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Harper’s Island: Episodes 10 & 11

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harpersCumilative body count so far: 25

Dire-logue: “Of all the weddings I’ve been to, this one ranks…near the bottom.”

As we head towards the climax of the CBS slasherama-drama, things take a more serious tone; with everybody convinced Abby’s dad is the killer, the group tries to leave the island, thwarted by an explosion and the discovery that the cops sent to rescue them have also been murdered. Holed up in The Cannery, suspicions and conjecture take over and Maggie’s insistence that the locals are immune to the death train is proven fatally wrong (for her, at least).

Escape attempts ensue as they split to try and find another boat around the back of the island and Jimmy’s bizarre survival of the dock explosion poses some new questions, all of which are shadowed when Abby comes face to face with the real John Wakefield (played by BSG‘s Callum Keith Rennie – who I love).

In Episode 11, with Sheriff Mills permanently out of the way, Wakefield steps it up a gear and assaults those hiding out in the bar, offing Nikki and Shane quicksmart and chasing the others out. So is he the killer, then? It’s a bit of a rubbish outcome if so… Rest assured, CBS said one of the final eight characters is also involved – but who? Madison just might have the answer to that – or does she? Meanwhile, two of my favourite characters are eliminated in an uncharacteristically sad scene of self-sacrifice followed by self-sacrifice, shrinking the number of surviving cast members (Wakefield excluded) down to ‘The Final Eight’.

July 11th sees the final two instalments back to back and, hopefully, a surprising and satisfying resolve.

Harper’s Island: Episode 9

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harpersCumilative body count so far: 16

Dire-logue: “Staying here is the only way we’re going to be safe.”

As the search for Madison continues, Abby gets a look at the Wakefield journal and discovers that she just might be his daughter! Gasp-a-rooney! With what JD told her about it all being ‘about her’, maybe we’re starting to get to some answers.

The majority of this episode occurs in the rooms and secrets passages of the Candlewick Inn, where some of the group go looking for a vanished Beth, while Shae waltzes off to find the psychic from several episodes back.

Shane tries to befriend Katherine, while most of the group consider Abby to be the killer or, at the very least, cursed. (Parts of) Beth are found and Abby locates Madison and escorts her to safety, but not after a brief encounter with the unseen killer. Meanwhile, Cal and Chloe do a bad job of babysitting Sheriff Mills, who disappears while they have sex on a gurney – and there’s a second grim surprise waiting in the sitting room of the Candlewick…

Harper’s Island: Episodes 7 & 8

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harpersCumilative body count so far: 14

Dire-logue: “Terrified, unskilled people should not be handling weapons.”

With the murders out in the open, Episode 7 takes us into flashback territory. Groan. Ergo, things are padded out with Abby and Jimmy’s blossoming relationship and John Wakefield’s murder spree that claims her Mom.

We also meet Cole Harkin, a deputy who’s burnt up by an explosion rigged by Wakefield – he’s pally with J.D., who is now the chief suspect. Trish is having second thoughts about Henry and the frat boys discover Mal’s secret and the truth about Booth (complete with rhyme!) which culminates in Ep. 7’s one and only murder, which is a bit of a lamo off-camera affair… Things end with creepy kid Madison receiving a note “from Daddy” (who’s, like, dead) and entering a room where the door is slammed shut.

The wedding party attempt to leave but Madison’s disappearance keeps the main set at the Candlewick looking for her. Abby, Henry and Katherine discover Richard’s body and Abby gets a call from Madison claiming that if anybody leaves the island, they’ll die! (how, we don’t know – maybe the killer can fly too). Said killer breaks J.D. out of jail by shooting a nameless deputy and the killer strikes twice more before the end of the episode, which also sees disharmony between the guests, who think they’re immune from the hitlist because it’s mainly the Wellington’s who are under fire.

I’m still banking on my suspect of a few episodes ago, now as one half of a psycho duo, but wish they’d start offing some of the look-a-likey female characters – isn’t that what this genre’s supposedly all about? Not much bloodshed this week, but Abby is still at the centre of things… But why?

Harper’s Island – Episode 6

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harpersCumilative body count so far: 9

Nearly at the halfway point and the gore quotient is cranked up a few notches as the shock demise that occurred off screen (but not off audio) at the end of Ep. 5 is revealed in all it’s gruesome glory as a ‘head spade’ (what is this??) slices its way through the face of the father of the bride…

Hysterics ensue (not the funny sort, unless you’re watching) and Trish reveals to all that slimy bro-in-law Richard was shagging stepmom Katherine. JD discovers the body of Uncle Marty and, after convincing Henry and Abby that he didn’t rig the chandalier and taking a field trip to the Sheriff’s secret shrine to all that is John Wakefield, they resolve to digging up the body to make sure he’s really dead… They find what looks like a biology class skeleton, but they’re all convinced…

Meanwhile, Sheriff interviews the wedding party and Cal and Chloe – oblivious to the horror – make an attempt to get back the diamond ring lost in Episode 1. Today’s kill occurs at the end of the episode again, a nice grisly harpooning… It looks as if the rest of the series will be shifted into the gear of terror! Yay! …And where’s Jimmy the fisherman, eh? Hmm…

Harper’s Island – Episodes 3, 4 & 5

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harpersCumilative body count so far: 8

I had a little Harper-thon on Friday night and watched the last three episodes back to back. While it’s safe to say things are getting better, there’s still a sense of reservation about this series that bugs me a bit…

One of the girls who died in Episode 2 went without mention all the way through 3 and possibly 4 until somebody mentioned she’d gone back to the mainland and would return for the wedding. I’m sure this was totally omitted and it felt like the script had to backtrack to cover up something it’d forgotten…

Anyhoo, as I can’t distinguish between what happened in which of the three I watched, details could be out of chronological order here… While our final girl Abby reaquaints herself with her father, the Sheriff, father of the bride Thomas decides to send his daughter’s sleazy ex away having failed in his bid to win her affection and ruin the wedding. Henry and his frat pals charter a boat for a day of fishing and find a speedboat with a dead body aboard and a bag containing $250,000 which they bicker over, eventually ending in the most ridiculous death so far when a character dies from shooting themself in the leg and bleeding out. No murder that episode! No, just death-by-stupidity.

There’s some stuff about an affair between Trish’s stepmother and brother-in-law; a psychic comes to read for the girls’ bachelorette gig and creepy kid Madison says the spirits told her she’d never get to be a flower girl. The psychic freaks Abby out with some assembly-line cryptic rubbish: ‘you must leave, you will die, blah blah blah…’

Episode 5 was where things took a leap as Trish and her dad were accosted by a rabid dog and Abby discovered that her father is obsessed with the idea that John Wakefield (her mom’s killer) is still alive and killing elsewhere, an idea Kelly had alluded to before she was murdered. Things end with the death of one of the major characters that occurs in front of everyone else – or does it? We cut to black before it could be definitively chalked up so we’ve got to wait two damn weeks for Episode 6…

I’m still betting on the same suspect as I did in Episode 2, mainly because it’s the kind of thing American shows tend to ‘do’, but I hope it’s not that simple.

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