Harper’s Island 1.01 “Whap” Recap

Back at the party, people are dancing, people are drinking, the groomsmen are salivating over the bridsmaids, Trish is dancing with Henry — a sad expression on her face, Uncle Marty is dancing with Chloe…not exactly to the beat of the song playing on the soundtrack but kinda close. Cal looks lonely. Abby, meanwhile, has made the unfortunate mistake of sitting next to Lucy and Beth (and Lucy’s sharkbait dog). Lucy begins the Best Friend of the Groom grilling and Henry interrupts in the nick of time looking for his brother. Glad for the excuse, Abby darts up and offers to go looking for him. Hery tries to stop her, but she’s honestly looking for an excuse to bolt. He suggests she start…’at The Cannery. On it!’Abby nearly runs from the room.

In another room, Trish is confessing to Shea that she’s seen Hunter and Shea urges her to tell Wellington — he’ll make Hunter leave. But Trish doesn’t want a scene, nor does she want to tell Henry and upset him. Unimpressed, Shea urges Trish to tell Henry, but Trish doesn’t want any lectures from her perfect sister. Based on the fact that her husband didn’t even look at her during their brief scene makes me think that Shea’s life is less than perfect. Her next words confirm it. If Trish has any doubts, any, now is the time to back out. But Trish, weepy-eyed Trish, her face full of love says, no, there are no doubts.

Outside, somewhere on the grounds, Uncle Marty is walking alone when he hears voices. Curious, he approaches and we see Wellignton talking to none other than his mysterious “HJ”, and if you hadn’t figured out by now that he’s the dastardly Hunter Jennings, I may not be able to help you survive this show. As Uncle Marty looks on, we realize that Hunter is on the island at Wellington’s invitation, for the sole purpose of stopping the wedding. The plot, such as it is, thickens.

Abby’s walking/stumbling to The Cannery, still wearing the hot little red dress, heels and now a denim jacket. As she makes her way across the parking lot something disturbs the birds in the bushes. She looks around, but doesn’t see anything…but someone sees her. A POV shot from a distance shows her clearly as she looks around blindly for another moment before moving on.

The Cannery is your average small-town roadhouse, complete with a no-nonsense local gal in charge of the bar who promptly accosts Abby singing another chorus of the, ‘Welcome Home, Abby’chorale. But this time, Abby seems to return the affection and we get to meet Nikki (The Biker Chick) Bolton. Abby locates JD sitting off to the side, nursing a drink, and Nikki tells her he’s been a ‘lamb amongst lions’. I smell bar fight on the wind, do you? From a distance, Jimmy’s voice calls out for a new challenger at the pool tables and seeing Abby, he looks to her. There’s banter, she accepts the challenge.

On a table a lonely gift bag sits, addressed to ‘Our Cousin, Ben Wellington.’Madison approaches the bag and removes the tag. After reading the name, she begins to tear up the tag. Her mother calls her to bed and she leaves, taking the bag with her. Um, OK.

On the veranda, Wellington sits with a cigar and a drink as Uncle Marty approaches. Seeing an extra cigar, Uncle Marty asks if he may help himself. Magnanimously, Wellington waves him on. Further down the way, Trish and Henry are cuddling and Uncle Marty remarks on what a lovely couple they are and begins ruminating on love and what a wonderful thing it is. Wellington senses this is going somewhere, but fails to see the point. Continuing on, Uncle Marty talks of his own calling, his purpose in life. ‘I thought you were in sales.’No, not his job, his calling. To save people like Henry, people who deserve love, from people like Wellington. ‘Is that a threat?”˜Course it isn’t, we’re just chatting, after all, we’re going to be family soon. Uncle Marty thanks Wellington for the cigar and leaves. Wellington watches him leave, wondering what game he’s playing.

Abby’s winning her game, or at least she’s claiming she is as Jimmy remarks that they must not have phones in LA since she never called him. Abby does not want to have this conversation, so she confirms that, in fact, there are no phones in LA. No e-mail, either. Still, he wants to know why she didn’t miss him. She never said that, she insists but she’s willing to make a bet. If she makes the next shot — no more questions. She doesn’t? Ask away. She lines up her shot, makes the pocket…and scratches. ‘Double or nothing?’

On the other side of the bar, JD’s watching his female counterpart, at least in goth-like attire and tattoos, at the jukebox. Meet Kelly (The Outcast) Seaver. She wants to know what he’s looking at and he nods at the tattoo on her chest. Rolling up his sleeve, he shows he has a similar one, a heart pierced with a knife. ‘Broken heart.’Shane, like the boorish male he is turning out to be slides over and asks his ex-girlfriend, ‘Can I hit him now?’Well, he asks if JD’s bothering her but as quickly as this escalates he might have well asked the former. He begins to go on about JD’s reputation, his suicide attempts, the general stuff to get a rise. JD doesn’t look away from Kelly, except to look down. When Shane starts to compare JD to Kelly, that’s the limit and JD grabs Shane, bashing his head into the table.

The brawl begins and JD goes down early, Shane proceeding to kick the tar out of him. Abby rushes in and takes a whack at Shane with the pool cue once. She pulls back to strike again and a third party grabs it. She whips around and there’s the Sherriff who starts yelling at Shane to knock it off. Jimmy’s arrived by this time and he pulls Shane away. Abby looks at the Sherriff, schooling her expression, still holding onto her end of the pool cue.

‘Hi, Dad.’Hello, Jim Beaver!

Henry’s there to greet the Sherriff’s SUV as it pulls up to the Inn, worriedly asking JD if he’s all right. JD more or less ignores his brother and goes in. Inside the vehicle, Abby and her father sit awkwardly, he – stammering on, nonsense about the truck, she – trying to figure out how to leave. He finally asks her if she got the cards he sent, at Christmas, other holidays and she nods numbly. Having gotten through all that, he manages to ask her, since she’s here would she like to…’Thanks for the ride, Dad.’Abby tries to get out when she realizes the door’s locked. She asks him to unlock the door and after a pause, he does and she escapes. He looks sad.