The Disappearance Season 1 Episode 2 Review: The Tree
Dale McGarrigle
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So maybe Henry wasn't crazy after all.
He kept insisting that the Paulownia Tomentosa leaf which Anthony left for him was a crucial clue on The Disappearance Season 1 Episode 2.
Everyone -- family, neighbors, police -- just chalked it up to Henry's anguish over Anthony's abduction.
The other possibility was that Henry was suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's.
It's safe to say that Henry is psychologically off, to use a technical term.
He was having medical issues. Otherwise, why would he be seeing a doctor who consulted scans of his brain on her computer?
There's something beyond Anthony being missing for two years which is causing his outbursts, either vocal or violent.
Related: The Disappearance Season 1 Episode 1 Review: Birthday Boy
This is going to make solving Anthony's disappearance all that much harder.
Detective Bowden was still humoring Henry because of their long professional relationship. But how long is she going to continue to listen to his offbeat theories?
I mean, he has been bugging her about that rare tree for two years.
As played by MIcheline Lanctot, Susan is a wonderful anomoly. After decades of seeing weathered men leading investigations, it's a nice change of pace to have an older woman out in front of this one.
I'm sure in part it's Henry's stature that has kept Anthony's case active instead of it being back-burnered.
Also, Luke was correct when he decided that Henry's long judicial career has created hundreds of suspects in Anthony's case.
His visit with Jim Chilton, one of the many upon whom Henry had passed harsh sentences, was enough to convince him of that fact.
But that garage attic full of boxes holding papers from Henry's career doesn't promise to yield a quick line of investigation.
Especially if the search is being done by Helen and Luke, two parents who are grasping at straws.
This is where Henry's sharp, analytical mind is needed, but that seemed to be slipping.
It was apparent that the past two years haven't treated any of Anthony's family well.
Luke had slipped into a bottle.
Helen had been left by her boyfriend Frank, right after she had gotten pregnant by him.
And Henry was alternating between trying to solve the case and exploding at those around him.
Catherine, the family flake, seemed to be handling Anthony's disappearance best of all. But she has developed feelings for a dying cancer patient, which may be her way of coping.
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They had set up a Facebook page searching for Anthony. But this had attracted crackpot sightings and nasty posts aimed at Henry by those who felt wronged by him.
So Luke and Helen had been thrown back together as the parents of the missing boy.
They chased down every lead, no matter how unlikely, and took part in vigils and postering efforts, looking for any ray of hope.
This episode featured one such ray, after they stopped for breakfast at a Drummondville diner.
Two waitresses and a patron had seen a boy that resembled the age-progressed image of Anthony coming in regularly for takeout.
They found out the boy was staying with a stripper at a local motel, then called Susan, but still raced to the motel without waiting for police.
No one was home. Nor did the surveillance Charles was able to procure from a convenience store offer any definitive image for Luke and Helen.
It was obvious that the Sullivans were heading for heartache, investing so much hope into one fuzzy possibility.
The stripper got picked up, but a heartbroken Helen discovered that the boy wasn't Anthony and she collapsed to the ground in tears, just as Henry and Catherine pulled in.
I wasn't surprised that Luke and Helen didn't find anything in Henry's papers so soon after that traumatic experience.
Sadly, it's not likely to be the last false alarm they will face in this search.
The flashback that Henry had when he and Catherine were visiting Duke's, that old family haunt, has to have some significance, since it's something in Henry's past that has contributed to Anthony's disappearance.
Henry and his family, including an older sister we hadn't seen before, stopped at Duke's. A woman from Henry's past (professional? personal?) ran into him and he gave her some money.
Suspicious, right?
It's likely that Henry's flashbacks are going to be at least part of the solution to this case.
Just like Anthony's little sticky notes on his big map have to mean something. So does that mean that Anthony is also in part responsible for his abduction?
Another question is that why did the kidnapper leave the police a clue in the form of a mutilated cat?
Susan and her team were going nowhere. Then suddenly they were aware of a series of cat abductions.
Those incidents led to a cat owner who remembered (kind of) the model of car into which her cat jumped.
So why is the culprit taunting the police in this way? Does he blame them in part for whatever happened to him?
Susan telling Henry about the dead cat sparked something in him when he saw Anthony's cat drawing and its location on the map.
I didn't get why Henry needed the neighbor's dog but that little guy did lead them to the right spot in the park, under the tree Henry had been seeking.
No coincidence, right?
That was a great place to leave off.
To catch up on the mystery, watch The Disappearance online.
Were you surprised that it was two years later?
Who is the target of Anthony's abduction?
Can Henry keep it together?
Comment below.
Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on X.
