One of the better Murder in Small Town X episodes yet ran last week and as the body count rises it’s getting close enough to the end that we have to lay our cards on the table. Kristen’s luck ran out just as Jeff rose up to take her title of “most hated investigator” and also confirm himself as “least skilled investigator.” Kovick’s line “Maybe you should let your friend talk for a while,” was FAR, FAR more satisfying than the much ballyhooed “You don’t interject nothing.” But as usual, the players and the game take a backseat to the far more interesting mystery to be solved.
Well this is it. Last chance to lay out our theories before the last two episodes air back-to-back.
Last week I laid out my overall scheme and saw a few of my points proven right. Jimmy and Prudence were blackmailing Nate and Nate did get the money from Hayden DeBeck. I speculated Nate was blackmailing DeBeck while DeBeck stated he bought the Kingfisher Cannery. At first glance it looks like I’m wrong but, looking closer, maybe I wasn’t that far off the mark.
Mind/Science was a key feature in the show and, while it may have looked like much of that time was pointless torture, I think it taught us a lot about DeBeck and Sunrise in general.
Remember last time I wrote I speculated that DeBeck, Oscar Blodgett and C.R. Flint covered the death of the Duchamps? I’m now starting to speculate the ENTIRE TOWN was in on the cover-up. It could be that burning the cannery was the only way to save the town’s economy and the Duchamps refused to play along. It could be they died accidentally in the fire. It could even be they were deliberately killed by the town. After all it was 1941, Duchamps sounds French but could be German and with World War 2 underway a town of New England residents might have harbored some serious anti-German sentiments…
Really the motive isn’t key. What matter is that Sunrise is a town built on lies. It’s a town where gossip flourishes, where trust is in short supply and where back-stabbing is far too common. It is, in short, a town unclean. It is a town where people will be very willing to turn to a cult that promises cleansing, that promises strength, order, and logic to overcome the skeletons that fill every closet (as my man Angel has already pointed out). The sweepers make sense (finally) when you realize DeBeck felt compelled to cleanse the town. It also explains why Reverend Crandall would feel conventional religion is not enough to save his parishioners (after all, his father would have been steeped even further in the conspiracy than he was). DeBeck’s desire to buy the cannery and transform it into a museum was another effort to redeem the town’s past rather than simply pave over it and try to bury the truth even further.
Time to look at the suspects.
Thibodeaux is dead. Sam Larabee was cleared. I had written both of them off long ago so no real gain there. But the death of Thibodeaux is a bit odd. It doesn’t seem to fit in with the other deaths. It is possible the killer has moved on to killing off just about any long term Sunrise resident or it is possible the killer is trying to point evidence at another suspect. That doesn’t jibe well with conventional wisdom of serial killers.
Thibodeaux’s tape isn’t much of a clue. It tells us Thibodeaux thought Connor was the killer. He thought that only because she asked him to lie for her. But the revelation that Connor was blackmailing Nate was reason enough for her to lie. Tinker and Connor are no longer suspects as far as I’m concerned. Yes they blackmailed Flint, but that is not something a serial killer does. Serial killers are not out for money. They are driven by far more twisted motives. Tinker had no motive to kill Abby or Carmen or anyone else, and Connor’s rage over her father makes it unlikely she had any connection to The Burned Man. Some have speculated Thibodeaux’s tape was coerced but I don’t think so. Thibodeaux hardly seems the type to be forced to betray Connor even under threat of death (he was dying anyway); I simply chalk it up to his error.
Larabee’s trip to Mind/Science makes me think, more and more, that she knows something about the killer and her “night terrors” are connected to her knowledge.
I now have to assume DeBeck is also dead. The film we (and not the investigators) saw of him begging for forgiveness leads me to believe he saw the killer and, somehow, realized the Duchamps connection. DeBeck has clearly wanted to be forgiven, wanted to be cleansed himself, for a very long time.
Rusty Crandall is also off my suspect list. Someone ran Rusty off the road. I can’t see Rusty risking his own life to kill DeBeck in such an overcomplicated way. I also think he would have had trouble getting the bangstick into the car’s front seat without attracting attention.
Mary Elizabeth now emerges as one of the many victims of the town of Sunrise. Torn in different directions by conflicting forces (the desire for material success embodied by William Lambert, the desire for respectability and the appearance of normalcy embodied by the Flint family, and the desire for redemption DeBeck strives for) she is a fragile confused young woman. That does not make her a killer. She simply doesn’t have the means to be the killer physically, mentally, or emotionally.
Can we all agree Emerson Bowden is off the list of suspects? He’s barely been in the show and Fox is not stupid enough to suddenly have him materialize as the killer. Wait did I just say Fox wasn’t stupid enough to do something? This from the Network that brought us Temptation Island (not to mention Woops! and Women in Prison for those of us with loooooonnnngggg memmories). Okay, Bowden has maybe a 1% chance of being the killer.
William Lambert is, in some ways, a victim of Sunrise as well. The mistreatment of his mother has driven him to be motivated by a desire for money and power within the town. I think, however, that Lambert doesn’t realize just how deeply screwed up Sunrise is. He doesn’t realize what he is playing with when he hopes to bulldoze the cannery or when he fires the reporter. It is still possible that Lambert is The Burned Man’s son and the killer but I’ll call it a 9% chance at best.
Which leaves us with Frank Kovick. Everything Frank did tonight led me to believe he is the killer:
He continues to be obsessed with the investigators but becomes angry when they do not support him completely.
He was upset to learn Sam had gone to Mind/Science
He is the first townsperson I recall referring to the killer as a serial killer. To be honest, five killings isn’t much for a serial killer. It could, just as easily, be a killer with another motive trying to appear as a serial killer. At least to those not intimately familiar with the games the killer has been playing. So why is Frank so adamant it’s a serial killer. Because he’s the killer and he’s proud of the fact he’s a serial killer!
Frank calling Dudley an idiot is typical behavior of serial killers who see themselves as smarter than law enforcement.
Frank’s drive against Lambert is not just to throw suspicion on Lambert, The Burned Man’s son wouldn’t want to see the cannery destroyed either. It’s a twisted monument to the suffering that drove his life’s work.
He was on the scene of the boat explosion and had gotten info from the Coast Guard. Serial killers often endeavour to hang around their crime scenes during the investigation.
Meslaygtaplea, the anagram of Let’s play a game has the same number of letters as Frank Duchamps.
Has no one tried to actually solve the puzzle found at the Leita Rose crime scene? It could be a key clue and it’s been ignored. I’m ready to put the tiny reputation I may have on the line and call Frank Kovick the killer with a 90% certainty. Now hopefully Jeff gets it next and Angel takes the prize.
Lucian Carter is a reality TV fan and long-time Live Action Role-Player (LARPer) who lives in Toronto, Ontario. He loves Murder in Small Town X and dreams of what his LARP groups could do with a million dollar budget.
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