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Big Sky Season 1, Episode 3 recap: The Big Rick

By Mads Lennon

BIG SKY - ÒThe Big RickÓ Ð Still on the search for the missing girls, Cassie grows more suspicious of Legarski after a threatening conversation between the two. Meanwhile, Grace manages to make headway on the girlsÕ quest for freedom. Merilee pleads with Legarski to open up emotionally before itÕs too late, and Helen finally confronts Ronald about his increasingly strange behavior on an all-new episode of ÒBig Sky,Ó TUESDAY, DEC. 1 (10:01-11:01 p.m. EST), on ABC. (ABC/Darko Sikman)GAGE MARSH, KATHERYN WINNICK
BIG SKY - ÒThe Big RickÓ Ð Still on the search for the missing girls, Cassie grows more suspicious of Legarski after a threatening conversation between the two. Meanwhile, Grace manages to make headway on the girlsÕ quest for freedom. Merilee pleads with Legarski to open up emotionally before itÕs too late, and Helen finally confronts Ronald about his increasingly strange behavior on an all-new episode of ÒBig Sky,Ó TUESDAY, DEC. 1 (10:01-11:01 p.m. EST), on ABC. (ABC/Darko Sikman)GAGE MARSH, KATHERYN WINNICK /
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In Big Sky Episode 3, Grace makes her grand escape, but sadly, it doesn’t last long.

Big Sky Episode 3 is easily the weakest of the bunch thus far. The plot stagnates and displays some potential weaknesses that could mire the season in a slowly congealed story that takes too long to reach its climax. It’s not terrible, but it just doesn’t add much to the overall plot.

So, what happens in Big Sky Episode 3, “The Big Rick?” Let’s start with the title. Rick’s wife, Merilee, finds him sitting alone at the dining room table at 3 a.m. because he can’t sleep. He wants to know if she’s planning on leaving him. “I’d feel a lot less alone if I did.”

Somehow, that triggers a speech about his high school persona, Big Rick. “Remember I told you my nickname in high school? The Big Rick. Wasn’t just because I was big or captain of the football team. It was that I could always be counted on to do the right thing, the moral thing. But the ‘good’ of something, the ‘right’ of it, murky business.”

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It’s not that murky, Rick. Don’t kidnap girls and sell them into sex slavery.

Merilee looks at him, already apprehensive, and asks, “What have you done?”

Speaking of what Rick has done, the kidnapped girls start plotting their next escape plan. Grace finds a way to free them from their cuffs, and then they find a loose panel in the truck’s cabin.

With their combined strength, they manage to open a big enough gap for Grace to slide through. She discovers rotting floorboards above a drain pipe and starts chipping away at the ground to gain access to her exit. As a result, the floor caves in and sends Grace plummeting into the sewer water below just as Ronald comes down to check on things. He hastily tries to follow Grace through the drainpipe as she crawls toward freedom.

Ronald threatens to kill Danielle if Grace doesn’t return. For a moment, it looks like she might, but then the whole thing collapses on them. When Rick returns later, Ronald is forced to tell him what happened. He’s obviously not pleased. Ronald thinks Grace was buried alive in the collapse. Rick wants him to dig through the rubble to make sure. In the meantime, Rick will parole the area near the run-off ditch where the drainpipe lets out. They can’t risk Grace escaping. If she finds freedom, then Rick and Ronald will lose theirs.

Ronald checks on the other girls before he starts to dig. Jerrie and Danielle try to surprise attack Ronald again. All they manage to do is knock out one of his teeth before he incapacitates them both with his taser again. This is around the point where I realized this plot is not sustainable for ten episodes.

How many of these unrealistic, failed sneak attacks can we watch? How powerful are we supposed to believe Ronald’s taser is? Do I want to watch ten episodes of Ronald and Rick being annoying while trying to figure out what to do with their three victims? I hope they don’t drag out this kidnapping out until the finale.

Big Sky Episode 3
BIG SKY Episode 3 – (ABC/Darko Sikman) BRIAN GERAGHTY /

Grace does manage to escape and make a run for it through the woods. Unfortunately, she doesn’t get very far. Grace stumbles upon a fisherman and pleads with him for help. Rick catches up to her and whips out a bow and arrow, murdering the fisherman in one shot. He tries to pretend that he thought Grace was in danger, but she doesn’t buy it and shoves a fish hook in his cheek before running away again. She only makes it a short distance before Rick shoots her with an arrow through the thigh. That girl is tough, though, and keeps going. It takes two arrows to bring her down.

When Rick finally returns Grace to the truck’s cabin, he tells Ronald that he “kidnapped the wrong girls.”

For someone who doesn’t want these girls, and potential moneymakers, to die, I found it odd that Rick didn’t give them any medical supplies to fix Grace’s leg after shooting her with two arrows.

light. More. Big Sky Season 1, Episode 2 recap: Nowhere to Run

It was also disappointing to see Grace escape and then end up back where she started. We need to see something change soon because these attempted and failed escape plans are already becoming stale.

In the final moments of the episode, Ronald starts drilling the loose truck panel and Grace rages against him. “We’re just getting started,” she yells, while beating on the wall and then calling Ronald a “sick b——-d.” She’s not wrong!

Big Sky Episode 3
BIG SKY Episode 3 — (ABC/Darko Sikman) DARREN DOLYNSKI /

Cassie & Jenny try to find a new lead on the missing girls and Cody in Big Sky Episode 3.

Cassie and Jenny don’t really do much in this episode, honestly. Cassie antagonizes Rick again, but we’ve already established that she doesn’t trust him and that he’s evil, so that scene felt pointless. She also tries to get the local sheriff to send officers out searching for the missing girls and Cody. He’s absolutely zero help.

We finally get introduced to the Church of Glory and Transcendence and its leader, Reverend William Edwards (Darren Dolynski). Jenny visits the church alone, and while the whole place has an eerie, cult-y vibe, she doesn’t find anything outright sinister yet. Edwards tells her that neither the girls nor Cody are there. He even gives her permission to look around and view the security footage. She comes up empty.

Later, Jenny and Cassie agree to meet up and compare notes at Jenny’s house. Before that, Jenny updates Justin on the search. He thinks Cody is dead, breaking down in his mom’s arms. Understandably, neither Justin, Jenny or Cassie are doing well. When Cassie comes by that evening, Jenny tells her she didn’t find anything at the church. Cassie updates her on Rick. They both agree to continue their search by focusing on him and whatever he’s hiding.

For now, they check in on each other — neither is doing well. When Cassie leaves, she can’t keep herself from crying in her car. It looks like they’re all beginning to realize that Cody might really be gone.

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What did you think about Big Sky Episode 3? Let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!

New episodes of Big Sky air Tuesday nights on ABC.

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