Happy Town - In This Home on Ice, Pilot, S01E01

Although Happy Town started innocently with a stolen kiss in a car, soon a gruesome murder took place, quickly letting audience know whether or not they were interested in where this new show will lead.

It didn't take long for a creepy feeling of fear that went deeper than one murder, no matter how gross, to take hold. Even the idea of the bread factory filling Haplin (called Happy Town) with the pleasant aroma of fresh baking somehow seemed ominous. And most of the characters obviously had secrets - whether they are benign or threatening remains to be determined.

The sensation of a small town was strange considering how big Haplin appears to be. My only guess is that it is somehow cut off from any other major communities, or at least a fair distance away, otherwise it doesn't make sense to me that such a large population would be so close without ties elsewhere.

Still, the small town feel of everyone knowing each other was well put on, and I did love the quick explanation of how peaceful and happy Haplin had been for the last little while, delivered by Tommy Conroy (Geoff Stults), the Sheriff's son. His wife had hopes of moving away, but Tommy, in quick commentary to their daughter, enumerated all the reasons they had to stay in Haplin, giving us the perfect picture.

Also showing us the small community was the incompetence of the act of informing next of kin. Not only did the men tell the wife of the murder victim in the middle of the bread factory, but they then dragged her down to the station for questioning. Certainly there are guys who are not used to this sort of thing.

Still, it was only 5 years ago that people were disappearing from the small town. Once a year for 7 years, the magic man kidnapped someone. No one has forgotten, but there seems no hope in finding out what went down.

And yet, the recent violence has started some sort of ripple effect which we will have to pay close attention to. The Sheriff, Griffin Conroy (M.C. Gainey), started talking about a Chloe whenever things got stressful. I'm not sure what her link to the Magic Man is, or if there is one, but I want to know. I also want to know what made him go crazy at the end of the episode and cut his own hand off with an ax.

So, questions:

1. Who is Chloe/Henley (Lauren German)? What is her connection to the Sheriff and why did she really come to Haplin?

2. What's the deal with Merritt Grieves (Sam Neill)? We all know (or at least, those of us who have seen Event Horizon know) that Sam Neill can play a pretty creepy/scary character, and Grieves has definitely given us cause for worry, but is the fact that he comes across as the villain too obvious?

3. What is on the third floor of the boarding house?

4. Is the baking flour evil?

5. What does this most recent murder have to do with the Magic Man? Or does it?

6. Why did Rachel Conroy (Amy Acker) want to move away from Haplin?

What are your questions?