Roanoke is the second episode of HBO's The Outsider. It premiered on January 12, 2020.
Synopsis[]
During a surreptitious late-night visit with Terry (Jason Bateman), Ralph (Ben Mendelsohn) admits to being baffled by conflicting physical evidence. The next day, an unexpected tragedy throws the investigation into a tailspin, and ornery detective Jack Hoskins (Marc Menchaca) is forced to cut his hunting trip short to return to work and pick up the slack. Meanwhile, Glory (Julianne Nicholson) tries to soothe her daughter Jessa (Scarlett Juniper Blum), who says she’s been visited by a strange man in her room at night.
Plot[]
Ralph meets Terry at the prison and expresses uncertainty about his decision to have Terry arrested. The next day, Joy Peterson, the mother of the victim dies at the hospital after collapsing at home. As Terry arrives at the courthouse for his arraignment, the murdered boys' brother opens fire, fatally wounding Terry before being killed by Ralph. With his dying breath, Terry insists on his innocence. The deformed man is shown watching the aftermath.
Fred Peterson, the sole surviving member of the family, attempts suicide by hanging, but is only left comatose. Ralph is put on leave, and hot-headed detective Jack Hoskins is called to fill in. The case continues to gnaw at Ralph, who investigates the van used by the killer and identifies that it was in the same location as the Maitlands during a family trip earlier that year. While questioning a reluctant Glory about that trip, Ralph learns from her older daughter that Terry got a small cut on his wrist, supposedly from a male nurse at his father's nursing home. A farmhand discovers a pile of discarded clothes in a barn that match those that Terry was seemingly seen wearing on security footage after the murder.