Summary
Predictable and formulaic, Three Pines struggles to break free of its own trappings again. Although the Blue Two-Rivers case packs an emotional punch, opening up the story to further police corruption.
Armand Gamache (Alfred Molina) has been investigating the disappearance of Blue Two-Rivers (Anna Lambe) for the majority of the season now. It’s an unsolved case that has plagued his thoughts and nightmares since he undertook the job around Christmas. In Three Pines Season 1 Episode 7 the case is finally laid to rest.
Alongside this overarching investigation, Armand and the gang take on one final murder investigation in the troubled village of Three Pines. As the title suggests, this one involves a hanged man.
Three Pines Season 1 Episode 7 Recap
The hanged man in question starts the episode stumbling through the empty streets of Three Pines, drunk. He enters Olivier’s Bistro, filled with happy guests as usual. The mystery man starts to shout, unprovoked, at them all, then squares up to Gabri and punches him in the face. As a couple of men pull the stranger back, he shouts about knowing all of their secrets. Of course, he’ll be found dead the very next day.
Blue Two-Rivers’ family are the unfortunate souls that come across this corpse. They are searching the forests again, looking for clues of Blue’s whereabouts. Beau finds the hanged man. Isabelle, who is helping with the search, puts it through as a suicide, but Beau points out that there are multiple footprints on the ground around the body. This may be another homicide investigation.
Armand joins Isabelle at the crime scene while Jean-Guy is away with his partner on a break. The Chief Inspector comments on how clean the victim’s hands are, indicating that he didn’t climb the tree himself. And there are marks around his neck that point towards strangulation, not suicide. Armand also finds long pine needles on the body, something he hasn’t seen before. Beau explains that they are from a white pine, a rare tree in these parts.
Walking the crime scene, Armand and Isabelle change the topic of conversation back to Blue. Isabelle wants to find and talk to the driver of the patrol car. They’ve identified him as Dan Chowski, a traffic cop, but he’s since gone missing, possibly tipped off about the investigation and questioning.
Meanwhile, Kevin’s death points toward an overdose, but Isabelle knows that Kevin wasn’t into drugs. It all seems rather suspicious. She blames herself for Kevin’s death and seems to be trying to make amends by helping the family with their search. Armand agrees to help the best he can with their ongoing hunt.
The gang finds themselves back at the Be Calm Center in their old situation room once again, where Armand believes they are after a group of killers. Clara pops by with baked goods and points out the murdered man from his photograph. He was seen last night in the Bistro, looking for a fight. Clara adds that he was staying at the local B&B. They head straight there and question the owner. Angela states that the man was called Arthur Ellis. He paid cash for the stay and asked for a quiet room. In this bedroom, they find what appears to be a suicide note but no wallet or phone. Armand proposes a staged suicide and a fake suicide note.
Isabelle compiles a list of all the guests at the Bistro that night, and Armand interviews Gabri, the man punched by the victim. Everyone says the same scripted response that the man was drunk and rambling on about revealing their secrets. Paperwork from Arthur’s rental car matches the suicide note, maybe it wasn’t a fake after all.
At the weekly book club, the locals discuss murder and whether it is justifiable. The debate heats up, and Gabri storms off in a huff. Then Myrna unveils their next assignment. Ironically their next book is called The Hangman by Arthur Ellis – quite the coincidence, don’t you think? Clara notices this striking link and rushes to tell Armand. The biography was written by an executioner under a pseudonym. Looks like the hanged man used the same name as a nod to his plans. He wanted to deliver the death penalty to someone who had wronged him. Armand quotes the line: sometimes vengeance is the only path to peace.
While the two investigations continue to move forward side by side, Armand has his own personal crisis. He’s starting to remember painful memories from his past, about his dead parents. He has a nightmare in which he coughs up a pine needle, then phones his wife for reassurance on waking.
Jean-Guy is having relationship issues of his own. He pretends to be taking a break with his partner, but it is all a lie; they seem to have separated instead.
What happened to Blue Two-Rivers?
Sensing a connection between the pine needles found at Kevin’s and Arthur’s crime scene, Isabelle hunts for a connection. Armand discovers that there is only one area in the local vicinity that contains white pines, and he heads straight there.
Armand quickly finds a shallow grave containing two body bags, with bullets surrounding these corpses. It is later revealed to be Blue and Tommy’s bodies. It would appear the police officer shot them both and buried them nearby – Kevin’s story holds up.
Isabelle and Armand visit Blue Two-Rivers’ family in an emotional sequence. They promise to find Blue’s killer and continue their investigation promptly. Meanwhile, Olivier hunts around Gabri’s desk and finds Arthur’s wallet, although his actual name is James Hill, as spotted on his ID.
Isabelle finds Arthur’s home and, again, points out his real identity. She notes that his whole house was packed up and ready for moving. Photographs prove he had a family, but neighbors state that he lived alone.
In the final moments, Armand and Isabelle meet with forensics to get the match on the bullets found at the crime scene. There are two suspects, Dan Chowski, as already assumed, and Pierre Arnot, as I predicted. This twist ending devastates Armand, who realizes that his close friend is intimately involved in the murder.
