Countdown to Thirteen: Broadchurch: Series 3, Episode 3 (2017)

Pretty decent episode.  The show still has me a little on edge waiting to see how it handles things with Trish’s storyline, but at the moment, it’s holding steady.  The episode also features a good deal of focus on the Latimer family, something the season definitely needs.

Hardy and Ellie interview several potential witnesses/suspects in the case, a couple of whom act so shifty that I’m guessing there’s no way they’re the rapist.  However, the further the detectives dig, the more the case only seems to widen, not focus.  Meanwhile, Mark tries to reopen old hurts and bring Beth and Chloe along with him.

The investigation is getting around to the usual Broadchurch tactic of “suspect is interviewed, they act wildly suspicious and lie the police about stuff that has nothing to do with the case, they probably didn’t do it.”  Which, yeah, feels repetitive.  It gets to the point where I just kind of chuckle when a suspect insists, “I can’t tell you that!!”  Hopefully, though, we’re at least learning things along the way that will be relevant later – I feel series 2 does a little better on that front than series 1, so with luck, series 3 will continue the trend.

Even though that last paragraph isn’t exactly enthusiastic, I am giving this episode an approving nod because I think it handles the investigation plot reasonably well here.  Ellie and Hardy continue to disagree over how much care is required in approaching Trish, and Ellie is holding her ground.  There’s a really well-done scene of Trish talking through her feelings with a close friend, contemplating the possibility that the rapist is someone they both know and interrogating the idea of what men are capable of.

She also has a terrific scene with Beth that connects the two main plots this episode:  the investigation and the Latimers’ continuing grief over Danny.  While, elsewhere in the episode, Mark tries to get the family on board to rehash the circumstances of Danny’s death with the aim of accomplishing something toward it (weird sentence – avoiding spoilers,) Trish quietly admits to Beth during a session that she knows Beth’s history.  It’s a really nice scene with a few cool things going on in it.  It shows how Beth’s experiences inform how she works with trauma survivors, it gives us a little insight into Beth’s head space about the whole thing, and it provides a different sort of connection between Trish and Beth as two women who’ve both had one horrific event threaten to define their lives.  I really like how Jodie Whittaker plays Beth’s response to Trish broaching the subject, and I’m impressed with how Beth talks about it.