Gracepoint Recap: "Episode 5"

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

A boat burning in the middle of the night.  That was the haunting image that Gracepoint left us with at the end of the last episode, and it is exactly where we picked up this week, and it turns out this burning boat was only the beginning to many a horrible revelation that "Episode 5" would offer all of us.  

The boat of course, despite the damage, still had hair samples that Carver fully believed belonged to Danny Solano, giving the case new life, but much of the surprises last night would not come from police work, instead, much of the clues came from the stress surrounding the town.  We learned last night that Susan Wright is basically a psycho. She has a checkered past and it looks like her current name is a lie, oh and she took the time to threaten the editor-in-chief of the newspaper with bodily harm since she spent a little time poking around in Susan's past. We also learned our resident psychic has a background filled with fraud, much to Beth's horror and we learned Carver is sick...but with what remains a mystery.  

But the shocker of the night, was Jack Reinhold. Turns out old Jack has an ugly conviction record in his past, revolving around statutory rape.  It led to some intense moments from Jack (and I might add some fine acting from Nick Nolte) as this grizzled old man who came to Gracepoint to start over is finding his past catching up to him quickly.  In fact Jack's moments stole the show this week, as he interrupted a lovely lunch at the Solano house to not only give Mark, Danny's cell phone but claim his innocence.  Oh and of course, it also turns out that a murder similar to Danny's appearance wise just so happened near the town where Jack used to live.  

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If anything, this was a very different episode feel wise for Gracepoint.  There were more moments of levity, we got to see Carver smile when he went to dinner at Miller's house, and we even got perhaps the first only normal scene I've ever seen in this show with the gentle and lovely lunch at the Solano house before Jack barged in.  I'm fairly certain this was on purpose, to remind us that while people are trying to get back to some sense of normal, Danny's death will continue to hang over our heads.  

I actually liked the change of pace, simply because it made Jack's big moment at the Solano house that much more impactful and well...shocking. It quickly unsettled me to see this man flipping out the way that he did, begging the family to believe him that he never hurt Danny. It's these moments of raw emotion that make this show so special.  The only thing I didn't really care for last night was the sudden appearance of the priest as a person of interest. Making him a creepy observer/outsider seemed to come a little too easy to this show and it seems like obvious misdirection, when we have so many more ominous clues before us.  Either way, it looks like Jack is in the crosshairs of Gracepoint next week, and the hairs in the boat did indeed belong to Danny...until then...

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