‘Big Sky’: Valerie Mahaffey Reveals Helen Was ‘Afraid’ of Her Son Ronald – ‘His Power as a Monster Was Building’
In the new ABC series Big Sky, episode 7 held another shocking moment, this time involving Ronald Pergman (Brian Geraghty), a man who abducts two sisters named Danielle (Natalie Alyn Lind) and Grace (Jade Pettyjohn). He’s working with a state trooper named Rick Legarski (John Carroll Lynch) in a sex trafficking ring, and the investigators are closing in.
[Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers from ‘Big Sky’]
Danielle, Grace, and Jerry are found
A number of people get working on finding the missing sisters along with Jerrie (Jesse James Keitel), who is kidnapped right before them. Jenny Hoyt (Katheryn Winnick) and her husband, Cody Hoyt (Ryan Phillippe), along with Cody’s private investigator partner, Cassie Dewell (Kylie Bunbury), work the case. But Rick ends up killing Cody when he gets too close to figuring it all out in the premiere episode.
Together Jenny and Cassie look for Danielle, Grace, and Jerry aong with Cody, but in episode 5, Cassie finds the missing girls after being taken to a bar/store that Rick frequents. She ends up shooting Rick in the head, but he somehow survives and has what appears to be amnesia from it. Those who were abducted are all safe, but Ronald is still on the loose.
Ronald has a strange relationship with his mother
From the first episode, it’s obvious that Ronald has a strange relationship with his mother, Helen, (Valerie Mahaffey), who quickly learns her son’s involvement in the abductions. She doesn’t seem to respect what her son does for a living, and she needs to constantly remind him of it.
They have weird conversations, and during one of them, Helen says, “You seem pent up.” She then suggests that he should relieve himself sexually, which is truly an inappropriate comment. Ronald even climbs into bed with her and spends the night next to her despite him being a grown 38-year-old man.
Ronald is worried he’s going to get caught
Over the course of the series, it’s clear that Ronald is having a hard time controlling himself. He even grabs Helen by the throat at one point when she asks if he’s a “sexual pervert,” which is a scary situation. Ronald is worried he’s going to get caught because Rick is in the hospital with the cops ready to question him, and Danielle, Grace, and Jerry are free and can identify him. He starts unraveling and begins easily losing his temper with his mother, who is extremely suspicious of what he’s capable of as time goes on.
Ronald changes his entire look, dying his hair as well as painting his truck a new blue color and getting rid of his license plate. Still, he is worried that Rick has information somewhere that can identify him. He cultivates a relationship with Rick’s wife, Merilee (Brooke Smith), letting her believe he’s someone else and that he’s romantically interested. He hopes to find any evidence Rick has linking him to the crimes, but Helen is worried he will kill Merilee.
Ronald murders his mother
When his mother tells him that she’s going to turn him in, he loses control. She thinks he’s going to kill Merilee when he goes to see her, and she’s trying to keep it from happening. “It’s over Ronald,” she tells him, and he snaps her neck. Immediately he’s shocked by his actions and says, “Look what you made me do.” He seems surprised that she’s dead, and he tells her he’s “sorry.” It’s a jaw-dropping twist that’s still hard to believe.
Valerie Mahaffey reveals Helen was ‘afraid’ of her son Ronald
Valerie Mahaffey spoke with Entertainment Weekly recently, and she was asked if her character was worried about dying or if she knew what happened might go down after speaking to her son. She admits Ronald’s “power as a monster was building.” Helen was hoping for a different outcome, and she was trying to keep her son from killing Merilee. But she tragically lost her life in the process.
“I suppose so,” Mahaffey revealed. “Because in the last few episodes, he throttled her one time before and his power as a monster was building. The balance of power shifted, and so she was afraid of him. But she probably thought that she could pray for him and reason with him and do all the things that she had always done, and be able to express how much she loved him. And he would realize somehow in this epiphany that ‘Oh my gosh, Mom, you’re right.’ I’m sure that that’s what she really hoped for. She also was trying to stop a murder from happening. So she had to get her courage up to do that.”
Helen was “afraid” of her son when their relationship dynamic changed drastically. Ronald became unhinged, and she could no longer control him the way she used to. She lost her life in the process thinking she was doing the right thing by turning her son in. But she wasn’t able to in time, and Ronald murdered his own mother.
