Episode 3 begins 48 hours in the past with Derry Fallon (Aaron Monaghan) arriving at the cabin, looking for answers. Although he immediately finds Aileen Ryan (Carolyn Bracken) inside, the Q&A is postponed due to them coming under fire. Once a safe distance away and learning that they were both lured to the cabin, they decide to work together. When they stop for the evening to make camp, he questions her again about being at the cabin. This time, she not only tells him about researching the Mountain Murder Case but claims to have received an invite. She even offers to show him but claims to have lost her phone in the shuffle, which is proven to be a lie moments later.

They make it through the night without incident but learn finding their way back is much harder than imagined. Before they find a small cannabis farm, Derry mentions his wife’s interest in the Mountain Murders and asks her what she finds so intriguing about it. For the moment she tells him nothing more than the fact that the case was unsolved. Although Derry wants to take advantage of the scarce supplies, he clearly doesn’t want to hang around too long. He’ll start a brief argument that leads to him stepping into a bear trap when he grabs her bag, trying to speed along the process. She jokes about leaving him but thinks better of it.

She releases him and they manage to make it to a cave before dark. She leaves him there but returns much later that evening after dark with supplies from the cabin, including something from the pain. She proceeds to build a fire while he rolls a joint that he later forces her to share, practically against her will. As they pass the joint around, she asks what blackmail material he thought she had against him. His confession plays out in a recreation of the scene with her watching from the backseat of their car. It turns out that he killed his supposed best friend and wife’s brother Brian Dalton (Diarmuid Noyes) for snitching on his dad. After he confirms the killing as his reason for moving to town, the story picks up at the end of episode 2 to reveal that he was the target of the shooting.

Diana Huia (Acushla-Tara Kupe) pursues the shooter while Aileen shows Theo Richter (Richard Flood) what she found in the cabin and tells him about someone sending Derry to kill her. The shooter gets away but Officer Jacobs (Darren Young) picks up the tail in town minutes later. At least he assumes he has but when he pulls the bike over, it is Sinead Martin (Rachel Morgan) and Ginge (Poroaki Merritt-McDonald). As luck would have it, Jacobs managed to pull them over in front of Joseph Martin’s (Liam Carney) store, so he immediately comes to their aid. Joseph even later makes amends with Sinead and allows her and Ginge to spend the night.

While Sergeant Bruce Harris (Scott Wills) has to go back on the air with Joy Webb-Jones (Jessi Williams) and retract his earlier statement about the town’s chaos being over, Richter and Diana continue interviewing Aileen at the hospital. She doesn’t provide anything more useful than what she’s already told them.

Out of uniform and on unofficial business Detective Sergeant Gwenda (Miriama Smith) makes another attempt to squash her beef with Auntie Wiki (Vanessa Rare). As it turns out, Gwenda has uncovered the reasoning behind the family feud and relays this, along with an apology to Wiki. Buster Huia (Wayne Hapi) eavesdrops on the conversation as Wiki tells her that they can squash the beef but she isn’t going to let her move into her grandmother’s home.

By this time, Richter and Diana have arrived at the morgue where they use Derry’s thumbprint to unlock his phone and read the message that led him to the cabin. Richter visits Anita afterward and asks her who would have the nerve to murder Derry but she either doesn’t have an answer or is too afraid to share. That’s as far as that goes at the moment due to Diana showing up to announce that Derry’s body is ready for the sacred ritual. Although she initially agreed to the arrangement, Anita freaks out when she discovers Buster and the others chanting over Derry.

As Anita spends time with Derry’s body, Ginge explains to Sinead why he was staying at the graveyard and feels so guilty about Jarred’s (Flynn Mehlhopt) death. This basically amounts to Jarred overdosing after they had a blowup over a local girl. She attempts to convince him that it wasn’t his fault later but it appears to fall on deaf ears.

Aileen is released from the hospital but clearly doesn’t want to spend any longer than necessary at Richter’s place. The reasoning for this is revealed when he professes his love for her while also interrogating her about her time in the woods. This leads to a bit of heated argument with her telling him that he needs to face his diagnosis and she won’t be his distraction. He takes this to heart and returns to the hospital to discuss the diagnosis with Doctor Ray Morris (Edwin Wright).

The following morning, the police make the shocking discovery that the text sent to Derry came from a burner phone, purchased 17 years ago. Even more shocking is the fact that the phone belonged to Emma Wilson (Dea Doglione), the Mountain Murderer’s first victim. They will also later learn that someone tampered with evidence when they returned to the cabin with Aileen. Apparently, someone stole a dragon necklace that was on the goat corpse. It turns out that the necklace is connected to Diana’s mother, Christine Huia (Bronwyn Turei).

The episode ends with the authorities picking up and tracking a signal from the burner phone to Christine’s gravesite. Both the phone and necklace look to be purposefully placed there. Also, before this happens, Sinead discovers a hidden camera in the room she and Ginge spent the night in.

 

The Gone Review

This wasn’t a horrible episode, despite most of it feeling like filler. I understand why things played out the way they did and what was ultimately revealed was pertinent to the development of the story and characters. That said, I feel that there were far more effective ways to get the same information across. On the upside, Aileen and Derry’s time in the woods wasn’t entirely unappealing and the whole scenario with the wed was enjoyable.

In addition, I am enjoying the connections to the old Mountain Murderer case. The bit about the 17-year-old burner phone was intriguing. I’d give the episode a 6 out of 10.

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