Overview: Becky Howard goes ballistic when Brian Cronin drops by Drovers Run to gloat at the charges against him being dropped. The very next day, Meg Fountain and Claire McLeod find his dead body in the dam, and immediately suspect Becky of murdering his rapist. To protect Becky, the women take the body out of Drovers Run, and dump it in the national park to make it look like an accident. Meanwhile, everyone has to put the matter of finding Brian’s dead body behind to attend the charity polo match that Jodi Fountain organized as part of her campaign for the Miss Gungellan crown.Synopsis: Becky Howard returns to the shearers’ quarters only to find Brian Cronin sitting in her room. The man has come to personally tell her about his good fortune. The other rape victim, Kimmy, had a change of heart, and decided to withdraw from the case also stating that her story is all but a lie. With Kimmy dropping the charges against her rapist, Brian Cronin walks away a free man. This terribly upsets Becky who had gone postal at her violator’s gloating, and the injustice of it all. Continue reading...
The next day, the women worry at where Becky had gone. The young woman had not yet returned after taking off with the Ute the previous night. Later, they hear the Ute on the driveway. Claire McLeod checks on the troubled young woman, and finds her with a large bruise on her forehead, and her shirt all bloodied. The young woman insists on leaving Drovers’ Run, but Claire manages to convince her to stay especially after seeing the condition she is in. With her resting, the women continue their chores with Meg Fountain helping out with the farm work in place of Becky, and Tess McLeod volunteering on taking Becky’s place on the charity polo match that Jodi Fountain had organized as part of her campaign for the Miss Gungellan crown. All is well until Jodi finds Brian Cronin’s Ute abandoned by the ruins, and Meg and Claire find his dead body floating at one of Drovers Run’s dams. The women think of various scenarios that would have led to Brian’s death, but there is no escaping the most probable cause. Becky Howard killed Brian.
Convinced that the young station hand took justice into her own hands, Claire McLeod and Meg Ryan decide to hide the dead body. Using the victim’s Ute, the two wrap his body in tarp, and haul it in his vehicle. Claire and Meg drive to the National Park where they dump his body into the creak that passes through it.
Later that night, Claire, Jodi, and Meg sit in silence. Tess McLeod clueless at what the women know, and had done, jokingly asks who died basing her question by the looks on their faces. However, Tess only associates their sullen mood to the upcoming polo match. She later goes on about her plan on talking to Constable Cook about her theory. She believes that there has been a cover-up. The women become alarmed, but then realize that she was referring to the cover-up on Becky’s case with Tess arguing that very little was done, because the injustice was done to a woman. Becky joins them, and Tess’ inappropriate choice of words made the guilty women uncomfortable. Tess senses that something was up, and she confronts her sister about it. Claire McLeod tells her what they had done. Finding everything that her sister had told her completely outrageous, Tess thinks that Claire was merely pulling her leg, but when her sister makes it very clear that all she had said are true, the gravity of their situation begins to sink in. The women of Drovers Run are convinced that Becky Howard murdered Brian Cronin.
The day of the polo match arrives. Jodi Fountain worries that she won’t be able to keep their secret especially with Constable Cook coming to support her cause. While the women are having breakfast, their first guest arrives. Lo and behold, it is Constable Cook. He tries to get a word to Becky Howard to tell her what Brian already did. The Constable, however, tries to assure her that although the case will not push through given the unlikelihood of a conviction, it does not translate to Brian’s exoneration. Becky, however, is already convinced that no justice will be done. Not ready to face people, Becky excuses herself from the polo match to do farm work instead. In surveying the farm, she comes across Jodi’s necklace by the dam, and sees tire tracks near it. Brick noticing that the young woman is not anywhere in sight, and learning from Tess that she had decided to do work goes out to find her. He finds her by the border fixing fences. Brick who already heard the news about the charges against Brian being dropped tries to give the young woman some comfort by telling her that he believes her, but Becky was still too upset at the injustice done to her.
The polo match had commenced. Team captains Claire McLeod and Alex Ryan pick their players. Knowing Tess’ awful riding skills, she gets picked last, and was assigned the job of keeping score. Claire’s team is being slaughtered, and her scoring a hit on another team’s goal did not help one bit. During halftime, her teammates that include Constable Cook all agree to give the other team a doze of their own medicine – cheat. First up on Claire’s team’s bag of dirty tricks is loosening Alex Ryan’s saddle, which caused the team captain to fall off his horse. This gave Claire the opportunity to snatch the ball, and score a goal. Next up included numerous distractions, which all proved effective. Finally, time has run out, and the match is over. All are anxious to know who won. Tess being named official score keeper announces that both teams are charged with excessive cheating, therefore both are disqualified, and no one really won the game.
Meg Fountain still troubled by the death of Brian Cronin decides to talk to Terry Dodge about it without giving specific details. She tries to pick his brain on how Terry would react if he were to find out that someone he knows or even lives with had murdered someone out of sheer desperation. Her question had made Terry completely uncomfortable causing him to take off without saying a word.
