Summary
Murder in a Small Town threatens its core relationship in Episode 5, and this seems like a potentially serious mistake.
Episode 5 of Murder in a Small Town, “A Touch Of Panic”, feels like it’s in the wrong place. I criticized the show’s premiere for starting with the wrong case, and I’m reminded of that here in a kidnapping plot that looks to challenge the status quo of the show’s most fundamental relationship – that of Karl and Cassandra – not even halfway through the season.
It’s not about a murder, either, though I suppose that’s just nitpicking. If anything the stakes here feel higher than usual since it’s one of the leads who’re imperiled, but that’s kind of the problem.
Episode 4 found the right balance, I think. It found Karl and Cassandra working together to solve a case that was personal to Gibson. It was the best blend of romance and procedural the show has yet achieved. Making Cassandra the victim of the crime in “A Touch of Panic” isn’t the worst idea in the world, but its aftermath raises worrying questions for the show’s core dynamic in future episodes.
Let me explain.
Cassandra’s Kidnapping
In Episode 5 of Murder in a Small Town, Cassandra is kidnapped by a guest-starring Devon Sawa, who is playing Gordon Murphy. Gordon is the first criminal Karl busted in Minneapolis, and he has harbored a grudge – and that’s putting it mildly – ever since.
Gordon spends the early part of the episode following Karl’s daughter, Holly, and her friend Devon, but when that doesn’t pan out he settles on Cassandra. It’s clear from the off he’s looking for people closely associated with Karl. He lures Cassandra to a “meeting” by offering to help with the library project she’s working on – more on her being overworked below – and then snatches her from the car park when she realizes he has other intentions.
Gordon keeps Cassandra in a nice little cabin and feeds her tinned goods to lure Karl into the open. Cassandra intuits that Gordon has Stage 4 terminal cancer and is using his remaining time to punish the man he believes took everything from him. Karl goes through this realization process too, just in a much more long-winded way, poring over his old caseload and doing the usual police work.
Eventually, Cassandra is able to bring the police to her by sending an email from the cabin’s smart TV. Gordon is arrested and Cassandra is left shellshocked.
Is Now The Right Time To Threaten Cassandra’s Relationship with Karl?
Karl and Cassandra haven’t had a smooth run of things romantically. In Episode 3 the show seemed to forget they were even together. We haven’t seen them settle into being a couple at all, really, so putting that dynamic at risk so early in the season seems like a mistake to me.
It’s obvious from Cassandra’s post-kidnapping reaction that she has been traumatized by the event and is trying to – albeit probably temporarily – distance herself from Karl. His past and his present line of work are a danger to her, and since previous episodes have established how important the job is to him, she’s probably rethinking their relationship.
These are worthwhile themes and ideas, they’re just coming too early. Karl and Cassandra barely have a relationship by this point. It’s even a plot point in “A Touch of Panic” that Cassandra has been too busy to see him. This entire plot would have worked better towards the end of the season, where calling the core relationship into question would have felt more serious. We’d have also felt more invested in Cassandra’s safety, knowing her better and understanding Karl’s affection for her. Her reticence to be close to him afterward would have stung more.
Devon Sawa and Kristin Kreuk in Murder in a Small Town | Image via Fox
Holly and Cassandra’s Relationship Still Needs Work
Murder in a Small Town Episode 5 introduced the idea that Holly and Cassandra’s relationship is a little strained, which was predictable enough. Holly thinks Cassandra doesn’t like her because when they all went to dinner – which we didn’t see – Cassandra was constantly on her phone. Cassandra thinks Holly doesn’t like her because she’s a teenage girl.
I’d quite like to see this relationship develop, and it’s going to be a lot harder for that to happen organically now that Cassandra is potentially going to be distancing herself from Karl. Again, if this had happened later, Holly might have had a more meaningful role in it too. Here, she’s left to tearfully panic about Cassandra’s well-being in a way that doesn’t make a great deal of sense given we haven’t seen them interact (outside of a brief scene in the library where Holly mistakes Cassandra being genuinely busy for blowing her off.)
It’s easy to see how a minor narrative decision like this could threaten the show’s underpinnings down the line. It’ll be interesting to see how we move on from this event in the next episode.
And Another Thing…
There’s a weird subplot in “A Touch of Panic” involving one of the uniformed cops, Andy Kendrick. He pulls over a nice-looking local woman named Genevieve, has a pleasant exchange with her, and lets her off with a warning, and then she reports him for coming onto her.
Edwina later goes to ask Genevieve a few questions about the incident, since the department has to be seen to be taking it seriously, and it’s implied quite strongly that Genevieve was embellishing the encounter because Kendrick is Black and she’s racist. I have no idea why this is here otherwise. Initially it seemed like the angle was going to be that Kendrick is a fundamentally decent cop but just a bit of a flirt, which could border on inappropriateness, but the racism angle kind of nips that in the bud.
Weird subplot, weird episode. What can you do?
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