*A few spoilers.*
The penultimate episode of Criminal Record is a big one, for both for the series and Peter Capaldi/Hegarty. We go deep in this flashback episode, and Capaldi gives a terrific performance.
June confronts Hegarty, this time armed with some damning evidence that can’t be explained away. At long last, he tells her what really happened during the investigation into Adelaide’s murder.
Aside from a bit of voiceover at the beginning and a concluding present-day scene, the whole episode takes place in the past, following Hegarty as he leads this fateful investigation. What plays out is less an evil cabal conspiracy and more a picture of how a grief-stricken Black man was thrown away as a result of distracted police work and exterior pressure.
The episode takes its time establishing all the circumstances that came together here, what brought Hegarty to push Errol into a false confession. Thanks to recent civil unrest, the top brass is itching to “make an example” out of Adelaide’s killer and clears the path for everything to be fast-tracked. Hegarty’s head isn’t where it should be—this is all happening six months after his wife died by suicide, and his long hours make it even harder for him to be there for his daughter. Throughout the episode, we see his attention drawn from the case by Lisa’s calls and texts, asking when he’s coming home and letting her sadness, anger, and resentment out on him. And when his eyes are off the ball, his misgivings about the case fall further down the list of priorities and his cronies cut corners in his stead.
At different times, we see Hegarty trying to do his actual job, following the investigation where the facts lead instead of cherry-picking facts to fit the convenient suspect. As soon as it’s mentioned that Errol was covered in Adelaide’s blood, he says, “That doesn’t mean he stabbed her, does it? Holding her in his arms.” He side eyes the idea that Errol habitually carries a knife, pointing to police records—“This guy’s been stopped and searched nine times. Nine times. Never once has he been carrying.” When one of his colleagues sneers, “Born liar, that one,” Hegarty responds, “Doesn’t make him a killer.”
But he keeps dropping the ball. Hegarty’s understandably distracted by his troubles at home, he’s not watching to catch what his cronies are missing, and as more pressure comes down to close the case fast, he gets increasingly desperate to bring charges any way he can.
In a really weird way, this story reminds me a little of episode 7 of The Acolyte—all the little things that go wrong, all the small mistakes and misunderstandings that lead up to a huge miscarriage of justice. In this analogy, I’d say Hegarty ends up being kind of a mixture between Sol and Indara.
As with Hegarty’s search for Lisa in episode 6, what’s important here is that it explains his behavior without excusing it. Hegarty’s motivations in this episode aren’t evil, and the struggles he’s dealing with are human and sympathetic. But really? Insert the Toymaker sarcastically shouting, “Well, that’s all right then!” Because yes, Hegarty is distracted by serious, difficult things going on at home. But he’s a detective, and when his personal problems make his police work sloppy, when he lets pressure from above push him into going against his ethics (not to mention the law,) other people pay a massive price for his grief-stricken, stressed-out mistakes. Hegarty shouldn’t have been leading this investigation in the first place, because he’s not fit to be there right now. His work is too consequential, and careless oversight costs lives.
Capaldi really takes us on a journey in this episode. From basically the start of the show, his performance has had me raising my hackles, with good reason. But here, we get a very different picture of Hegarty. We glimpse the kind of integrity he can have as a police officer, we see how he responds when he’s getting squeezed from every direction, and we ultimately witness how his corruption arc probably began. Excellent work from Capaldi all around!
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