TV Review: Gracepoint (1×09) “Episode Nine”

“Back then in your own house, how could you not know?”

So much of what Gracepoint is is the proof that not everyone you know is as they seem from loved ones to brief acquaintances. So, do we really believe that Vince is the killer?

The last episode ended with Carver uttering “I think I’m dying” as he lay on the ground as a suspect ran away, gasping for air. This week he’s in the hospital, stubborn and refusing to be told what to do and gets to the station only to learn he’s being removed from the case. His health is in such poor condition that he could be causing more harm than good. He’s given until the next morning to stay on the case and then he’s off so her and Miller need to make every moment count. As such, with this being a television show and all and with this being the penultimate episode, things are going to happen. I just wish they had happened somewhat differently.

So, again, are we going to buy that Vince is the killer? And if he is, what emotional attachments does he have with anyone in town that would make it such a huge reveal?

Susan gets a lot of focus this week which is great for Jacki Weaver who finally gets to really dig into the role. She tells Ellie that she saw Danny’s killer. She said she didn’t go to the police because she knows from past experiences that it doesn’t always help which leads to her tragic backstory. She was married, she had two daughters and her husband was sexually abusing the eldest and Susan didn’t know. Then, the husband went for the younger daughter and the oldest intervened and was killed. The husband was arrested, he pointed a finger at Susan and her daughter was taken from her as well as her unborn child. Her unborn child who grew to be Vince, Vince who she saw dragging out of the water, Vince who she believes could truly be her husband’s son.

It’s a sobering story and it all points to Vince. Vince we learn took Danny on a camping trip without his family’s knowledge and he has Danny’s name tattooed on his arm. It’s all unsettling and all very incriminating and it seems, as of right now, that he’s the killer.

I’m still stuck on that.

Paul continues to be mildly creepy and reports Tom smashing his computer to Carver and tells him that Danny and Tom had been growing apart. Carver tasks Ellie for her son’s laptop and she can’t find it at home. We learn more about Carver during an expose he gives to Owen and Kathy, such as it wasn’t him who lost the evidence to his past case, it was his partner (his wife) and he took the blame so his daughter wouldn’t be hurt. The Solano family takes very tentative steps towards being whole, or as whole as they could ever be. These things happen all the while as Carver’s time on the case becomes shorter and shorter.

And then there’s Vince.

We barely got to know Vince. The show does do mood very well and the atmosphere surrounding the interrogation scenes with the character are suitably eerie. We’re getting an entirely new look at the character and it’s all in the lighting, the framing, the ill placed laughter by the character. Is this the killer who ended Danny’s life? So, is there something else going on which is sinister but isn’t murder? Is he the murderer? What’s going on! There’s only one episode left and I’ve got to admit, I’m definitely curious.

What are your thoughts?

7/10