‘Big Sky’ Recap: ‘Catastrophic Thinking’ / ‘All Kinds of Snakes’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episodes 110 and 111 of ‘Big Sky’.
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For the most part, crime dramas that tend to defy convention and structure, eventually embrace those storytelling elements. Because the creator of that story comes to realize that at some point, they have to give the audience what they want before they lose them… and that epiphany is what allows for everything to come together in a comfortable and familiar manner, the kind that leaves the reader or the viewer quite satisfied with taking a chance on something new. But once in a while, you run into a crime story that does everything it can to continue to push the envelope, so that it can offer up a unique and dynamic story that no one has ever seen before, and ABC’s Big Sky is a show in that vein.
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Because week in and week out, it does everything it can to wow us and surprise us and it is quite successful at doing this and keeping us hooked, simply because it offers up a bevy of wild moments and fascinating characters to take part in them and that’s precisely why its return last night was so compelling. Because ‘Catastrophic Thinking’ and ‘All Kinds of Snakes’ had us on the edge of our seats, when in fact it shouldn’t have. After all, Ronald Pergman was on the run, Rick Legarski was dead at the hands of his beloved wife and the first case that Cassie and Jenny investigated in this tale… should have lost us. Because how does one make a crime involving premium horse semen all that interesting? Well by miring it in mystery and keeping us in suspense and by quickly moving onto something filled to the brim with fascinating and weird characters.

For once that case came a close, Cassie and Jenny headed off to another part of Montana to investigate a matter revolving around a former boyfriend of Jenny’s. For Blake Kleinsasser was in jail on charges of assault and battery on an innocent woman and he wanted the charges cleared and for the real culprit of this act to be found, since he swore, he did not commit such an act. Which is a claim that Jenny believed was the truth since she knew Blake, and in order to clear his name, that meant she and Cassie had to dig deep into this town and its people and the Kleinsasser family and oh goodness, they are quite the bunch. For the father of this clan, Horst, is a sour individual that is hellbent on his legacy being one of admiration as he nears the end of his life, and Blake’s siblings are power hungry and mad, and their poor mother is a shell of her former self and eager to be free of the nightmare that has become her life. 

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Plus, to make matters worse, this whole town is a creepfest. Because the sheriff and his staff and everyone that lives and works here, are terrified of this powerful family since they are the most powerful ranchers in the area. And their power motivates everyone to keep silent often and do Horst’s bidding. As evidenced by how he was able to walk into the county jail in the middle of the night to give his son a touch of down-home sass. But what truly makes this town so troublesome, is that it leaves our heroes in a heap of trouble by the end of this tale. Since a dirty cop is taking Cassie to who knows where, since they drove well past the police station after she was ‘arrested’ and poor Jenny is face to face with the craziest of the Kleinsasser bunch, leaving all of us to wonder how the heck they’re going to get out of this one. 
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But while that is quite the way to end this tale and leads us to believe that the matter with Ronald is closed… his storyline is another element that made this pair of episodes so compelling. For it turns out that dear Mister Pergman has settled into a new life far from Helena, one where he has adopted a new identity as a man named Arthur and he is playing the perfect boyfriend to a lovely lady named Scarlet, making it seem as though he has committed a flawless getaway. But Scarlet has some twisted secrets of her own, the kind that might bring the darkness that Ronald is trying so hard to bury back to the surface of his soul, and… he’s definitely not safe in his current environment. For Dewell and Hoyt are indeed working this case when they’re not running around crazy town and there’s a new U.S. Marshal in Helena named Frank Lindor eager for Ronald to make a mistake, so the law can finally bring him in.

Which means it is indeed only a matter of time before Pergman is brought to justice and knowing that, and knowing he is out there, is one of the key reasons that this wild episode is so supremely palatable and enjoyable. Since you know the show is working toward resolution. But even without the Ronald stuff, the risks that this episode takes are quite great in nature, since it signals a shift in tone and design in the middle of the season and holy cow… it works, and it shouldn’t. But that just speaks to the fact that this series is something special, and it doesn’t hurt that top tier actors are everywhere to be found and that more are joining the ranks of this show. Since Ted Levine and Michelle Forbes added a ton of gravity to their roles as Horst and Margaret Kleinsasser respectively. In the end however, all of this just goes to show that this series is going to defy the odds, regardless of the risk, and do its best to bring us something compelling and well, that’s just fine. Because this really is a refreshing and unique series and it will be quite interesting to see where this wild new plotline is going to take us in the weeks to come. Until next time.

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A fresh start for Ronald Pergman.