As it’s clear that the artist from the Blue Moon Festival wasn’t the killer, Mickey and Boone found themselves at square one on Sheriff Country Season 1 Episode 15.
However, they didn’t have time to waste, and fortunately, the series didn’t waste ours either.
The hour quickly gets into the threat — a missing Cassidy.
The Episode Should Have Been Titled ‘Canary’
While the title “The Lost Girls of Edgewater County” made it clear that Sheriff Country Season 1 Episode 15 would focus on this serial killer case, this is one time I think a slightly more obscure title should have been used.
We start with a flashback to before Cassidy became a deputy, before she even considered joining the police force.
Mickey, as a deputy, responded to a DV call, and sure enough, it was Cassidy dealing with a broken plate and a black eye.
There’s a comfort in this scene, as Mickey knows she needs to get Cassidy out of this situation, but also knows that Cassidy needs to be ready to leave.
So, instead of even bothering with the “let’s get you out of here” or “you know he’s just going to do it again,” Mickey focuses on something she can do to help.
It’s a simple phrase to say when Cassidy is ready for Mickey to save her.
And it’s a phrase that neither woman forgot.
It turns out that Cassidy didn’t go down in silence after being tased at her house. She managed to whisper “canary,” which was picked up on her mom’s voicemail.
Mickey knew exactly what it meant, so the search began without question or debate.
There was even a rush to get warrants and the CCTV footage from the convenience store across the street, because that part didn’t matter.
This was about searching for Cassidy. The word “canary” made that clear, and it could have been such a powerful episode title.
That is just a small note, looking at this episode from an emotional point of storytelling, and I do get the reasoning behind the actual title used.
It was a way to respect the girls who had gone missing over the years, and a sign that the families would finally get justice and closure.
A Lesson in Trust and Faith
As Cassidy wakes up after being captured at the end of Sheriff Country Season 1 Episode 14, she realizes she is not alone.
The girls weren’t completely alone in their cells. Not for very long.
However, not being alone was a bad thing. Jade, the girl who had gone missing a year prior, panicked as she woke up to see Cassidy in the cell with her.
That meant Jade was going to die.
It’s what happened to Maggie, Zoey, and so many others — and Jade knows their names because each name has been scratched into the wall.
It’s a darker reminder that they haven’t been forgotten, but by the wrong person—the person who took them.
We get a bittersweet look at how easily these girls were manipulated.
It turns out that they’ve been forced to act in a subdued way, respecting the man who keeps them hostage despite knowing that they’re likely to die.
He has always made them believe they have no one coming for them, no one who cares.
It’s so easy, as well. They are all marginalized girls who have created problems for their families. Many people like this start to believe they’re not worthy of being saved.
This killer got the wrong woman, though. While Cassidy initially starts to react in the way that this killer wants, she realizes that Mickey is out there.
She has to trust that her team is looking for her and that Mickey received her note. With that belief, she knows that Mickey has the upper hand.
Despite all the anger toward Mickey in recent episodes for benching her, there is still respect and admiration there. With this comes the ability to believe everything will work out.
That trust is there all the way to the end, as Mickey needs Cassidy to move her head just slightly to get the shot off cleanly.
Cassidy locked eyes with Mickey, not flinching for a moment, because she knows how awesome Mickey is.
Of course, Cassidy doesn’t just sit by and wait for herself to be saved. She reaches Jade and gets her to help, and the two set up an escape plan.
We are able to see the badass that Cassidy can be, and I hope Sheriff Country Season 2 is able to bring us more of that. For now, this is a good start.
Indoctrination Often Runs Much Deeper
It’s all thanks to a near-victim who managed to get away that Mickey and Boone are able to put all of the puzzle pieces together.
They get to a point where they know the serial killer has to be a cop — or at least, a former cop. It doesn’t take them too long to figure out who it is, either.
However, a cop will always think like one. This guy was always 10 steps ahead of everyone else, and he would have remained that way had it not been for Mickey’s ability to see the puzzle pieces for what they really are.
While this guy did not have a biological daughter, he was getting all these girls to call him “Father.”
Father doesn’t necessarily mean Dad, though. This man wanted to be these girls’ savior, believing himself to be godlike, and I do believe that “Father” had a more religious meaning rather than a parental one.
As Mickey realized that this guy had to have had someone working with him, she was able to put together the pieces that we were already putting into place.
And if you thought that things were a little too suspicious with the social worker suddenly turning up and getting heavily involved with the case, you had a right to.
Sure enough, Stephanie was Dana—the “daughter”—and here we are with another show that shows how indoctrination runs deeper than it initially seems.
The installment starts with a look at how Cassidy learns to get what she wants — and it’s exactly what happened to other girls — but then we see that indoctrination can lead to working with the serial killer.
While the majority of girls were killed, Stephanie wasn’t. Instead, she was given the chance to help lure other girls.
Sheriff Country could have worked in a little more about this, giving us an idea of whether this was survival or full indoctrination. Maybe it’s something to revisit later, as there, admittedly, wasn’t that much time when the reveal came.
In the end, splitting this storyline into two episodes worked wonderfully, allowing the search to have real time to breathe.
There’s the ability to honor the girls who lost their lives, and a chance for families to gain closure, without us feeling like everything was just quickly wrapped up to be able to move on to the next case of the week.
This is definitely something Sheriff Country needs to keep doing!