Countdown to Thirteen: Broadchurch: Series 1, Episode 7 (2013)

Penultimate episode of the season, which of course means things kicking off in a big way, both in terms of the case and in the personal lives of the characters.  As penultimate episodes go, I think it’s pretty decent:  some strong acting, good tension, and reasonable intrigue.

The latest suspect in the case has brought an added wrinkle to the proceedings – outright accusing someone else, which has never really happened in the show thus far.  Hardy and Ellie tag-team interrogating their two suspects, trying to figure out who knows what and how matters really stand between the two of them.  Some personal hardships lead Hardy to reveal more of what went down in his past failed case, and Beth and Mark have an important moment between them.

Some good acting all around in the interrogations scenes.  All the actors involved do a fine job, and what’s more, the scenes demonstrate how Ellie is growing as a detective.  As I’ve said before, this is a relief.  I’ve appreciated her take-no-crap attitude for most of the season, but it’s a lot more satisfying when it’s backed up by smart police work.  As for the two suspects, we’ve seen for a while that there’s something up between them, but this episode lays that out in the open, and it goes in a direction I wasn’t expecting my first time through the series.

It’s another episode where it feels like Jodie Whittaker doesn’t have a huge presence, but she makes the most of the screentime she does have.  Beth and Mark find their grief over Danny, along with a handful of other complicating circumstances, putting a severe strain on their marriage, and they turn to Paul (the vicar) to counsel them.  Whittaker is excellent in this scene, really stripping bare the depth of Beth’s loss; she’s in the throes of bargaining, and it’s heartbreaking for her to enumerate everything she’d endure if it would bring Danny back to her.  At the same time, she’s wrestling with the future and desperately trying to get Mark to understand what she’s saying.  Whittaker really nails the devastating, wrecked nature of it all.