A Murder At The End Of The World recap: Tales from the crypt

[Editor’s note: This recap, like all recaps on The A.V. Club, contains spoilers.]

Darby Hart is at a tipping point, and so is A Murder At The End Of The World. “Crypt” is filled with tales as Batmanglij and Marling’s whodunit gets to its inevitable interrogation episode, a hallmark of the genre. To be clear, AMATEOTW has answers. With two episodes left, it doesn’t seem like Batmanglij and Marling are going to pull a “the killer was the friends we made along the way.” Still, the show spends its longest episode showing some of its cards and preparing its final hand. It just can’t find a particularly compelling way of doing so.

Darby is on the cusp of wrapping this case up, and this ep opens with a revelatory sneeze. ACHOO syndrome, as we all know, is genetic, so when a ray of sunshine triggers Zoomer’s booger-based light sensitivity in front of Darby, she realizes he is Bill’s child and smells him, a scent that sends her back to her road trip. As it has since episode one, the show’s competing narratives struggle to find elegant connections, usually finding a clumsy bit of metaphor, like Bill’s argument that phones are worse than smoking. Ironically, this episode is all about connection, and Darby’s olfactory obsessions do create a strong one when you sniff your lover hard enough. There’s a nice bit of symmetry here, too, somewhat hampered by Ziba’s heavy-handed exposition about nomads and the dead living in the wind because every point this show wants to make, it must do so loudly. Nevertheless, Darby’s sensory connections define her character and separate her from Andy.

Like Darby in the present, Darby in the past is on the verge of solving the case, with pictures taped to the wall and everything. E. Bell, she learns from Reddit, was probably the original owner of the silver ring, and in retracing Bell’s family legacy, she discovers some suspicious characters in the family tree. It’s around this time that Bill gets concerned. Since episode two Bill’s been a tad unknowable. With his rap-around sunglasses, tight mullet, and stick-and-poke tattoos, Bill’s a Gen Z dream, but we never learn much about him. How did he go from creepy Redditor DMing teens about serial killers to “Artificial Insanity”? And why is he so paternalistic with Darby all of a sudden? Perhaps that’s what makes Bill a good victim: His whole life is a mystery that will never be solved.

However, in this episode, when he starts backpedaling, showing concern for Darby’s Adderall usage and her over-commitment to the case, it rings false. Should we be suspicious of Bill? Why does he seem so guilty? For all the table setting of the premiere episodes, I still don’t know what to make of this dude, and I get the sense the show wants to understand him. Maybe this is all a swerve to throw us off the scent, but I don’t understand what Bill sees in Darby, why he’s on this case, or how he let it go this far. He stole his uncle’s car, crossed state lines, examined human remains, and now he’s worried about entering an abandoned house? Where did he think this was going to lead? This character wouldn’t amount to much if not for Harris Dickinson’s sympathetic, wounded-bird performance. He makes this guy real, even if his motivations are opaque.

However, Darby doesn’t give up, and her persistence becomes a central theme of the episode. Waking up in the medical bay—which is more of an evidence locker at this point—Darby, concussion and all, demands Ava take her to Andy’s room on floor -10. Buried ten stories beneath the hotel, Darby questions Andy, learns he’s sterile, and hears his mostly rock-solid alibi. Whoever committed the killings had to be an insider because Bill’s murder happened within the short backup window of the hotel’s security system.

It’s in these moments that Clive Owen’s casting becomes a masterstroke. Recalling his performance in Children Of Men, Andy’s focus on procreation, his vision of the future, and his sterility circle the interests of Alfonso Cuarón’s 2006 thriller, except he’s inverting that character. Unlike in Children Of Men, Andy isn’t the savior here. As Ziba points out later in the episode, he’s the architect of humanity’s and Darby’s destruction. He isn’t saving people out of hope for the future; he’s providing another service for the resource-hogging billionaires as the rest of us die in the street. This isn’t something he’s doing for the good of humanity. He’s protecting his son, his legacy, and his lineage from climate death. Andy sees himself as King Arthur, a noble hero ordained by god to find immortality, doing so from his crypt 10 stories below the hotel. In Children Of Men, Andy would undoubtedly be a villain as he is here.

Andy’s inability to procreate is a big deal, so big he hasn’t even told Lee, making his decision to confess to Darby all the more baffling. Andy’s honesty about his low T seems out of character, but it does woo Darby to his side. Using the hotel security system, Andy and Darby narrow the suspects down to David, Oliver, and Lu Mei, allowing the show to reintroduce some suspicious but sidelined characters. These conversations aren’t too fruitful, though. David is mostly useless, refusing to answer any questions about his whereabouts on the night of Bill’s murder. Oliver has no qualms about it, though. He and David were having sex. Aside from teasing us with a more interesting story happening in the other hotel rooms, Oliver’s appearance deepens his character, allowing him a life outside appearing in scenes to give a crucial bit of information before disappearing again.

