Twisted - Recap: Public Enemy No. 1

In addition, the show explores the prickly nature of grief in youths unaccustomed to confronting it, as Lacey (Kylie Bunbury) navigates her complicated feelings in the wake of Regina's death, and what she perceives as one classmate's attempt to take advantage of the tragedy. The show also continues its overarching depiction of one town's hostility against a kid who committed a horrible crime for reasons that have still yet to be explained, and it's this element that gives the story its considerable sense of atmosphere. This isn't exactly Rosewood, where the Pretty Little Liars are still capable of finding small pockets of peace, warmth and acceptance. Without Jo, Danny would be hard-pressed to find any respite from the constant persecution to which the town subjects him. And even with Jo on his side, it's not exactly smooth sailing, and with good reason: how do we know he didn't do it?

Credit: ABC Family

Of course, it's almost inconceivable to think that the show would have its primary (though ambiguous) protagonist actually end up being responsible for the murder everyone is accusing him of committing. But then, why does he have Regina's necklace? And if he came by it honestly, why is he going to such great lengths to hide it from the authorities, including his own mother, Karen (Denise Richards)? And other than the fact that it belonged to the aunt he was convicted of strangling, what significance does the necklace hold? Though we don't get the answers to these questions, the series utilizes the ambiguous nature of Danny's character to heighten the aura of dread surrounding him. This becomes central to the conflict at the heart of the episode, as Jo convinces Danny to hold a special dinner in which their families can reconnect, and her suspicious father, Sheriff Kyle Masterson (Sam Robards), can see that Danny isn't such a bad guy. Naturally, things get a little strained between Danny and Jo after Danny gets into a fight with Lacey's boyfriend, Archie (Grey Damon), which prompts Jo to question why she's bothering to stick up for a guy who has no interest in helping rehab his own tattered image.

Credit: ABC Family

And she has a point. It's often said that great conflict isn't about portraying a struggle between good and evil, but instead a struggle between two goods. Here, Danny was in the right to defend himself after Archie took a swing at him, while Jo is also right in feeling betrayed for having stuck her neck out for a guy who'd rather voice a witty retort that provoked Archie to anger, instead of just letting it slide. This conflict between two goods continues into the unbearably awkward (in a good way, at least from a dramatic standpoint) dinner between the Mastersons and the Desais. Kyle, fearing that his only daughter has thrown in her lot with a psychopathic killer, takes the opportunity to use the dinner invitation to go snooping around Danny's house, under the pretenses of going to the bathroom. Though he comes close to finding the necklace, Danny interrupts his search and remains surprisingly level-headed about Kyle's gross invasion of privacy. However, the same cannot be said for Karen, who lashes out against the Mastersons when it becomes apparent that Kyle has no interest in giving her son a fair shake. Karen apparently still holds a grudge against the Mastersons for not allowing Jo to testify as a character witness at Danny's sentencing hearing five years ago.

Credit: ABC Family

Though Karen's grief is understandable, Kyle is undoubtedly right when he points out that his daughter's testimony wouldn't have mattered in the long run, and that Danny was lucky to have received as light a sentence as he did, given the crime he committed. Danny continues to illustrate the complexity of his character by confronting his mother privately and taking full responsibility for his actions as a child, saying that the Mastersons are not to blame for his stint in juvie. While this would have been the perfect time to bring up that Karen knows about the necklace, having learned it from Kyle during a visit to the sheriff's office, she lets the moment pass. This proves to be a mistake, as we next see Danny destroying all photographic evidence that the necklace has any relation or significance to their family. However, Danny can't actually bring himself to destroy the necklace itself. To make matters worse, Kyle now knows that Danny lied about recognizing the necklace, as Karen's poker face isn't as good as her son's.

Credit: ABC Family

Jo, for her part, has completely sided with Danny, telling her father that she won't stop seeing Danny just because of the suspicions surrounding him. She goes on to tell her dad that he raised her to trust her gut, and she believes in Danny. Of course, it would be great if Danny actually told her about the necklace, or what his vague reasons were for murdering his aunt (if he murdered her at all, as I'm not entirely convinced he isn't taking the fall for someone due to the lighter sentences juveniles get. If nothing else, his father being responsible for the murder might cast further doubt on the suspicious nature of his disappearance/"death"). But Danny continues to be a complete cipher, though a charming one, admittedly. Also great: Rico (Ashton Moio), Jo's comic relief buddy, who continues eating huge mouthfuls of spaghetti during the increasingly awkward family dinner. His thing for Jessica Fletcher, Angela Lansbury's Murder She Wrote character, is also a wonderfully humorous touch for the character. Danny might be winning some friends here and there, but his not entirely out of the woods just yet, as they now have to prove he isn't responsible for Regina's death.

Naturally, it would help if Lacey came forward to admit that she had been with Danny the night of Regina's murder, but she still has no way of knowing whether or not Danny actually went to meet with Regina after she fell asleep. Danny tries to set Lacey's mind at ease when he runs into her at their old fort in the woods, where they'd work through their problems both big and small (and which Jo has apparently been tending over the last five years, to prevent the old shelter from decaying). Danny tells Lacey that he has no intention of telling the cops she was with him that night, but he also states, for the record, that he never went back to Regina's the night she died. Lacey remains ambivalent about Danny, uncertain whether to trust him or run screaming. For the moment, she simply does her best to keep her distance. After all, she has a friend to mourn.

It's a tricky thing, depicting grief onscreen, particularly for a character we knew as little about as Regina. But one way to give that process the immediacy it's lacking is by showing that the version of the person everyone is mourning isn't the real person. When Phoebe (Brittany Curran), a former friend of Regina who'd become a bitter rival of hers in recent years, decides to hold a grief counselling session after school, Lacey discovers just how little any of the mourners actually knew Regina. Worse, it becomes quickly apparent that Phoebe doesn't have much interest in mourning Regina, so much as using her death as an opportunity to...well, I'm not even sure, exactly. Get her fifteen minutes of fame? Become more popular? Take Regina's place as the alpha female?

Lacey eventually explodes at Phoebe during the grief counselling session, after hearing one shallow tale after another, topped with Phoebe proclaiming that this person she publicly hated was her "soulmate." Lacey apologizes to Phoebe afterwards, and it results in one of the more genuine moments of the episode, as Phoebe explains that her falling out with Regina was over a guy that Regina declared off-limits because she'd once had a three-week crush on him. "It sounds so stupid now," Phoebe says, essentially relating that one of the larger tragedies, in addition to Regina's death, is that petty squabbling prevented the friends from reconnecting. Lacey knows this just as well, as her last conversation with Regina was an argument at the latter's party. Lacey and Phoebe spend the rest of their time talking about Regina and remembering her, and perhaps this rumination on grief, and how quickly life passes between friendships, will inspire Lacey to give Danny a second chance? It's a longshot, but even if that turns out not to be the case, this storyline was still useful for how it handled the loss of Regina in a fashion that felt natural.

Credit: ABC Family

"Grief Is A Five-Letter Word" builds on last week's momentum, and I would be surprised if next week drops the ball. The show has a solid structure in place, and these two episodes are very well-paced in terms of how the story is parsed out, and how the mysteries are deepened in a way that doesn't feel like a cheat meant to drag out the solutions. And really, the cast remains talented throughout, perhaps more so than the material even calls for. I'm thoroughly enjoying Twisted so far, as it brings a less histrionic approach to the murder mystery than its timeslot forebear, Pretty Little Liars (although I don't think I'll ever stop loving that show for its sheer camp value, to say nothing of how littered with twists it often gets. Perhaps that show should have been named Twisted?).