We must say that after the careful pace-building of “Three Pines” Episode 1, the second episode took quite a sharp turn. It even taught us something about ourselves and the way we consume content: we want some things stretched out over episodes instead of getting quickly wrapped up. Of course, there is still the heartbreaking question of what happened to Blue Two Rivers, but concerning CC’s death, the mystery could have been extended in a far more delicious manner. The show is based on the novels by Louise Penny, which center around the titular character. We must admit that we haven’t read the books. Hence, we have been judging the story by what we see on screen. Despite our above-mentioned complaint, we have thoroughly enjoyed some aspects of it, which we will discuss as we go through “Three Pines” Episode 2 below.
Spoilers Ahead
Who Murdered CC de Poitiers?
In “Three Pines” Episode 1, Inspector Gamache had come up with a theory that the murder of CC could have been a collaborative effort by the entire town instead of just one person. He puts that to the test by trying to recreate the scene of her murder with the entire town and finds that it is possible for just one person to have done the deed. Connecting the cable from CC’s chair to the generator could have been done discreetly without anyone noticing. As they go over their list of suspects, they find that CC’s husband, Richard Lyon, was born wealthy, but he owns patents to a number of electrical inventions. This means he has the know-how to fix the apparatus for the killing chair. Upon a little more investigation, it is revealed that he is not as wealthy as he used to be, but CC was clearly unaware of it. Her death has left him with money again, thanks to the insurance policy on her life. When they question him, he tells them that he had done everything to make her happy, but none of those things was enough. He had wanted to kill her, but unless his wish had manifested itself, he was not the killer. The inspectors have to set him aside as a suspect since the evidence against him is just circumstantial. The next suspect they interrogate is Saul Petrov, CC’s boyfriend. He had taken a lot of photographs of CC, which he had not turned in for the investigation. He tells the inspectors that CC was obsessed with her mother, and while she claimed to hate her, she undoubtedly loved her as well. Gamache concludes that Saul loved CC too much to kill her. Honestly, we wouldn’t call that “love,” but rather some sort of twisted primal sexist protective tendency, but hey, even Gamache is a man.
Visiting Bea’s art studio proves to be more effective. We saw in the previous episode that CC had probably plagiarized her book from the studio’s name and copied a few of its philosophies. A lot seems to be connected to the studio. There is plenty of artwork there that is representative of the protests of the indigenous women. Not to mention the repeated reference to a residential school. Bea went to it, Missy’s mother ran away from it, and the house that CC was living in was the renovated school itself. It wouldn’t be too far-fetched to imagine that some of the histories they share are related to race.
Another mystery that presents itself is regarding CC’s parents. It becomes clear that she is not who she claims to be. At this point, Yvette Nichol comes through with the discovery that CC de Poitiers was actually Cicilia Longpre, and her mother was Emilie Longpre. Gamache believes that he has all but solved the mystery and asks Emilie, who is a resident of the town, why she lied to him. But Emilie tells him that she never lied. She wasn’t CC’s mother. She was her aunt. CC’s mother was Eleanor. The birth of her child exacerbated her depression until one day when she got violent against CC. She was institutionalized following that, with CC having to spend her days with her father, who was not a very nice man. Once Eleanor was released, she tried to contact her daughter but without any result. Shortly after she passed away, CC moved into Three Pines and started her life there. Here, we see the picture of a woman who had not seen much happiness in her life. There is a definite generational trauma, and as said by Emilie and Bea, she was undoubtedly passing it on to her daughter with her cruelty. But since Emilie had hidden her relationship with CC, Gamache wanted to question her more, but she asked to be left alone that day. He agrees and tells Nichol to keep an eye on her. But she falls asleep, and Emilie goes missing. By this time, Gamacha has figured out that “Be calm” is a clue for BKLM, which stands for Bea, Kaye, Eleanor, and Emilie. The four of them were in college together, and their friendship was their philosophy for life. He asks Bea where Emilie could have gone, and she tells him that she might have gone to her family’s graves. Gamache reaches her just in time and is able to save her life. The inspectors are convinced that they have found their murderer, but something Nichol says strikes Gamache. There was no way that Emilie knew about the metal claws on CC’s boots, and there was only one more person who was more invisible than an old woman—a young child. He makes his way to CC’s house to meet Crie. He has deduced that she must have learned the electrical aspects of the job from her father. Considering their house was a residential school before, she must have gotten the idea of the electric chair from one of the punishment artifacts left there. Crie admits that she did it. She also tells the Inspector that she witnessed CC killing her mother, Eleanor, which we had witnessed at the beginning of “Three Pines” Episode 2. We had noticed BKLM drawn on Eleanor’s hand, whose relevance we got to know later on.
Emilie had taken the blame for the murder to protect her late sister’s granddaughter. Crie has been taken away, but maybe her case will be considered in light of everything she went through. CC was a troubled woman who clearly never sought therapy for what she went through. She was not above taking out her anger on her daughter. There must have come the point when Crie accepted that it was okay to not love your parents if they didn’t act like that. But the emotional distance isn’t enough when the parents are actively harmful. So Crie did the only thing she could, for her own safety, to put an end to the generational trauma that was ruining her life, as it had for her mother and grandmother. While the case of CC’s murder is solved, there are developments in the Blue Two Rivers case.
‘Three Pines’ Episode 2: Ending Explained What Happens To Missy Two Rivers?
Inspector Pierre relays another piece of news to Gamache: a meth dealer has reported selling to Tommy and Blue just two weeks prior. But Missy is not ready to accept this. She is convinced Blue is dead, and her disappointment continues with the police for their lack of investigation into the matter. Missy talks about how her mother had escaped from a residential school and had been determined to give her children all the love and protection they would ever need, despite having received none of it in her own life. Missy’s grief came from the fact that she was unable to do the same for her daughter because indigenous women are only safe when they are within the community. Despite understanding where Missy is coming from, the inspectors still don’t believe that there is a case. Frustrated by it all and feeling like she has let her daughter down, Missy commits suicide by jumping off the building. Gamache is unable to save her, but we expect this to be a rude wake-up call for him.
What To Expect From ‘Three Pines’ Episode 3?
Considering the end of “Three Pines” Episode 2, we expect to see more of Blue’s case in the upcoming ones. We also want some intel on the residential school systems for indigenous people. It seems very deeply connected with the storyline, though so far, we have only seen hints of it. Also, regarding CC’s murder, we don’t believe that we have all the facts yet. It felt like she had something to hold over the townspeople, and we wanted to know whether we were right. If we are not wrong, the significance of BKLM is going to extend into the coming plotlines, with Bea having a greater role to play. We like how this show is going, and we are eagerly waiting for next week to see what new plot is waiting to be uncovered.
See More: ‘Three Pines’ Episodes 3 And 4: Recap And Ending, Explained – Who Killed Marc Fortier?
