[7.9/10] Poor Jack Marshal. Look, his situation isn’t what I thought it was. I assumed it would be a “He’s nineteen; she’s seventeen” situation with angry parents or something. A forty-year-old sleeping with his fifteen-year-old student is absolutely one-hundred percent wrong, and the fact that they married and had a child later doesn’t change that. To be honest, the show’s somewhat blasé treatment of it rubs me the wrong way.
But the other side of the coin is that Marshal is not a pedophile. He (almost certainly) didn’t kill Danny. And whatever his past mistakes, he too suffered a tragedy, one that puts him in a similar position to the Lattimers. Despite that, it’s mobs coming to his doorstep, vandals labeling him with ugly words, and news media splashing his life’s greatest pain across the front page. You cannot help but feel for this resolute but warm-hearted old man, who led the local Sea Brigade not out of some prurient interest, but because he missed the son who was tragically ripped away from him.
More so than anything prior, this episode is an indictment of the mob mentality and news coverage that emerges in the wake of tragic events. The desire to blame someone, the understandable impulse to catch and punish someone for the grisly crime that happened, to get a sense of closure and justice, leads to witch hunts. It leads to magnifying someone’s misdeeds to larger than life proportions, forgetting their humanity, and ignoring the ways in which they themselves have been victims. I imagine by the end of the season that someone will catch Danny’s killer, but for the moment, this feels like the biggest and most palpable injustice on the show.
Also holy hell David Bradley! I’ll confess to being a philistine who mainly knows him from Harry Potter and Game of Thrones, but he does outstanding work here. You understand the layers of Jack’s sense of privacy, his hurt and anger over having his name dragged through the mud like this, and the final straw that has him break down and see no other way out. This storyline -- the show’s best so far -- wouldn’t work without his virtuoso, heartbreaking performance.
And wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles, I actually kind of liked the business with the Lattimers in this episode! Chloe giving her dad as good as she gets when he hassles her for dating Dean is a great moment. Beth’s flip out at Becca’s was tense and real and even funny! (I loved the “Stop throwing crisps!” “I’ve got five flavors to get through!” exchange.) And for once, Beth and Mark felt like a real couple going through something unimaginable rather than T.V. characters calibrated for maximum drama. Their conversation about how things went wrong, and their solace and pain in going through Danny’s things, was the most realistic and comprehensible the pair have seemed so far. I’m not hopeful, but I hope the show can maintain that.
It’s also a hook-up episode, as Olly and Karen turn their professional relationship into an inappropriate one. Mixing work and play like this is a bad idea, and my suspicion is that it’s more manipulation and social engineering from “anything-for-a-story” Karen. But the other side of the coin is that she seems genuinely upset when their article on Jack is changed before publication, so maybe she has a handful of scruples after all.
We also see Hardy make failed pass at Becca, which is awkward but in a believable way. It’s a shame, because I honestly find them pretty cute and well-matched in that “both a bit of a mess” sort of way, but you can understand why she’d be reluctant and why Hardy would feel dejected. She and Rev. Coates also have an amusing exchange (I’m totally stealing Coates’ “Paul’s letter to the Corinthians said pretty much the same thing” quip), and I like seeing people from different corners of this story bounce off one another.
Oh yeah, and the mystery continues apace! Forensic uncovers cigarette butts that seem likely to have come from Susan Wright! Olly’s dad’s boat is the one that’s gone missing! Olly’s mom/Miller’s sister claims to have seen something but will only spill if given a thousand pounds! Much of this stuff is still murky, but we’re getting more tantalizing breadcrumbs, which is good. I’ll say that the pacing of these breaks in the case has been good so far.
And Hardy and Miller together continues to be a delight. The two of them riffing on the SOCO guy asking Miller out was a solid series of laughs. Hardy telling Miller that her boy did a good job is a nice way to show he has a heart despite a certain hard-nosed clinical approach to the case. (And poor Tom, clearly blames himself for Danny’s death and doesn’t understand that it’s almost certainly not his fault and he won’t be punished for it.) And Miller raising Sandbrook for the first time not only deepens their dynamic and ever-present tension, but reveals a latent concern that they won’t be able to crack this one, despite how important solving the case is to soothing the souls of an entire town.
Overall, this is my favorite episode of the show so far, and the first one where it felt like basically every element of the show was working.
Top Suspects: 1. Nigel -- Something about his crossbow and eagerness to throw suspicion and blame on Jack Marshall makes me want to put him on the top spot this time. He’s definitely involved, but now I’m apt to promote him to perpetrator. 2. Susan Wright -- Look, maybe her being nice to Tom and inviting him to walk her dog is just some uncharacteristic friendliness from the ol’ battle axe. But it also scans as predatory behavior, especially from someone who already knows more than she’s saying about what happened to Danny. 3. Reverend Coates -- No alibi. Knows Jack’s innocent. Was connected to Danny and Tom. I’m losing a bit of conviction around this one, but there’s still some key detail here (maybe a killer’s confession) that the Vicar knows about and isn’t saying that makes me suspicious.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2021-06-04T14:25:57Z
[7.9/10] Poor Jack Marshal. Look, his situation isn’t what I thought it was. I assumed it would be a “He’s nineteen; she’s seventeen” situation with angry parents or something. A forty-year-old sleeping with his fifteen-year-old student is absolutely one-hundred percent wrong, and the fact that they married and had a child later doesn’t change that. To be honest, the show’s somewhat blasé treatment of it rubs me the wrong way.
