WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the first two episodes of Big Sky, now available on ABC.
ABC's Big Sky focuses on the kidnapping of young women outside of Montana by a mysterious trucker. It's linked to a shady cult, but the mistake the culprit Ronald (Brian Geraghty) makes is he snatches two young girls, Danielle (Natalie Alyn Lind) and Grace (Jade Pettyjohn), who are connected to the show's star investigators.
Danielle's dating Justin, and he lets his parents, both ex-cops in Ryan Phillipe's Cody and Katheryn Winnick's Jenny, know that the girls never made it to his house. This leads to a moment in the premiere that is similar to what Game of Thrones did to Ned Stark, and shockingly, it isn't a fake-out.
Cody ventures down to Montana as his assistant knows an experienced member of the highway patrol down there, Rick (John Carroll Lynch). Rick's a quaint guy with a strained marriage, as he seems too dedicated to his job, and appears to be vested in helping Cody find the girls. But things get suspicious when Jenny and Cody's last fling and partner, Cassie, send over intel from the FBI's servers that many girls have been taken at truck stops. Usually, the targets are prostitutes or women no one will miss, but one of Jenny's past hunches, a seedy church, seems to be responsible.
Cody insists he and Rick drive up to the church to check it out, but as they get in his truck, Rick stuns fans and pulls a gun on Cody and kills him. Now, the audience doesn't see Cody actually getting shot, but the splatter on the window says enough. Point-blank means point-blank in this world, and the corrupt Montana trooper has swung the proverbial ax.
The next episode, "Nowhere to Run," opens with Rick directing his accomplice Ronald as they use a tractor to bury Cody in his truck. At the beginning of the series, it seemed as if Cody would be the focal point in a love triangle with Cassie and Jenny, but that's out the window. It's also a bait-and-switch because Phillipe signed on for just this one episode, and while he doesn't get time to set the tempo like Ned did in King's Landing and with rival kingdoms, his disappearance has brought Cassie and Jenny down.
Interestingly, this shocking moment was expected for those who've read the source material, but the timing was off. Big Sky is an adaptation of C.J. Box's The Highway, with the premiere running through the first half of the book. Cody was a character in Three Weeks To Say Goodbye and Back of Beyond, but transitioned into a troubled lead in The Highway. There, after piecing together clues about the abductions, he's killed halfway through by Rick, as opposed to really being murdered in the beginning without unraveling much about the serial killer network. Regardless, Cody's grisly demise has left viewers stunned and creates room for the female leads to build a case like he did in the book.
Big Sky stars Katheryn Winnick, Ryan Phillips, Kylie Bunbury, Brian Geraghty and Valerie Mahaffey. It airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.