Diksha Sundriyal
Apple TV+’s ‘Down Cemetery Road’ follows Sarah Trafford, who becomes convinced that the explosion in a house in her neighborhood is connected to a deeper conspiracy. She starts looking into the case with the help of a private investigator, and becomes more and more alarmed by the fact that people who come close to the case end up dying. This makes her increasingly paranoid, as she starts to believe that someone is following her and wants to kill her. In the midst of this, a real assassin by the name of Axel Crane is put on the task of tying up the loose ends connected to the case. His identity is revealed at the end of Episode 2, which is a major source of shock and confusion for Sarah. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Axel Crane is the Go-to Assassin for a Spy Agency
While Sarah looks into the explosion, particularly into the whereabouts of the little girl, Dinah, who is the only survivor of the tragedy, a secret government organization works in the shadows to make sure that the case remains buried and Sarah, or anyone else trying to unearth the truth, is stopped in their tracks. For this, a seasoned assassin is put on the case. His name is Axel Crane, and the agent, Hamza, can only communicate with him via his brother, Amos, who is terrifying in his own way. It turns out that all the deaths that have happened so far are because of Axel. He is the one who rigged the house for an explosion, causing the death of Dinah’s parents. When Sarah hired Joe to look into the case, and Joe found out about Dinah’s removal from the hospital, Axel was sent to take care of him.
The point was to make Joe’s look as unsuspicious as possible, which is what was supposed to happen with the explosion as well. But it seems that Axel, despite being deadly, has gotten careless. He is leaving behind clues that are being picked up by the likes of Sarah and Joe, which means he is forced to indulge in the cleanup. Joe’s death should have acted as a deterrent for Sarah, as Amos tries to intimidate her as well. However, Axel doesn’t do the job properly, leading Joe’s wife, Zoë, to pick up the case, even though she had not been invested in it initially. Her involvement gives Sarah the boost she needs, which is why Axel is told to get her out of the equation as well. This doesn’t sound well for Sarah because having someone as trigger-happy and effective as Axel chasing after them means that there is a good chance that they are not going to be alive for long.
Axel Crane Had Been Hiding in Plain Sight
When Axel’s name is mentioned, the viewers are led to think that he is the strange man who has been lurking around and following Sarah since the explosion. However, at the end of the second episode, it turns out that Axel is actually Rufus, the husband of Sarah’s friend, Wigwam. This is shocking because Sarah is friends with Rufus, and she trusts him enough to let him in her house and check all the locks to be sure that there is no intruder in her house wanting to kill her. However, it makes sense that Axel would go undercover and become a part of the neighborhood, where his job is to blow up a house, most likely because its residents are his targets. Being a part of the community would make him unsuspecting. It would be easier for him to get in and out of people’s houses and tamper with things to serve his own purpose without raising any alarms.
This is exactly what he does with the explosion, and this proximity is also how he is able to keep an eye on Sarah. While there is a good chance that Wigwam doesn’t know the truth about him, he has been using her to get information on Sarah. After all, Sarah trusts Wigwam and tells her everything she thinks is happening with Dinah. Eventually, when the order arrives, Axle, aka Rufus, jumps at the opportunity of being home alone with Sarah. He gets her drunk, being careful not to drink any wine himself, and then finds something to choke her with. He catches her so off guard that by the time she realizes what’s happening, he already has her in a chokehold. Fortunately for Sarah, the man who had been following her and seemed suspicious turns out to be her saving grace. He arrives just in time to stop, if not kill Axel, and prevent Sarah from dying a horrible death, which Axel would have staged as a suicide.
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