Barkskins series premiere recap: An epic story begins

The young girl from the beginning is found

Hamish and Yvon stumble upon the young girl from the opening scene while searching for Cross in the place where the massacre happened. It’s a grisly scene, including a hanged body being devoured by a bunch of undulating crows and dead bodies strewn across the ground.

While investigating the area, the men find a preacher named Father Clape (Steven McCarthy) praying over a body. He sprints into the woods upon making eye contact with Hamish and Yvon.

There,  he sees a wolf and cries out, “It is Azazel sprung from the abyss,” which is the second reference to Satan in the episode.

Yvon knocks him unconscious, but I highly doubt we’ve seen the last of the Father.

When they return to the clearing, Hamish and Yvon notice a girl watching them from behind a tree. Depending on what she witnessed, she could tell the truth behind the French settler’s death and cause serious trouble for Lafarge, Cooke, and Bouchard.

Also worth noting is Mathilde’s connection to Lafarge. She apparently spies for him to make some extra coin on the side. After the HBC men leave in search of Cross, she reports to Lafarge.

Mother Sabrine and her young ladies

The final plot point of the Barkskins series premiere is the nun, Mother Sabrine, and the young ladies who arrive on the same immigrant ship that carried René and Charles. The women are there to be groomed into proper women and subsequently married off.

It appears Barkskins will primarily focus on two women, Delphine (Lily Sullivan) and Melissande (Tallulah Haddon). But before they can be presented to any eligible bachelors, the nun must test virtue — which she does exactly the way you think.

Upon inspecting Melissande, Sabrine realizes she previously gave birth to a child. Melissande attempts to lie, but Sabrine sees through her. She pleads with the nun not to send her away, and in an act of grace, Sabrine concedes.

She gives Melissande a small vial of lamb’s blood to be spritzed onto the bedsheet on her wedding night. The fact Sabrine had such a vial on hand leads me to believe she has helped many other girls do the same before.

Odds & Ends

• In Charles and René’s story, there is a side-plot involving Trepagny’s cast-off woman, Mari. Charles and Mari are told to dress a freshly-killed ram. He values using every usable part of an animal. When they begin gutting the ram, Mari notices something wrong with its meat and says it has been marked for the “Strendu.” In Native American folklore, the Strendu, also known as the Stonecoat, is an iron giant with cannibalistic tendencies.
• When Charles is sent back for the ram’s hide, he stumbles upon a strangle altar in front of a pillar of stones full of animal bones. Mari seems keen to hide the Stonecoat spotting from Trepagny. It isn’t clear why since he believes in the loup-garou (a werewolf — ironic since Thewlis played Remus Lupin in the Harry Potter series). Perhaps Mari knows Trepagny would flip out if he knew?

New episodes of Barkskins air Monday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on National Geographic. Episodes are available to watch on Hulu the next day.