SPOILERS TO FOLLOW:

The second episode of Happy Town throws out a whole new set of questions, as well as reiterating some questions from the first episode.  However, for all the questions floating around we have already been provided the answer to one of the major questions of the first episode, thankfully forgetting to drag it out for a larger part of the season (I will now refrain from saying the word “question” again).  I mean, one mystery man is enough for us to deal with, so now we can watch the drama revolving about the revelation of the murderer’s identity while still trying to figure out who the Magic Man is.

This episode continues with the ending of the premiere, following Tommy arriving at the hospital with the Sheriff, who is minus his left hand.  However, you don’t need that appendage to continue to spew out some crazy lines, continuing the question of what his connection is to Chloe as he continues to talk about her/to her in his mumblings of gibberish (I’m going with dad).

With the sheriff being out of service Old Lady Haplin forces Tommy into the new role of Sheriff replacement even though he expresses his lack of desire for this position.  Apparently a new sheriff in town means a new way of dealing with things, and Tommy’s way seems to be violence, including a rage induced beating of the Stiviletto brothers.

Though this attack was a little outside the law, it sure is warranted.  Prior to driving out to their home, Georgia, the babysitter of Tommy’s daughter, shows up at their house crying and still suffering the effects of being drugged.  To make a long story short, while at the hospital visiting the Sheriff, the grandpa she never had, she borrows the creamer from a mysterious man with an affinity for tapioca pudding sitting at the table next to hers.  This cream was actually drugged, so he follows her, questions her about what she saw at the pond the night of the murder, begins singing “You’re So Vain,” and then dumps her at the Stiviletto’s house after she blacks out.  When she comes to they are singing another rendition of the song and she books it out of there before we can figure out what the heck is going on, running all the way to Tommy’s house, thus leading to his attack on the brothers.

Though Tommy is far from being comfortable in the role of Sheriff, one thing we get out of his violent outburst is a clue he needs to realize who the murderer is from the first episode.  And that murderer is Big Dave.  All the random scene placement at his restaurant makes sense now because without it this revelation wouldn’t have been that significant for the viewer.  So hopefully we will now be getting to see some other dining establishments in the town.  But I digress… While searching Big Dave’s adorable mother’s basement, Tommy finds Dave’s secret lair full of articles of the kidnappings and photos of the man murdered in the first episode.  Apparently he got it in the mind that this man was the Magic Man, but the problem with this, as Tommy points out to him, is that there is no way he could have kidnapped numerous victims thanks to solid alibis.  Whoops…  So now Tommy must make a choice, and he goes the protecting the best friend route instead of obeying the law.  Oh how this will haunt him later…

And finally, one last character to check in with this episode is Henley/Chloe.  At the end of the last episode she is making her way up the blue staircase to the off-limits 3^rd floor, which just so happens to end with a locked door.  Well, we may not know if she really knows how to make candles or play the guitar (that’s right, I still don’t think she really brought one), but what we do learn is that she knows how to copy keys.  The hiccup from the previous night with the door aside, the following night she is able to get into the 3^rd floor of the boarding house.  To her surprise, she walks into a room filled with caged birds.  But she seems to know what she is looking for, finding something under the floorboards that resembles a hammer with a goat’ head.  What that can be, who knows, but the Magic Man’s hawk must not want her to have it because (after watching her pull it from the floor) it decides to crash through the windshield of her newly purchased car, causing a wreck to end the episode.

Some things to consider:

-When first coming into the hospital, the sheriff is still spewing some random words, which brings us to Sheriff ramblings #1: “Chloe, I’m coming back for you someday.”  And then…

-…Sheriff ramblings #2: “Tommy.  These people…they’re wicked.  And I don’t mean ordinary wicked.  I mean, they’re blood is black…and they’re souls are hideous.  Diabolical.”

-Oh, and his wedding ring falls off again.  It may be stretching, but I really do think that he had an affair with Chloe’s mother, which is why the ring keeps falling off lately following all this crazy Chloe talk.

-While setting up for the festival Lincoln Stiviletto asks Big Dave about the water he ships in from New York to make his pizza.  Though this helps make the connection in the viewers mind later when this become the clue leading to Tommy realizing Dave is the murderer, what isn’t explained is the Stiviletto brothers connection to all of this.  Why was he asking about the water?

-And speaking of the Stiviletto brothers: What is their connection to the man who drugged Georgia?  They say that they just found her lying in their living room, but they have to have a connection to each other somehow cuz it’s hard for me to believe that that many people like tapioca pudding without being connected somehow.

-When Tommy has to go see Old Lady Haplin, he tells his wife he is going to Weeping Wall.  This might be alluding to the Western Wall/”Wailing Wall” in Jerusalem, which is a place of mourning in the Jewish religion.

-This show is also riddled with pop culture references, a major one being a Casablanca quote off between Henley/Chloe and Grieves.  Though I am not quite sure what the significance is for using the Casablanca figure to make a key, this movie allows Henley/Chloe to say, “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”  To which Grieves responds, “indeed.”  What I want to know is why he is helping her?  He knows that she was trying to get into the 3^rd floor of the boarding house, and then later when she is running to make a copy of the key, he distracts Mrs. Meadows from noticing that Henley/Chloe is gone, as are her keys.

-Why is Old Lady Haplin so gung ho about Tommy becoming Sheriff?  Something tells me it is more than her just being racist.

-Sheriff ramblings #3:  “In my younger days I felt sorry for myself that I had no gloves, until I met a man with no hands.”  Technically I am not sure if this really counts because Georgia heard this when the drugs were kicking in, but I thought it was still worth noting.

-Why is “You’re so Vain” suddenly so popular?  In the first episode Georgia’s secret boyfriend sings a song to this tune in which he makes fun of her father’s drug addiction, and then she responds to this by saying that he isn’t allowed to make fun of her musical taste.  In this episode it is heard on 3 separate occasions.  First, the man who drugs Georgia sings it after questioning her in the elevator, and then the Stiviletto brothers are singing it when she wakes up.  And finally, the song is playing in Henley/Chloe’s car before the hawk comes crashing through the window.

-Sheriff ramblings #4: “The serpent always hits us where the sweet bird sings, Chloe.”  (At first I thought he said circle and not serpent, but Tommy repeats it later as serpent, so I will go with that).

-When Henley/Chloe is on the phone with her mom she says that she is going to reveal herself.  What all she has to reveal, and to who exactly is still yet to be determined.  But hopefully we will get a scene between the Sheriff and Chloe sometime soon because I really want to know if he really knows who Chloe is, or if he is just crazy when he is rambling.

-The guy who drugs Georgia later reveals himself to be from the state police.  Does anyone go about doing things in accordance with the law?  And how did he know that Georgia was at the pond that night?

Anything you picked up on that I didn’t?  Let me know!