All is well until Becky Howard arrives to deliver the bad news to Claire McLeod. She found dead cattle in their property. Given the uncertainty on what is killing the cattle in Drovers Run, Peter Johnson decides to move Brave J out of Drovers. Meanwhile, Becky gives Jodi Fountain the necklace she dropped by the dam. This caused Jodi to blab about the cover-up they had done to protect Becky from the crime they have convinced themselves she committed. Now that all that is in the open, the women of Drovers Run gather to discuss their situation. Becky could not believe that the women thought that she killed Brian, but they argue that it is not far-fetched given that she had once shot him on the leg. Moreover, her returning banged up with no recollection of the previous night proved too much of a coincidence. Becky Howard assures them that she did not murder Brian Cronin. Her bruises were a result of her hitting her head on the wheel after driving completely intoxicated that caused her to lose control of the Ute.
The women return to the dam where they found Brian’s dead body to make sense of what happened. Becky surveys the dam, and finds drum marks by the side of it. They sweep the dam, and find an empty drum filled with poison. As it turns out, Brian Cronin had been poisoning Drovers Run’s water source to get back at them for driving him out of town. Meg Fountain is relieved at the evidence that clearly shows that Brian had drowned by accident, while Claire McLeod is ecstatic to learn that her cattle had been deliberately poisoned, and not struck by illness. Tess, however, reminds them of the one problem they have yet to straighten out. They moved Brian’s dead body to the National Park to make it look like he drowned there by accident. However, traces of poison that would match the ones in their dam would indicate that he died at Drovers Run, and that his body was obviously moved.
Meg Fountain runs to the cottage to gather things they need to return Brian’s body to Drovers Run. She, however, receives an unexpected guest – an intoxicated Terry Dodge. With Meg attending to Terry, the dirty work is left to Claire, Tess, and Becky. Becky watches as Claire and Tess McLeod pull her attacker’s dead body out of the water. Becky thought that seeing her rapist’s dead body would make her feel better, but it did not.
Later, a sober Terry Dodge confronts Meg Fountain about what he thought Meg found out. He tells her that when he was young, he used to go out, and get himself drunk. Then when he was twenty-one, a man had picked a fight with him at a bar. Tragically, the final punch he laid on the man was too hard. The man fell, and bumped his head causing his neck to snap. The man died instantly, and Terry was charged with involuntary manslaughter for which he spent three, and a half years in jail paying for his crime. Terry Dodge continues to regret what he had done, and had stopped drinking alcohol altogether. Meg’s question earlier had brought about this bad memory, and he became worried that she had found out about his past, and would not want anything to do with him. Meg assures Terry that she does not see him as a murderer, and that it was a terrible accident for which he already made amends.
Constable Cook arrives startling Jodi Fountain. He has come to bring Claire the news that it was poison that is killing her cattle. Moreover, he needs to investigate whether her water was deliberately poisoned. Peter Johnson also arrives to talk to Claire. He is equally glad to learn that her cattle are not infected with BJD. Though Jodi manages to make the constable wait in the house for Claire’s return, she fails to do the same with Peter Johnson who decided to go out and look for her. As he was driving out of Drovers, he finds Claire who happens to be driving Brian’s Ute with Tess followed by Becky in Drovers Run’s Ute. Claire gets out of the vehicle to talk to Peter who is happy to tell her the news. He then goes over to the back of the Ute mistaking Brian’s body wrapped in tarp as another dead steer. To keep him from finding out what it truly is, Claire McLeod blocks him, and surprises him with a kiss. The two passionately kiss leaving Tess and Becky in shock at what they are witnessing. It, however, did a great job of distracting Peter, and the man leaves without a fuss. With him out of the way, the three drive back to the dam to dump Brian’s dead body back where they found it. They arrive at the main house to find Constable Cook with Jodi who had stuffed her mouth with food to prevent herself from spilling the beans. Constable Cook tells Claire about the poison the lab found in her cattle, and Claire tells him about the drum they found at the dam, and also Brian’s dead body.
Days later, Constable Cook returns to Drovers Run to tell her about the autopsy report on Brian Cronin’s body. The police had officially declared Brian’s death as an accident on the account of poisoned water found in his lungs, which indicated that Brian was alive when he fell in the dam. Moreover, the cut on his forehead matches the perforations on the edge of the drum. The police believe that Brian Cronin was dumping poison in the dam when he slipped, and hit his forehead on the drum. Also, because he was heavily intoxicated, Brian passed out in the dam, and drowned. However, Constable Cook did mention to them that the report also tells of signs that the body was moved around. The women of Drovers Run deny any knowledge of this, and Becky Howard also makes it known that even if they knew something there would not be enough evidence to convict. If Brian Cronin got away with raping two young women due to lack of evidence, surely the very little evidence of his body being moved around would not stick. What goes around comes around.
Previous McLeod's Daughters Episode Summary: Friends Like These
Next McLeod's Daughters Episode Summary: The Drover's Connection
More McLeod's Daughters Episode Summaries
0 Comments:
Post a Comment