After the first season’s exploration of the prevalent tradition of racism in Australia couched in a murder mystery, Black Snow returns with its second season. This season carries the subtitle ‘Jack of Clubs.’ Travis Fimmel helms the season both as a director and as the protagonist– a detective whose return to every cold case professionally also causes him to revisit his personal tragedy.
Spoilers Ahead
What is the case with James Cormack?
In Black Snow episode 1, James Cormack is set to have his suspension revoked to work on a cold case that has been reopened. However, before Cormack can rejoin, he is required to undertake sessions with a therapist. The episode reveals that James has been sacked following his violent pursuit of a criminal who killed a child. His traumatic past also merits some evaluation to examine his present violent tendencies. Psychologist Nina Hirsch touches upon the sensitive areas of James’ relationship with his father. Before his session with his therapist, we see James running into his father at his apartment. James asks his father if he is here to make amends. James’ father tells him that his brother, Richie, is not dead, and he is in huge debt. The more time they waste, the closer Richie gets to being pushed into the mouth of the loan sharks. Worried, the old man reveals to James that he had tried to help Richie land a decent job with the help of one of his prison mates. Unfortunately, that did not pan out, and he disappeared. James does not believe him and shoos him away.
How did Zoe Jacobs disappear?
An unattended backpack found inside a decrepit building causes the Local Area Command of Moorevale Police Force to reopen a cold case closed in 2003 and bring back Detective James Cormack from his suspension. In 2003, a young student, Zoe Jacobs, disappeared without leaving a trace. Senior Constable Samara Kahlil identifies the bag and knows that it belonged to Zoe. The building where the bag is found once served as the office of the town’s only radio station, Valley Vibes FM. Kahlil reports to Cormack that Zoe had the bag on her on the night she disappeared, which also was the day on which she turned 21.
In a flashback, we meet Zoe, Samara, and Cody in 2003, when they were best friends. Together, they ran their independent community radio station. During her stint as an RJ, Zoe gathered quite a few admirers. On her 100th show, Cody read a request from one such fan, purporting to be Zoe’s ‘number one’ admirer. The anonymous fan, who just went by the name ‘deepblue32,’ sent allusive messages that only made sense to Zoe. Needless to say, the message was not very appreciated. Earlier, Zoe had found a red rose left inside her car, which made her upset too. Zoe did not have a peaceful relationship with her parents, especially her mother. She looked for ways to break away from her home as soon as the family released her share of the inheritance from her grandfather. On the other hand, her best friend, Cody, had a volatile family background. His mother stayed with her abusive partner for far too long and only invited more abuse. Cody was desperate to help his mother and little sisters break away from the man but was helpless. There was another character—an acquaintance of Zoe—who kept lurking around her; a guy called Joseph.
What does Samara advise Cormack to do?
While going through the old files on the case, Cormack finds out that Samara used to be Zoe’s best friend. A little surprised, Cormack asks Samara to explain why she chose to hide this important detail. Samara, in reply, suggests to Cormack that Zoe does not want herself to be found. In fact, she had disappeared the moment she got her hands on her inheritance, a cash amount of $25,000. Samara is certain that Zoe is alive, and Cormack would only be wasting his time if he treats this case as that of a missing person. However, Cormack notes that the bag recovered does not carry any money. Samantha still proposes the theory that Zoe might have taken all the money out to erase any paper trail leading up to her. Cormack, on the other hand, believes that Zoe might not be the one who had taken the money out. It has been years since Zoe’s parents divorced. The dynamics of the Jacobs household have changed since Zoe’s disappearance. When Cormack arrives at the Jacobs’ house, he finds Leo Jacobs to be remarried to a woman named Gita. A doting father to Zoe, Leo Jacobs is sure that his daughter was murdered. While Cormack has a chat with Leo, Zoe’s mother, Nadja, shows up to have a word with him. Quite surprisingly, Nadja seems to be the only one who cares about finding the truth behind Zoe’s disappearance. Leo accuses her of abandoning her other child, following their daughter’s supposed death. Leo reminds her that she was the reason why Zoe left the house.
What happened before Cody was found dead?
