The plot thickens in Chatham. Very, very slowly thickens. Most of the revelations in “Bloody Knuckles†are just men revealing themselves to be the worst, which Isabella actually clocked from the very beginning, so keep up, show. Self-styled Nice Guy Jeff is bitter at being rejected by Megan. Megan turns out to have an absentee dad whom Debbie just can’t seem to quit. Luke’s dad Steve Chambers is basically an abusive psychopath. And, despite all of Izzie and Megan’s anxiety, Sheriff Myer still seems pretty terrible at crime-solving. Like, a bunch of teenagers are in the habit of taking unsupervised trips to a remote cabin in the woods where they get hammered and shoot things with Steve’s easily accessible handgun, and when one of them dies, Myer’s first thought is, “Must be murder.†Please be serious.
Despite the fact that Sheriff Myer is the kind of man who folds like a cheap suit under the lightest of threats from Steve, in July of 2000, Izzie and Megan’s parents consider his vibes-driven investigation enough of a threat that they both hire high-powered lawyers for their daughters. Isabella’s attorney, some sort of family fixer by the looks of it, advises her client that simply running off and claiming diplomatic immunity would be a bad look because of Izzie’s mysterious bad record. Meanwhile, Megan’s expensive pit-bull attorney was paid for by her deadbeat dad, whom she resents.
Now, I love Isabella, and I don’t care how shady she may or may not be. Back in July of 1999, Megan and Izzie are heading up to the Chambers’ cabin for an overnight rager with all the dudes — an annual gathering where Megan is traditionally the only non-dude invited. Megan tries to talk Izzie out of tagging along by warning her of the guys’ gross habits, but as has already been established, Izzie cannot be intimidated by any amount of dick jokes. It is, in fact, over their shared disdain for general male dickishness on this trip that Izzie and Meg finally start to bond in earnest.
But not at first, of course. At first, Megan is still quietly seething with jealousy because while Luke flirts with Izzie waving around a loaded gun, he seems to consider Megan as barely female. Used to being “one of the guys,†Megan is oblivious to the fact that Jeff is pining for her hard from behind that omnipresent video camera and assumes Izzie is using sex to endear herself to the boys at Megan’s expense. During a round of fireside “two truths and a lie,†Isabella claims to have a naked sleepwalking problem, and Megan is mid-eye-roll when Izzie unexpectedly draws her into the gag. “Right, Megan?†Isabella asks with a verbal wink. Megan isn’t down for any cool-girl nonsense, but she is all for clowning on the guys as a Girl Power unit.
Soon, Izzie and Megan agree that pounding beers and dancing around with jockstraps on their heads doesn’t sound like that much fun after all, and they decide to bail. They arrive home to find Debbie and Megan’s estranged dad making out in the driveway (weird spot for it), leaving Megan and Izzie to bitch about their mutual crap parents in Izzie’s trailer bedroom all night. This is how all lifelong female friendships are born. More or less. Moving on!
It’s in the December of 1999 timeline where we start to see the real asshole behavior, starting with Isabella telling Debbie that it was actually Megan in the revenge-porn tape. Izzie is still my favorite, but I have to side with Megan on this. (Everyone makes mistakes, Isabella!) Megan is right that it isn’t Isabella’s story to tell, especially since Isabella promised to keep the truth a secret, and Megan never asked her to take the heat for her in the first place. You can’t volunteer to make a sacrifice like this and then get mad when there are consequences, Isabella! You can’t just keep repeating “ride or die†and expect everything to always be fine! Still, all of this falls under the general umbrella of understandable uncool behavior, unlike that of Jeff and Steve Chambers.
In episode two, Isabella was adamant that Jeff was behind the revenge-porn stunt, and now we see why. Approaching Izzie at the diner in December of 1999, where she is innocently about to dig into some fries, he taunts, “You wanna hang out tonight, or are you only into guys with girlfriends?†But when Megan jumps to Isabella’s defense, Jeff reveals that he knows that it isn’t Isabella in the tape at all. “You chose the wrong guy,†he whines at Megan (classic Nice Guy). “The tape got out before we got a good look at the heroine, but I’d know that laugh anywhere. It used to be one of my favorite things about you.†I’m not sure what Jeff is trying to accuse Megan, Isabella, or Luke of in this little interlude, but he needs to take a hint and get lost.
But in terms of true villainy in this episode, no one, not even Brent, comes close to Steve Chambers. Steve’s disturbing preoccupation with protecting the family’s honor or whatever has him way more concerned with the fact that Brent’s six videotapes of underage girls having sex are now in the sheriff’s possession than he is with the fact that Brent made these tapes to begin with. This leads him to blackmail the sheriff with threats of divulging incriminating personal information, to physically assault Brent in the car, and, finally, to berate Luke for snitching on his brother and giving the tapes to the sheriff to begin with. Steve is such a piece of shit in this timeline, in fact, that it’s hard to empathize with him even in the summer of 2000, as he’s bringing Debbie his sad sympathy casseroles after Luke’s murder.
Other than that, “Bloody Knuckles†doesn’t offer a lot of answers or insights into the show’s primary mystery: Who killed Luke Chambers. The only mystery I see is how Sheriff Myer got this job to begin with.
Clues to Watch
• Not a clue, but I am so sorry to Meredith Brooks.
• Somebody left a mystery box of evidence at the police department, which I have medium-high hopes for.
• How important, exactly, can Isabella’s parents be if she has a claim to diplomatic immunity? (I do not know how diplomats work).
• I know the three fingerprints on the gun are being framed as some kind of bombshell piece of evidence, but this still seems pretty flimsy to me.