*Written in 2018*
This was the first major “this suspect could be the one” episode, a significant look at one particular person rather than a lot of more general possibilities. The fact that there are still two episodes to go make me assume this probably isn’t the guy, and to be sure, we still get evidence of other people acting shady as well.
A major suspect is brought into custody, and it triggers a big shake-up in the investigation. Hardy and Ellie work hard to maintain the investigation’s integrity as they collect evidence on their man. Beth and a colleague reach out to a possible third victim of the rapist, trying to convince her to help cooperate with the police. Meanwhile, Mark has the confrontation with his grief that he’s been building towards, but it doesn’t bring him the relief he’d been looking for.
Like I said, it’s taken this long to have a suspect taken under really serious consideration, which lends further credence to the theme I’ve been noticing of “all these guys are so creepy, any one of them could have done it.” Overall, I think the suspect is handled well here. If it isn’t him, he may not be the rapist, but he’s skeevy no matter what. Also, within the case, there’s some stuff going on that seems like it would resonate personally with what went down in Danny’s case and the resulting trial. The characters’ reactions to it seem to suggest that parallel, but I hope we get a chance to see it explored a little more overtly.
Not a ton of Beth in this one. She has just a few significant scenes, mostly centered around trying to get the other survivor to come forward, and I’m not all that impressed with how she handles that. On some level, it’s very understandable—she wants the perpetrator caught and doesn’t get why this woman wouldn’t want to help make that happen—but she demonstrates way less sensitivity than I’m used to seeing in her work. I feel about it much the same way I feel about some of the other characters’ missteps on this subject; it’s all right for her to have misconceptions and handle this badly, but I need to see that acknowledged at some point.
*Written in 2025*
Okay, before I get to Hardy, I have to acknowledge how this episode repeatedly shows white women taking women of color to task in a troubling way. That survivor Beth is haranguing about coming forward? Of the three potential victims of this rapist that she’s met, she’s the only woman of color, and she’s the only one who’s harassed about not talking to the police. The second (white) survivor didn’t report her rape for years, but she’s treated with sensitivity and care by the police. Meanwhile, Beth uses the private information her boss entrusted her with to follow around a South Asian woman and make her feel like shit about not wanting to talk to the police about being raped.
Meanwhile, there’s a scene between Ellie and Katie, the young Black detective, that makes my head spin. In this episode, Katie has absolutely screwed up and needs to be dressed down, but Ellie vents her own personal grievances as she lectures her. As Ellie talks about the sexism she experienced coming up as a police officer, these are the actual words she says to this young Black woman: “I fought all the battles you now benefit from. People like you wander into CID with six months’ experience, sod-all training, and you think you own the world. Well, that lack of training and that lack of experience is exactly what caused this!” I just… :shudder:
Hardy doesn’t take any issue with the way Ellie yells at Katie—in fact, he tells her, “Might put you in charge of bollockings from now on, Miller.” But while he’s upset with the young detective as well, his anger is entirely focused on how her screwups could affect the case, exasperated and forceful without any personal attacks.
I enjoy a scene Hardy shares with Daisy in this episode. Ever since his marriage broke up, he hasn’t been the most present dad, and even now that Daisy is living with him, he’s still dropping the ball a lot of the time. As such, there’s a tendency for him to feel like he always needs to make things up to her, which can get in the way when what she really needs in a parent to be tough. He needs to step up here, instead of just giving her what she wants because he feels guilty.
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