‘Big Sky’ Recap: ‘The End Has No End’

Written by Emily Auskaps

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 208 of ‘Big Sky’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
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After being forced into obedience and submission by Wolf all season, we finally get to see Ronald Pergman unleashed and in control of his destiny. There are hopeful signs that perhaps the reformation efforts are having a successful effect on Ronald’s behavior. After all, he refrains from violence as far as we observe in the theft of an RV. He simply throws the unsuspecting woman out of the door and onto the pavement before speeding away, gentle treatment by Ronald’s standards.

He seems purposeful and focused as he drives to Helena to get Phoebe from where she is being held. It seems that even he is believing that he is a changed man, for he tells Phoebe exactly that. But Phoebe is a child, unable to hide the pure fear in her eyes. And what child wouldn’t be unsettled and possibly terrified of a man emerging in the dark from their closet, especially a man that Phoebe has been told is a very bad man. It visibly rattles Ronald that a child who once trusted him no longer does. He pretends to brush it off, but it has obviously surprised and affected him.

Phoebe continues to press Ronald about when she will see her mom. Despite his assurances that they are headed directly there, Phoebe is far from convinced that he is telling her the truth. Throughout the trip, neither her fear nor distrust dissipate. She almost seems to see through Ronald better than most adults. Her doubts prove warranted when Ronald makes an unannounced stop. Phoebe awakens, hopeful they have reached her mother, but Ronald tells her he needed to make one stop first, and that he’ll be right back.  

He grabs a tool from the glove box and emerges from the RV which is parked across the street from Dewell and Hoyt. He breaks in through the back door. As Ronald lurks around the office in the dark, the hope for a reformed Ronald begins to dwindle. For as he bends over to sniff the denim jacket hanging on Cassie’s desk chair, he flashes back to when he was strangling her from the backseat of a cop car while she wore that very jacket. He seems to enjoy the memory.

Ronald then observes the murder board dedicated to his capture, then dashes to hide as Cassie and her father Joseph return to Dewell and Hoyt to fix the broken boiler. As he hides in the dark, one can only imagine what his twisted mind is hatching, for it is unlikely he expected to run into anyone there.

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Cassie offers to stay to help her father, but Joseph just tells her to get home safely. Tensions begin to rise when he discovers the back door is unlatched, but Cassie chalks it up to age and Joseph says he’ll check on it. However, she pauses before leaving, almost as though she senses Ronald’s presence, but then continues out the door. Ronald immediately returns to the board after she leaves. He pulls a copy of his mug shot free from the board. He looks as though he doesn’t quite recognize the angry face in the sketch, letting it slip to the floor.
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Joseph also seems to sense that something is amiss, for he pauses outside the back door he was fixing, just listening. Once inside, he notices the mug shot laying on the floor. He looks about as he slowly walks to it, picks it up and then sees Ronald. He demands to know if he’s looking for his daughter. Ronald tells him he will never be free as long as Cassie is pursuing him. Joseph calls him a monster and tells him he is unworthy of freedom. Ronald notices the wrench in Joseph’s hand and tells him he won’t need that. Ronald moves past him, claiming to be leaving. As a parting shot, he tells Joseph to tell his daughter to stop looking for him. Protective instinct gets the better of him and he lunges at Ronald, who seems to be expecting this.

No more is seen of this exchange. Ronald returns to the RV to discover Phoebe is not there. He searches the vehicle, calls out to her and steps back outside. Instead of Phoebe, he finds Wolf standing there. Wolf greets him and promptly knocks him out with his big stick. “You’ve been a bad, bad dog,” Wolf admonishes him.

The next morning, Cassie makes the heartbreaking discovery of exactly how bad Ronald has been. Any hope of Ronald’s transformation is dashed as we see the bloody wrench and trail of blood leading to her father’s lifeless body. As Cassie slowly realizes her father is dead, grief and anger take hold.

This gut-wrenching episode leaves so many things to ponder. Was it inevitable that Ronald was going to kill Joseph, or did he only act once provoked? Was there really any chance he would have simply left Dewell and Hoyt peacefully? Knowing Ronald as well as we do, it’s easy to imagine he was very specifically provoking a response from a protective father. How could he have known anyone would be there that night? Was it simply a case of Cassie’s father being in the wrong place at the wrong time? It’s difficult to know. One thing is certain: Ronald will be returning to captivity, and one would guess he’ll have a much harder time escaping the next time.

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