Three Pines season 1 episodes 7 and 8 recap & review

Episodes 7 and 8 of Three Pines see Inspector Gamache return to the village when an out-of-town visitor is found murdered and the villagers are once again the prime suspects. The episodes are now streaming on Prime Video.

Episode 7 recap: The Hangman part 1

A man walks the streets of Three Pines in a drunken stupor before entering Olivier’s Bistro and attacking Gabri while exclaiming that he knows the secrets of everyone present there and will make them pay.

Armand is disturbed by memories of his childhood when he was left alone by his parents and Reine-Marie tells him that it’s most likely his conscience trying to send a message.

Arisawe, Bea and many other indigenous people are searching the woods for Blue and Tommy’s bodies and Isabelle joins them. As the search goes along, Bea comes across the body of the drunken man from the previous night, hung up by a noose.

Inspector Gamache arrives at the scene alone as Jean-Guy is on a holiday with his partner, Enid. Isabelle tells Armand that the victim was murdered but the scene was staged as a suicide. They find multiple sets of tracks and Armand also finds different types of pine needles near the body.

After giving themselves some distance from the scene, Armand and Isabelle discuss Kevin’s death and how they have the cards stacked against them.

The first piece of information they learn is about his visit to the bistro and that he was staying at Mike and Angela’s B and B. They investigate the room he was staying in and find what looks like a suicide note.

Armand talks to Pierre to discuss Kevin’s death and the officer who was supposed to have pulled them over back then, David Chowski. Pierre tells Armand that Chowski had previously fired on an unarmed man during a drug bust, establishing a pattern of behaviour.

Jean-Guy speaks to Armand on the phone and it is revealed that he is by himself and lied about patching things up with Enid. Gabri appears to have some secret that he doesn’t want to share with Olivier after Armand speaks to him.

Based on a hunch, Armand asks Isabelle to check what type of pine needles were found at Kevin Kis’s house. The villagers gather at Myrna’s for book club and they pick a book titled “The Hangman” written by Arthur Ellis, which was the alias the victim used at the B and B.

After confirming that the needles were from white pines, they focus the search for Blue and Tommy in the areas with those trees as they are less common in this region.

Armand goes ahead and soon comes across a grave with Tommy and Blue’s bodies. Their murders are confirmed and Armand finds some bullets that he hides so that he can get them analysed in secret.

They inform the Two-Rivers family who finally has some closure. Isabelle finds the victim’s apartment in Ottawa and his real name turns out to be James Hill. Olivier finds Hill’s wallet in Gabri’s jacket while snooping.

Armand tells Isabelle to meet him near the lab where he’s getting the bullets analysed. The report states that they were fired from David Chowski’s gun and Pierre Arnot’s gun, sending Armand into a state of shock.

Episode 8 recap: The Hangman part 2

Armand has a memory of himself as a child in the car with his parents. However, the memory ends in disaster as the car crashes and Armand watches the dead bodies of his parents.

Pierre and his wife are at Armand and Reine-Marie’s place for dinner and Armand has this cryptic back and forth with Pierre now that he knows Pierre is responsible for Blue and Tommy’s death.

He takes the report and hands it to his superior who says that he’ll bring in internal affairs to deal with this. Armand is told to go back to Three Pines and wrap the James Hill case.

Jean-Guy has arrived in the village and continues with the lie that he was on holiday with Enid even though he was just miserable and alone.

Myrna and some of the other villagers gather and discuss how dangerous this investigation could be for the rest of them as they all have secrets in their past that brought them to this place.

Isabelle and Jean-Guy dig into the past of all the villagers to understand how they might be connected to Hill. Ruth finds Hill’s wallet near the B and B and hands it to Armand who finds a list with initials on it.

Jean-Guy deduces that the list might have been a hitlist and explains that Hill worked in the governmental department of records and he was a teacher before that. 15 years ago, his wife and child died in a car crash when 4 university students ran into them.

It is their assumption that Hill came to Three Pines because one or more students might be in the village under a new name. Peter Morrow approaches Jean-Guy as he’s drinking at the bistro and tells him that he saw Gabri running out of the forest that night.

Agent Nichol hears some other inspectors discuss rumours accusing Armand of being the one who’s covering things up so she rushes to the village. Armand and Isabelle question Gabri about why Hill was arguing with him on the day of his murder.

Gabri admits that he was covering for two other people who claimed that they were witnesses in a criminal trial and said they were worried that the man they put in jail would come back for them.

It turns out to be Mike and Angela who were two of the students responsible for the death of Hill’s wife and child. The couple hears that Gabri is with the police and they begin packing their stuff to run.

Agent Nichol meets Jean-Guy at the bistro looking for Armand but stays for a few drinks as he talks about his wife leaving him. She then meets Armand and tells him about the rumour she heard at the station.

Armand tells Isabelle to pick up Mike and Angela while he deals with something else. Isabelle is joined by Jean-Guy outside the couple’s house and they get into a pursuit with Jean-Guy driving.

Armand heads to Pierre’s house first but when his wife says that he’s on a stakeout, he goes to Pierre’s cabin and informs Isabelle. Jean-Guy is chasing Mike and Angela aggressively and Isabelle asks him to slow down before realising that he’s had a few drinks.

Mike and Angela veer off the road and crash their car as Isabelle and Jean-Guy panic. They agree to tell the authorities that Isabelle was driving and Jean-Guy was in the passenger seat so that nothing worse happens.

Armand arrives at Pierre’s cabin and finds that he killed Chowski and is burning evidence. Pierre admits that he and Chowski had a scam to shakedown dealers and get kickbacks but when things went sideways, they had to kill Blue and Tommy.

Armand tries to convince Pierre to turn himself in but Pierre ends up shooting Armand and getting away as Isabelle and Jean-Guy arrive in time to call the ambulance.

Review

• The murder of James Hill isn’t as important as the overarching story of the season which is the murder of Blue Two Rivers. This makes the episodes a bit lop-sided focus.
• There is a truly wonderful moment amidst this grim narrative as Armand and Reine-Marie talk and it is very heartwarming to watch a love as strong as theirs.
• Jean-Guy’s issues with his partner feel like they were shoe-horned into the story so that it could eventually lead to the issue he and Isabelle face at the end. The concept is good but the execution is slightly flawed.
• Having Armand talk things through with Pierre is a subversion from how these encounters carry out in most crime dramas and that is a nice change of pace.

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Also Read: Three Pines season 1 episodes 5 and 6 recap & review