The Sinner
4×03: “Part III”
Directed by Adam Bernstein
Written by Jenny Zhang

* For a recap & review of Part II, click here.
* For a recap & review of Part IV, click here.
Harry’s keeping an eye on Grandma Meg. He follows her out to the ferry, where she buys a ticket and gets on for the ride. He decides to do the same and keeps following her. He watches Meg meet a man at a construction site; the guy hands her over a package. She also goes to see a woman and the situation appears tense. Harry decides to knock on the woman’s door and it turns out that woman is Percy’s mother, Risa. The estranged mother has things to say about Meg, calling grandma “a tyrant.” She says Percy was trying to get free from Meg. Her daughter showed up nine months back needing a place to stay and holding “a big wad of cash.” Percy took off the morning after, though. Clearly a young woman on the run. Later on, Risa got a postcard sent by her daughter from a place only twenty minutes away.

Harry goes to the address from the postcard, where he meets Caroline, Percy’s roommate. Apparently Percy took off about six months prior. She and Caroline met via Craigslist. They bonded pretty quickly over fish, drugs, and nights out on the town. One night, Percy asked if Caroline ever felt “cursed.” Later, Percy landed a job at the place where Caroline worked, except soon things got strange. She rushed into the back one day, urging Caroline not to let a man know she was there. Quite strange. After the incident, Percy stopped leaving the house for weeks and got more paranoid, staying up at night looking out the window terrified. It was as if she saw the mysterious man everywhere.
Then one morning, Percy was gone. Caroline didn’t see her anymore. Harry asks if maybe someone made Percy leave, and Caroline thinks it might be true, suggesting Percy’s “dark side,” whatever that was, simply wouldn’t let her go. Now it won’t let Harry go, either. At least until he solves this mystery.
Harry and Chief Lou take a ride out to where Percy’s car was found. Lou takes them into the woods there. They eventually come to a spot where there’s a bird skull and other trinkets on a stump, similar to the items left near the cliff in the trees. A potential connection? Harry asks Lou about “night swimming” and mentions the three women he saw moaning in the water. The chief says it was probably “tree huggers.”
That afternoon, Harry catches up with Sonya as they’re sort of travelling two different directions on their vacation. He wants to confront Meg now, so before the couple go to their dinner reservation they stop at the Muldoon place. He winds up deciding they’ll skip dinner at a restaurant, instead accepting Meg’s invitation to stay for family dinner. Oh, lord.

Of course while Sonya chats with Meg at the dinner table Harry spends the little moments looking at all the tiny details, such as Sean’s shaky hands. The family gets word about CJ cutting a bunch of their traps. More family feuding between the Lams and the Muldoons. Harry then starts asking questions about Percy, like if she was involved in drugs, or if she was trying to get off the island again. When he brings up Risa it doesn’t get a great reception. Same goes for Caroline. Harry mentions Percy having a breakdown and running off, which seems to surprise Sean. Percy’s father isn’t happy about apparent secrets within the family. He gets more concerned the more Harry talks, and, oh, does Harry ever keep pressing. And soon the family are all at odds.

Harry questions Meg alone about the man at the construction site, going to see Risa, and more. He doesn’t know why she’s lying. He grills her about the gash on Percy’s forehead and the timeline. He knows Meg saw her granddaughter later on the night Percy eventually went missing. Their talk is interrupted by Sean and Colin fighting outside. Sean tells Harry his brother ought to be investigated. Nasty family stuff. Meg tells Harry to leave abruptly and he’s smart enough to leave. A flashback shows Meg with Percy, a smashed mirror in the background. Grandma comforted her granddaughter, tucking her into bed. Then she left but heard Percy alone in her room, begging someone to “go away.”
Back at the chalet, Sonya’s angry with Harry for how he acted, pushing the family and acting too rough. She wasn’t happy to be dragged into the whole situation. She now sees an “ugly side” of Harry coming out because of the case. It’s not going how either of them envisioned it would at the start; not surprising, though. Later that night, Harry gets a surprise visit from Sean and the worried father tells him: “We lied.” Sean and Meg saw Percy the night she went missing. He was also the one who drove Percy’s car up near Diez’s, not her. Then they get talking about Colin, and Sean mentions his brother was always close with Percy. Dad quickly shuts up. Is something unsettling about to be uncovered within the Muldoon family?

Percy continues to haunt Harry, like she’s right in the room with him. He’d like there to be a happy ending, but he knows there isn’t one waiting for either of them at the end of this mystery. The next day, a gay couple are looking for oysters along the shoreline, and just a little way off there’s a corpse floating in the water.