Murder in a Small Town – Season 1 Episode 6 Recap & Review

The Madness Method

Episode 6 of Murder in a Small Town begins with a man choked out and killed with a plastic bag. He tries bargaining with his captor, but it doesn’t work. Instead, he gets smacked upside the head and his picture taken. Whoever wants him dead is clearly on the other end of the phone.

Three days later, we get more context around what happened. Shane Sloane is the kidnapper and he took Councilman Murray Zuckerman from Seattle in the middle of the day. There’s 250k up for grabs for anybody who captures Shane, prompting Karl to warn there’s going to be an influx of people coming to the station.

Cassandra is there too and she’s got serious PTSD after her kidnapping incident. Karl does his best, but it’s not helped by a newcomer at the station who apparently has information on Shane Sloane. This is Dr Elizabeth Lewis and she’s Shane’s psychiatrist. She also knows that Shane is incoming to their town, and that’s because those pictures were sent to her.

Shane is the closest she’s come to experiencing “pure evil” and he’s apparently a master of manipulation too. Dr Lewis is afraid for her life, and it’s not helped by more messages sent, with Shane telling her he’ll “see her soon”. She’s pretty frazzled but Karl knows there’s more than a little bit of coincidence over her showing up immediately and leading the cops to Shane.

Cass does her statement alone but she struggles to relive the incident, her hands shaking and tears stinging her eyes. Edwina is proud of Cass for what she managed to do, including the miraculous way she used a TV remote to send a long email over to the police station in record time.

Edwina connects on a more personal level here when Sid fails, explaining why she’s moved to Gibsons in the first place. Edwina struggled with the weight of expectation and needed a fresh start.

At the station, Dr Lewis continues to open up about Shane’s mindset, but he knows she’s keeping something a secret. He doesn’t trust her, and he confides as much with Edwina.

The story surrounding Lewis’ deception starts to deepen when he catches a ride with a hitchhiker, bound for town. The man is found out in the woods and he seems to be absolutely fine, and he explains that Shane never threatened him, nor did he seem dangerous in any way. This doesn’t add up to the profile we’ve been painted from the good doctor that Shane is unhinged. Karl’s Spidey-Sense starts to tingle.

Dr Lewis is manipulative and Karl starts to see chinks in the armour. He realizes that the clue is with her phone, which she continues to look at every chance she gets. Karl deduces that she may be in constant contact with Shane.

The dots are start to connect for Karl after one of the officers gets injured out in the field. It turns out Murray Zuckerman was friends with Dr Lewis on social media and she liked every single one of his posts until 3 months back. There, Zuckerman posted a picture of a baby scan.

Karl heads back in to speak to Lewis, questioning what she’s done to make Shane so vengeful. Karl deduces that she’s a sociopath and had an affair with Zuckerman until his wife got pregnant. He tried to break things off and Lewis became jealous and possessive. Shane came under her care but unfortunately, Lewis twisted and manipulated him into doing her bidding as a weapon. She wants Shane dead by causing the officers to kill him for her, tying up loose ends.

Just then, the lights in the station suddenly shut off and Shane smashes through the window, prompting the officers to scramble to safety. Karl speaks to Shane during a stand-off, with the latter explaining that Lewis told her Murray was stalking her and he killed him for her.

Karl manages to talk him around, as Shane willingly gets arrested, explaining that Lewis told him he’d be a hero. The true sociopath here is Dr Lewis, and with a warrant to check her phone, they find all the evidence they need. It doesn’t take long for her to be arrested for conspiring to kill Murray, and her words, thankfully, don’t cut Karl too deeply.

When Karl heads home though, Cass is there waiting for him. She explains that as a police officer, she doesn’t think she’ll be safe and decides they can’t be together, walking away.

The Episode Review

The most interesting part of this episode is the relationship between Karl and Cass, which takes on a unique slant now that the latter is suffering from PTSD. This definitely helps her character grow and it also allows for more depth to seep into the characterisation for her and Karl.

What’s less endearing however, is the way the show is using characters like Sid. His clumsy demeanour while handling Cass shows no growth at all because he’s always been this bumbling buffoon since episode 1. It would have been nice to see him as the one who manages to get through to Cass, or at least talk her down, adding a more sensitive and empathetic side to him. Alas, it happens to be Edwina but at least we get a bit more context around her past.

This episode, much like many of the mysteries in this show, was obvious from the start. Elizabeth Lewis showing up at the station at the coincidental time and having messages from Shane? It was too good to be true and obvious that something was afoul here.

I wish the show would be a bit more creative with its mystery, maybe throw in a few red herrings or spice up the number of suspects or potential witnesses, but the episode does quite well to remaining entertaining all the same. With only 2 episodes left until the finale, hopefully next week’s chapter can pick up.