Barbie and Ken
Episode 6 of Stay Close Season 1 begins 7 years back as we see how Barbie and Ken first met. These archetypal psychopaths both bond over hurting one of the star performers. And that’s it. That’s all the backstory we get. Fast forward to the present and Barbie chokes out Kayleigh in her room, leaving her unconscious. While this occurs, Broome interviews Megan. The timings for Megan being in Harry’s room match up to his death, but Megan reflects back to the moments she dropped him off, noticing the strange young couple lurking about outside. Promising she can identify them, Broome decides to pursue this further. Thankfully Megan has a photographic memory and manages to do a perfect composite sketch of them both, despite only seeing a glimpse of them that day. When Goldberg notices the perfect sketches, he rings Barbie and Ken. After finding out they work for Del Flynn, they also send a picture over to Goldberg of Megan, but he lies claiming he doesn’t know who she are. When Megan is let go, she drops one more bombshell on the way out, revealing to Broome that it was Lorraine who confirmed Stewart was seen a week back. Given Broome’s ties with Lorraine, that’s quite the hammer blow. Mehan does ring and tell her though, but for now it falls to Harry’s memorial. Ray does some research into Dave and finds numerous pictures of him and Megan. Apparently he was also involved in a fight during the night of Carlton’s disappearance. This is enough incentive for Ray to actually investigate and figure out what he may be hiding. Ray tracks the stag party down to a club, where Dave is drunk and ends up chatting to Ray in the toilets. He’s been trying to marry Megan for years and as Ray sits down with him, he calls out Megan’s name and claims he doesn’t actually know her that well. Dave immediately confronts Ray, demanding to know what he’s hiding. Unfortunately this leads to a big scuffle between the pair outside, with Ray almost hitting him with a pole. Thankfully he sees sense just in time, heading back to see Fester and demanding he follow him out to the woods. Ray has conveniently remembered something that happened, something from the night of the murder. After Harry’s memorial, Lorraine and Broome get talking about Ray. The former confirms that Ray’s relationship was borderline on an addiction. Given we’ve seen numerous photos all over the place at his studio, and how he has been reacting to Megan and Dave, that definitely holds true. When Megan heads home, she finds Kayleigh gone. Of course, she’s been taken by Barbie and Ken. Her tracker isn’t working and a single note is left behind with a number. She rings and is given instructions to head down to a secluded lane to meet the murderous twins. Heading off alone, Megan uses her phone tracker to evade Barbie and find Kayleigh. Ken keeps watch outside, oblivious to Megan sneaking round the back of the old shed she’s being kept in. Megan cuts the binds holding he back door shut and together, they flee. Ken chases after them and holds onto the car. However, he slips at the crucial moment, banging his head hard on a rock. After evading the pair, they decide to go to the police, informing Goldberg what’s happening. Megan also confirms to Kayleigh what happened in her past, including Stewart still being alive and how he might be after them. Just as Megan looks set to leave, she realizes that Goldberg has locked them in. He’s wracked with guilt though and after letting Barbie in the back door, decides it’s all too much. He’s going to turn himself in. Only, there’s a problem. Ken is still alive, absolutely fine as it turns out – save for a few cuts and bruises – and chokes the man out with chicken wire. As the episode ends, flashes to Ray confirm some big revelations. He knew Stewart and it appears that in the past he actually drove away with Stewart’s dead body on the backseats. Was he driving to bury the body?
The Episode Review
Stay Close return with more from these murderous twins, whose intentions are still pretty unclear. They’re working for Del but seem to be messy in the way they handle this. Their motivations are also unclear beyond a “these twins are evil” archetype and despite being hired assassins, are incredibly sloppy. They’ve left evidence all over the place and easily outsmarted by Kayleigh and Megan. These little inclusions do nothing to help this series, which has been consistently mediocre right the way through its run-time. And that’s if you ignore the massive elephant in the room about this presumably being the exact same town Megan grew up and lived in, but yet no one seems to recognize her. However, it’s clear now that Ray is a big part of what’s happening here but we’re not getting the whole picture, leaving plenty of question marks hanging over this one. Who is the real killer? And is there really a connection with the carnival? To what end? I’m sure we’ll find out soon!
