ABC’s Big Sky follows private detectives Cassie Dewell (Kylie Bunbury) and Cody Hoyt (Ryan Phillippe) looking for two missing sisters. Alongside his estranged ex-wife/former cop, Jenny Hoyt (Katheryn Winnick), they all band together to find their location. Later, the TV show revealed Ronald Pergman (Brian Geraghty) is the kidnapper. After escaping police custody, his whereabouts were unknown. So, where is he hiding?
[Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers from Big Sky Seasons 2 Episode 1]
In the season 1 finale, Ronald Pergman confessed to murdering Kelli in the season finale – the woman’s name carved into his truck. While in handcuffs, he demands Cassie and Jenny take him to where Mary and Kelli’s bodies are hidden. So, Ronald takes them to a wooden dollhouse in the wilderness, where he stashes Kelli. He left her to starve to death while tied to a bed.
While Cassie and Lindor are driving Ronald to jail, his human-trafficking accomplices stage an accident to help him escape. Ultimately, the car flips over, and Ronald climbs out of the vehicle. Before the police took him into custody, he told his partner, Scarlet, to contact John Milton. When she does, an escape plan is orchestrated. After the escape, Ronald’s location was unknown – until now.
In Big Sky Season 2 Episode 1, “Wakey Wakey,” viewers are introduced to a room filled with animal cages. An unnamed man is carrying a plate of bacon and eggs in the shape of a smiley face. He places the breakfast in front of a locked box. “Wake, wakey, eggs, and bakey,” he says, opening the box to reveal Ronald as a prisoner. Meanwhile, the man appears to resemble deceased state trooper Rick Legarski (John Carroll Lynch). When he unlocks the cell, he says, “Ronald, my dear boy, let us begin.”
According to Deadline, Legarski’s wife Merrilee (Brooke Smith) killed him with a hammer. Earlier in the show, it was revealed the state trooper had a twin. The actor told the outlet that Rick’s brother, Wolfgang Legarski, is his new character.
Lynch describes his story arc as an “attempt at redemption for both Wolf, because of his brother’s actions, and Ronald, trying to come to a place where Ronald can atone for his sins, and Wolf can clean up the mess his brother left, in terms of his life and the life of his family.”
Although Lynch is eager to return to Big Sky, coming back as a new character did pose a challenge. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the actor shared that playing the twin brother on-screen has been an “exciting challenge.”
“There’s a traditional thing that people have done where you get to play a twin; I’ve never done that. I thought that was an exciting challenge, to create someone in the same world that’s very different than the person who left it,” he said.
Lynch went on to talk about his relationship with his previous character. “I look for things that scare me for a variety of reasons, and that one did. Because sometimes you catch lightning in a bottle, and Legarski was definitely that, in terms of the relationship I had to that character,” he continued. “I don’t know why it was so clear to me what his poor worldview was, but it was pretty clear. I just wanted to see what would happen if we did something different, and [Reid] sold me on that idea.”
Big Sky airs on Thursdays on ABC at 10 p.m. ET.