Gracepoint Recap: "Episode 9"

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

Gracepoint returned from its Thanksgiving break last night and well...clearly they have saved the best episodes for last as Detectives Carver and Miller finally seem to be making big time progress on the Danny Solano case with some epic and disturbing evidence and revelations finally being revealed to us in "Episode 9".

We picked up exactly where "Episode 8" left off with Carver's heart damn near giving out on him in pursuit of the suspect that he and Miller found at the Ranger Station in the middle of the night.  It of course leads to Carver ending up in the hospital where it is revealed his heart is in pretty bad shape and an operation will be in order to heal him up. Of course Carver has no desire to get away from the case and discharges himself from the hospital.  With that in mind, the Chief of Police lets Carver know that his medical status is now under review and he has 24 hours before he is pulled off of the case.  

With time running out, we come to the big focus of last night's episode, the enigmatic Susan Wright and her connection in the case. In fact this was Detective Miller's shining moment in the entire series so far since she handled the interrogation of Susan in incredible fashion and man...we learned so much.  In the most disturbing moments of the show, we learned that Susan came from a shattered home, not as a child, but as an adult. Her former husband as it turned out had an abusive sexual relationship with one of their daughters that led to that daughter's death and the death of her husband in jail. Susan was also pregnant at the time and child protective services took that baby away as well after he was born.  So why is all of this so important?  Simple, because Susan dropped two giant bombs.  For one, the cigarettes forensics found by Danny's body were indeed ones she smoked because...she was there.  She stood near Danny's body after it was placed there and chose to not get involved and to top it off, she saw Vince place the body there.  Oh, and the second revelation...she is certain Vince is her long lost son.  

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This of course leads to Vince's arrest, and plenty of damning moments for him as well.  We find out he took Danny hunting without Beth or Mark knowing about it, and for some odd reason, he has a tattoo of Danny's name now on his arm. But in the end, Susan has to be let go since she has committed no crime essentially, and Vince remains locked up.  But there are still some loose ends to tie up. The killer called the police with Danny's phone from the ranger station and Paul the Priest apparently confiscated Tom Miller's busted PC and it is now in the possession of Detective Carver and he has made a phone call to get some help in retrieving the damaged data. But in perhaps the most shocking moment of the night, Detective Miller gets some disturbing information from her junkie sister...that sis witnessed someone putting something large and wrapped in a tarp into the Solano work van on the night Danny died.

My only complaint about last night? The Solano sub plot was unnecessary. Seeing Mark and Beth battle it out over who loves who was insignificant compared to the powerhouse moments from Susan and Vince and well, it made this by far the darkest episode of this series to date.  After all, Susan's story and admissions left a heavy air hanging over the show and of course her packing her bags after getting out of the police station, only speak to further guilt. But right now, it truly looks like Vince is the guy.  With the information that Miller's sister provided, it all looks extremely bad for Mark's apprentice but sadly...we still don't truly know. It could be Vince. Or it could be that Vince stumbled on the body or moved it for someone else.  Either way, the mystery is now coming to an end, for next week brings us the Series Finale of Gracepoint and I cannot wait to finally find out the answer to the question...who killed Danny Solano?

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