“Murder in a Small Town” may be heading for marriage.
Though Season 2 of the Fox drama has seen the central Karl/Cassandra relationship slowly humming along, Tuesday’s finale delivers a twist: Karl asks Cassandra to marry him.
At first, Cassandra thinks it’s a joke. Karl, after all, does first phrase the question as a hypothetical: “Could you see yourself marrying me?” Cassandra’s theoretic reply is, “Holy crap.” But then Karl really asks it, as straightforward as possible: “Will you marry me?” But all he gets is a strained look from his girlfriend as his daughter looks on from the doorway.
So why the long face, Cassandra?
“I think it’s much more difficult for Cassandra to allow herself to admit that she has fallen completely in love,” creator Ian Weir tells TVLine.
“She’s just a very guarded person,” he added. “And being brought to the moment where she actually has to decide and say what she’s decided is terrifying.”
Though Weir admits the proposal does have an “impulsive quality,” the series creator assures us that it’s the real deal. Karl may not have entered that particular conversation with the plan to propose, but Weir says the sheriff has known since the first date that Cassandra is the one.
“This has been something he has wanted to ask her for quite some time,” he shares. Still, there are hurdles for the couple to consider.
“Cassandra hasn’t necessarily bared her soul to Karl, or to anybody,” Weir says. “They do have these no-go areas where they haven’t discussed, and although they get along beautifully, there’s been a hesitant quality because of that, which makes that next step in terms of communication really quite terrifying.”
If the show continues with another season, Weir says the pair would continue to forge ahead in their relationship despite this awkward little bump in the road.
“I would find it quite certainly heart-wrenching, but also in many ways impossible, to consider breaking Karl and Cassandra up,” he admits.
But because “Murder in a Small Town” has not yet been renewed for Season 3, there may not be an opportunity for Cassandra to do any kind of soul-baring with Karl. As it stands now, her lackluster reaction to his popping the question could serve as the series finale, meaning we may never know what she would have said to Karl’s proposal at all.
Grade the “Murder in a Small Town” finale, and Season 2 overall, in the polls below, then hit the comments: Are you hoping for a renewal so Cassandra’s full reaction to the proposal can be revealed?