The same could be said for Lu Mei, who we haven’t seen much of, despite this being Joan Chen’s most high-profile role on American television since Twin Peaks trapped her in a drawer. Lu Mei does deliver the next lead, reporting Lee’s poker game disappearance near the time of Bill’s murder. We also heard a bit more about how she’s also developing a Minority Report situation in her smart cities, predicting the criminal element before it strikes. Thank god for Joan Chen. She makes “I invented a precog” sound somewhat believable.

Before Andy and Darby can question Lee, though, Andy takes a call from The Wall Street Journal about his little Hateful Eight reenactment in Iceland. This gives Darby an opportunity to wander into Zoomer’s room and sink the whole operation. She immediately tells Lee about Andy’s sterility, and Lee does not take it well, heading to the bathroom to collect herself as Darby tactlessly rummages through Lee’s bag, discovering phony documents and a black wig. Of course, she and Andy catch Darby snooping and send her back to her room. But Todd, a man who once beat his brother’s killer within an inch of his life, respects loyalty and revenge and gives Darby back her room key.

Regardless, Lee’s looking more suspicious than ever. In the next scene, Sian tells Darby that she used to believe that Lee loves money and that Zoomer’s trust is why she’s so into the kid. Sian’s assessment might be a little too harsh because it’s hard to imagine money being Lee’s only motivation. The more plausible option is that she’s planning on running off with Zoomer and starting a new life on the zodiac boat. It doesn’t matter because as Darby turns around to get Sian some water, Sian dies. Andy’s right: Wherever Darby goes, death follows.

Darby’s on the edge. In addition to her concussion, her boyfriend’s dead, the other two guests she began to trust, Sian and Rohan, are dead, she’s got the richest man on Earth mad at her, and the killer broke into her room and threatened her. So Darby does what any rational American youngster would do in this situation: blow lines of Adderall to stay awake. She starts getting a little more destructive, breaking Ray’s speaker after he warns her to take it easy on the speed, similar to the motel fire argument between her and Bill. Both Ray and David are both sounding a lot like Bill, questioning her drug usage and mental state. But as Darby starts seeming more like an unreliable narrator, Sian tells Darby what she needs to do to sew up this whole thing: find people she can trust. In the next scene, Darby arrives outside with Ziba and Lu Mei, discussing the tipping point before a revolution. Darby’s not there yet. She’s not ready to join.

Before she can utter Bill’s name for Ziba’s prayer to the wind, Darby flashes back to the motel room, the night she started the fire. In that scene, Bill is not the “second adopter” she needs. He criticizes her, calls the whole operation into question, and accuses her of being mentally unwell. But, when we cut back to the present, she still can’t say his name and accept the loss.

Later that night, Darby receives a message from her lamp to meet her at the pool. She heads down, but boy, is it cold. Why not take a dip in the heated pool? She gets in, and the top starts to close.

At 75 minutes, “Crypt” is the longest episode to date, and it’s absolutely stuffed with plot. Whodunits have a tricky game to play. They must delay information, hide it, and obscure it, dropping breadcrumbs to keep the energy up. This is why the characters should have some personality. Yet, here we are. Nine guests and neither Andy nor Lee invited a funny person? Each one sounds indistinguishable from the other. One week after the show dared to turn its mysteries into suspense, it returned to its comfort zone, never justifying the extra-long episode with rewarding answers. It ends on a cliffhanger that does nothing to build suspense. Another plot point to add to the pile.

Stray observations

• It’s hard not to recall the survivor from a few weeks ago, describing the Silver Doe attacker by his gloved hand and his stench when we see Darby’s attacker. There it is, a big honking glove. Though scent takes on a much more sensual attribute earlier in the episode, AMATEOTW plays with these different sensory motifs somewhat haphazardly. Sometimes, it feels like they’re throwing things at a wall and seeing what sticks.
• I was scratching my head at Darby’s logic for getting in the pool. Was that easier than returning to her room quickly and grabbing a jacket?
• Andy gave Darby that information, knowing she would tell Lee.
• I think Lee is the third person on Bill and Rohan’s mission, which explains the passport. She’s making a run for it.
• Was I the only one who spent the entire episode waiting for that fire from the opening scene to pay off in some way?

A Murder At The End Of The World is available to stream now on Hulu.