I was a little surprised not to find a Cafe thread or two on The Sinner, with Bill Pullman. It’s a great show and I’ve binge-watched all three seasons (8 ep each). Highly recommended if you like detective shows and haven’t seen it. Each season is independent, like Fargo, so you can watch them in any order.
So, my comments relate to Season 2. I have a bone to pick and a couple of questions. (Sorry, I thought it would be easy to blur the spoilers, but I can’t see an easy command to do this, so I’m leaving things unspoiled. DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN SEASON 2 AND PLAN TO WATCH IT.)
The bone: did they really need to introduce the plot twist that Heather’s father raped Marin and was Julian’s father? I mean, c’mon…that was a stretch (Heather’s dad didn’t seem like that much of an asshole) and completely unnecessary to the overall plot.
Question 1: were we supposed to accept for sure that Heather’s dad was Julian’s father? Until the end, the implication was that Lionel Jeffries was Julian’s dad. Purely as a matter of how each character looked, Lionel as the father was much more believable. The actor playing Julian had a dark, possibly Semitic countenance, as did Lionel. Are we really supposed to believe that two washed-out white folk like Marin and Heather’s dad could be the genetic parents? The commentary I have found on line seems to fully accept the premise that Heather’s dad was Julian’s father. Does that make sense to you?
Question 2: Am I the only person who thinks that we were supposed to pick up on the fact that Vera murdered Lionel with jimson-weed tea because it was obvious he had plans to sacrifice Julian just like he sacrificed the calf? It would explain so much. But I haven’t found anyone pointing this out on line.