Harper's Island: Whodunnit?

A lot of blood has been shed since I last wrote about TV's Harper's Island back in April. CBS's "mystery event", which came to a satisfactory conclusion last night, only ran for 13 episodes, but it was the perfect length for a show that was described as Scream meets And Then There Were None (an Agatha Christie mystery novel). However, the series often reminded me of a non-reality Survivor, in which people were killed instead of being voted off the island. It was gruesome fun for the 3 million viewers who continued to tune in each week after CBS banished it to Saturday night due to disappointing ratings in its original Thursday timeslot. Harper's Island was a different kind of drama for television, and CBS should be commended for airing it in the first place. But I'm even more pleased that the network let us see every episode. I hate it when serialized shows are abruptly canceled, and their remaining episodes are never aired--like FOX's 2005 drama, Reunion, and the 2001 series, Pasadena, a wonderful soap starring Dana Delany that later appeared--with all 13 of its episodes--on SOAPnet (this show deserves to be on DVD). Fortunately, another recent series I enjoyed, ABC's Dirty Sexy Money, is receiving an appropriate swan song when its final four episodes begin airing next Saturday, July 18. I'm sad to see the Darling family saga end, but at least now I'll have some closure, which I believe is very important for devoted fans of shows.

Anyway, back to Harper's Island. Out of the 25 characters introduced in the first episode only 4 survived: Shea, the bride's sister; Madison, Shea's young daughter; Abby, the groom's best friend from childhood; and Jimmy, Abby's old flame. In my original review of the show, I didn't think lead actor Christopher Gorham, who played Henry the groom, would be revealed as the killer, but I suspected that he and Abby would be the last two left standing--in addition to the murderer. So I wasn't too far off the mark.

At the end of the penultimate episode (the final two aired last night), Henry confessed to Trish, his shocked bride-to-never-be, that he was the killer--along with his deranged father, John Wakefield. He then stabbed the poor girl to death (it was a fitting but creepy touch to have her be wearing her wedding dress) before turning to acknowledge his parent with a "Hey, Dad". It was a great way to end the episode. For the longest time my main suspect was Trish, whom I also thought might end up being Wakefield's child. But I was wrong. Henry was given up by his biological mother--Abby's mother--and he was obviously quite bitter about this after his real father finally tracked him down and told him the truth. The young man then went off the deep end and decided to lure his true love, Abby, back to the island under the pretense of his elaborate wedding plans to Trish, whom he never intended to marry. He and Dad then proceeded to eliminate everyone with the intention of saving Abby for last, but Henry decided instead to kill his father and live happily ever after with his own half-sister on the now deserted island. Of course, Abby wasn't too keen on this crazy idea--especially after she learned that Henry planned to kill Jimmy after framing the handsome young man as Wakefield's cohort in crime. In the end Abby stabbed Henry to death, and the Coast Guard rescued her and Jimmy, so I was correct in predicting that the final showdown would include both Abby and Henry.

I must congratulate Mr. Gorham on an excellent performance. I've always liked him in everything he's done--Popular, Out of Practice, Ugly Betty--but Harper's Island allowed us to see another side to him as an actor. A much darker, twisted side, but he was quite believable as an Anthony-Perkins-as-Norman-Bates kind of psycho. And it was a refreshing twist to have the lead character of a show turn out to be the bad guy. I was also impressed by actress Elaine Cassidy, who played Abby. I've never seen her in anything before, but she was perfect in her Harper's role. I also enjoyed the hunky Matt Barr as Sully, who began the show as a slimy pig and ended up a hero as he made sure that Shea and Madison got off the island in a motorboat. His final scene with his best friend, Henry, was truly sad as he couldn't believe the shocking truth just before his "pal" killed him. The most squeamish death in the final two episodes was poor Danny's as his head ended up on a desktop paper spike during a fierce fight with Wakefield. Ouch! If this show had been on cable, I'm sure the many death scenes would've been far more graphic, but for a network series, Harper's Island did push the boundaries of violence as far as it possibly could.

I've read some online comments about the series finale today, in which a few folks voiced their displeasure over the introduction of the Wakefield character, who was originally presumed dead. Perhaps it was lazy writing to not have Henry be the sole killer, but while I was watching the series, I kept thinking to myself that it was impossible for just one person to be responsible for all the murders. So I wasn't that surprised when Wakefield showed up. There just wasn't any way for Henry--the leading man--to be absent all the time in order to commit most of the killings. Someone had to help him, and having his horrible father as his accomplice made perfect sense to me.

Harper's Island was a bloody good time, and I would love to see it return as a regular summer series. It sure as hell beats Big Brother, which I've never been able to warm up to. Maybe CBS could combine the two shows and have a killer get rid of the insipid participants in the house one by one. Of course, it would be a scripted series, not reality.

I will end this review with a list of the unique and twisted titles of the show's episodes, which were based on the sounds that were made when various victims died:

Whap
Crackle
Ka-Blam
Bang
Thwack
Sploosh
Thrack, Splat, Sizzle
Gurgle
Seep
Snap
Splash
Gasp
Sigh (Henry sighed as he died)