The Sinner season 2, episode 7 recap: Looking for Julian

The hunt for Julian is on in The Sinner this week. How does the penultimate episode for the season play out?

Carrie Coon’s fantastic performance as Vera continues in “Part VII” of The Sinner. In the opening scene, the cops show up to look for Julian at Mosswood and she’s in hysterics when she finds out that Julian is gone. However, she overdoes it and gets herself handcuffed and escorted outside.

Detective Ambrose is still at the motel and visits the foster home. He notices someone had a ton of sunflower seeds and he finds the same ones in a parking lot across the street from the house. Some kids tell him a brown camper van was in that spot. He goes back to the police department to try to get Chief Liddell to put out an Amber Alert, but Novack does it while they’re discussing it.

When Detective Ambrose tells Vera about the van, it’s clear she knows who drives a van like that. She wants her lawyer and tells Ambrose saving Julian won’t save him. However, Detective Novack interrupts when they have something from the Amber Alert. An officer found the van, but no one is inside and the Canadian plates on it were stolen.

The search team heads into the woods right off the side of the road. Detective Ambrose finds a rope that acts as a belt that is worn by monks. This one has five knots in it, so they decide to look into who wears one with that many. Back at the station, Vera tells Benji to tell Terry to go see the Grey Daughters.

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Detective Ambrose and Detective Novak make it to the Great Daughters to ask some questions. Novack sees Marin in some photos, but she was going by Laura there and came in three years ago up until a few weeks ago. They also learn her father was looking for her. She describes a man with grey long hair in a ponytail. We then cut to Vera greeting Marin at Mosswood.

As it turns out, Marin was there to take Julian with her. Vera never told Julian about her and she reacts defensively when Marin wants to see him. We know this was shortly after she left because Bess is still there. This actually explains why Bess and Adam took him in the first place. Marin snuck into Mosswood to see Julian, but is kicked out and Bess is the one who kindly escorts her.

This is when Vera started spinning a web of lies to Julian. She tells him what he saw was just a dream, but it was Marin all along. Bess sympathizes with Marin and we see she was the one sleeping in the storage unit. Things are starting to fall into place with the story.

Everything comes apart for Marin when she sees two people are found dead in a motel room. She follows Julian and sees his arrest. She then makes her way to the foster home and tells him she’s going to take him home. Julian sees a gun in the van and starts freaking out and when he threatens to jump out, she pulls over and tells him she’s his mother. He bites her and runs right into the woods.

Marin catches up with Julian in the woods and explains who she is. She knows the song that Bess used to sing to him and gives him some food. These are some small steps she takes to build his trust. However, when they try to go back to the van, the officer has already found it. Detective Ambrose ends up adding Marin to the Amber Alert now that they’re sure she took him.

Harry has a quick flashback to telling Julian that it’s more complicated than him being guilty of the murder. Back at Mosswood, Benji tells Vera she won’t get to keep Julian. Terry happens to know where Marin is taking him, though.

We see Marin and Julian get on a bus and she tells him they’re going to Niagra Falls. Marin explains why she left and we learn she feels she failed. Julian puts together that Bess and Adam were trying to take him to her and now he feels even worse about what he did. He starts to freak out and gets the attention of pretty much everyone on the bus.

In a smart move, Marin calls Heather and says that they’re both okay. Heather tries to get her to comeback, but when she won’t, she offers to meet her somewhere instead. After the call, Detective Ambrose has a look on his face like he knows it was Marin who called.

Heather calls in to get a location on Marin’s phone. Marin and Julian have a place to stay for the night. While Marin is making a call, Julian moves closer to the gun that she takes out of her purse. Marin calls someone to tell them “we’re here,” but we have no clue who is on the other line. The detectives find the phone dumped at a gas station and Ambrose figures out how she plans to get across.

The body from the lake is identified and the woman had no ties to Mosswood. It looks like her death was a suicide. As they’re diving, the detectives follow some local cops to see what’s going on. When they arrive at the scene, Marin’s been shot, however, it might not have been by Julian since Terry did know where Marin was taking him.

With one episode left, it looks like the finale is going to be stacked with more questions and answers. I’ve enjoyed this season quite a bit and I’m actually pretty sad about Marin actually being killed so shortly after getting to spend time with Julian. But at least she was able to tell him the truth. Whether or not he believes her, is another story, though.

The Sinner airs on USA on Wednesdays at 10 PM.