*Episode premise spoilers.*
This episode advances the main story of Adelaide Burrowes’s murder and the possible false conviction, but it also gives another important case separate from June’s investigation, which I think works well.
When a 9-year-old boy is shot outside a block of flats, June hears that Hegarty is taking the lead and volunteers to join the task force. While she obviously wants to find the shooter, she’s also keeping her potential enemy close. At the same time, she’s teamed up with Sonya, a lawyer hired by Errol Mathis’s mother to try and prove his innocence.
Shaun Dooley, who’s something of a Hey It’s That Guy for me, appears on the show as one of Hegarty’s cronies. I first noticed him in the last episode, but he’s a little more prominent here. I’ve seen Dooley in plenty of things, including more Other Doctor Lives projects: he was in Broadchurch with both Jodie Whittaker and David Tennant, and he was in Official Secrets with Matt Smith. Not to mention, he actually starred on new Who in “The Ghost Monument” during the Thirteen era!
The “I’m a maverick cop who plays by my own rules, but I have to because of police corruption!” is definitely an interesting angle to take. In working with Sonya, June shares information that isn’t cleared to be released to the public, and she gets into Whitecross prison to meet Errol by lying about who she’s there to see. It makes for an odd viewing experience: Hegarty is corrupt and that’s bad, while June is sneaking around to conduct an unsanctioned investigation under false pretenses and that’s good. On the one level, I understand that you can’t work through the proper channels when the foundation is rotten, but it does on some level feel like the show wanting to have its cake and eat it too.
I like that this episode introduces a case that’s completely separate from Adelaide’s murder, other than June’s desire to keep an eye on Hegarty. Because she is conducting this investigation in secret, she’s fitting in her detective work on it between her actual job, and there are other crimes going on that need investigating. And I enjoy seeing how June attempts to learn more about Hegarty while she’s working on the task force. At this point in the show, she’s seen him actively gunning for her, so it makes for some suspenseful interactions between the two.
Speaking of which. I continue to be impressed with Peter Capaldi’s work as Hegarty. There are moments where he more overtly throws his weight around, though always in kind of a buttoned-up/corporate way, but a lot of the time, he’s a subtle menace. We see him being up to no good, and we see his suspicions toward June and his desire to get her off the scent, but it’s done fairly quietly.
I especially like some good nonverbal moments from Capaldi here. He does a nice job showing Hegarty weighing decisions in the moment, making calculations for his counter moves. In this episode, we get the moment where he’s picking officers for the task force and deliberates over June’s name, along with a pivotal scene where he has to decide whether to intervene in a volatile situation.
No comments:
Post a Comment