You've got to love a show that dares to combine its murder investigation with the discovery of a giant T. Rex fossil. Big Sky did just that this week, with Hoyt teaming up with Deputy Poppernak to investigate a wedding gone awry. Meanwhile, Cassie's still looking into the mysterious Walter, while Beau is mostly concerned with keeping his family safe in the wake of Avery's naive cash grab.
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Sunny and Paige team up
But let's start from the top: The episode opens with Paige and Sunny in the face-off we first saw at the end of last week's episode. Reba McEntire's Sunny tells Paige she's surprised she's returned to camp, saying she "thought [she] would have high-tailed it to a beach" by now. She's even more surprised to learn that Paige was actually helped by Walter, who took her in and kept her safe. Sunny tells Paige that Walter has actually confessed to her murder, leading Paige to take pity on his selflessness. Together, the two hatch a plan in which Sunny will help Paige get her suitcase back in exchange for Paige's testimony that Walter didn't hurt her. Of course, that would assume that Paige would go public — which, if she did, means she'd be killed for that $15 million she stole. But I digress.
Meanwhile, over at what we come to know as Skylar and Austin's wedding, Deputy Poppernak is chatting up a bridesmaid named Natalie. She shows him her cool ring that she tells him is made of bone — which is one of those details that, when you're watching a show like Big Sky, you know is going to pay off in the end. It's then that the bride, Skylar, emerges from her house shrieking. The groom is dead! she says. Gasp! Seems that he's been hit with something sharp sometime earlier that morning, and only the bridal party had access to the residence at that time. It should also be noted that the residence is a massive cattle ranch, a la Yellowstone, which Hoyt later says could be worth some money.
More to Walter
Before that, though, we get a scene of Hoyt and Beau questioning Walter, asking him about the clippings they found in his sad cabin. They know he murdered his parents — or the people who were legally his parents — 20 years ago and that another kid who was in the house, a girl named Madeleine, was never found. He tells them he was protecting her and that he set her free, which they think means that he murdered her, but that's not really Walter's M.O. They also allude to the fact that they know someone's been helping him this time — maybe Buck or Sunny — especially since he's been on his own since he was just a kid and it's pretty evident that he couldn't have built a cabin or done supply runs all on his own. He blanches a bit at the mention of Sunny, and it's clear that her secret's coming out very soon.
Sunny, it seems, isn't all that good at keeping secrets, especially when it comes to Walter. She's at home jamming snacks into her purse when Buck comes home to ask her why she was up at the campsite. She tells him she was just cleaning up, which he clearly doesn't buy, but she's also smart enough to realize that she shouldn't tell him that Paige is up there by herself. It's odd, because you can see why a couple like Sunny and Buck would have gotten together — and McEntire and Rex Linn, who plays Buck, are together in real life — but there's also a real undercurrent of distrust there. Plus, Buck is a big murderer, and you have to wonder if Sunny knows because I'm not sure if she does.
While Hoyt's investigating the wedding murder, Cassie and Beau are looking into Walter's missing foster sibling. Emily somehow quickly solves the case, saying, "Oh, she must have changed her name" — which, duh — and they find her easily on a state records search. I should say here that it's a little convenient that happened, considering she would have been a missing child when the actual arson happened. And wouldn't someone have wanted to find her since? But whatever. They eventually track her down in the burbs, where she's living the nuclear life, and she tells them that Walter saved her and that his biological mom picked them up from the house. She doesn't remember the woman's name, she says, but she had beautiful red hair and a voice like an angel. Ding ding! Cassie and Beau are finally able to put some more pieces together.
At the same time, Sunny is teaming up with Donno and Tanya in an effort to secure Paige's bag from either the police or Avery. "You help get Paige's bag and her notebook, and she'll split the money with you," Sunny tells the bumbling duo, and they bite.
Speaking of bumbling: Around the same time, Avery's over at a pawn shop sheepishly eyeing guns because he's just so stupid. The shopkeep sells him a gun she says is the same model James Bond used in the old movies and, for an extra $50, teaches him how to use it. We learn later that he plans to threaten or kill the super evil guy who had him digging into the crypto, which seems like a terrible idea that only someone as selfish and reckless as Avery would make. He's doing it under the guise of keeping his family safe, but when it's you — a random, middle-aged white guy — versus some massive crime boss, you've got to assume that he's going to have you outmanned or outgunned. Just saying.
