Happy Town - Recap

Okay! I've tried to do a recap of Happy Town like 4 times now (I have a friend who is trying to catch up on it but got a bit lost) but something bad always happens. Now that I have caught up on the latest with last night's episode, here's what I know so far, and what seems important...

The first thing to remember is, 12 years before the start of this series, a serial kidnapper known as the Magic Man kidnapped 7 people in 7 years, each one disappearing without a trace except for some small token of theirs left at the scene of the abduction, and a bouquet of dead flowers sent to the relatives of the kidnapped victim. Seven victims disappeared in 7 years, and then suddenly, 5 years prior to the start of Happy Town, the magic man vanished just as mysteriously as his victims, and has not been heard from since...

BIG DAVE: Big Dave Duncan, a sheriff's deputy and ownder of a pizza parlor, begins the Happy Town series by torturing Jerry Friddle, the town pervert, in an ice shack on the frozen lake in the middle of the town of Haplin. Due to some shoddy police work on Dave's part, he believes the guy is the Magic Man, and is torturing him to find out where he buried the people he kidnapped. After Mr. Friddle makes up something to try and stop the torture, Big Dave kills him by hammering a railroad spike through his head, implicating the town's local gang of delinquents, the Stivilettos, who live near the railroad tracks. Big Dave's face was obscured during the killing, however he is later discovered to be the killer by Tommy Conroy, who is Big Dave's best friend. Although Big Dave is only later discovered to be the killer, he is actually witnessed in the shed by Georgia Bravin, a teenage girl, who is being dropped off near her house by her secret boyfriend, Andrew Haplin, grandson of the town's richest person.

GEORGIA BRAVIN: Secretly carrying on a romance with Andrew Haplin, Georgia lives in a ramshackle home with her drunken lout of a father, played beautifully by Stephen Mchattie. After seeing someone in an ice shack on the lake during the first few minutes of the series, she and her boyfriend are hounded and eventually kidnapped by Dan Farmer, a State Policeman, but they are released when they tell him they in fact saw nothing of consequence on the night Jerry Friddle died. At last sight, they were headed off into the wilderness and talking about leaving town together.

DAN FARMER: State Policeman, possibly. He has a badge, at any rate. Dan has been traipsing about Haplin for years, trying to track down The Magic Man, who he calls "The one that got away." Dan is, shall we say, unusual in his investigation techniques in that he kidnaps and interrogates his witnesses using truth serum. Obviously psychotic but apparently not interested in actually killing anyone who isn't the Magic Man, Dan usually releases his witnesses after interrogation and tries to stay out of sight the rest of the time, although he has already identified himself to the sheriff and said he'll be helping in the investigation.

GRIFF CONROY: Sheriff Griffin "Griff" Conroy was the head of the rather large sheriff's dept in Haplin. Upon beginning the investigation into Mr. Friddle's murder, Griff begins having periods of what can only be described as psychic / psychotic episodes, where he talks about a girl named Chloe, mostly to his son Tommy (a deputy), but also within hearing of others. Griff has no recollection of these episodes, and neither he nor Tommy know anyone named Chloe, and as the investigation continues, Griff becomes more and more linked to whatever is causing these psychic episodes. He locks himself in his office, chops off his hand with a hatchet, and ends up in a coma in the hospital where they reattach his hand and he continues to speak periodically to anyone who visits him about Chloe. Eventually, he wakes up, has no memory of what happened, and is understandably confused and shaken about what has happened to him, but seems otherwise coherent.

HENLEY: Also known as Chloe. Arriving in town by bus around the time of the murder, Henley takes up residence in a boarding house full of old ladies and one Mr. Grieves, an englishman who runs a shop of old movie memorabilia called the House of Ushers. Henley tells everyone that her mother had passed away and left her an inheritance, which she is going to use to open a candle shop, but she identifies herself on her cell phone as Chloe to her mother, whom she apparently speaks to frequently, whenever anyone is out of hearing range, via cell phone. Henley is in the boarding house to steal a hammer from the attic, which is always locked. Mr. Grieves assists her in distracting the older woman who runs the boarding house long enough for Henley to copy the key to the attic. She then steals the hammer, and tries to make a fast getaway out of town, but is attacked by a bird that crashes through her windshield. She crashes, and is helped back to town for medical attention by Greggy Stiviletto, who gives her a false name, and they hook up in a hotel room(I'm going to take a moment here to applaud Lauren German, the actress who plays Henley, on being quite possibly the cutest human being I have ever seen). Henley later learns who Greggy really is and he tells her he only lied to her because he is fresh out of prison and he didn't think she'd sleep with him if she knew. He steals the hammer, which she gets back from him, and then ransoms to Ms. Haplin, the richest person in town and owner of the bread factory, the town's main source of income and employment. Ms. Haplin tells Henley that she can't leave Haplin, and doubles the money she was asked. Henley tries to leave Haplin with the money and can't, and attempts to get the money out of town to someone (i think her mother) via Mr. Grieves' assistance, however Mr. Grieves is assaulted and the money is stolen, and Henley uses a stungun on Greggy and tortures out of him that he is actually working for Ms. Haplin, who is using Henley as a lure to bring her associate into town so Ms. Haplin can deal with both of them at once, presumably because Henley and her associate know the significance of what the hammer means to Ms. Haplin, although the actual significance of the hammer has not yet been revealed.

