'The Gulf' Episode 6: Jess discovers devastating truths about her car crash and her mentor Doug
The season finale of 'The Gulf' ties up most of the loose ends but there were enough hints in the earlier episode about who the boss of the drug ring was -- Doug Bennington (Jeffrey Thomas), ex-cop and a one-time mentor of Jess.
It is the episode of revelations that hit Jess Savage (Kate Elliot) at the very core of her foundational trust in people. Not only does Doug Bennington turn out to be a rotten apple, Alex (Bede Skinner), her late husband whose death she has been grieving about since episode 1, turns out to be a child molester.
Ruby (Timmie Cameron), her daughter, is forced to reveal the secret she was hiding once Jess started getting her memories back. She tells Jess (again) that Alex had started abusing her since she was 11.
Jess obviously goes into a horror-struck, downward spiral when she finally understands why she had failed to rescue Alex in the crash after the car spun out of control when she was hitting him. Though she wants to turn herself in, Ruby asks her to be a mom before being a cop for the baby's sake.
Despite her personal life being shredded, Jess follows the leads that the now-dead Ronan had given her. She goes to talk to a Maori elder who tells her a story of two men, one Maori and one White, who had decided to become partners in a horticulture business to help the people staying on the island with a way to earn a living wage.
But when they grew up, one became a dirty cop who began cutting all kinds of shady deals to keep the money coming into the island. In the meantime, Jack Brodie (Phillip Gordon), who is still running the horticulture business, tells Doug he wants out of the drug business since he is facing heat from his Maori community about always covering for Doug.
The death of the Maori man shot by Doug is the last straw but he also reminds him about covering up leads about the missing child because it would implicate one of their associates. Doug half threatens, half cajoles him before returning home.
When Jess turns up at his house to confront him later, he is cool as a cucumber. He asks her what proof she has that he had murdered the man. Jess tells him about the cellphones retrieved from the dead man (courtesy an anonymous drop outside her house).
The clincher, however, is the fact that Jack is at the station giving his testimony about how Doug coerced him into getting an untraceable gun with its markings filed off to execute the man who wanted to take over the drug ring from Doug.
Doug knows he is cornered and feints an attack on Jess and he is promptly shot dead by Detective Harding (Ido Drent). Jess returns home and realizes her home has been broken into.
The smashed mirror in her room has the words "You'll pay for killing Alex" scrawled on it. Since Jess has confessed her crime to only Ruby, it is a mystery about who else knows the truth and how. The cliffhanger sets up Season 2 of the series that will see Jess having to face up to killing Alex, one way or another.
'The Gulf' airs on Wednesdays at 3 a.m. EST on Sundance Now.
