Other Doctor Lives: Broadchurch: Series 3, Episode 8 (2017)

*Written in 2018*

Last episode of the season, and the last of the series as a whole. Despite some notes of finality here and there, it doesn’t really feel like a series finale, certainly not more than the end of any other season. The resolution to the mystery, in my opinion, leaves something to be desired. Overall, while I wouldn’t say the series goes out with a whimper, I don’t find it altogether satisfying.

Right up to the end, the evidence seems to point in different directions, but Hardy and Ellie eventually get there and uncover who raped Trish. As with series 2, the answer is a little less clear-cut than anticipated. Beth and Mark have a reckoning over what’s been going on between them this season.

Some good police work, especially from Ellie. It seems she’s often the one to make those last deductions or find the last connections needed to solve the case, and that happens here as well. But—no spoilers—I’m not really a fan of how it shakes out this time. There’s something about it that doesn’t quite work for me. I dunno; the best non-spoilery way I can think to describe it is that it’s trying to have it both ways, and I don’t really like that.

As for Beth, she again has some pretty good scenes with Mark. There are points where I feel like he’s putting things on her that aren’t her fault, but overall, they get a little closer to understanding each other, and Jodie’s Whittaker’s reactions are stellar. That said, I do wish Beth could have been more involved in the resolution of Trish’s storyline—it seems like she dropped out of that a bit at the end.

So, that’s Broadchurch. At times, it felt like it was more frustrating than it was worth, but it was always a show with a good deal of potential, and whenever the talented cast members were given a chance, they rose to the occasion. While it might have been best off airing just the first season, I think there were ultimately enough good things in series 2 and 3 to make the latter two worth having.

*Written in 2025*

A quick note before I get to David Tennant: When Hardy and Ellie are interviewing the rapist, Ellie asks, “Did you know the names of the other two women you attacked?” His response—“Didn’t ask. Is that rude?”—is chilling in how nonchalant it is. Brr!

It often seems Hardy is at his most anxious during the penultimate episode of the season. That’s frequently when the case feels the most tangled right as the stakes are highest. By contrast, in the season finale, that anxiety tends to coalesce into a steely calm, and that holds true here—Tennant is always good at showing this shift. At the start of the finale, they’re still juggling several suspects, but Hardy is feeling more optimistic about it. “Vice is tightening, Miller,” he says, “they’re starting to squeak.” When interviewing the last suspects, and ultimately the rapist, he shows his usual laser focus on answers over outrage or disgust. He only lets out his personal emotions when he and Ellie are on their own, like when he sighs, “Nights like this make me wish I still smoked.”

One moment that strikes me comes after they’ve identified the rapist and gotten the full story on what happened that night. Needless to say, it’s a lot to take in, and Hardy finds Ellie sitting outside on her own. “He is not what men are,” he tells her. “He’s an aberration.” This only brings mild reassurance to Ellie, who replies, “I hope so.” But as I’ve been saying throughout my reviews this season, all the guys they’ve been investigating are creepy as hell. Not all of them raped Trish, of course, but all of them are on the same spectrum of trash misogynistic behavior. Hardy telling Ellie, “He’s not what men are,” downplays the massive systemic problem at play, and if the rapist is an “aberration,” it ignores the many steps that can lead a man down that path, steps that we see the other gross suspects displaying.

*Written in 2018 (with a David Tennant addendum)*

And, our series wrap-up:

Accent Watch

Jodie Whittaker - West Country.

David Tennant - Scottish. I hadn’t been able to tell back at the start of the series, but now, I’m pretty sure it’s Tennant’s own accent.

Recommend?

In General – Maybe. Like I said, this is a show that drove me crazy at times, but there’s some really good television amid the more frustrating elements.

Jodie Whittaker – Yes. Whittaker wonderfully captures Beth’s deep-running grief and anger, and I really like how her character opens up in series 3 to use some of her awful experiences to help others.

David Tennant - Yes. Tennant plays a lot of characters with big personalities, so it’s interesting to see him in a subtler role like this, someone who’s beaten-down and depressed for much of the show but still trying to get on with things.

Warnings

Sexual content (including rape and references to pedophilia,) violence, drinking/smoking/drug references, and strong thematic elements (including suicide.)

Other Doctor Lives: Broadchurch: Series 3, Episode 7 (2017)

*Written in 2018*

In my opinion, this is probably the least-intense penultimate episode of any season on the show. Sure, we know that the mystery will be solved in the next episode, and there are some definite ante-upping moments, but I don’t really get that feeling of everything coming to a head. We’ll see how it all shakes out next week.

Ellie and Hardy have a major suspect in custody, but new evidence crops up that casts doubt on whether or not he’s their man. They try and determine, once and for all, who the rapist is. Meanwhile, Beth deals with the fallout of the struggles Mark has been wrestling with this season.

I feel like it’s still pretty wide open at this point. Back in series 1, there were a number of suspects considered and mostly eliminated over the course of the season, but here it seems like it could still be any of the main five or six very plausible suspects. I won’t discard the possibility of someone out of left field, but my money’s on one of those guys. And regardless, we’re definitely continuing the theme of the season—even though only one of them did it, they’re all gross and creepy and contribute to the culture that leads to these crimes happening in the first place.

It’s a pretty good episode for Beth. There are big things happening on the family side, so she’s not really involved in the Trish storyline today. Instead, she’s very focused on what’s going on with Mark and has a few strong scenes dealing with it, both talking with him directly and discussing the situation with other characters. Jodie Whittaker does a great job conveying how wrung-out she is performing so much emotional labor on Mark’s behalf. I like that—though it may seem callous to have so little patience for an obviously hurting man, it’s clear that Beth has been giving so much of herself for such a long time that she’s reaching her breaking point.

*Written in 2025*

Another quick note about Beth/Jodie Whittaker. When she’s venting to another character about Mark, I love this line: “He takes all the oxygen, all the attention! ‘Look at me, I’m Mark Latimer. I am so much sadder than the rest of you.’” Whittaker’s delivery is fantastic here—Beth is completely at her wit’s end, and she’s well aware that she’s not being “sympathetic,” but she can’t bring herself to apologize for that. She’s so tired of bending over backwards to accommodate Mark’s pain, and she just needs to be able to say that.

Also, Jonathan Bailey isn’t on series 3 of Broadchurch, but who pops up unexpectedly in this episode? His Bridgerton costar Simone Ashley! Now, in 2017, this would’ve been pre-Sex Education, let alone Bridgerton, making this a very early role for her. Still, it’s neat to see her appear for a few minutes. After Wicked ignited my interest in Bailey, I made my way through Bridgerton on and off, and their season together is definitely my favorite so far.

All right now, onto Hardy. It’s another penultimate episode where he’s increasingly desperate to solve the case while also dealing with pressing personal issues. In this case, it’s the fraught situation with Daisy. Ellie is very pro-“she’ll do what you say and like it,” which makes Hardy uncomfortable, but he doesn’t want their relationship to be fractured any further.

On the investigation side of things, he’s getting antsy—Hardy is aggravated when Ellie presents him with new evidence that veers away from the suspect they have in custody, complaining, “You’re muddying the waters!” And once again, he has zero patience for people who waste his time. When he’s interviewing the suspect, I love David Tennant’s delivery on, “Can I make a suggestion[…]? Lay off the smartarse replies. Just keep it simple and honest, yeah?” But for all that he’s impatient and annoyed, closing the case still takes a backseat to solving it. Hardy grumbles when Ellie’s find means more work for them, but he pursues this new evidence diligently, digging to see what else they’ll uncover there.

Other Doctor Lives: Broadchurch: Series 3, Episode 6 (2017)

*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.