A Murder at the End of the World – Chapter 4: Family Secrets

By: Gladys Luna

Chaos ensues due to the recent death of Rohan (Javed Khan). It has set off the alarms making everyone realize that a second death in such a short period of time it is no coincidence. Andy (Clive Owen) has ordered Todd (Louis Cancelmi) to take the whole group to the safe room while they figure out the next steps. While in there and due to the lack of information, everyone starts to make their own guesses about what could have happened and each theory is worse than the other. That is until Martin (Jermaine Fowler) asks Darby (Emma Corrin) about her thoughts on it and she explains that Rohan had told her that he had to use a pacemaker as a result of a heart failure he suffered from not so long ago. Then, she adds that said device had a wireless interface so she comes to the conclusion that it might have been hacked, which leads him to his death. She also recalls that Marius (Christopher Gurr) showed up at his room saying that he had received an urgent call from Heart Front who manufactures pacemakers maybe because they had realized the hack and wanted to let them know about it but he didn’t move a finger to help. Ziba (Pegah Ferydoni) suggests that maybe they can track the IP of the hacker but Lee (Brit Marling) informs that in order to do that they need to use a specialized software or to modify a pacemaker monitoring system. She is not sure if they have one there, but Eva (Britian Seibert) confirms that they actually have one that appears to have been used that same night. The tension has grown bigger, mostly when they make themselves aware that Todd had taken Andy to another room maybe out of the fear that any of them can hurt him but the man explains that the reason why he is not there is because he’s trying to find a solution to everything that has been happening. He also lets them know that a snow storm is coming and that as soon as it passes they will be able to return home. Darby asks about what they plan to do with Rohan’s body while they wait for the ambulance to be able to reach them. Marius says that they will put him on a refrigerator but the young woman says if they do that then all possible evidence will be destroyed and requests to allow her to see the body and take as many notes as she can on it to pass them along to the medical examiner. However, they refuse to do it.

Later on, Todd informs that they will be taken back to their rooms where they should remain locked until further notice. He walks with David (Raúl Esparza), Sian (Alice Braga) and Darby and asks them to give all of their electronics. Once Darby is alone, Sian shows up outside the back of her room asking her to be allowed in. However, before agreeing to it, Darby asks her a simple question about coding to make sure she is not the hacker then she lets her in. Sian apologizes for not believing in her when she said that Bill (Harris Dickinson) had been murdered and tells her that now she is willing to help her find the one responsible for it. Darby confesses that prior to his death, Rohan had admitted that he and Bill had a plan except he didn’t have the chance to tell her about it. Sian tells her that she can take her to Rohan’s body for her to examine it so they sneak through the hallway making sure not to be seen by the security of the place. Once they get to where they had put the man’s body, they confirm their suspicions about the hacking to his pacemaker and then Darby finds the signaling device that he used the night she followed him to the canyon. Of course, the young girl tells everything about it to Sian who suggests she go back to the place and see if they find something useful. They get a snow vehicle as well as their snow suits and embark on a new journey in search of the truth.  While on their way there, they think about the possible reasons someone might have wanted Rohan or Bill dead but nothing seems to come out of it. Darby admits that she does not trust David and Sian says that if he had wanted to kill someone that might have been Lee given that since the woman got pregnant, Andy turned his entire focus to his family and made Zoomer (Kellan Tetlow) the center of his world leaving him aside. They reach the top of the canyon and Darby uses the signaling device to send a message in morse code that Sian recognizes. She then confess that her father had taught her morse code saying he was an astronomer who fought in the Gulf war, but was unable to bear with the burden of what he did there so he ended up committing suicide. They continue their search until they reach the edge of a river where they see a red piece of cloth hanging on a pole that has a rope tied to it and leads to the sea. The two pull the rope which reveals to be tied in the other end to a “Zodiac” named like Rohan’s old boat which, according to Sian, is an inflatable boat that might have helped him reach the other side of the shore but it appears that has been disconnected.

The pair decide to go back but unfortunately the snow vehicle stops working. Therefore, they are forced to walk until they find a guard check and a suburban parked outside.They hop in, remove their helmets and get ready to go but they can’t find the key. Sian finds an OBD terminal under the driver’s seat that she manages to hack in order to start the engine while Darby looks at her incredulously since she thought that Sian didn’t know anything about coding much less about hacking a system. They are back on track in no time but the more they drive the harder it gets to travel the road due to the melted snow. Unfortunately, Sian loses control of the vehicle and it flips over taking them out of the road. Darby manages to get out of there but then falls to the ground revealing a wound in her forehead.

Back to the past, Darby and Bill wake up after spending the night in the truck of his car. They are ready to meet Sue (Samantha Jones), a woman whose passion for solving crimes had met with theirs and who has arranged a meeting with a medical examiner (Derek Peith) to hand him a skeleton jaw they had found and might help them identify one of the victims. Once they are there, the doctor confirms the news making them feel good about bringing some justice to at least one of the women. Darby asks if said victim had something else on her when they found her, so she looks through her stuff and finds a silver ring that has written “E. Bell” on it. The three of them leave the place and as soon as Bill sees the light, he starts to sneeze confessing that he suffers from a genetic syndrome that makes him sneeze when he goes from the darkness to the light. The duo say goodbye to Sue and go back to their car. Darby believes they should have asked her to let them spend the night at her place, but Bill has a plan and asks her to trust him. The two arrive to a lodge and pretend to have forgotten the key to their room and that’s how they manage to spend the night there.

The night has come and they talk about the case. Darby thinks that the ring they found might belong to the killer’s first victim which would lead them straight to him based on the theory that the first life a killer takes usually is the one of someone they actually know. Bill starts to feel somewhat uncomfortable with the conversation and asks her to change the subject. She goes to the bathroom to gather some courage for what comes next. She returns to the room, sits next to Bill and kisses him unexpectedly. He kisses her back but when things start to escalate he stops and says he wants to go to sleep instead, leaving her confused.

The next morning Darby wakes up to an empty bed but seconds later Bill enters the room with coffee and bread. He sits in front of her and starts talking about what he is feeling and wants to know what she truly wants. Darby says that she wants him to hug her so he does. Soon that hug turns into a kiss and then more. Back to the present, Darby is still half conscious, suddenly being dragged by someone else through the snow. Sometime after she wakes up and sees Eva and then Sian who explains what happened. Marius and Todd are there too and Eva asks the hotel manager to go get Andy. Darby does not fully process everything that is happening there, but sees how Sian is having some issues trying to remove her helmet. Eva injects morphine in her even though she refuses to accept it. Things are getting clearer by the second and then Andy enters the room demanding answers about what they did. However, everything turns a little more complicated when they realize that Sian’s helmet has been hacked making her unable to remove it. She will soon run out of oxygen if they don’t do something about it so they ask Eva to perform a tracheotomy on her. Sian is almost fainting, but then she is able to breathe again thanks to Eva and Andy. Darby leaves the bed and walks straight to where they are, but before she reaches them she faints.

Later on, Darby wakes up and this time Lee is there saying she had to wake her up to check on her concussion but she does not have the strength to say anything at all and goes back to sleep. After a while, she wakes up again to a dim lighted room and now Zoomer is there pretending to be a doctor and checking on her with his stethoscope. Darby gets out of bed and goes to open the curtains while the kid is now playing on the floor. As soon as the light hits him, he starts to sneeze. When she asks him why he did that, he explains that he suffers from syndrome that makes him sneeze when he goes from darkness to the light leaving her surprised by his affirmation.