloe out of CTU to shoot bad guys for him on "24." That's because it makes your hero look bad when the supporting characters are doing his job better than he is.
And sure, it was kind of touching when Tommy revealed that he was still trying to help Big Dave escape. But couldn't he have defused that situation by saying, "hey, I got you a plane ticket so you can get out of town"? And hasn't this guy ever heard of shooting to wound? He couldn't have shot Dave in the arm or a leg? No... he had to shoot him in the chest. Nice work, Tommy!
Incidentally, when Kubiac... I mean... Big Dave was running through the forest, did anyone else think "My name is Big Dave and I want a Big Cereal!"
Back in the B-plot, Merritt turned on the charm to entice Peggy Haplin. And while that makes him the closest thing to a "Playa" in Haplin, it was also incredibly creepy to see Peggy smile during their date. It was like watching Dracula drink baby blood. Also, her butler/chauffeur looks a lot like an Observer from "Fringe." Perhaps in an alternate universe, this show is a big hit... Or not.
The other storyline of the week involved Henley torturing Gregory for information, which isn't exactly conducive to their burgeoning relationship. I thought women were supposed to wait an appropriate period of time before moving on to actual torture... kids these days! Her methods were only slightly more effective than Sheriff Tommy's. I guess that makes her the Jack Bauer of this show.
Honestly, it's never really come together for "Happy Town" and I can't say that I'm surprised that ABC is pulling it from the schedule again. The last two episodes of this show will be burned off in July. And I may end up being the only one watching by that point.
Maybe I'm too patient...
Crave Online Rating: 7.5 out of 10.
