'Barkskins' Episode 2 Preview: Hamish Goames investigates the massacre and it leads him to a mysterious girl
Spoilers for 'Barkskins' Season 1 Episode 1
Everyone who arrives in New France has big dreams. Or at least dreams to survive without perishing from hunger and poverty. However, more often than not, they hardly have a say about being shipped off across the ocean from France to Wobik in New France.
'Barkskins' is a unique tale of environmental fiction that documents the deforestation of America. Based on the 2016 best-selling novel of the same name by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Proulx, the story harks back 300 years and is spectacularly woven together by personal accounts that are affected and affect the world around them. Rene Sel (Christian Cooke) and Charles Duquet (James Bloor) now work for Claude Trepagny (David Thewlis). The woodcutters are employed by Trepagny to clear the land so that he can fulfill his lifelong dream of building a settlement. Rene is hardworking and hardly ever questions authority. Rene is hardworking and hardly ever questions authority. He is an uncynical and morally sound indentured servant who is ready to work for the contractual three years as long as he can simply get his freedom afterward.
On the other hand, Duquet is a scrappy, industrious scoundrel, but soon realizes that he is not cut out for manual labor. So very soon he manages to escape his employer and finds himself in the middle of nowhere.
Far away from the forests around Trepagny is the dirty gritty town of Wobik. Hamish Goames (Aneurin Barnard) arrives with Yvon (Zahn McClarnon) to investigate the disappearance of an agent of the very brutal and greedy Hudson's Bay Company. He suspects that the agent must have perished in the massacre that had killed so many people. When he begins questioning the authorities in the town, they are, not-so-surprisingly, unable to provide him with any viable answers.
Elisha Cooke (Thomas M Wright), an English barrel maker and smuggler, is full of false praise and flattery when questions are asked. Constable Bouchard (David Wilmot) is the local constable but hardly offered any help to Hamish and if anything he only hinders Hamish's investigations. So Hamish is actually looking for the missing agent from the company when he and Yvon find the girl in the middle of the debris left behind by the massacre. Along with the girl is a priest, who still seems to be in shock from the night of burning, killing and pillaging. Now, who really is this girl?
From the looks of it, she is the very same girl that we saw running away from the massacre at the beginning of the episode. At that time she had narrowly escaped and saved her life. But now back here, who knows what it means for her to be in this town? It goes without saying that the life of the young girl is in peril. The young girl is the sole sane witness of the massacre and therefore will be playing a key role in the series.
At the same time that are more important questions that remain. For instance, who was it that started the massacre that led to the disappearance of the agent from the company. As Hamish continues his search for the truth, he must see to it that he protects the young girl before it is too late.
'Barkskins' airs on National Geographic on Mondays at 9/ 8c.