Hope – As this episode of Black Snow begins, Detective James Cormack (Travis Fimmel) watches the surveillance video and checks for Richard Vogel in the database. He finds something about the Harborne House in 1998, but the records have been sealed. When he researches the Harborbe House, he learns it was a youth detention facility with allegations of abuse. James speaks to Hazel Baker (Jemmason Power) about the facility. She says nasty stuff went on there. James wants to look into it, but he is unable to subpoena it. Hazel says she can’t bend the rules and get away with it. James pleads with her to do it. Hazel agrees to find out where the hard copies are being stored. Nadja Jacobs (Victoria Haralabidou) wakes up in her camper. Nadja and Val (Paula Nazarski) visit Daisy (Lilliana Bowrey) to give her a phone charger and gifts. Daisy thinks she’s safe since he doesn’t know where she is.

She agrees to go for a walk with them. Samara Kahlil (Megan Smart) arrives in a police car moments later. She checks on Nadja and asks if she’s felt like Zoe has tried to contact her. Nadja says there was one time a few years ago when she wasn’t imagining it. Samara believes Zoe has been trying to contact her. She’s been getting phone calls on the night Zoe disappeared for the last eight years. Samara is convinced it’s Zoe. She wants to prove it is Zoe before telling Detective Cormack. When James visits Leo (Dan Spielman) at his workplace, Leo’s brother Will (Josh McConville) is also there. James tells Leo that Joseph Rua (Vinnie Bennett) has an alibi. Leo argues Melody Foster is not a serious person. He goes on to say Joseph was a 30-year-old vagrant living next to Zoe’s favorite running trail, Blue Gum Track. Leo admits Zoe was struggling after Cody’s suicide. They helped her but they couldn’t keep Joseph away from her.

Leo left the party around midnight because they had a call with US investors. Will said the Americans weren’t happy with the proposal so they had to redo it. As a result, they were in the office all night. James speaks to Will in private about how Nadja is coping. Will didn’t know she was living in a van. Seb isn’t talking to Nadja because they had a falling out at his 21st. James asks Will what he believes happened. Will knows Zoe wanted to leave Moorevale. He wants to believe Zoe just up and left town. Samara takes a girl to the cemetery. She also visits Cody Neilson’s grave. She notices cigarettes near the grave before calling Ella Vuko who is with the Feds. Samara asks her to trace the blocked number. Ella agrees to look into it. In a flashback, Samara Kahlil (Alana Mansour) is with Zoe Jacobs (Jana McKinnon) at Cody’s funeral in 2003. They join the others and Sean Cosgrove (Frederick Du Rietz) approaches them. He jokes he’s there because it was a good photo op for his mom, Julie (Kat Stewart).

Sean explains he has known Cody since primary school. Samara asks Zoe not to get back together with him. Zoe says Sean has been very supportive because he knows what it’s like to lose someone. Zoe checks in with Mandy Neilson (Alice Ansara). She asks Mandy if she can leave a few books on the table for people to take them home. Zoe says it’s how she knew Cody. Mandy gives her something that Cody would want her to have. Outside, Brad (Radek Jonak) asks them to sign the condolence book. Samara storms off. Zoe asks her if it’s about Sean. Samara says it’s not about Zoe all the time. She believes Zoe would know why Cody did it if she wasn’t obsessing over her own non-existent problems. Nadja arrives and tells Zoe that Seb fell asleep in the car. Zoe calls her unbelievable before leaving with Joseph. She ends up making a scene while fighting with her mom. In the present, James visits Nadja at her workplace.

He wants to go over the night Zoe went missing. Nadja admits it’s going to sound awful, but she wasn’t paying much attention to Zoe at the party. After cutting the cake, the adults went home and the kids kept partying. Nadja went to bed. When she woke up in the morning, Zoe was already gone. They talk about Joseph who was supposedly with Melody at the time. Nadja is convinced Zoe was in Brisbane. James admits he doesn’t know what happened at this point. Seb Jacobs (Saro Lepejian) researches Zoe’s disappearance. James catches up with Joseph at the restaurant where he works as a chef. James says he wants to talk to him about Zoe. He knows Joseph was kicked out of her 21st birthday. James asks where he got the money to start his first business after Zoe’s disappearance. He recommends Joseph get a lawyer. James finds a USB thumb drive waiting for him when he gets home. He watches a video of himself and his brother fishing when they were younger. In the car, he listens to the radio show and learns about deepblue32.

James catches up with Samara and asks her about Zoe’s number one fan. Samara says Zoe and Joseph were flirting but nothing ever happened between them. James makes Samara take him to Zoe’s running track. They walk the track and talk about Zoe’s relationship with her mother. Samara says Zoe was her first heartbreak. She thinks having kids is the best thing that could ever happen to someone. James wants to offer Samara a way out of the case. Samara says she just wants to find her. She shows James where Zoe used to swim to cool off on private property. James takes a picture of the property using his phone. He compares it to a picture at the station. In 2003, Joseph brings Zoe breakfast. She tells him how she’s feeling. Joseph invites her out for a swim. Then, she asks Samara what turned her mental yesterday. Sam says she couldn’t stand seeing Brad there comforting Mandy like it wasn’t his fault. Brad was hitting Mandy and Cody.

