Polly Wants A Crack At Happy Town

It was announced recently that Happy Town would be pulled after this week, with the remaining episodes airing starting June 2. To all my fellow Happy fans, I mourn with you. This series showed a lot of promise, and I am disappointed in the network for not giving it enough time to blossom into the great product it could have become. Two episodes simply wasn't enough time to determine if you had a hit show here. I am very disappointed with ABC in not having a little more faith and giving it somewhat of a chance. Hopefully they will at least let the mystery wrap up, although with only 5 episodes left I seriously doubt that will be the case. What will more likely happen is we will get highly invested in a great mystery only to be disappointed when we don't get all the answers we want. I just hope they prove me wrong.

Complaining about network issues is not the reason for this post though. No, the real purpose here is to recap tonight's episode and sift through all the shiny new details we got about the residents of Haplin. So, without further ado, I present my recap of "Polly Wants A Crack At Her"...

When last we left Happy Town, Henley had just gotten into her auto accident due to the giant bird crashing through her windshield. Cue the cheerful little ditty with lyrics about being dead. One of the things I will miss about this show is it's quirky choice of song placement.

Last week we had also learned that Dave was the one who killed Friddle, claiming it was because he believed him to be the Magic Man and he was therefore doing a service to the community. Debate: If Friddle really was the Magic Man, does that give Dave the right to take the law into his own hands?

This week we saw Dave and Tom Conroy looking for the bodies Friddle supposedly buried. The problem is they can't seem to find said bodies where they are supposed to be. Looks like Friddle wasn't our Magic Man after all... because that would have been too easy.

And what about our mysterious Mr. Merritt Grieves? Well, today we see him interact with Conroy's wife and daughter. He talks bird myths - "In some cultures the frequent appearance of a bird is a harbinger of things to come" - and magic journals. The little girl's reaction to this was adorable (and exactly the same as mine would have been). Where'd Grieves get the journal from though?

Apparently Happy Town has a thing for birds, because there is another reference to them later on when Bravin is describing the Magic Man. One of the things he mentions is the Magic Man having a giant bird with him with wings of fire. The bird's name - Cicero. Let the analysis commence.

Going back to Henley though - she is found by a mysterious stranger called Aidan who helps her back to town (after bringing her to a vet to be checked out and sexing her up a bit). Who is this Aidan fellow though, and where did he come from? And is it just coincidence that he happens to find Henley right after her accident?

If nothing else, Aidan seems to give Henley a reason to stay in town a while longer. What is really interesting though is that some of the ladies in the boarding house seemed to recognize him, although we realize who he is by the end of the episode.

It wouldn't be an episode of Happy Town, it seems, without a mysterious phone call from Henley to mystery person. Hopefully within the next 5 episodes we finally get to see who this person is and what they are about. Tantalizing quote of the night, "I'll go see her and get it done." See who?! And get what done?! Oh, HT, please don't leave me in suspense much longer. I get enough mysteries on Lost. I'm not sure how much more I can take.

Getting back to Henley though - she realizes the mystery hammer is missing and Aidan probably took it. Speaking of Aidan, turns out his full name is Aidan Gregory Stiviletto - the brother that Tom Conroy sent to prison (and who was supposed to be in jail still). Oh, and he has a grudge against Conroy - a fact we spent practically the whole episode establishing before finally getting the big reveal. To make matters worse, Conroy's wife goes conveniently missing right around the same time. Too easy? Possibly. But sometimes the simplest solution is the right one.

As Tom goes looking for his wife, he remembers something his dad said about the Magic Man, "He'll be back, now that blood's been spilled again, everything will unravel." Add to that the daughter saying something about the man made the writing go away in the journal (which Mom was holding before she disappeared) and a giant hawk flying over them (which I think we are meant to believe is Cicero) and we've got ourselves a chilling scene here, folks. It would appear the Magic Man is back and has kidnapped the sheriff's wife. Based on the comment about the journal, I'm going to take a guess that Grieves is going to have some connection to this case. I won't go so far as to say he is the Magic Man though. No, I actually like Aidan for that one (depending on how his prison sentence overlaps with the crimes). If I am right, I think they stopped when he went to jail and are now conveniently starting up with him back out. Speaking of which, how exactly did he get out of prison two years early? With only five episodes left we don't have much time left to answer all of these questions.