Unfinished Business – As the opening episode of Black Snow begins, Isabel Baker (Talijah Blackman-Corowa) frantically rides her bike to the nearby phone booth. As she tries to use the phone, a vehicle approaches and stops in front of her. She drops the phone. In the present, Cormack (Travis Fimmel) plays a claw game and wins a small stuffed whale. He drinks with his buddy before telling him to do this. They go outside where Cormack pays his friend to punch him a few times. Cormack encourages Frank to put his hips into it. After beating him up, Frank calls him a weirdo and leaves. Cormack sings happy birthday to the whale while sobbing.

The following day, Cormack goes to the Queensland Police Station where he works in the cold case unit. James’s boss finds out about the bruises on his face so he jokes he forgot his safe word. She informs him that he has solved another cold case. James looks at the picture of Erin Kealy on his desk. In Ashford, North Queensland, Hazel (Jemmason Power) gets stopped by a train so she gets out of her car to stare into the field. She goes to the church where Kalana is practicing on the piano. Kalana is glad her mom is home, but learns she will only be there for a week. Hazel explains she is spending time in Brisbane so she can create a better future for her.

Joe (Jimi Bani) comes in pushing Hazel’s mother in a wheelchair. They agree to talk about the wheelchair tomorrow since today is about Isabel. Joe prays with the family. At Ashford High, the locals prepare to open their time capsule. Chloe Walcott (Brooke Satchwell) is introduced by her mother because she helped put the time capsule together. Chloe wants to pay tribute to Isabel Baker since it was her project. Victor Bianchi (Rob Carlton) helps open the time capsule. Chloe starts by pulling a couple of Thelma & Louise out of the box. She wrote about 1994, buying her first car, and road-tripping. As for Hector, he thought he’d be a famous game developer and married to Alyssa Milano, but he is in a relationship with a man now.

Anton (Alexander England) thought he’d be running a Mars colony in 2019 although he admitted he’d probably just be running the farm. Anton thought he’d have three kids with Izzy by then. Hazel slaps her wristband and leaves her family because she seems mad. She takes a few drops of Sertraline HCL to calm herself. Kalana (Eden Cassady) reads Isabel’s letter. Isabel wrote that her life is changing and she will be traveling soon. She thought she’d be back in Ashford in 2019. She goes on to say she thinks Ashford will still be full of predators disguised as friends in 2019. There were people she trusted, but she knows they feed on suffering. When she is safe from their clutches, she will expose them and their cruelty.

That’s if they don’t kill her first. In November 1994, Isabel and Hazel talk about Anton who is Isabel’s boyfriend. Isabel has an envelope full of money hidden under her bed. On her way out, her dad stops to congratulate her on the scholarship news. She joins her sister outside and they say hello to Aunty Rosa as they walk to school. Hazel tells Isabel that Mick still has the hots for her, but Izzy insists they’re just friends. Once she gets to school, Isabel confirms to Chloe that she got the money. She tells her to keep it down because her dad would kill her. Anton comes over to help Mrs. Walcott carry a box inside even though it doesn’t get him out of detention.

Chloe and Isabel ditch school to wait for someone elsewhere. When Mick arrives, they tell him they have two hours at the most. They go to a sketchy property to buy a van they can use for road trips. Mick admits it is a good price, but they’d be taking a risk. As they drive back in the van, Isabel and Chloe talk about how crazy it is they’ll be on the road in three weeks. Isabel is thinking about sending her parents a postcard, but she insists nothing is going to stop her. Their van breaks down moments later. Isabel makes it back home to her sister. In the present, Hazel notices that the time capsule is being hauled away by police officers. While the box is taken to the station, Hazel and the family comfort one another at home.

Five days later, James begins researching Isabel’s case. James has “03-12-94” tattooed on his arm. He pleads with his boss to put him on the case because he is really interested in it. Once she agrees, James goes to Isabel’s grave. He goes to the station where he meets Troy Turner (Kim Gyngell). They go to the pub to get beers from Tasha (Kestie Morassi). While they’re there, James learns about Steve Walcott (Erik Thomson) who owns the mill and paid for their drinks. Troy doesn’t put much value in Isabel’s letter and thinks it was just a cranky girl on her period. He goes on to say they had no witnesses, no primary crime scene, and no murder weapon. When James asks about his theory, they go back to the station.

