The penultimate episode of “Harper’s Island”: Kind of shocking. Kind of gory – and kind of a downer, as some of the most likable characters fall prey to John Wakefield.

First, Abby Mills’ father, Sheriff Mills, was hanged by Wakefield at the end of the last episode. When Abby discovers his body, Wakefield steps out of the woodwork at last to say hello and taunt Abby that she looks like her mother, who he killed seven years ago. Abby looks kind of like Yosemite Sam when Bugs would fool him: “Oooooh” and all red-faced. I thought Wakefield would snatch her, but Henry and Danny interrupt in the nick of time, and Wakefield escapes. Elaine Cassidy, who plays Abby, finally breaks out of 11 episodes of pretty despair to really grieve at last, which quickly carries over to some type-A rage as she vows she’ll kill Wakefield. Great, if he’s the only killer.

Sully and Cal, the Brit, have successfully performed amateur surgery on Cal’s wounded shoulder, but the delay at the clinic may have cost them the boat they had set out to find. They buddy-love each other in the meantime over Cal’s Chloe, and Sully will psychoanalyze himself the rest of the episode over how he wants love, to be more open, smell the flowers, etc. Don’t go sensitive on us now!

Over at the Cannery, Henry’s fiancée, Trish, her sister, Shea, niece, Madison, Chloe and townies Shane and Nikki keep tend to injured local Jimmy and watch for the others to return. Nikki helpfully narrates why all communication is down and nobody from the mainland will notice Harper’s Island’s silence for a few days, but she can’t pour a drink stiff enough to explain away why everybody in town save the final dozen characters has been missing for three episodes. Remember the packed Cannery nightlife? The inn staff? Doctor’s clinic? They must be staging one of those World of Warcraft marathons in someone’s basement. Madison is gently questioned over why she lied and said the sheriff had kidnapped her instead of Wakefield. I think that kid would be far more forthcoming with a good spanking. Bam! Wakefield storms in. It’s on.

Nikki dives behind her bar to pull out a shotgun but doesn’t quite get off a shot in time before Wakefield blocks the gun barrel and plunges a knife into her. Make that through her. Exit Nikki. The others go a’screaming to the back except for Shane, who pulls out a knife to duel with Wakefield, and Trish, who has a gun but doesn’t shoot for some reason. While she urges the others out a window, Shane rather valiantly fights Wakefield, but without so much as one more witty line, he’s also taken out. You grew on me, Shane. Trish belatedly tries to use her gun on Wakefield, but she’s out of bullets. Ooops! One plus two … plus two … plus … never mind. Fortunately for her, Shane makes one last not-dead-yet attempt to taunt Wakefield, so she escapes. When Henry, Danny and Abby return to the Cannery, Wakefield has strung up Shane to a light fixture, and he’s gone for good. Whether Jimmy regained consciousness during the attack is unknown, but he’s missing.

Trish and the women have taken refuge in the sheriff’s attic, where he kept his Sherlock Holmes paraphernalia on Wakefield, and they start looking for clues. Shea admits to her daughter that her father, Richard Allen, is dead. She does not tell Madison that Daddy was carrying on with Grandpa Ben’s wife, Katherine, and Madison doesn’t ask where her stepgrandmother has gone, so … that’s convenient. Madison frets that Wakefield had been nice to her. Chloe heads over to comfort her. “Some bad people pretend to be nice to get what they want,” says the pot to the kettle. The sound of church bells divides the crew – Trish and Chloe will head to the church to see if that’s a signal from Henry; Shea and Miranda will stay hidden in the attic. They split up.

Henry, Abby and Danny also head to the church at the signal, where they reunite with Trish and Chloe. Cal and Sully will join them moments later, but in a flash, Chloe’s missing. Jimmy stumbles in, looking cute and wounded. Trish connects the new tunnel maps and proposes there’s another one under the church that Wakefield must have very quietly and suddenly taken Chloe into, and Cal finds it. The group splits up: Sully and Danny to block the tunnel exit at the inn; Trish and Jimmy to guard the second exit to the storm drain; and Abby, Henry and Cal head into the tunnel to find Chloe.

You can perhaps imagine my frustration as I recap the final 10 minutes, where my TV would air 10 seconds, then go black for 2, through the end of the show.

Chloe is alive and trapped in a different storm drain, where Wakefield repeatedly taunts her that he’ll kill Cal. Abby, Henry and Cal will travel out the final tunnel exit and miraculously hear Chloe shouting for help. Abby and Henry head off at a Wakefield sighting, while Cal rescues Chloe and rather sweetly proposes at last. She says yes, as you might imagine. As you also might imagine, happy endings are not in Wakefield’s agenda, and he resurfaces to chase them onto a bridge where they reach a dead end. Chloe climbs to the bridge’s exterior, but through the weak wall, she watches Cal fight Wakefield, but die rather horribly instead. I must say that was depressing. I was pretty sure they were going to let Cal and Chloe live. Exit the wacky Brit.

Abby and Henry double back and, from the hills, watch Chloe and Wakefield on the bridge together. Chloe has moved past anguish, despair, fear – she’s in sort of an eerie trance, watching Cal’s body floating in the water. So she tells Wakefield that he can’t have her, and she lets go of the bridge siding and allows herself to fall backward, down into the river and presumably her death. Wow. Never would have seen that coming from that character even three episodes ago, but Chloe blossomed in the end. Wakefield is taken aback, too, but he spots Abby and Henry, then moves away.

But that’s not the end of the episode. Shea tells Madison to stop going through the sheriff’s papers, but they find some kind of police rap sheet on … Jimmy? This has the makings of a ridiculous red herring. What did Jimmy do – t.p. the Cannery?

Still, cut to Jimmy and Trish, guarding another tunnel exit from inside a car. Trish has nodded off. I’m a little hazy on what happened because of the cable signal problem I mentioned, but for a second it looks like Jimmy will pull out a gun and kill Trish, but instead, he’s nudging her awake to keep watch. Still, there’s a strange gleam in his eyes. Not Henry-crazy, but I’m just saying, it was a strange gleam.

Cut to promos of the final, two-hour episode, which airs in two weeks. Trish will put on her wedding dress and run around the island. Wakefield will be captured. And we’ll learn if there’s a second murderer and what it’s all about. I’m sort of sad, though. With the improbably matched Cal and Chloe gone, it sort of feels like the fun bunch already left the party.