To give a little context about Cody’s importance as the narrative anchor, the episode takes us back to 2003. Following their eviction from their old home, Cody and his family were forced to consider Brad, his mother’s partner, as their guardian. They tried to fight for their rights over their home, but the new owners of the house paid no heed to their desperate pleas. This angered Zoe. The last time Zoe saw Cody was a sore spot for Zoe for a long time. This was due to an argument that Cody seemed to have picked for no reason. While Zoe wanted to bring about change in the world, Cody reminded her of her privileged family position. He also expressed doubts over Zoe’s action to bring about a change and hinted that she was part of the very system that she was trying to battle against. Zoe cussed him and drove away angrily, without realizing that it was going to be their last meeting. That day, Zoe stopped at her house for a bit and had a heart-to-heart chat with her uncle, Will. At night, she went to Brad’s house to search for Cody. Cody’s mother, Mandy, visibly in the middle of a domestic cruelty episode, came out to attend to Zoe. Mandy told her that Cody could be found at their old place. When Zoe returned to the house to find Cody, she had to be witness to the most unspeakable and violent sight one could imagine—she found Cody dead.
How does the first episode end?
Cormack suspects that the last tracked phone signal of Zoe in Brisbane is erroneous. He believes that Zoe never made it out of town. It was someone else who carried her phone out to Brisbane. The next few days, Cormack keeps himself busy with the old radio shows of Zoe and Cody. He listens to the radio shows as he watches his father’s movements surreptitiously. He carefully observes who he meets and where he goes. All while maintaining a safe distance. Samara, on the other hand, receives a phone call from an unknown number. The caller never speaks but only breathes, which causes Samara to think that it might be Zoe.
How does the second episode start?
James goes through old reports of the Harborne House, a youth detention center. James pleads with Hazel Baker to help him gain access to information about a kid who served in the camp in 1998. The kid’s name, Richard Vogel, rings suspicious to James, and he believes it might be his lost brother, Richie. Nadja, on the other hand, has been living in the secluded caravan park of Moorevale. It has been years since Samara and Nadja last met each other. Samara informs Nadja that she has been getting unknown calls consistently on the exact day of Zoe’s disappearance over the last eight years. She also shares her apprehension that it might be Zoe trying to reach out for help. On the other hand, Cormack arrives at Leo’s office, where he is seen working with his brother, Will. Leo asserts that it was Joseph who killed his daughter. He is not ready to believe the alibi of one Melody Forster, the woman who gave Joseph a place to stay.
What drama unfolded at Cody’s memorial?
Zoe was visibly upset with her parents when they did not turn up at Cody’s memorial on time. Instead, the presence of a guy called Sean surprised Samara. He came to the funeral with her mother, but their presence was nothing more than tokenism. Turns out that Sean was Zoe’s former lover. Samara warned Zoe of Sean’s real intentions. When Nadja arrived at the service, Zoe created a scene and slapped her hand. Samara was upset with Brad’s way of trying to wash his image following their friend’s death. After driving away her mother, Zoe left the place with Joseph. Later, they had sex at the villa owned by Melody in the hills of the national park. The same night, Zoe, along with Samara’s help, plastered the town with posters calling Brad an abuser and vandalized his car. Although Leo saved her daughter from getting interrogated by the police, he advised Zoe to steer clear away from Joseph. To this end, he set a plan for Zoe and decided that she would learn to handle his real estate business. At her father’s office, Zoe spotted a leaflet that was advertising the property of Cody and his family as their new project.
Why is Xanadu an important setting?
While investigating, Samara leads Cormack to a private property, ‘Xanadu,’ surrounded by heavy foliage. Like Xanadu, it is indeed an idyllic place, but also one that is illusory in nature. The property leads to the lake where Zoe regularly went skinny-dipping. From the items recovered from Zoe’s bag, Cormack finds one photograph that was taken of Zoe from a rather odd angle. The angle testifies that Zoe was not aware of the photographer’s position or intentions. The villa in Melody’s ‘Xanadu’ was where Joseph was lodged.
How does the second episode end?
At the end of Black Snow episode 2, Samara finds a damning clue regarding the identity of the mysterious caller of the radio show. Samara informs Cormack that the name ‘deep blue’ from ‘deepblue32’ gains relevance when seen in terms of its meaning. ‘Deep Blue’ is a computer chess program, and the only person in their circle who was remotely involved in chess during that time was Sean. Sean Cosgrove, quite surprisingly, was never interrogated by the police due to his mother being the mayor of the town. With his mother having worked her way to senator, it is even more difficult to entangle Sean in the case. Samara’s colleague snitches on their conversation and informs Sean about Cormack’s interest in him. Back at the therapist’s office, James tells his therapist that he does not believe that Richie is alive but has been going back and forth with his belief since the encounter with his father. He accompanies his father to interrogate his prison mate who helped Richie get a job. However, it turns out to be a dead end when the man refuses to comply with them. In the final scene, Samara is informed that tracing the unknown caller who has been calling her is an impossible task without due paperwork. However, the caller is not too far away from her.