*Written in 2017*
More of a middling episode for me. I mean, stuff happens, there’s more drama, and there are some nice character moments with the Latimers, but it doesn’t all quite come together for me. Just so-so (although, fair point, it does have one pretty substantially creepy scene with a child and a potential suspect.)
As the town deals with the fallout of the events of the last episode, Hardy sets his sights on a new suspect. This time, though, his suspicions seem to be at least as much about his own personal issues with the suspect as they are about actual reasons to believe this person is the killer—not his best moment, in my opinion. While the police are doing their thing, all the Latimers struggle with figuring out the best way forward.
I’m not as much of a fan of the police stuff in this episode. Like I said, it feels more wrapped up in Hardy’s issues than anything else, and it doesn’t seem as plausible to me. However, this plotline does offer up some good acting, so there’s that. The thread with Ellie’s son Tom and one of the prime suspects of the season (at least in terms of bringing the creep factor whenever they’re onscreen) is more interesting to me, and the tension in those scenes is built quite effectively.
The Latimer stuff is pretty good, too. Beth still feels at an utter loss, and as she watches Mark return to work and their daughter Chloe return to school, she doesn’t know what to do with herself yet. I like her plot here, finding a way to reach out to another mother of a murdered child. It deals with Sandbrook, a previous botched case from Hardy’s semi-mysterious past, but it also deals heavily and unflinchingly with the magnitude of what Beth is going through. The woman she meets doesn’t pull any punches about the size and scope of losing one’s child, but despite the bleakness and despair of it all, it’s still something of a comfort to Beth just to have someone who truly understands what she’s experiencing. Even though Jodie Whittaker doesn’t have a huge role in this episode, she’s very effective in the scene between these two grieving mothers.
*Written in 2025*
As I said in my original review, this isn’t the best episode for Hardy. He lasers in on a suspect based more on personal enmity and hunches than anything else. So his detective work isn’t as solid, his line of questioning gets more targeted, and he makes some bad decisions—very much not cool to casually fish for information from Tom without either of his parents present.
As such, it isn’t the best episode for David Tennant either, but he still gets a few nice moments in. I like Hardy’s reaction to the headline suggesting he’s “the worst cop in Britain,” and there’s an entertaining, awkward exchange between him and Ellie about a colleague who’s leaving. Tennant’s best scene comes in a voicemail Hardy leaves for his daughter. The balance here is perfectly painful: we’ve got a dad who badly wants to connect with his daughter but isn’t really sure how to do that. As such, he tries to play it casual, not wanting to come across too eager, but his edge of longing bleeds into the message. I also love his reaction right after he hangs up, the wordless dismay of What was I just babbling about?
No comments:
Post a Comment