Coroner Review: Quick or Dead (Season 1 Episode 4)
Coroner Season 1 Episode 4, “Quick or Dead,” is not for the faint of heart.
Whether Coroner knows it or not, it has cracked the case to an enthralling hour with this episode — take the mystery out of the murder.
It’s quite a reach that Amanda, Ross, and Liam would all escape Dylan and Storm’s murderous grasps on the same day.
But I’m willing to suspend disbelief because when watching scenes like Jenny finding Ross, Liam, Dylan, and Amanda’s fingernails in the woods, and Amanda on the phone with Jenny while trying to escape the van, my heart palpitations leave me no other option.
The fingernail discovery scene is particularly intense because of the slow but intense pace at which it escalates, the ominous police car flashes lighting Jenny’s panic attack, and Serinda Swan’s fantastic performance.
Her breaths during her episode are just scattered enough to make us feel like we are in the moment with Jenny. And while she doesn’t completely break down, she does lose control several times in those few moments even when it appears almost in her grasp.
This may seem like an insignificant scene, especially when watching it for the first time. Jenny has gotten far too close to the investigation and we aren’t quite sure why. Quite frankly, she’s not fit to be at that murder scene.
But we’re having a panic attack with Jenny rather than watching an actor work, and that’s what makes the scene so captivating.
We can guess by the end of “Quick or Dead” that Amanda reminds Jenny of her late sister. Knowing the reason she blatantly gets too close to Amanda makes it easier to let Jenny off the hook for unprofessionalism — even if we don’t know her whole family history.
Coroner is very good at returning our attention to the core characters’ stories, no matter the case of the week (or weeks).
That being said, some of the details within “Quick Or Dead” is hard to follow. The only thing I know about Dungeons and Dragons is that it’s a game, so I couldn’t follow Dylan (or Storm’s) motives for murder at all.
It doesn’t matter. We’re as attached to Amanda as Jenny is, whether we want to be or not. Most murders are senseless anyway.
It’s also difficult to tie the reasons Jenny is re-opening the old coroner’s cases to this particular killing spree — but that doesn’t necessarily matter either.
Either Storm or Dylan kills the first victims we know of a few months before Jenny takes the job in Toronto. If he had done a better job, lives could’ve been saved.
That’s the biggest reason Jenny is reopening the cases anyway, and we don’t care about the past. We’re here for Jenny.
She’s stirring up a whole lot of trouble by reopening cases, and that creates more conflict for us to watch.
Plus, there is mention of “more coroner work” because she reopens these cases. That is the show I came to watch. Playing detective about anything other than the cause of a victim’s death is making Jenny’s anxiety (and can we say addiction problem, yet?) worse.
More Liam, less Detective McAvoy, please.
Also, Jenny and I need a therapy session stat, thanks.
Autopsy Notes:
- Thanks to the serial killers, I’ve officially lost count of the murders to tally, but it’s worth noting that Dylan and Storm killed far fewer people (with saws?) than they would have with semi-automatics.
- Liam and Jenny should’ve just started making out in the art gallery the second they see each other. Formality is superfluous with those two at this point.
- Also, they’ve now gotten hot and heavy in the back of a truck bed and an alley-type place. Are there not hotels in Canada? Motels? Fancy restaurants with big bathrooms? (Never use the wheelchair stall, I’m just asking questions).
- Couldn’t they just tell Ross? He likes both of them and has Matteo, what’s the issue? He’s a teenager, not a toddler.
- I might’ve given this episode a higher rating if Amanda had died. Her death would motivate Jenny more. Plus, sometimes heartbreak is unavoidable.
- This episode of TV aired in Canada in 2019, so masks weren’t a required fashion accessory and it honestly adds to the creepiness of the episode.
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Coroner airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on The CW.
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Esme Mazzeo
Esme Mazzeo is a lifestyle and entertainment journalist from Long Island. When she's not writing for work, she's writing for fun, or searching for something to satisfy her sweet tooth. She thinks rainy days are the best kind of days. Certified night owl.