The wedding and the dino
With some investigating at the wedding, Hoyt learns that murdered groom Austin forced his bride to sign a last-minute prenup. She did it because he made her happy but says she didn't know until she saw the document that there was a dinosaur on the ranch somewhere. She says digging up the massive skeleton was just his hobby, but that he promised he'd show it to her after the wedding and that he'd even name it after her, meaning some museum or billionaire would have to deal with the fact that their T. Rex was named Skylar. She says Austin had to ask friends to help him deal with the dinosaur, which checks out because who would know how to deal with something that's been buried in the ground for millions of years?
Here's where I will say that it seems like the people he actually enlisted were just his random buddies and some bridesmaid named Natalie that he was boinking? I would probably have called a museum or something, but maybe that's just me. Hoyt has a run-in with one of the buddies when she goes to see the fossil, which is just sticking out of the ground in perfect condition. He tells her the skeleton could be worth millions if it's intact, and she takes note of his reflective mountain jacket.
This comes into play later when a florist tells Poppernak they saw someone leaving Austin's room wearing one of those jackets. It turns out not to be Austin, though, but Natalie, the bridesmaid from earlier with the bone ring whom Austin had been having an affair with. Hoyt goes looking for her and finds her at the bottom of a hole on the dig site, with Skylar holding a shovel and a hammer. Natalie's still alive, thankfully, though I'm a little unclear on whether it was Natalie who killed Austin or Skylar who killed Austin and then went to kill Natalie to clean things up? I think it was the latter — but either way, he's dead, and Skylar's headed for jail, at the very least.
Lots of setup for next week
On a trip up to the campsite, big bad Buck realizes that Sunny did not, in fact, go up there to find his saddles, as they remain on the fence. He starts looking around to see if someone's there, and Paige peers out at him in a way that, we find out later, gets her caught, gagged and tied to a pole in Buck and Sunny's attic. Later, Sunny takes Tanya and Donno up there to get Paige and find out more about the pages — but, of course, the missing girl is nowhere to be found. Tanya pulls a gun on Sunny, telling her, "if we can't find Paige, we're all in big trouble, especially you." Down the mountain, Cassie confronts Cormac about Walter, and he tells her he found out about him a day earlier and assures her that "whatever you find, I'm my own man." She tells him that he'll need to do what's right, whatever that means, though it doesn't seem as if Cormac knows much more than Cassie does.
Hoyt and Beau shippers get a big moment at the conclusion of this episode, when Hoyt takes a six-pack of beer to Beau's house after she's had a hard day. She's in need of comfort, and he cradles her face and tells her it's OK, but then, of course, his ex-wife and daughter roll up. He asked them to come so he could keep them safe, he tells Hoyt, but then as Hoyt excuses herself and slinks away, she looks back and sees kind, loving glances between Carla and Beau. It's hard to argue with the kind of love that builds a family, it seems; and since there's never been anything said about what's going on or isn't going on between Hoyt and Beau, she doesn't really have a place to question what's going on — even if she told Poppernak earlier in the episode that she'd consider getting married again someday if the right guy came along, and he retorted something to the effect of "like you don't know him already." Regardless, Hoyt goes home to find her door jimmied open and her floor covered in bloodied bandages, all apparently left there by her hiding mother. More on that next episode, presumably.
The episode ends with stupid, naive Avery calling the evil crime boss in an attempt to renegotiate not only his payday but also the safety of his very vulnerable family. As if his one James Bond gun is going to keep them safe! The crime lord tells his henchman, "I don't renegotiate. Track him down," also suggesting his lackey go after Avery's wife and stepdaughter as well. Everything's about to get a little messy in their world, and hopefully, Beau won't be collateral damage. If he is, though, perhaps Hoyt can swoop in to save them all, because wouldn't that just be perfect?
READ MORE: Who's Who in Montana: A 'Big Sky' Season 3 Character Guide
