'In the Dark' Season 2 Finale Review: Could Murphy be the new Dean? It seems her troubles are just beginning
Spoilers for 'In the Dark' Season 2 Episode 13 'My Pride And Joy'
At this point on 'In the Dark', where we have come to the end of the second season of The CW show, it is hard to discern the truth about who the real bad guy is. The easy guesses include Nia Bailey (Nicki Micheaux) or her henchwoman, Sam Rogers (Cortni Vaughn Joyner) or Dean Riley (Rich Sommer). However, we think another strong contender for that position also includes the lead character of the show, Murphy Mason (Perry Mattfeld).
We know Murphy would go to any lengths to protect her friends, Jess Damon (Brooke Markham), Felix Bell (Morgan Krantz) and Max Parish (Casey Deidrick). But a lot of it is also motivated by her personal feelings toward those people because she cannot lose them. This week's episode and Season 2 finale make a strong case for shaping Murphy to be the next season's big bad, but before we go into that, let's take a look at all that went down.
Darnell comes home
Max and Murphy's friend, Darnell James (Keston John), who worked for Nia and was revealed to be her brother comes back after Dean's former partner, Gene Clemens (Matt Murray) asked him questions about Nia and Dean in the last episode. Darnell suspects that Nia isn't safe and all it takes is a phone call from Sam to let him know that she is, in fact, dead. Jess, overcome with guilt, decides to come clean to him.
We think Darnell took the news much better than expected. He says he will take care of it -- meaning that Nia's absence won't go unnoticed and he will have to tie up whatever loose ends there are. This could set up Darnell being Nia's successor, taking over her drug trafficking and money laundering business. Will he turn on Murphy and the others for what they did to his sister? While he might understand why they did it, he may not be as friendly with them as he used to be.
Dean's options run out
Dean had recovered the stolen drugs by the end of the last episode and this week he uses it as leverage to get Murphy to agree to his narrative about what happened between them. He had earlier told Chloe (Calle Walton) that they broke up because of Murphy's insensitivity to Dean's former partner's death. The last we saw Chloe, she had had a big fight with her father and told him she hated him. Much of what Dean does is motivated by his love for her, but it also mutates into an ugly thing when Dean tries to manipulate the power that he gains through questionable means.
Murphy soon learns that Dean is no longer on the police force and is setting her up. She tells everything to Chloe, who is really upset at first but does what Murphy asked her to do. She gave Dean's keys to Jess and Felix, who take the drugs to Nia's competitor, Josiah (Maurice Compte) with whom they had made a deal.
Meanwhile, Gene also grows suspicious of Dean and though the police chief shuts him down, Gene pursues his hunch and goes to arrest Dean. Seeing the police lights outside, Dean panics. It is only when Murphy tells him that Chloe knows everything -- including that he is a murderer -- that Dean loses all hope. Knowing that his daughter will never see him the same way again, Dean shoots himself.
We are not going to lie, Dean was a very intriguing character and yes, while he was the most despicable character in the second season, there was a part of us that hoped he would get some redemption. With both her parents gone, we wonder what would happen to Chloe. We hope she sticks around even though Dean will no longer be in the picture, though it might be difficult for the writers to accommodate that.
Murphy finally chooses... or does she?
At the end of their misadventures (Josiah really seems to have stuck to his end of the bargain and let them go after he got Nia's shipment and even paid for the extra drugs they delivered), Max tells Murphy that he understands why she spent time with Josh Wallace (Theodore Bhat). However, when Murphy confirms that it is over between her and Max, he walks out, vowing to never return.
We then get to see what could have been a long-awaited relaxing night for Murphy as Josh comes over. But as he sees Max's photo in her room, things start to unravel. Slowly, he puts together that Murphy was the new money launderer and begins to think that she was using him. He also suspects Nia is dead and thinks that Murphy killed her.
Now, almost out of options herself, Murphy wakes Jess up, asks her to call Max (and presumably Felix) and gets out of the house. The season comes to an end here but it opens up many potential scenarios for the next season.
What next?
We suspect a few of the new characters will stick around, especially Josh and Gene. Sam may also remain around for Season 3 and perhaps join up with Darnell to reopen Nia's business. What we need to know is whether Murphy and the gang will stick around Chicago or whether they will be on the run given that Josh seems to know a lot of what went down. This might make things awkward between Max and Murphy, who may even drift back to each other.
Though Season 3 has been confirmed, we will have to wait and see when it could come back. Given the current coronavirus pandemic, it might be a while before production resumes. However, we can expect it back on our televisions sometime in 2021.
