Gracepoint Recap: "Episode 7"

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

After several weeks of last minute shockers and sad tales, Gracepoint suddenly kicked into overdrive.  Don't get me wrong, the last few weeks have been as captivating as ever, just not as edge of your seat captivating as last night's episode of the show was.  Yes, this week moved at a breakneck pace and added new horrors to the fold so let's get into the nit and grit of "Episode 7".

Last night saw the funeral of Jack Reinhold, a somber affair to say the least and one that led to a fine lecture from our favorite preacher Paul and it was preceded with the news that budget cuts were coming to the Solano case since progress in the last six weeks had been minimal at best, and that's when all hell broke loose. On the way to school Joe lets Tom ride three blocks to school on his own, and it turns out that's the last time anyone sees him.  Yes, Tom Miller has gone missing and as the search begins a suspect finally comes to light, the backpacker Lars Pierson.

His being taken into custody is the first time we ever see Detective Miller show some real emotion and fire, especially when she loses it in the interrogation room but in the end all we learn is that Lars did indeed interact with Danny by the ocean as Jack had claimed and that he did give Danny his phone number if he ever needed to talk, but that was as far as Carver could get, since the episode refocused on the fact that someone had spotted Tom further north that morning and all the search party could turn up in that area...was Tom's blue bike.  

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So to call this episode intense would be doing it a disservice because I'm not kidding when I say I was on the edge of my seat. We even met Carver's daughter last night in what was probably the only thing I didn't like about the episode.  She really didn't serve any purpose other than to let us know her and her father's relationship sucks, which we already knew, and that Carver was really sick, which we already knew.  

But there's a couple of little subplots that caught my eye last night that have me wondering if there is more than meets the eye to what we are seeing.  Our creepy psychic came back again last night to warn Beth that poor Tom was hurt and bleeding, which now has me wondering exactly what this guy knows. I don't believe for a second that he's a psychic, but seeing his fascination with the Solano case, his criminal record and now having something to say about Tom...could he be the killer?  

Of course, it's hard to pin him down when Vince had his own creepy subplot this episode.  In fact, Vince is suddenly more of my concern, seeing as how he was "hunting" in the morning, Tom went missing in the morning and oh yeah, we find Vince putting something into his freezer and washing a ton of blood off of hands.  All disturbing things to see and it has me wondering if we've seen the answer as to who killed Danny somewhere in the last seven episodes and we don't even know it.  Either way, only 3 episodes to go, and I get the feeling it's getting uglier from here. 

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