Three Pines Season 1 Episode 8 Recap
Three Pines (Credit – Amazon Prime Video)
The finale begins with a flashback to Armand’s youth, where viewers are shown the tragic event that would change Armand’s life forever and end his parents’ lives. He was in the backseat as his parents sat in the front seats. He tickled his mother with a blue jay feather and then proceeded to do the same to his father, who was driving.
This distracted his father, who then crashed. Armand’s parents died in that crash, and he would forever blame himself for their deaths.
Armand holds the Blue Jay feather in his hands in the present day. He’s at a game night with his wife, Pierre, and Pierre’s wife too. Armand knows that Pierre is involved in the police cover-up and may actually be a killer, but he can’t confront him on the matter just yet.
Instead, he teases his knowledge of the case. Pierre has to ask how Armand figured it out, and the Chief Inspector explains the connection with the white pine needles. In a sense, this is a warning for Pierre, giving him time to cover his tracks further, but it is also one hell of a tense interaction.
The Chief Inspector confesses to his own wife later that night about his findings. He takes his evidence to the Police, who endeavor to pass this on to Internal Affairs. Armand needs to wrap up the Arthur Ellis/James Hill case before his life is taken over by the police corruption scandal that awaits him back home. He plans to solve the murder case in Three Pines by the end of the day. He needs it to be off his conscience for good.
He’s not the only one that wants this murder case wrapped up. The locals are worried as well. Myrna hosts a secret meeting, addressing just that. They all have their own secrets and reasons they fled to the sanctuary of Three Pines. They don’t need the police digging into their sordid pasts anymore. Myrna urges the gang to admit anything they know about the case, but no one steps forward.
Ruth then hands over James Hill’s wallet to Armand, stating that she found it on a bonfire. Inside the wallet is a list of four names. The initials seem insignificant, but GD stands out. Is this Gabri Dubeau? Jean Guy is convinced it’s a kill list. Hill had access to a lot of private information as he worked filing records; maybe he had tracked down his enemies to Three Pines.
They delve deeper into James’ past and discover that he was struck by tragedy fifteen years ago. His family died in a horrific car crash that involved four drunk teens. The teens got off without convictions due to being wealthy and having good lawyers.
A ‘Gabri’ was one of the teens that caused the disaster. Maybe James was back in town to kill off the four involved. This triggers hard memories of Armand’s own childhood and another car accident.
Gabri is rightfully questioned next. He was seen arguing with James the day he died. Peter saw Gabri running through the woods, where the body was eventually found. And to top it all off, Gabri had James’ wallet in his possession.
Armand interrogates the suspect. Gabri admits that he did discover James’ hanged corpse, but he wasn’t the killer. He was protecting the killers instead. These killers, Angela and Mike, are panicked after seeing Gabri being taken for questioning and pack to leave town.
Mike confesses James was going to kill them, he’d already killed two on his list, and he was obviously heading for them next. It was self-defense. The writers imply that Mike and Angela were two of the four teens involved in that car crash. They changed their names and ran.
Yvette returns to Three Pines after overhearing an important conversation at the station. Rumors are circulating; she thinks the police will arrest Armand in connection with Blue’s death. She goes to warn Armand in person.
The Chief Inspector acts quickly. He calls Isabelle to go and arrest Mike and Angela, then starts to search for Pierre himself. Isabelle finds a tipsy Jean-Guy, and together they go to arrest the suspects. Mike and Angela escape in their car, and an intoxicated Jean-Guy gives chase.
The fact that he’s been drinking adds an extra layer of tension to this car chase. Jean-Guy starts to speed and panics the suspects, who crash their car. They drive off a bridge and flip the vehicle, there are no survivors.
Three Pines season 1 Ending Explained
Meanwhile, Armand tracks Pierre down to his cabin. Inside, Armand finds a messy scene. There’s blood on the floor and Chowski’s police badge thrown to one side.
Then, he sees a truck on fire outside. Pierre blames Chowski for everything. His story goes that they had pulled them over for a standard search and seizure. However, Tommy drew his gun, and Chowski reacted accordingly. Pierre argues it was a legitimate killing, but now Chowski is trying to frame him and Armand for the whole thing.
The Chief doesn’t believe Pierre’s story. Then he notices a body inside the flaming truck, it must be Chowski.
Pierre says that Chowski was running a scam. Kevin had a truckload of tobacco, and they pulled them over to take a cut. Kevin panicked and ran, then Blue started filming the altercation. Chowski went to grab the phone, but Tommy got in the way and was shot. Blue had to go next. Armand believes it was Pierre’s scam, not Chowski’s, and that Pierre shot Blue.
Pierre states that he isn’t going to jail for this, although Armand has all the evidence.
Armand wants to arrest him and bring him in. It looks like Pierre has accepted his fate, but then he shoots Armand and runs. Jean-Guy and Isabelle arrive on the scene, but Pierre has already disappeared. Will Armand survive the bullet wound? Will Pierre go on the run?
What did you think of Three Pines Season 1 Episodes 7 and 8? Comment below.
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