‘Big Sky’ Season 2 Premiere: Big Changes, a New Mystery & a New Problem for Ronald (RECAP)

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Big Sky Season 2 premiere “Wakey Wakey.”]

As we quickly find out in the Big Sky Season 2 premiere, Jenny (Katheryn Winnick) survives being shot and Cassie (Kylie Bunbury) doesn’t catch up to Ronald (Brian Geraghty) after last spring’s cliffhangers. Neither is surprising, but both have lasting impacts on the women.

For Cassie, she becomes even more determined to find the fugitive. Meanwhile, Jenny has a new lease on life and new plans for her career, which keep the women separate … for now. As for where Ronald is, well, it’s certainly a new situation for him…

Time to Take a Step Back?

The feds may think Ronald’s girlfriend Scarlet (Anja Savcic) is just a victim, but Cassie thinks otherwise (and knows better) and is looking for her. But as Denise (Dedee Pfeiffer) points out, they have a backlog of incoming, paying jobs they should really be taking. She’s probably going to have to keep bugging Cassie and Jerrie (Jesse James Keitel), considering the former ropes the latter into her investigation.

But first Lindor (Omar Metwally), now suspended, has a tip: Scarlet’s neighbor’s bird camera caught State Trooper Dewey (Andreas Apergis) picking her up the day Ronald escaped. Where did he take her? Unfortunately, Dewey won’t say much except to threaten them and that his superiors thought she might be in danger. “It would be wise for you to be careful, don’t you think? Ronald is gone, Scarlet is gone, best to leave it. They are watching you, me, everything,” he says. “Walk away and look after your family, Ms. Dewell. Hug them tight, cherish.”

Lindor also kinda strikes out when it comes to a raincheck on that drink with Cassie. But she doesn’t give him a “real no” just yet.

ABC/Michael Moriatis

Cassie’s investigation takes a turn when she and Jerrie return to Dewey’s house and find the back door open and a window broken. Inside, Dewey’s been killed with his flower shears. But what’s more worrisome is what Cassie found when she did a search before the cops arrived: a folder on Dewey’s desk with photos of her and her son.

Time for a Couple Changes

In the aftermath of her shooting, Jenny takes Sheriff Tubb (Patrick Gallagher) up on his job offer. She misses the badge, she explains. But when she was in the hospital, all she could think of was what it’s meant to “have that badge, the power it gives you. I have a second chance, a do-over, and I want to take it.” And so now she’s undersheriff.

“It’s more about getting stuff done and that badge allows me to be more effective,” Jenny explains to Cassie at the bar later (no hair-pulling this time!) The other woman gets it, though she’s good with where she is, too, working as a PI instead of in a system designed to discriminate against her. Even with “Jenny 2.0,” the two are “still partners,” they agree.

ABC/Michael Moriatis

Jenny’s first investigation: a car wreck. She notes tire tracks and a rock with a heart on it on the side of the road. What exactly happened?

Well, we have to go back and follow four teens who are responsible for the rock. As for the car, its driver flipped it over when the guy he thought he’d killed in his backseat popped back up and attacked. But the crash didn’t kill him. Rather, as another car approached, he had the teens grab the bags in the back of the car. As they hid, the new arrival shot and killed the driver.

The teens barely discuss calling the cops as an option before they decide to keep the bags (filled with cash and drugs), and Max (Madelyn Kientz) stashes them in her shed. That doesn’t seem like the best idea, considering the risk of her mom’s boyfriend T-Lock (Arturo Del Puerto) finding them — he takes most of her babysitting earnings — but she says he’s an idiot, so we’ll have to see how long before she’s wrong. Will it be before or after they realize someone’s watching them?

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Jamie-Lynn Sigler & More Stars Join 'Big Sky' for Season 2 at ABC

Another change for Jenny is in her personal life. Her son’s away at college, and she decides it’s time to take off her wedding ring. It’s good timing, too, since she runs into an old friend of hers, Travis (Logan Marshall-Green), while he’s undercover in a drug ring. Later, he stops by her house, and catching up leads to getting flirty to … her bed.

All Around Me Are Familiar Faces…

It’s not until the end of the episode that we find out where Ronald is. But first, we see a man (from behind) in the woods, with kittens, dogs, and chickens, walk through his property … to where he has Ronald chained and locked in a room. (Do we feel bad for him after the young women he kept locked up? Not at all.) “Ronald, my dear boy,” says Rick Legarski’s twin (John Carroll Lynch). “Let us begin.” We knew this was how Lynch would return, but Big Sky definitely has our attention with that!

Big Sky, Thursdays, 10/9c, ABC