GREGGY STIVILETTO: Oldest or perhaps the smartest brother of the 5-sibling Stiviletto gang, essentially just a bunch of drunken mischevious brothers who live on a farm near the railroad tracks. Greggy is known for just having been released from prison after being convicted of manslaughter, makes a mean omelette, and smells of cinnamon, which is how Henley connects him to the attack on Mr. Grieves and the theft of the money she ransomed from Ms. Haplin that she was trying to get out of town. Mean-spirited but otherwise basically harmless, Greggy's brothers are possibly the only thing he truly cares for.

MERRITT GRIEVES: Mr. Grieves, wonderfully played by Sam Neill, has apparently been searching for the Magic Man for some time. He was in England when his child was taken by the Magic Man (who apparently has ventured far and wide beyond the borders of Haplin), and the loss was too much for his wife, who died shortly thereafter. He has since been searching for the Magic Man, and quite possibly knows more about him than anyone else. Mr. Grieves runs a shop in town where he spends most of his time when not charming the old ladies at the boarding house where he lives, and after being assaulted by persons unknown (later shown to be Greggy Stiviletto) while trying to take Henley's bag of cash to her associate out of town, Mr. Grieves is visited by Ms. Haplin, who warns him to essentially mind his own business, however Mr. Grieves charms his way into a dinner date with Ms. Haplin, which goes rather well. Very few in town know about the loss of Mr. Grieves family, with the exception of Tommy Conroy and his wife, and why he is covertly assisting Henley is a mystery.

MS. HAPLIN: Owner of the bread factory and most of Haplin, Ms Haplin's true nature, the significance of the hammer to her, and what she intends to do about Henley are a mystery. After Griff's sudden break with reality, she immediately instituted Griff's son, Tommy Conroy, as sheriff, over other, much more experienced, members of the sheriff's dept. She lives at a large mansion called the Weeping Wall, and has no problem using her money and influence to threaten and influence people to see things her way.

TOMMY CONROY: New sheriff in town. A fairly green deputy at the start of the series, Tommy is named as Sheriff by Ms. Haplin when Griff has his psychotic break, and while investigating the death of Jerry Friddle, discovers that it was, in fact, his lifelong friend Big Dave Duncan that killed him. Tommy is unable to immediately bring in Big Dave after confronting Big Dave about the evidence, even though Big Dave admitted to it, and is distracted by the kidnapping of his wife from Thawfest, the local spring carnival in Haplin. Yes, the Magic Man, apparently brought back to Haplin by either the theft of the hammer or the death of Jerry Friddle, has once again struck. Tommy receives a bouquet of dead flowers on his doorstep, seeks the advice of the newly awakened Griff, and meets Mr Grieves, who tells him he must return to the beginning to try to find the magic man. A hand shows up at the bread factory, the intact hand of the very first victim that was taken 12 years previous, and the hand is shown to have been severed only 48 hours previous. On the hand is Tommy's wife's wedding band. Tommy investigates the first kidnapping, and while investigating that, his wife (the ever exceptional Amy Acker) is returned whole to him, minus her wedding ring, of course. She has no memory of the kidnapping at first, then with Grieves' help is able to recall being underwater with the rest of the victims, and being able to breathe somehow, but nothing else. Finally, with the evidence mounting that Big Dave is the actual killer of Jerry Friddle, Tommy confronts Big Dave. Big Dave, meanwhile, had fallen into a small cave while trying to escape town that had seven cages in it. Seven cages, each with clothes and remnants of the 7 missing victims. He tries to tell Tommy this but Tommy doesn't believe him, and Tommy tries to show him something but Dave panics and raises the rifle he has. Tommy is forced to shoot Big Dave in the chest, killing him. Later, Tommy's wife learns that Tommy was in fact going to give Big Dave a one-way plane ticket out of town. When his wife discovers this, Tommy says simply "He was my friend."

Yep, I think that's it. Only two more episodes this year as far as I can tell. I wonder what will happen next? I wonder if they will ever discover who the magic man is? I wonder if I will ever see Henley naked? For these and the answers to more of life's mysteries, only time will tell...