Troy says Isabel attended a year 12 formal at the school on the night of her murder. Not long before it ended, she went outside to give directions to someone in a blue station wagon. Her friend Chloe saw the interaction and remembered that the car had interstate plates. After the formal, the girls walked home together up to the Riley Street T intersection. Chloe went left while Isabel went right. Troy says she walked to her house alone and that is where he got her. Although there weren’t a lot of CCTV cameras back then, the ATM on Main Street had a camera. They watch the video of the girls walking by followed by a blue station wagon with a white door. Troy says they thought it was a seasonal worker passing through town.

He waited until she was alone to drag her into the car, but she fought back hard. When she tried to run, the killer hit her. They think he dumped the body at the cemetery on his way out of town. James isn’t sure it was random since the girl’s hair was cut post-mortem. Troy says they followed all avenues and all roads led back to the car in the video. James is taken to the time capsule. When Hector (Fraser Anderson) joins the others in detention, Anton suggests he got caught with the camera in the boy’s changing rooms. Isabel tells him not to be a dick. Tasha enters and gives Anton a new mix tape she made. Mrs. Walcott tells them about the time capsule which is their ticket out of detention.

She tells them what to do and that they’ll be working with Hector to create a video record of what life in Ashford looks like today. They quickly begin filming at the skate park. Chloe asks Hector if he can edit the joint out of the video so her mom won’t see it. He explains he can create two videos to protect them. He’ll show the clean one to her mom and switch the tapes before it goes into the time capsule. Isabel has to go because Joe flips his lid if she isn’t home before the streetlights come on. Isabel works on the time capsule sheet at home when her mom has to go to work because someone called in sick. Once their mom is gone, Isabel calls Anton. She tells Hazel to tell their dad she is at Chloe’s studying.

She meets with Anton and they have sex before they notice black snow falling. Anton admits they can’t come back up here because his dad has some workers coming up for the harvest. He gives her a necklace he bought her. Isabel reveals to him that Chloe wants her to come on a trip to Sydney this summer. Anton gets jealous and thinks that means she is breaking up with him. Dale asks James why he is starting with the time capsule since it is just a bunch of 90s memorabilia. James claims the most difficult thing with cold cases is finding out what people were really like back then. James reads what Isabel wrote back then. Hazel meets with him and learns what was in the time capsule. He offers to make her his primary contact, but Hazel would prefer he left them alone.

She isn’t interested in this being dragged back up. James argues Isabel’s letter promises a motive closer to home. While James grabs her a cup of tea, Hazel looks through the stuff in the time capsule. James watches from the doorway as Hazel finds Isabel’s hair.

 

Black Snow Synopsis

Black Snow is a new crime drama that follows cold case detective James Cormack as he attempts to solve the murder of Isabel Baker in the small town of Ashford. Cormack, who is played by Travis Fimmel, has issues of his own including the fact he likes to be beaten. There are more secrets from his past as is evident by the tattoo on his arm featuring a date of personal significance.

The story is told through flashbacks and whatever Cormack can uncover in the present. When he learns about Isabel’s murder, he quickly takes an interest in the case and doesn’t stop until his boss lets him pursue it. The date of the murder may or may not be significant although it is close to the date of the tattoo.

The first episode shows Isabel fleeing to a phone booth where she is confronted by someone in a vehicle. More details are uncovered when Ashford High’s time capsule is finally opened. A letter from Isabel confirms that the killer was likely closer to home when the prior investigators thought it was a seasonal worker.

Hazel meets James near the end of the episode and discovers Isabel’s hair in the time capsule.

 

Black Snow Review

Black Snow strives to be unique and artsy even though the story feels a bit like a copied and pasted version of so many previous crime dramas. The soundtrack is different from the beginning with the effectiveness likely varying from viewer to viewer since some may find it more annoying than suspenseful. As expected, Travis Fimmel shines as the mysterious cold case detective who seems to be hiding his own secrets and wallowing in his past.

Other cast members such as Erik Thomson, Brooke Satchwell, Kim Gyngell, and Jemmason Power will help add authenticity to the script. On the other hand, certain performances are less than stellar with characters woodenly reading from a script and those moments will be difficult to ignore.

Some elements of the opening episode were unique with the soundtrack standing out and Cormack’s odd behavior being surprisingly alluring, but the story is a paint-by-the-numbers safe play. The level of suspense is toned down slightly by the fact that the killer can only be a handful of Ashford locals.

The opening episode was just okay, but the unique lead played by Travis Fimmel may just provide enough justification to continue with the remaining episodes. The episode scores a 6 out of 10. Recaps of Black Snow will be available on Reel Mockery here. Want to support our work? Find out how to do so by following this link.