Zoe decides to hang flyers telling everyone that Brad hits women. She sets fire to Brad’s truck while Sam watches from the car. They flee in the car when Sam comes out. When Sam gets home, she finds out that the police are there. Inside, Sergeant Dave Gee (Stephen Walker) is talking to Leo and Nadja. Zoe is asked about Brad Holt’s vehicle. Leo claims Zoe has been at the office with Will. Gee says he’ll confirm this in the morning. Once Gee leaves, Nadja tells Zoe that she smells of petrol. Leo says Joseph is a lowlife. He complains they could lose the business if they don’t get work soon. At the office, Leo argues with Will and refuses to take him because he smells of alcohol. He says he’s going to take Gita (Amali Golden) instead. Will tells Zoe that Leo never sees how much work he does. Zoe sees a pamphlet for Mont Vista Estate. Will says it’s the job they’re picking today. Zoe says that was Cody’s home.

Zoe goes to the radio station and sleeps in Cody’s makeshift bed. She does the radio show to honor Cody and to complain about the luxury villas. In the present, Samara cries alone. Yasmin Kahlil (Louise Lamella) comes in and asks why she’s listening to those tapes. They talk about the possibility. Samara suggests someone hurt Zoe or she ran from someone who was going to hurt her. Will visits Leo at home to talk to him about Nadja being homeless. Will believes they should help Nadja. Leo wants to process this. He’ll also have to speak to Gita. Seb comes in and finds out what is going on. Samara gives James a shoebox and says she made the tape in Zoe’s backpack. Cody asked her to record every show because he listened to them and found ways to improve his performance. The tape Zoe took was the last show they ever did together. The box contains the rest of them. Sam says the other box contains all of her memories from Zoe. She thinks it’s time she stopped hiding from them.

They talk about how Zoe felt whenever she found Cody hanging. Sam tells James about Brad and Zoe torching his car. Sam admits she never told anyone about this. Sebastian goes to the camp to see Nadja, but leaves when he sees a fight. Leo listens to Zoe’s music. Sam looks through pictures in her box. She runs outside to tell James she believes she knows who deepblue32 is. Sam thinks it’s Sean. His mom was the mayor back then and gave him an alibi. She is now a senator. James asks Sam to set up an interview with Sean. Constable Matt Thorpe (Toby Carey) overhears their conversation before calling his dad to ask if he’s still mates with Sean. Julie is busy working. Sean Cosgrove (Benedict Samuel) joins her and asks if she knows Zoe’s case has been reopened. They have new evidence and Sean’s name has been mentioned. Julian says she’ll look into it.

Sean reminds her he’s not the only one who has something to worry about. Julie tells him to calm down. James visits Doctor Nina Hirsch (Ella Scott Lynch) to talk about his return to duty. Nina asks about his personal relationships. James suggests dead bodies and missing kids don’t make for good dinner party chat. He thinks everyone is lonely. Nina asks about his mother. He explains she was a factory worker, had rough hands, and always smelled of cigarettes. Nina asks about Richie. James says those memories are a little harder to hold onto. He isn’t sure what is real and what is imagined. He keeps pushing it deep down inside. James hopes however Richie died it was quick and painless. He believes Richie is dead and he doesn’t believe in hope. Next, James visits his father, Tommy Cormack (Nicholas Hope). He asks where he can find the guy who supposedly set up Richie.

Tommy is coming because Mark (Brett Dunner) won’t talk to James alone. They meet Mark and ask him who he set Richie up with the job. Mark says he’s not part of that world anymore and he never met Richie. James storms off as Tommy claims he just doesn’t want to snitch. Sam receives a call from Ella who says the number is a prepaid burner. Ella could dig deeper with the right paperwork. The call Sam received the other night was made from Moorevale. Someone is watching Sam from a vehicle nearby.

 

Black Snow Review

This episode of Black Snow was okay, but the pacing is pretty much excruciating. In terms of originality, there isn’t much here. The primary thing making this different is James Cormack and Travis Fimmel’s performance in the role. Otherwise, it’s definitely filled with clichés, including USB thumb drives, politicians protecting their sons, domestic violence, and strained relationships.

The list could go on and on because most of this has been done so many times before. The biggest issue is the layout of the episodes with the story ping-ponging around far too much. There’s no time to digest anything because the show is quickly bouncing from one scene to another with no break in between.

The story may be far too complicated meaning viewers are going to have to pay extra special attention to gather all the fine details. However, it’s questionable whether all of them will matter in the end. All of these coincidences crammed into one case also means viewers will need to suspend reality a lot.

It’s not easy to care about Zoe, Sam, or any of the side characters so James Cormack is going to handle the heavy lifting here. Ultimately, this could be one of those shows where it’s good as a whole even though the individual episodes feel like a chore to get through. We’ll have to wait and see how everything plays out in the end.

This episode scores a 5.5 out of 10. Recaps of Black Snow can be found here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. Join the discussion here.