Perhaps he’ll die.

Big Sky has a thing for music, but it’s safe to say, we’ll be humming that chilling tune for the rest of the evening and thinking about Merilee Legarski, a woman sick and tired of being sick and tired. A woman who sensed justice slipping away and decided to take matters into her own hands on Big Sky Season 1 Episode 9.

Did anyone see that coming?

This series lives for the shocking moment. But it never feels gratuitous for the sake of being gratuitous. Every murder has had build-up, and it doesn’t feel like they’re deciding to kill off characters to get us talking.

Cody’s death came from Ronald’s panic. As did the deaths of the fisherman, Helen, and the priest. Rick and Ronald were both desperate and needed to get rid of the people they felt were going to bring them down.

Even handcuffed to a hospital bed with a troublesome future ahead, Rick still chooses to cover his own behind and look out for his own self-interest above all else. Damn Merilee and an innocent 12-year-old boy whose curiosity got the better of him.

It wasn’t in Rick’s best interest to let on that his memory was back, so he stayed quiet.

And Merilee had enough.

Her trip down memory lane seemed to be a nice one for her at first, as she thought about pleasant times with her husband, dancing around and eating apple pie. She may have even been happy at one time with Rick and his quirky little personality.

But everything is tainted now that she knows the kind of monster she laid next to every night. And it’s like suddenly things click for her, and it all comes into focus. She knew he was a murderer and a sick individual, but she didn’t realize that she was oh so close to being one of his victims.

And it’s all these realizations swirling around in Merilee’s head that lead her into Rick’s hospital room with a hammer.

It was possible that one day Rick would have been set free. And although it would have been a long time in the future, it’s a terrifying thought and one that Merilee just wasn’t willing to risk.

So, she killed her husband, in cold blood, with nary a second thought, leaving me slack-jawed for about the tenth time during this series’s first nine hours.

Merilee’s journey has been a strange one and considering what she’d been through, this development shouldn’t have been as surprising as it was. She was cracking and breaking underneath the guilt and shame of it all. And every day, she sat across from the man who did so much harm and was getting closer to a fate that he did not earn.

The decision to keep Rick alive after the events of Big Sky Season 1 Episode 5 makes a lot more sense when you see how it brought Merilee’s storyline full circle.

Ronald’s story doesn’t have the same ending as Rick’s. Not yet, at least.

For as childish and psychopathic as Ronald is, he continues to outsmart everyone. Not only does he elude capture at his house, but he alludes to capture on the road as well, creating one diversion after another to get himself miles and miles ahead of the authorities.

I still don’t know why he waited so long to make that move, but he’s in the wind now. And Cassie and Jenny are back to square one.

The high-speed chase was a tense ride, and it took so long to get eyes on Erik in the front seat, you couldn’t help but wonder if Ronald had done it again. If he had somehow fooled everyone, and he and Erik were already in Canada.

And Ronald had fooled us, but he let Erik live.

The department should consider consulting with Erik in the future because he was the perfect folly to Ronald. He knew what made him tick, and he knew how to get in his head just enough to keep himself alive.

The scenes with Rachel and Jerrie were brief but poignant, and it was nice to see Jerrie incorporated back into the fold. She was such a highlight of the early episodes, and as the show moved beyond the girls and the kidnapping, Jerrie’s presence was sorely missed.

With Rick dead and Ronald gone, Cassie and Jenny will continue to move beyond this and onto something bigger. But they’ll never forget this case, as it brought them together as a team but cost them Cody.

The ladies have finally reached a place in their partnership where it feels like they are headed towards being friends. They’re already confidants, and they repeatedly put their lives in the other person’s hands, but they still haven’t crossed over into happy hour BFFs.

Maybe that time will come for them one day. We’ll be content to see them fight on another day investigating crimes, overstepping boundaries, and getting the bad guys.

With these ladies still on the prowl, Ronald Pergman’s days are numbered.

Odds and Ends

Penelope is going to make a fantastic lawyer for Merilee. Best efforts!

How in the world Jenny mistook a dead woman for and literal child is a question you’re better off not thinking about for too long.

Also curious? How Cassie placed Ronald back to seeing him briefly when he opened the door for her at Merilee’s shop and not to the police sketch that she’s had to have looked at close to a million times. Again, probably not worth thinking about it too much.

The montage at the end of all the characters we’ve lost was okay, but did they really have to include Rick? Cody, of course, and Helen didn’t deserve to be killed, but Rick? He didn’t deserve the emotional farewell.

We’ve got a lengthy hiatus coming up, but when Big Sky returns, we’ll be getting a whole new set of characters to fall in love with or hate completely. That’s pretty much the only way things shake out on this show!

But first, let’s discuss the hour and what you thought about it!