A Murder at the End of the World season 1, episode 4, titled “Chapter 4: Family Secrets,” follows Darby Hart (Emma Corin) dealing with the aftermath of a second guest’s death as she breaks out of lockdown and discovers the retreat may not be what she thought it was.
The episode starts right where the last episode left off – with Rohan’s mysterious death. Andy has Darby and the other guests escorted to an underground bunker. There, the guests argue about what could be happening, with Andy notably not inside with the rest of the guests. Darby reveals that she thinks it was a heart attack that was induced by a hack on Rohan’s pacemaker, which Lee corroborates as a possibility.
The guests begin to get antsy and argue about wanting to go home. Eventually, Todd, the head of security, tells everyone that due to the incoming storm, they have to wait 48-72 hours until they will be able to leave the retreat and the police arrive. Until then, the guests are to stay in their rooms without electronics while they figure out what is happening.
Back in her room, Darby sits frustrated when Sian (Alice Braga) knocks on her window from the outside, breaking the lockdown protocol. Darby tests Sian to see if she knows code, to which Sian doesn’t know how to respond. Darby lets her in, and Sian apologizes for not believing her. Sian and Darby go to see Rohan’s body. There, they confirm Darby’s suspicion that his pacemaker has been hacked. They also find the communicator device that Rohan had used in a previous episode.
Sian convinces Darby to go out and check it out, but they have to go quickly due to the incoming storm. Darby agrees but is still suspicious of Sian. Sian reveals space suits, especially those that can be used in the cold air.
While out, they discover a raft at the shore that is used to go back to a larger ship that can’t dock, but the ship is nowhere in sight. With the storm approaching, they race back to the hotel, but on the way, the jetski dies, and they are forced to continue on foot. That is when they stumble upon a security checkpoint with a car.
Sian hacks the car and turns it on, raising suspicion in Darby. They begin driving, but there is black ice on the road. In the car, Sian reveals that Andy has something more going on. She tells Darby that Andy knows that the environment won’t be sustained, and the money that had been set aside for her space trip was being drained presumably into this hotel to prepare for the coming environmental crisis. Eventually, the black ice is too much, and the car flips, leaving Darby injured and sending us into a flashback.
In the flashback, we follow as Darby and Bill get closer to one another. After IDing one of the bodies they had found, they sneak into a motel, where Darby attempts to seduce Bill. Bill rejects her. The next morning, Darby and Bill talk about it, and Bill reveals that he felt weird doing things with her because they were looking into a case where a man did a horrible thing to a woman. Ultimately, Bill and Darby sleep with each other as we are brought back to the present.
Darby wakes up in med bay at the hotel, in and out of consciousness. The doctor reveals she has a concussion. Darby is suspicious as the doctor gives her morphine but is helpless to stop it anyway. Meanwhile, Sian gets stuck in her space suit and is quickly losing oxygen. Andy comes in, clearly angry and unable to hack the suit is forced to create an alternate breathing way through her neck, saving Sian. Darby falls unconscious from her concussion. The episode ends as Darby wakes up sometime later, not knowing how long she has been out.
In episode 4, director/writer Zal Batmanglij and writer Brit Marling continue unfolding the mystery while expanding on the developing relationships. This episode feels a bit on the slower side, with far less happening and weaker character work than past episodes.
Rating: 6/10