This is the second time now in a few weeks that Gracepoint has managed to completely and utterly surprise me. This downtrodden (that's a compliment) drama usually leaves me wanting a hug after the episode but this week the show went a different route and for the most part gave us lots of warm fuzzies. Don't get me wrong, "Episode 8" had its shocker moments, but for the first time, I had hope for this tiny town. 

This week picked up right where last week left off, with Tom Miller still missing and everyone from the town doing their best to find the boy.  The town's beleaguered priest just happens to stumble upon Tom and upon his arrival at the hospital we learn that Tom did all this, in the hopes of bringing the killer of his friend to justice and to get his mom back home.  With this crisis behind him we see for the first time, the town trying to get back to normal.  

We also see the town unite at last, shunning the reporter that has already caused so much trouble. But of course, she is still hanging around and that matters in a moment.  For as the town shuns her, the Solano's try to feel normal again.  Chloe goes back to school, Mark goes back to work and Beth heads out for a run, where she runs into Renee and asks a favor, to speak with the mother who lost her child in Rosemont.  The mother agrees and Beth learns that Carver botched the case completely and to beware him, but the meeting leaves her frightened, only because the mother from Rosemont is clearly still a mess after losing her child.

As Beth deals with that, Chloe and Mark have trouble dealing with their days as well and when Mark comes to see his daughter at school he instead watches her ride off with her drug dealing sweetie.  It leads he and Beth to confront her, only to find out she is trying to find a sliver of happiness again.  It leads to the family enjoying  a day of fun, and then of course, things get crazy.  Our intrepid editor-in-chief at the paper has discovered more about Susan Wright and after dropping off a present, Susan shows up at the Miller home, to give Tom the skateboard belonging to Danny.  Susan is of course arrested at the newspaper office, but refuses to talk to the police until her dog, that Vince now has, is found. The episode ends with another stunning and tense finale as someone breaks into the ranger station where they found evidence of a clean up and the person inside attacks Miller and Carver, but sadly manages to get away since Carver's heart finally puts him down into a medical emergency.

So there we go, suddenly this week we get a massive clue to the police and a few interesting tidbits in between.  Obviously, Tom knows something about Danny's death since he is so intent on fully destroying his computer to hide the data we saw him wipe earlier in the series and of course the town priest is still under investigation and his being near Tom as the young boy destroys his computer won't likely help his cause. I'm still not sure the Priest has anything to do with this, but we still don't have a real clue do we?  

Either way, like I said, this was a hopeful and uplifting episode, minus the last few minutes.  It was really lovely to see the town angry at someone who actually caused trouble rather than one another, and it was quite uplifting to see the Solano family smiling and happy once again.  Heck, Beth might even keep the baby.  But I have a feeling this is the last of the feel good moments, for there are only two episodes left and we should know the killer soon.  

After several weeks of last minute shockers and sad tales, Gracepoint suddenly kicked into overdrive.  Don't get me wrong, the last few weeks have been as captivating as ever, just not as edge of your seat captivating as last night's episode of the show was.  Yes, this week moved at a breakneck pace and added new horrors to the fold so let's get into the nit and grit of "Episode 7".

Last night saw the funeral of Jack Reinhold, a somber affair to say the least and one that led to a fine lecture from our favorite preacher Paul and it was preceded with the news that budget cuts were coming to the Solano case since progress in the last six weeks had been minimal at best, and that's when all hell broke loose. On the way to school Joe lets Tom ride three blocks to school on his own, and it turns out that's the last time anyone sees him.  Yes, Tom Miller has gone missing and as the search begins a suspect finally comes to light, the backpacker Lars Pierson.

His being taken into custody is the first time we ever see Detective Miller show some real emotion and fire, especially when she loses it in the interrogation room but in the end all we learn is that Lars did indeed interact with Danny by the ocean as Jack had claimed and that he did give Danny his phone number if he ever needed to talk, but that was as far as Carver could get, since the episode refocused on the fact that someone had spotted Tom further north that morning and all the search party could turn up in that area...was Tom's blue bike.  

So to call this episode intense would be doing it a disservice because I'm not kidding when I say I was on the edge of my seat. We even met Carver's daughter last night in what was probably the only thing I didn't like about the episode.  She really didn't serve any purpose other than to let us know her and her father's relationship sucks, which we already knew, and that Carver was really sick, which we already knew.  

But there's a couple of little subplots that caught my eye last night that have me wondering if there is more than meets the eye to what we are seeing.  Our creepy psychic came back again last night to warn Beth that poor Tom was hurt and bleeding, which now has me wondering exactly what this guy knows. I don't believe for a second that he's a psychic, but seeing his fascination with the Solano case, his criminal record and now having something to say about Tom...could he be the killer?  

Of course, it's hard to pin him down when Vince had his own creepy subplot this episode.  In fact, Vince is suddenly more of my concern, seeing as how he was "hunting" in the morning, Tom went missing in the morning and oh yeah, we find Vince putting something into his freezer and washing a ton of blood off of hands.  All disturbing things to see and it has me wondering if we've seen the answer as to who killed Danny somewhere in the last seven episodes and we don't even know it.  Either way, only 3 episodes to go, and I get the feeling it's getting uglier from here. 

Well last night's episode of Gracepoint needs to have a single word attached to it, and that word is wow. This was an extremely ugly episode of the show as we head into the home stretch of the series and it featured an ending that I never saw coming.  So let's get right down to recapping, "Episode 6".

This episode was the first that oddly enough was relatively light on the clues this week. In fact, we only got two, cigarettes littered around Danny's body, and the fact that the boat that burned in the harbor with Danny's DNA on it belonged to the dad of our intrepid local reporter, Owen. Because outside of the clues this was an episode about two things, picking up the pieces and what kind of a town Gracepoint can really turn into. 

The pickup up the pieces focused squarely on Mark and Beth Solano as they begin to figure out where they go next after Beth confronted Mark about his affair with Gemma.  She of course made a point to visit Gemma and do a little vandalism to the bar at her hotel to remind Gemma to stay away, but the great debate in the Solano household revolved around if they still love one another and whether or not they want to keep the baby.  

But the big shocker of the night, for two weeks running...is Jack Reinhold.  With his story broken to the press by Owen and his sleazy writer girlfriend Renee the town immediately wonders what his intentions are with the town's children. It leads to a thrilling confrontation between Mark, Vince, Jack and a mob of the people of Gracepoint as they demand answers.  Jack finally reveals his past in detail. That he fell in love with the young girl he had an affair with and after he did his time he ended up marrying that girl, and they had a son that they lost years ago.  It's enough to get Mark to back off and the police, but not the town...or the press.  

Yes, there is vandalism to Jack's shack on the dock and when the tale of his son and wife are brought to light in the press, it's too much for Jack to bear and he steps into the ocean to well...drown himself.  It was an ending that was simply shocking and I'm still unsettled by it today.  The actions of the town clearly show how truly ugly a place Gracepoint can be, regardless of Jack's past the town made him a pariah and in a weird way...a sacrifice. 

There's little else to break down about last night, other than Jack perhaps serves as a cautionary tale to Mark.  Since Jack also revealed the death of his son drove him and his wife apart, and man, it made for some unpleasant and unbearable television.  This really was the hardest episode of this show to watch to date, and any other little hints of things to come were irrelevant, because it looks like so much is coming to a head next week.  Until then.