Not
quite sure what I think of the resolution to this story. It’s a little too busy for my taste, going
for convoluted in place of complex. We
ultimately wind up with five or six different plots, each branching out from
the central mystery of the two dead bodies.
There’s self-flagellation and biological parent drama, there are gold
bars and an ominously-padlocked freezer, there’s a memory of a family enjoying
some Jonestown refreshment. Something
for everyone, I guess?
For his
part, PC does well. Lucien has some serious crazy going on, and PC offers a
good range of insanity: creepy-crazy,
foreboding-crazy, and sad-crazy all get turns in the limelight. Plus, we see a few flashbacks to Lucien’s
life before the murder of the mid-coital couple. Based on what the episode reveals about
Lucien’s history, his mental state was probably just as fractured back then,
but it certainly doesn’t come through.
He was a big-shot banker with incredible power; you’d think someone as
unstable as Lucien wouldn’t be able to get the opportunities for such career
advancement.
But
like I said, you don’t see it in the flashbacks. He’s stressed, and he’s more than a little
desperate, but he gives no obvious impression of his mental health issues. That’s interesting to me. Was he repressing? Hiding – putting on a mask so no one would
see? Did he genuinely used to have it
more together? Has he just gone downhill
in the past few years? If he instead
addressed his problems, could he have gotten help? The episode doesn’t answer any of these
questions, because it’s not interested in them, but it’s the kind of thing I
get curious about.
Accent Watch
I’m
gonna go with RP. A number of Scottish slips,
especially in the vowels, but I think
he’s putting something on, and it sounds RP-ish to me.
Recommend?
In
General
– Not really. A middling example of its
type, and I wasn’t terribly impressed with the writing.
PC-wise – Maybe. PC has lots of screentime and lots to do, but
things do get a little scenery-chewing from time to time.
Warnings
Add in
some dark elements from Lucien’s backstory.
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