From CBS: “Harper’s Island” is about a group of family and friends who travel to a secluded island off the coast of Seattle for a destination wedding. This island is famous for a streak of unsolved murders from seven years ago. Although they’ve come to laugh and to love, what they don’t know is they’ve also come… to die.

And we’re on to episode two: Be warned: Scones will be sacrificed.

So deer pick up where the pilot’s mariachi band left off. After Abby disturbs Jimmy and Shane’s hunting escapade, she argues with them about spilling any more blood on this island, because John Wakefield killed her mother and a bunch of other people, but not deer, seven years ago. Jimmy and Shane head out to their truck to find a deer carcass on the hood and “PSYCHO” written in blood on the windshield (which, regardless of the culprit, seems a touch hypocritical). They blame groom-to-be Henry and his spooky brother, J.D., so Shane leaves a severed deer head in Henry’s bathroom. Nothing psycho about that, of course. So then Henry punches out Shane when he and Jimmy turn up for a nighttime beach party. I think Benjamin McKenzie will swagger in any minute here, but he’s got a previous engagement on NBC’s “Southland.” J.D. watches and grins and rolls his crazy eyes. The have-nows and still-have-nots will not play nice after all.

Bride-to-be Trish dons pearls again – every character with accessories around her neck makes me nervous – to meet ex Hunter and tell him to bug off, she’s definitely marrying Henry. Hunter can’t properly respond because he only has one working expression, so he runs to Trish’s father, Thomas, who warns him to be more sexy; the wedding’s just days away. Trish walks in and realizes her father and Hunter must be in cahoots, but that’s shooed away by Daddy a commercial break later when he says Trish heard him say TOMATO, not TO-MATO, and that Hunter has been sent packing. But he hasn’t.

Abby revisits other pals she hasn’t seen since fleeing the island, including Kelly, a local whose mother also was one of Wakefield’s victims. Kelly’s not doing so well – she thinks she has seen Wakefield, though he was slain by Abby’s father, Sheriff Mills. Kelly would feel safer if she could move to L.A. and live with Abby, who is understandably put-off but eventually says OK. Kelly’s thrilled and proceeds to cavort with J.D. Weren’t they acting like strangers in episode one? But it doesn’t matter if Kelly’s a fool for love, because she’ll be found hanged by the episode’s end.

Henry and Trish divide the bridal party in teams for a scavenger hunt, in which fratty groomsman Sully tricks Englishman Cal into trading teams, parting him from girlfriend Chloe, she of the wily abs. Chloe is far more likable in episode two, however, resisting Sully’s limited charms and properly fretting when Cal disappears. He is caught in one of a series of island booby-traps and appears fortunate to have been left unscathed. The same cannot be said for the island pastor, who can’t enjoy a fresh scone and a stroll without being swept upside down by a trap. And murdered! C’mon, a pastor? With a warm scone? Is nothing sacred on this show? Bridesmaid Lucy, the one with the frou-frou dog, will be the episode’s final victim, falling into a trap in the woods toward the end of the show. Our killer (killers?) douses her with gasoline and tosses a match in the pit. Yuck. The dog’s OK.

It’s not a great episode, in part because the Abby-Kelly and Abby-Jimmy storylines take place over a few scenes and different settings when one would have sufficed. The Kelly-J.D. romp seemed senseless, but maybe they recognized each other from long-ago summers on the island. And the pastor’s death was harsh, but it also was in the opening minutes, so I have to hand it again to CBS: If you’re just tuning in, it’s pretty brutal and in-your-face. Guess if you don’t like it, go watch “Southland.” It’s an interesting network strategy.

What’s good about it: There are some good actors on board, now that they’ve been relieved of their duties to merely look stylish. Katie Cassidy (Trish) ought to be a one-note, poor-little-debutante, but she’s got some depth. Elaine Cassidy (Abby, no relation to her co-star) stopped looking like a “Fear Factor” contestant, so she’s growing on me. C.J. Thomason (Jimmy) is not quite there yet, but he does have nice chemistry with Abby. He would have chemistry with a fence post, actually. But the real star is Christopher Gorham as Henry. The first episode he was mostly handsome and smiling, but after a while he emits some sort of contagious tension. When Abby finds him cleaning the deer head in the bathtub, Henry’s face is this alternating mask of calm and crack-up. It’s hard not to start viewing him as a potential killer or collaborator.

So who do you think is the killer (killers?), and who will die next? Judging from the promising upcoming scenes, I think main characters Abby, Trish and Henry have a lot of time left. If I’m wrong, then there must be a lot of wardrobe changes written into the script in the next show or three. I think Jimmy will go in that boat explosion Henry and Abby witness. But since explosions are the go-to device to bring a character back at the finale, Jimmy’s bound to come back. Cal may at least have his chance to propose to Chloe, and apparently Sully will hook up with the anti-Sully, the tattooed bartender Ali. Ah, romance. Trish’s niece Miranda will have some spooky visions, and barring a miraculous escape, it looks like J.D.’s days are numbered. Hunter? He’s a goner.

The other promising aspect of the previews is the gang will soon start discovering bodies, and we don’t have to wonder how many people will go missing before scavenger hunts and naughty chocolate shenanigans (Henry … Trish, how could you?) are called to a halt. Just don’t sacrifice any more fresh scones, people. A show must have some standards.