Tonight on Gracepoint episode 5, the town began to turn against Jack when lots of dirt was dug up about the elderly man.

Our Gracepoint episode 5 recap breaks down the events of the storyline as we wonder, why does this show feel like it’s moving so slow?

Jack’s history revealed

Owen and Renee spend the night together (we don’t see them shacking up like we did on Broadchurch — damn you, American television!). Now that they’re emotionally attached and clearly quite giddy about each other, they start working together on a new lead: Before moving to Gracepoint, Jack was imprisoned for having sex with a minor. They bring this evidence to Carver and Ellie, who decide to interview him.

Jack says the imprisonment is true, but he moved to Gracepoint to move on. He pushes off questions that he could’ve been involved with Danny’s murder. Later, Owen approaches Jack about being accused of statutory rape. He grabs Owen by the collar and starts yelling at him. Vince is creepily watching from above, and later he relays what he saw to Mark.

Renee goes to the family to give them tips on how to make their case stand out in the media. She suggests that Beth tells her side of the story, and later she has it published in the Globe. This pisses off Owen because they didn’t work together on the piece like she promised.

Family matters

Pastor Paul calls a mass and pretty much the entire town decides to show up because they’re all feeling the need for comfort from a higher power. Afterward, Ellie’s family goes over to Beth’s for a meal since Vince kindly cooked. Mark and Beth’s tense relationship are on display in this scene while others show more pleasant feelings toward one another.

Things turn sour when Jack shows up at the house to present Danny’s cell phone because he apparently just found it. Do we believe this or is he covering his bases? He also pleads with them to believe that he wasn’t the one who killed Danny in light all of the information that has recently surfaced. Meanwhile, the recent media attention ends up biting Danny’s family in the rear — photojournalists have shown up in front of the family’s house and start taking photos through the windows. Mark is upset by this intrusiveness and tosses one of their cameras onto the ground.

The episode concludes with the press conference held at the school with the detectives and the family offering statements and information. Right before the event begins, Beth decides that this is the ideal time to tell Mark she knows about him and Gemma. Ellie had encouraged her to come clean about it earlier in the episode, but why tell him now?

Speaking of Ellie, she decides that this is the ideal time to tell Carver that some of Danny’s hair was discovered on the burnt boat, and that a similar case happened in Oregon — in the same town that Jack used to live in. This isn’t getting any better for Jack!

The press conference begins with Beth making a statement, while viewers see Jack burning photos of him and Danny in a fire pit.

While all of the evidence against Jack is damning, we simply think he’s just had some bad luck. Maybe there will be some new evidence on Danny’s cell phone which’ll help Carver and Ellie crack the case.

Elsewhere…

– Carver arrives at Ellie’s house for a Mexican dinner. He brings a whole lot of gifts over because it’s been “a while” since he’s received a dinner invite from anyone. Carver appears to be nervous in this at-home environment. Following dinner, after feeling like he’s missing out on family life, he tries calling his daughter to catch up. She doesn’t answer.

Carver gets back to his hotel room, and then suddenly suffers another medical breakdown. Luckily Gemma hears him crash from the floor below and takes him to the hospital. She promises to not tell anyone about his condition so long as he listens to the doctors.

– Susan stops by Gemma’s to ask for a job, then creepily asks if Carver is staying there. Gemma doesn’t answer but takes her job application. While running a background check on the potential employee, she discovers that Susan has a different name on record. She brings this information to Kathy, the editor of the Gracepoint newspaper. It turns out her name used to be Ruth. Kathy approaches Susan/Ruth about this name difference but she pushes back any questions about her past. Later, Susan breaks into the newspaper’s office to ask Kathy why she’s interested in her. We have to admit, this newspaper office break in scene was much scarier on Broadchurch.

– Carver issues the psychic Raymond a final warning about staying out of the case. And when Beth learns about Raymond’s background from Carver and Ellie, she realizes she’s alone in all of this.

– As mentioned above, Vince offered to start cooking for Mark and his family (what?). The tension between Mark and Vince is palpable after the latter asks for a promotion once things calm down with the Danny case. What do we still have to learn about these two? Why are things so strange?

What did you think of ‘Gracepoint’ episode 5?

The next episode airs Thursday, November 6 at 9 p.m. eastern/pacific.