NOTE: This post contains spoilers for Big Sky season 3 episode 5, "Flesh and Blood."
The overreaching theme of Big Sky this week is the complicated dynamics within all families — both blood and chosen families — and how blood ties bind tightly enough to make people cross lines they otherwise wouldn’t.
Let's look back at the episode to see how that played out for the characters as they continue to figure out what happened to hiker Mark.
Mark’s 'accidental death' maybe wasn’t accidental
The discovery of Mark’s body by Cassie (Kylie Bunbury) should have closed the mystery of his disappearance. But after the coroner ruled the death an accident, Cassie couldn’t let it go. She’s convinced Mark’s death wasn’t accidental. After finding a wooden figurine of a hiker in Mark’s pocket but not finding a phone, even though his parents got an email from him after he was already dead, Cassie’s committed to figuring out what really happened to Mark.
She thinks back to when she saw a "creepy stranger" driving an old truck with something under a tarp in the back on a little used road in the area. Could it be connected to Mark’s death?
At the end of the episode, while she is out searching for evidence in the area where Mark’s body was found, she sees the same truck, ablaze. If there was a connection between the truck and Mark’s death, any physical evidence that could have proved it just went up in smoke.
We need to talk about Walter
Sunny (Reba McEntire) is trying to keep Walter (Seth Gabel) hidden, but after he kidnapped Paige (Madalyn Horcher) and possibly killed Mark that’s getting harder and harder to do. The few people who know Walter is there are uneasy about his actions, but he’s family. Those blood ties are strong.
When Buck (Rex Linn) tries to tell Sunny that Walter is about to be a problem, Sunny admits she knows he is, but says she won’t turn her back on her son. She has a plan to send Walter far away so he’ll be safe from punishment for the things he’s done but also can’t put the rest of them in any danger. Will Walter go along with that? Probably not.
Sunny’s got her hands full trying to run the camp, keep tabs on Walter and keep Cormac (Luke Mitchell) from getting closer to Cassie. The last thing Sunny wants is to have Cassie spending even more time in the woods. Cormac and Cassie are definitely moving into the next stage of their relationship and mama Sunny doesn’t like that at all. Still, to protect Walter she tells Buck to burn the truck and the blood and DNA that’s in it.
Camp shenanigans
At the last minute, Donno (Ryan O'Nan) and Tonya (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) bought their way into the group just arriving at the camp to try and find the money, Paige and Walter. Their comedic turn as a married couple just there to enjoy the trip is delightful even though their purpose is dark. But Walter is uneasy and he knows everyone suspects something happened to Paige. But he’s sticking to his story that she left to go home.
Carla (Angelique Cabral) and Avery (Henry Ian Cusick) are trying to have a romantic trip together but when Carla finds out that Emily (Cree Cicchino) was talking to Walter and suspects Paige never really left to go home, Carla is concerned and wants Emily to promise to avoid Walter. Avery calms her down and reminds her that if he sensed anything was wrong as a "professional worrier" he would shut it down. She didn’t seem very comforted by that but accepted it.
The bank job
Beau (Jensen Ackles) has his hands full when he stumbles into an attempted robbery while looking at motorcycles to gift to Emily in an attempt to one-up Carla. A man stabs the motorcycle salesman in the stomach with a screwdriver and takes off. Beau gets the license plate of the truck he drove off in and traces it. When he locates the truck, he stumbles into a bank robbery scheme.
While doing some more investigations, things go sideways. Trent (Grant Harvey), who tried to steal the bike, is talking to Heather (Andrea Cortés) in the garage where the truck was. Poppernak, a.k.a Pops (J. Anthony Pena), is then taken hostage. Beau sees the truck speed out of the garage but doesn’t realize until the truck is out of view that Pops is in it.
He heads back to the station to try and track down the truck. Hoyt (Katheryn Winnick) is upset since Pops is her partner. Trent and Heather take Pops with them to rob a bank. Trent shoots an employee in the shoulder after she gives him what he needs to access the safe deposit boxes and the vault.
While he and Heather are ransacking the safe deposit boxes, Heather can’t find what she’s looking for, something she wants isn’t in her mom’s safe deposit box. She feels she is owed something from her mom. She refuses to leave without it even though time is up and they have to go. Trent goes to leave and is about to shoot her when Pops jumps against the door, knocking Trent outside but sealing Heather and Pops inside.
Beau and Hoyt figure out what bank Trent is robbing and rush the scene. After finding Heather and Pops, Hoyt promises to help Heather if she agrees to let Pops go. Heather is not a sophisticated criminal. Hoyt overpowers her and frees Pops. Beau in the meantime chases Trent. He outsmarts him and manages to snag him when Trent returns to the truck where Beau is waiting for him.
Will loyalty to family be enough for some of these characters to truly risk it all? The mystery continues next week. New episodes of Big Sky air on ABC Wednesday nights at 10 PM ET/PT. You can stream all the most recent episodes of Big Sky on Hulu after they air.
