‘Big Sky: Deadly Trails’ Recap: ‘The Woods Are Lovely, Dark and Deep’

Written by Emily Auskaps

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 302 of ‘Big Sky: Deadly Trails’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
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Sunny finds her other son, Walter, in the woods without much difficulty. It becomes apparent that Walt is not supposed to be this close in proximity to his family’s camping operation. Walt wants to show his mother something, and we make the horrifying discovery that Mark, the hiker who Walt chased off Deadman’s Drop, is not in fact dead but suffering in misery as he slowly bleeds out. Sunny muses to the poor thing his mother must be worried sick, and laments “mother” is another word for heartbreak. But Sunny is more concerned for her own son and simply lets the poor weary man succumb to death as she sings to him and rubs his chest.
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Cassie invites Beau to join her to check out the trail to Deadman’s Drop after receiving a tip that’s where the missing hiker, Mark, was headed. This leaves Jenny and Poppernak to respond to Tonya’s report of a squatter living in one of the properties she’s selling, much to Jenny’s displeasure. Jenny and Poppernak arrive at the house to find Donno manhandling the squatter, who says his name is Jef and claims squatters’ rights, meaning it would take a court order for Tonya to evict him. They discover a bag loaded with cash, a gun and multiple IDs for the man who calls himself Jef, leading Jenny to take both him and Donno into custody.

Sunny’s husband Buck asks her about her late-night excursion the next morning, having noticed her absence. She lies to him and doesn’t make any mention of Walt, instead telling Buck the moon was beautiful and she was simply out walking and enjoying it. She tries to explain away the dried blood on her hands as being from stacking firewood, but Buck seems to doubt her story and reminds her the firewood is part of his duties. Sunny hurries away to tend to the campers.

Paige and Luke argue with each other as Cormac reminds the campers to stay on the marked trails and bring plenty of water. Their animosity towards each other is making it awkward for the other campers. Cormac and Luke nearly have a physical confrontation when Cormac tells Luke he needs some manners, but Sunny quickly intervenes.

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Up at Deadman’s Drop, Cassie finds two different sets of footprints, which doesn’t seem remarkable to Beau who is clearly winded by the hike up there. Cassie reminds him that Mark was hiking alone so the two sets of boot prints could be meaningful. Beau then spots the water bottle Mark dropped right before he fell. Beau and Cassie decide to visit Sunny’s camp to give them an update on Mark, and Beau is happy to have an excuse to check out how his daughter, Emily, is doing on her trip with her stepfather.
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Beau meets Sunny and Buck for the first time when he and Cassie arrive at their base camp. They tell the couple the missing hiker was spotted six days prior headed to Deadman’s Drop and show them the water bottle they found up there. Sunny and Buck share no new information.

Emily spots her dad Beau and thinks he’s only there to check up on her, but he tells her he’s also helping Cassie investigate the missing hiker. Beau is obviously relieved to lay eyes on his daughter and see that she’s staying in comfort on her trip, despite the obvious tension between he and Avery, her stepfather, when they encounter one another.

Out in the woods, Luke and Paige continue their argument when he catches up to her among the trees. This isn’t a vacation for the couple, instead this is a chance for them to lay low until things blow over and they can go back for the money. Luke accuses Paige of blaming him for the screw up, whatever it may have been. They agree to head back.

As darkness descends, Paige and Luke are still out in the woods, now apparently lost but still arguing relentlessly. Paige believes Luke would be in jail if not for her, and now blames him for getting them lost.

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Paige wants to head after a light she spots through the trees, without Luke. Enraged, he grabs her around the throat as her insults escalate. She escapes his grasp, throwing him off her. Paige promises to kill him if he ever tries that again as she storms off toward the light she saw. Luke bends to pick up a large, jagged rock as she walks away.

Meanwhile, at the sheriff’s department, a man arrested on a drunk and disorderly is stopped from trying to poison the squatter “Jef” with a syringe by Donno, who was in the same holding cell. Donno holds the man off long enough for Jenny to get hold of him and smash his face into the bars of the cell. Jenny demands to know who the squatter is and why someone wants him dead.

She and Poppernak discover the would-be assassin works for Redmond Aircraft Corporation, as does their mysterious squatter, who turns out to be Paul Carlson. Carlson was going to be a whistleblower on his company, which had hidden reports of potentially fatal flaws in a new fleet of aircraft set to take to the skies soon. Instead, he chickened out and went on the run.

Beau and Jenny convince Carlson that he needs to follow through with his original plan to expose Redmond Aircraft and promise they will keep him safe. They arrange for US Marshals to take him into their custody and transport him to the airport.

In what might be overkill, Jenny and Beau have Poppernak follow Carlson and Marshal Weaver in his mom’s minivan to make sure they make it to the airport. Beau already made sure to call in the Marshal’s credentials, but they both promised to keep him safe. It turns out that their instincts were spot on; Poppernak soon reports the US Marshal missed the turn for the airport. They realize they must be heading to Tonya’s property where Carlson had been squatting and had likely stashed the insurance policy he had mentioned.

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Jenny and Beau rush to meet Poppernak at the house. Upstairs, Poppernak overpowers Weaver from behind and he and Jenny disarm her and free Carlson. Jenny hears a scream from downstairs and leaves Poppernak to cuff Weaver while she checks on Beau. In the basement, Beau has discovered Carlson’s insurance policy: Camille Perez, the executive assistant to Redmond’s CEO, who had disappeared two weeks before and can corroborate Carlson’s story.

The next morning, despite sending out Buck and Cormac to find them, Sunny tells the campers that Luke and Paige have not returned yet. Emily seems to be the most concerned of anyone and insists that they should split up and look for the couple. Sunny reluctantly agrees to this idea and tells anyone interested in looking to go out in pairs.

Emily and Avery set out together, but by afternoon Avery wants to return to camp. Emily wants to check one more trail, so Avery turns back, and she continues alone.

Jenny and Beau meet Cassie at her new ranch with housewarming gifts to toast her new place. As they sip tequila, Cassie tells them she was able to confirm the water bottle she and Beau found did indeed belong to Mark, the missing hiker. She also mentions the murder from twenty years ago that Denise keeps bringing up. Beau is obviously startled to learn that a girl was found at Deadman’s Drop with her heart cut out. His daughter is camping in those woods, after all. Worried, Beau immediately sends Emily a text, which can’t be delivered as she is out of range, hiking in the woods alone.

Emily notices drips of fresh blood as she hikes. She finds Luke, wounded, and covered in blood at the edge of a river, trying to wash the blood off. She begins taking photos of Luke with her phone when he turns and sees her. His forehead has a large gash. Emily gasps.

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