The Sinner Season 4 Episode 6 Review-

Bodies are beginning to pile up on this sleepy little island and Harry has outstayed his welcome in a tense The Sinner Season 4 Episode 6.

Consumption versus conservation. The Muldoons who think the waters surrounding their island are their birthright believe they are preserving traditional, but in reality, they are dangerous consumers. Even the best of us are a bit myopic when it comes to our interests versus others. It is an absolute fact for this influential family that has been protected and coddled by a matriarch who rules with an iron fist while ignoring warning signs all around. By the end of The Sinner Season 4 Episode 6, Meg’s beliefs are tested. Harry, once an outsider, has become one of her only allies, and her sons have deadly secrets that killed Percy.

Harry’s single-minded focus is both a curse and a gift. It gets him in as much trouble as it does help those he finds justice for. Everything has been leading to his reckoning. The events with Jamie last season took a toll on the troubled man. He has always had his demons, but now there are two of them chasing him. The legacy of Jamie’s death haunts him while Percy’s ghost literally speaks to him each day.

It’s an interesting parallel between the haunted and those doing the haunting. They are so different yet so similar. It is in these quiet moments of reflection that the genius of The Sinner’s storytelling shines. The symmetry that Percy wishes to embrace in nature is found in her posthumous relationship with Harry and his relationship with victims and killers in the seasons past. There are also apparent comparisons between Meg and her children, the Lams and CJ, and Brandon’s mother.

All of these things to be compared and contrasted give a lot of room for Harry to explore his baggage and that of Percy’s. Bill Pullman’s Harry plays very well off of women who are both strong and damaged. Frances Fisher’s Meg is a lovely counterpart to Harry’s obsessive nature. They both need answers, and both have been in denial about things in their past. However, now that things are coming to a head, Meg has elected to back Harry regardless of the cost. As much as she needs to know what happened to Percy, she isn’t quite ready to believe her sons had anything to do with it. Knowing Sean and Colin were involved at least peripherally, I wonder what this will do to Meg, whose existence is predicated on family and the business?

We now know who or what Valerie is. Valerie is a boat dry-docked at the boatyard. Whatever was happening at the boatyard, it was dangerous. We know Brandon, Colin, and Sean were all involved, and we know whatever it was probably got Percy killed. Despite Portland PD wanting to pin things on Mike Lam, the blame falls squarely on Brandon and the Muldoons, who secretly meet another boat. We also know Brandon had multiple affairs and probably took advantage of several vulnerable women.

Mothers and sons took center stage this week. Brandon’s mother wants nothing more than to preserve her son’s image, even if that means lying about who he was. Meg has lived for years in much the same way. It looks like she has a moment of clarity coming, and it will be painful. Brandon has been having affairs for years at the boatyard in addition to whatever illegal activity he was involved in. Is it possible, he was involved in human trafficking? That would certainly be a lucrative enough enterprise to warrant killing multiple people. It would also explain the injured woman Percy saw with Brandon.

Mike Moseley gives another excellent performance in The Sinner Season 4 Episode 6, gaslighting Meg. She instinctively knows he is lying, but he tries to steer her away from learning the truth about Percy. He knows what Brandon was up to and more than likely was knee-deep in it himself. This is undoubtedly the way he and Sean had been keeping the business going. They have been supplementing their fishing income with dirty money. The only real question is, why would Sean side with Colin instead of wanting to find Percy’s killer?

A flashback to a terse family meal shows Percy, Meg, Colin, and Sean had been on opposing sides for a while. In a classic Millenial versus Boomer conversation, Percy challenges the Muldoons right to fish, and Meg confronts Percy on her comfortable life. It’s a standard progress versus tradition argument that most people have had at one time or another. Unfortunately, Percy saw more than she was supposed to, and for the girl who was already questioning her place in the world, it warped her vision of the family. It is too bad that Meg couldn’t see what was happening sooner. Percy might still be alive.

There are good people, and then there are those who only care for themselves. Everyone seems to know a little about what the Muldoon boys and Brandon were up to. The boatyard owner, Brandon’s Second Mate, and his wife all know enough to put the pieces together if anyone cared to discuss it. In this community that is ruled by the past and held intact by privilege, protection is paramount.

That’s the problem with regrets and ignorance. Once it’s time to face facts and pay the piper, it hurts. It’s a steep toll. No one wants to look at themselves in the mirror and see a monster. Percy knew something terrible was happening and did nothing to stop it. That ultimately ate her up inside. Harry is on a quest to save Percy and save himself in the process. As she points out, it won’t change what happened to Jamie, but it may give him some peace. Find all our The Sinner coverage here.

Stray kettle of fish:

• Harry really should fix that grill for Sonya. She is good for him and he needs to get her back when this is all over.
• I hope this case doesn’t kill Harry and Sonya has someone to go back to.
• Who is calling Colin on the payphone? Is that the call we see Sean make, or is there another person who uses the payphone to hide their enterprise?
• Tell me Harry took photos of everything he found on the boat since it is burning to the ground.