All About Matthew Davis' Joel on Grosse Pointe Garden Society
It turns out the town sheriff plays an unexpected role in the series' mysterious murder.
Despite being the town sheriff, Joel (Matthew Davis) has no problem getting his hands dirty.
In Grosse Pointe Garden Society's Episode 2, "Pests," it's revealed that Joel assists in covering up the murder committed by Birdie (Melissa Fumero), Catherine (Aja Naomi King), Brett (Ben Rappaport), and Alice (AnnaSophia Robb). Now, why on earth would he become involved in such a crime? For love, of course.
While we saw the first time they meet in the premiere, Birdie and Joel's relationship evolves into a full blown affair by the time we catch up with them six months into the future. And to make matters even more complicated, Joel is Ford's (Felix Wolfe) father, who also happens to be the baby Birdie gave up for adoption when she was a teenager.
"I think that they have a sort of magnetic connection that neither one of them can deny," Fumero tells NBC Insider. "He's never really met anyone like her before. And there's something about him, I think that he really sees Birdie past the exterior that she presents to everyone past the high society — the real kind of housewife vibes that she gives."
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The actress continues, "That is different for her. I think that she's not used to men seeing the real her and who she is, and I think is the foundation of their connection that feels undeniable and they maybe know that it is probably wrong and messed up, and they get together, but they can't help it."
Everything we know so far about Joel on Grosse Pointe Garden Society
In the hours after the group buries the body, Birdie seeks out Joel at the police station and tells him everything about the murder of the person they've dubbed Quiche.
She reveals that there were "too many holes" in Quiche's body because they used multiple gardening tools to kill them, then cleaning up the evidence with ammonia and hydrogen peroxide. Joel ends up hiding the murder weapons in the station's evidence closet and gets rid of the victim's phone. He drops it at a shoe store, which is also where we saw Gary working in the pilot episode. The last scene pans to a pair of New Balance sneakers, identical to the shoes worn by Quiche.
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Davis is best known for starring in cult favorites, Legacies, The Originals, The Vampire Diaries, and Legally Blonde. He's also appeared in Blue Crush, Cult, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and is one of the many actors who's guest starred on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit early on in his career.