‘Big Sky’ Recap: ‘The Muffin or the Hammer’

Written by Emily Auskaps

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 215 of ‘Big Sky’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
​
This episode was all kinds of ominous from the very beginning as chaos continues to reign. Jenny engages in a life and death struggle with Dhruv inside the Bhullars’ lab. Dhruv strangles Jenny, nearly choking her to death, before she can escape his grasp by gouging at his eyes. Rolling away, she finds a jar of powder and a gas mask. Pressing the mask to her face, Jenny flings the fentanyl powder at Dhruv, incapacitating and then quickly killing him, allowing Jenny to escape.
​
​It doesn’t take long for Ren and Jag to miss Dhruv’s presence and go looking for him in the lab. Despite the many times we’ve witnessed Ren discover someone who works for her dead, Dhruv’s death hits her harder than we’ve ever seen. It’s apparent that Dhruv was more family and less employee to the Bhullars. Ren is clearly out for blood as she steels herself and grabs Dhruv’s gun to search for his killer.

Jenny runs into Travis as she tries to get away. She briefly tries to convince Travis to join her while he still can, but he is resolved in his mission of revenge and shoos her away into the night with his gun, drawing a line in the sand with Jenny.

Cassie has returned to town just in time to be there for Jenny. Cassie goes to Jenny’s house that night and finds her with fresh bruises on her face and neck. Jenny confesses that she has screwed up. Cassie implores Jenny to tell Tubb, but Jenny is torn about telling the sheriff because of Travis’ involvement.

Veer is livid the next morning when Ren and Jag tell him of Dhruv’s death. Veer lashes out at Jag, musing whether he was mistaken to place him in charge. Veer appoints Travis to replace Dhruv in charge of security for them. About the time Alicia suggests that perhaps the Kapoors are responsible for killing Dhruv, in bursts Jenny, Poppernak, and other members of the sheriff’s department. Jenny presents Ren with the warrant she was barely able to talk Tubb into giving her.

Tubb’s worries about the flimsy circumstances for getting the warrant prove well founded when Jenny finds the cellar entirely devoid of all the equipment and drugs, she saw the night before. As Jenny contemplates her next move, Ren notices her bruises. Jenny informs Ren that her boxing workout got a little intense. “You should see the other guy,” she goads Ren.

---

Back at the station, Jenny admits to Tubb that she thinks Travis may have tipped off the Bhullars. Poppernak comes in with news that one of the Bhullars’ trucks has been pulled over outside of town.

​It doesn't take much searching for Jenny to find the drugs hidden amongst the meat in the back of Bryce’s truck. Back at the station and under arrest, Bryce plays dumb as to how the drugs got into his truck. Jenny threatens to pin every drug charge to him personally unless he talks. It takes very little effort to convince him to become her confidential informant, which should perhaps give Jenny pause, but she is excited to have a new way into the Bhullar cartel.

Despite Donno and Tonya’s efforts, not one of the people they investigated are responsible for cutting the drugs. Veer wants the focus on whoever killed Dhruv. Veer also decides that he wants Jenny taken care of, despite Ren protesting this will bring additional scrutiny their way. Veer instructs Travis to deal with Jenny, and to take Donno with to help.

The lack of results at the lower levels leads Ren and Jag farther up the food chain, to the college student that runs drugs directly from the lab. He informs them that in fact Veer himself is the one who told him to cut the product, in return for generous compensation. Pissed, Ren forces him to join her for an ominous walk outside.

Meanwhile, Richard Ford has gone completely off the rails over the loss of his son Mason to tainted drugs. At his daughter Hayden’s request, Dewell and Hoyt begin to follow his trail of havoc, eventually finding him at the river shore where Mason died. Denise, once Richard’s sponsor in recovery, embraces him warmly and begs him to call his daughter. Richard promises to do so and drives away.
Later that evening, Denise is shocked when Hayden calls her upset. Richard never called his daughter, and he never went home. Instead, we see Richard pulling up to the Bhullar construction site with a gun on the seat next to him. One can only guess what exactly he is plotting.

---