But the other side of the coin is that Marshal is not a pedophile. He (almost certainly) didn’t kill Danny. And whatever his past mistakes, he too suffered a tragedy, one that puts him in a similar position to the Lattimers. Despite that, it’s mobs coming to his doorstep, vandals labeling him with ugly words, and news media splashing his life’s greatest pain across the front page. You cannot help but feel for this resolute but warm-hearted old man, who led the local Sea Brigade not out of some prurient interest, but because he missed the son who was tragically ripped away from him.
More so than anything prior, this episode is an indictment of the mob mentality and news coverage that emerges in the wake of tragic events. The desire to blame someone, the understandable impulse to catch and punish someone for the grisly crime that happened, to get a sense of closure and justice, leads to witch hunts. It leads to magnifying someone’s misdeeds to larger than life proportions, forgetting their humanity, and ignoring the ways in which they themselves have been victims. I imagine by the end of the season that someone will catch Danny’s killer, but for the moment, this feels like the biggest and most palpable injustice on the show.
Also holy hell David Bradley! I’ll confess to being a philistine who mainly knows him from Harry Potter and Game of Thrones, but he does outstanding work here. You understand the layers of Jack’s sense of privacy, his hurt and anger over having his name dragged through the mud like this, and the final straw that has him break down and see no other way out. This storyline -- the show’s best so far -- wouldn’t work without his virtuoso, heartbreaking performance.
And wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles, I actually kind of liked the business with the Lattimers in this episode! Chloe giving her dad as good as she gets when he hassles her for dating Dean is a great moment. Beth’s flip out at Becca’s was tense and real and even funny! (I loved the “Stop throwing crisps!” “I’ve got five flavors to get through!” exchange.) And for once, Beth and Mark felt like a real couple going through something unimaginable rather than T.V. characters calibrated for maximum drama. Their conversation about how things went wrong, and their solace and pain in going through Danny’s things, was the most realistic and comprehensible the pair have seemed so far. I’m not hopeful, but I hope the show can maintain that.
It’s also a hook-up episode, as Olly and Karen turn their professional relationship into an inappropriate one. Mixing work and play like this is a bad idea, and my suspicion is that it’s more manipulation and social engineering from “anything-for-a-story” Karen. But the other side of the coin is that she seems genuinely upset when their article on Jack is changed before publication, so maybe she has a handful of scruples after all.
We also see Hardy make failed pass at Becca, which is awkward but in a believable way. It’s a shame, because I honestly find them pretty cute and well-matched in that “both a bit of a mess” sort of way, but you can understand why she’d be reluctant and why Hardy would feel dejected. She and Rev. Coates also have an amusing exchange (I’m totally stealing Coates’ “Paul’s letter to the Corinthians said pretty much the same thing” quip), and I like seeing people from different corners of this story bounce off one another.
Oh yeah, and the mystery continues apace! Forensic uncovers cigarette butts that seem likely to have come from Susan Wright! Olly’s dad’s boat is the one that’s gone missing! Olly’s mom/Miller’s sister claims to have seen something but will only spill if given a thousand pounds! Much of this stuff is still murky, but we’re getting more tantalizing breadcrumbs, which is good. I’ll say that the pacing of these breaks in the case has been good so far.
And Hardy and Miller together continues to be a delight. The two of them riffing on the SOCO guy asking Miller out was a solid series of laughs. Hardy telling Miller that her boy did a good job is a nice way to show he has a heart despite a certain hard-nosed clinical approach to the case. (And poor Tom, clearly blames himself for Danny’s death and doesn’t understand that it’s almost certainly not his fault and he won’t be punished for it.) And Miller raising Sandbrook for the first time not only deepens their dynamic and ever-present tension, but reveals a latent concern that they won’t be able to crack this one, despite how important solving the case is to soothing the souls of an entire town.
Overall, this is my favorite episode of the show so far, and the first one where it felt like basically every element of the show was working.
Top Suspects:
1. Nigel -- Something about his crossbow and eagerness to throw suspicion and blame on Jack Marshall makes me want to put him on the top spot this time. He’s definitely involved, but now I’m apt to promote him to perpetrator.
2. Susan Wright -- Look, maybe her being nice to Tom and inviting him to walk her dog is just some uncharacteristic friendliness from the ol’ battle axe. But it also scans as predatory behavior, especially from someone who already knows more than she’s saying about what happened to Danny.
3. Reverend Coates -- No alibi. Knows Jack’s innocent. Was connected to Danny and Tom. I’m losing a bit of conviction around this one, but there’s still some key detail here (maybe a killer’s confession) that the Vicar knows about and isn’t saying that makes me suspicious.