‘Murder In A Small Town’ Episode 1 Recap: Why Does Karl Let George Go?

Not sure if I should reveal this here, but I decided to watch this show without researching much about it. The title Murder in a Small Town was enough to make me fall for it, I suppose. And given it’s network TV, I didn’t expect much from Fox’s latest procedural. Well, the show turned out to be exactly how I expected—very old school and sort of wholesome, despite being centered around a murder (well, murders, given this is a case-per-week show). The opening case is not something you haven’t seen before, but what makes the first hour of Murder in a Small Town work is a standout performance by Emmy-winner James Cromwell and a formulaic but believable romance between the lead pair—police chief Karl and librarian Cassandra. Anyway, let us get into the details. 

Spoilers Ahead

Who Got Murdered?

In the small, coastal town of Gibson, 85-year-old Carlyle Burke gets murdered within the opening five minutes of the series. He’s shown to be having an argument with someone wearing a blue jacket. The argument gets cut in the middle, and Carlyle is bashed in the head with something blunt, and the next thing you know, he’s lying dead in a pool of blood. 

How was the first date?

On the same day, new in town police chief Karl Alberg is out on a date with librarian Cassandra. Father-of-two Karl is recently divorced, and he’s in town for a bit of self-searching. The man is also tired of big city police work where he had to deal with all the bureaucracy. Cassandra, meanwhile, is more of a free spirit who’s seeking some exciting conversation and amazing sex. Even though Cassandra starts with this not going to work, the pair hits it off pretty well. Cassandra is intrigued by the mild-mannered, soft-spoken policeman (the kind that you usually don’t get to see), and Karl is charmed by her vivaciousness. The date ends with a promise for more, and Karl soon finds himself at the scene of murder. He’s the chief of police, after all!

Who are the suspects?

Karl meets his team members—Sergeant Sokolowski, constable Andy, and new entrant, Corporal Yan—at the crime scene. It just happens to be Corporal Yan’s first day at Gibson. She comes here with a good reputation for taking down a cartel in Philadelphia (that’s random information, but might come useful in a future episode). Anyway, coming to the case in hand, another very old man, George Wilcox, who lives nearby, is the one who discovered the body. Karl investigates George, who’s wearing a blue jacket that looks very much like the one our mystery murderer was wearing in the first scene. George doesn’t seem to be too shaken up by what has happened, and he wouldn’t call Carlyle a friend. Karl sends him to the station for fingerprints and focuses on the other suspects for the time being. There are mainly two: fish guy Derek Farley, who delivered a fish to Carlyle, and suspicious-looking local young man Riley. But, in true procedural style, it soon becomes quite clear that neither Derek nor Riley is the murderer Karl is looking for.

Karl soon finds a pretty strong lead when he finds out Carlyle is George’s brother-in-law while grilling George the second time around. George’s sister, Audrey, died years ago, and he believes Carlyle was the one who’d killed her. However, he denies any involvement with Carlyle’s murder and claims it’s just circumstantial. Later that day, Karl visits George again—this time around with Cassandra, who’s George’s friend—and feels something is off inside George’s kitchen. It comes all of a sudden to Karl in the middle of the night that he saw two large pieces of trench art at George’s that morning, which were not there when he went to visit the old man with Cassandra. It doesn’t take much for Karl to realize that earlier that day, George used one of those trench art pieces to murder Carlyle and took them away. When he rushes to George’s, he sees George rowing back to his house (justifying the coastal town settling), which is a clear indication of the old man dumping the murder weapon in the ocean. 

Did George Really Murder Carlyle?

Things probably would have been different if this was not a case-per-week procedural, but here, the one who seems the most likely to have done it has actually done it. George has a clear motive to kill Carlyle, and he has in fact done it. Not that he planned to kill his late sister’s husband; in fact, Carlyle wanted to make amends, but eventually he got on George’s nerves. He confessed to Cassandra and let her know that he’s going to go away to Montreal to live with his daughter. This, of course, leaves Cassandra in a dilemma about whether to let the man she’s dating know about this or not. She chooses not to, but he finds out anyway, and the two end up having a big fight where she pleads with him to let George go, and he argues that he’s still a man of law.

Why Does Karl Let George Go?

Quite simply, it’s an act of kindness shown by a golden-hearted policeman. And also because it’s a dinner table murder show, made for a family audience who would want something positive at the end of it. What further helps is the revelation that Carlyle was most likely abusive to his wife, Audrey, aka George’s twin sister. Karl not only lets George go, he also gives him a box full of Audrey’s letter that the police discovered from Carl’s. It also makes sense that George is actually dying, which Karl confirmed from George’s doctor. The episode concludes with Karl and Cassandra both receiving letters from George, where he’s basically shipping them as a couple. It’s a murder mystery show alright, but the romance is way better than the mystery here—at least in the first episode. 

Some Notes

• Despite all the good vibes, the writing of Murder in a Small Town is way off the charts. Not sure if that gets better in the upcoming episodes, but James Cromwell isn’t going to be there to save the ship.
• Carl’s mother was an artist, and he has also inherited that talent. I hope we see a case where Carl’s artistic skill comes in handy.