*Spoilers for episode 4, and one Hal-related spoiler for this episode*
*CW: suicide*
If you’ve read much of this blog, you know I love a good penultimate episode, and this is a good one! We’ve got creepy stuff, twists, and revelations, along with nice suspense. Best of all, it’s a fantastic episode for Joel Fry. Let’s get into it!
In episode 4, Matilda learned that Carys’s abduction may have been related to a ritual to summon otherworldly entities, referred to as angels by some and “the Thin Ones” by others. She also met a woman named Laura whose “auditory hallucinations” may in fact be messages from the Thin Ones. Now, she asks Laura to help her communicate with the creatures to find out what they know about Carys. This new information sends Matilda and Trudy on an excursion. Meanwhile, Hal goes on an excursion of his own, searching for leads on the man listed as Matilda’s father on her birth certificate.
Matilda is definitely continuing her pattern of investigating by any means necessary, regardless of the consequences for other people. She urges Laura not to take her antipsychotic meds so she’ll be to hear the Thin Ones, and then when Laura has a seizure, Matilda stops Nick from calling an ambulance while she records the words Laura is saying. And look, 1) she’s seriously going through it right now, 2) there is something creepy and supernatural happening, and 3) there are people involved in the conspiracy that are trying to stop her getting too close to the truth. All that is true. But it’s also true that she’s steamrolling over everyone with no consideration of how it might affect them. When Matilda pleads, “I didn’t mean Laura any harm,” another character calmly replies, “But still you’ve done her harm.” That basically sums up all of her actions with the village.
It’s another good episode for Trudy. She’s cute with Hal, she stands up for herself against numerous men in her life, and she helps out Matilda at a time when she’s also going through a lot of personal stuff herself. Shoutout to the actress, Sian Reese-Williams. I haven’t seen her in anything else, but she’s excellent here. I especially love her in a scene where she confronts her dad about something from their past that has just come to light. At one point, she cries, “I never thought we lied to each other. We fought, yeah, but we never lied!”, a terrific line that Trudy delivers just beautifully.
I have to side eye PC Graves here. Yes, dedicated police officer, good instincts, determined to get to the truth. But she spends like half a day tailing a couple suspicious characters, entirely of her own volition? Can a police officer just do that without any sort of approval process? Showing probable cause? Anything? She doesn’t even tell any other officers where she’s going! Sigh…copaganda, man.
But then there’s Hal. Oh my god, Hal! I’m going to get a bit spoilery here regarding his relationships, because I’m just so excited to talk about him in this episode and I don’t want to hold back too much.
He starts off the episode doing something for himself—hanging out with Trudy talking music, both of them being sweet and flirty—then gets thrown for a major loop when Janice’s friend calls him to check that Matilda got the scan of her birth certificate, which the friend had emailed to her a couple days earlier. Unbeknownst to Hal, this was the moment that seemingly triggered Matilda’s blackout in episode 3. We know that she woke up the next morning with no memory of it, but to him, it looks like she got proof that she isn’t Carys, didn’t tell him about it, and carried on investigating anyway. He also discovers that she smashed her cello.
Put that on top of everything he’s dealt with so far, and Hal just hits his limit with Matilda. In an absolutely phenomenal scene, the two of them have it out. Hal confronts her about the birth certificate, and everything he’s held back or previously only said gently/carefully comes spilling out. He’s at the end of his rope here—for a guy who’s been almost inhumanly accommodating and allowed himself to be kind of a well-meaning doormat, this is a major change. For her part, Matilda feels cornered and super upset, and she lashes out in an extremely hurtful way.
It’s just so, so good. Joel Fry is incredible in this scene, which might be my favorite single bit of acting I’ve seen from him so far. Hal is angry, frustrated, hurt, and just overwhelmed—like, he simply doesn’t know what to do anymore. I could honestly shout out practically every line in it, but I’ll restrain myself to a few especially strong moments. This is a fantastic exchange:
HAL: “People are being hurt by us, by you. There’s a woman in hospital—”
MATILDA: “That’s not my fault!”
HAL: “Then whose fault is it, huh? I mean, bloody hell, we pushed a woman to suicide! Is it really worth that?”
I like that Hal is genuinely pushing Matilda. He points out earlier in the scene what’s been evident from the start of the story—that virtually everything he does is for her—but here, there’s no coddling or placating. At the same time, though, I like that he still includes himself in the culpability. Even if Matilda talked him into things he didn’t want to do, he doesn’t absolve himself for having done them. Hal has taken Rose’s attempted suicide very much to heart, and he acknowledges that he had a part in that.
Another moment I adore comes during Hal’s mini-speech about how everything he does is for Matilda. At the end of it is this strained, “...And you know….”, a not-quite-spoken admission that they both know he’s in love with her. Fry’s delivery just feels so bereft, and I’m obsessed with it.
And okay. I’m not a fan of Nice Guys, in fiction or in real life. At best, they annoy me, at worst, they fill me with rage. But, Joel Fry-bias aside, I don’t quite think that’s what’s going on here. We don’t really get any sense from Hal along the lines of, “I deserve to date you because of all I’ve done for you,” or, “Why am I doing all this for you if you’re never going to date me?” Instead, it’s more like, “You’re never going to date me, and I can make my peace with that, but you know perfectly well that you can get me to do whatever you want because I’m in love with you.” And again, he doesn’t deny that he’s still gone along with all this stuff, but it’s an acknowledgement of how Matilda has come to rely on his devotion to her and can take advantage of it.
Seriously, though, Hal isn’t even done. After Fry and Lydia Wilson serve up my pick for Best Scene of the Miniseries, Hal decides to conduct his own investigation. And even though they’ve just had this huge, emotional confrontation, he rolls up his sleeves, gets back to work, and ends up tracking down an important smoking gun for one crucial aspect of the mystery. And did I mention he listens to Billie Holliday in the car because Trudy told him it was her favorite? Aww!
One episode left! Can’t wait to see how it all shakes out!
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