I did not realise I had left Annika series 2 unfinished lo all those months ago; I am excited I still have a bit to watch! Let’s get right into it in my recap of Annika S2:E06 The Gift of Fire after the break!
We open on the water with DI Annika Stranhead (Nicola Walker) telling us the story of Prometheus, who maybe stole fire from the gods, created mortals and gave them the gift of fire. It’s rumoured.
Side note: I highly recommend getting a refresher on Greek mythology from a 15-year-old boy with deliberately terrible pronouncing skills.
Annika is on her way to a narrow houseboat with the gift of fire still smoking from the rafters; her second in command (and former lover and baby daddy) DS Michael McAndrews (Jamie Sives) reports that it’s most likely arson, what with the fuel poured all over.
It’s also formerly the home of a former DI, motorcycle cop DC Harper Weston (Varada Sethu) tells us, before rushing off to comfort a distraught and very tall lady.
Oh, right, Annika’s dad Magnus Stranhed (Sven Henriksen) is staying with her and Annika’s daughter Morgan (Sylvie Furneaux), yay. Annika and I both dislike Magnus strongly, but I guess at least he can keep Morgan company? And push her to ask her mom who her dad is?
I am surprised that Annika thought she could keep it under wraps once she told Michael, and I must say I find it much more interesting now that he knows. The first series was about almost telling him.
Ah Annika’s hottie boyfriend Dr. Jake Strathearn (Paul McGann) is back from traveling again; bringing back a stag horn and his love for Annika. She’s not quite ready to profess the same, she needs to solve the murder of this detective first, see.
I guess we all need goals.
Jake’s goal is to move in; he asks Annika to think about it when she balks initially.
An extremely pregnant DC Blair Ferguson (Katie Leung) waits on camera in the briefing room with Michael and Harper, oh look, we get DCI Diane Oban (Kate Dickie) for this one as well, must be high profile.
The victim is former DI Jacqueline Drummond, only 55, she bought the canal boat the day she retired. DCI Oban worked with her, they were both homicide detectives.
See…I would have thought DCI Oban was older than 55 so now my age meter is messed up. How old is Annika?
Side note: I almost called her Cassie!!
The team has gotten a massive amount of information gathered already, down to the nitty gritty of one unidentified phone number in the last week. Jacqueline had someone staying with her, as yet unidentified and yet another unidentified person was seen running away from the boat just before it became an inferno.
That sounds like a lot of unidentified people that’s presumably all the the same wanker.
Michael and Harper interview the tall, loud lady from the pier, that’s Alex Carrigan (Rebecca Root) who knew the person staying with Jackie: Leon (Thierry Mabonga) is a Black recovering addict in his 30s whom Jackie met at grief counseling. Something grief-y.
Alex swears she will burn Leon if he burned Jackie and she says this in front of the police, who look slightly dismayed but she just literally threatened someone’s life and do they not have respect for the police in the UK?
In their faces!
Annika muses about the nature of the fondness we feel for that which we create; connecting it via Prometheus and his gifting the mortals he made with fire. I am just wondering if Jackie was being a bit pygmalian in her attentions towards Leon, but then we’re meeting Jackie’s daughter Imogen Drummond (Caitlin Drabble) so perhaps we’re making a more direct connection right now.
Imogen was raised by her dad, that’s unusual. Imogen says she and her mum had recently found a way back to connection, in the form of collaborating on a podcast about having a copper for a parent.
*Annika shifts in her seat.
Jackie was talking about some of her old homicide cases and kept an as-yet-unfound dictaphone full of her stories. Imogen sighs wistfully that she would love to be able to hear her mother’s voice again and I immediately tag her as the killer.
I don’t know if it’s the juxtaposition of Annika talking about our fondness for our creations and the introduction of Jackie’s creation, but I know feel all sorts of ways about Imogen. And I’m probably supposed to.
Annika suggests carefully that maybe Jackie was protecting her daughter when she didn’t share things with her while young.
Michael and Harper retrace the steps of the person running from the houseboat on the night of the fire; there is a defined path and a great CCTV camera. Yay for Blair getting to do something for the investigation instead of just looking heavily pregnant in the most painful way possible!
Well. That’s weird. Morgan shows up at the police station under the guise of looking for some help with road signs (for her driving test) from her mum but she keeps staring at Michael.
DID MAGNUS TELL HER???
Rewinding!! No. He didn’t do it in front of us but I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him.
Oh ho, apparently we’re not meant to trust anyone. Blair found the images of young Leon on the bus running away from the boat but the gas can used in the attack is similar to the tall neighbour’s boat, not Jackie’s. AND the gig Alex swore she was at the night of was cancelled. Why lie about something so simple and checkable?
Michael and Harper find Leon at a homeless encampment, Michael getting busted in the chops for his trouble and let’s just say: Harper is no DS Tyrone Clark (Ukweli Roach), who would just foot race at the drop of a hat. Sometimes twice in one episode! Where’s your motorcycle then, Harper??
Annika braces Alex about the gas can and gig cancellation, Alex is believable enough in her explanations but. Hm. We see a picture of Jacqueline in better days with a date tattooed on her wrist: 20-08-93. Is that Imogen’s birthday? That would make her…31. That’s possible!
Annika gets home to celebrate Happy Lamb in Cabbage Day with Magnus, her daughter and Dr. Jake, who was invited for supper by Magnus.
Magnus has an announcement to make; he’s going home to Annika’s mother and taking his heavy drinking with him. That pales in comparison to the bomb Morgan drops out of the blue.
Annika says yes, Morgan says okay and leaves because of course it isn’t okay.
Dr. Jake leaves.
The next morning, after Morgan has slept for 12 hours, she and her mum have a chat, it’ll be alright. She really thought her mom had a one-nighter with a reindeer herder but those fellas can play pretty hard to get.
A call from Blair sends Annika and Michael off hot on the trail of one Gary Nair (Jonathan Watson) who Jackie had put away for arson lo so many years before. He seems really amenable, holding his hands out for handcuffs and seeming to confess right away.
**Honestly, I’m glued to the screen but the accents are thicker than maple syrup in January in Quebec, I don’t catch everything.
He’s in interview, did he do it? Did he do it before? We don’t know. He wants to know if it’s more fun to prove he did or did not do it?
DCI Oban pulls Annika out then; there is evidence placing Gary at a greyhound racing event close by when Jackie was murdered; it can’t have been him. She cautions Annika to not give Gary any personal details but somehow he’s already latched onto the dynamic between Annika and Michael.
He calls them Samson and Delilah. Does that mean Michael may actually get that greasy hair cut off??
There’s information that Jackie was perhaps drugged prior to the house being set on fire; things start to heat up all of a sudden as they are wont to do.
Magnus leaves that morning and Annika agrees to have Jake move in. Yay!
Why is Harper approaching Leon by herself yet again? We know she can’t run as fast and they don’t let them carry any kind of useful weapons in the UK. She corners him, that’s not what you want to do!
Except wait, maybe you do, when you have a police baton and you can take down someone twice your size! Atta girl Harper.
Okay, Imogen gives Annika and Michael the 411 on the tattoo on her mum’s wrist; Jacqueline had it there to commemorate when her brother died. She thought he was murdered, that the dive was tampered with.
I still think that’s HER birthday, she went quickly over the “that was before I was born” and my ears were already up. Plus, we haven’t met any commercial fisherpeople yet so that would be anticlimactic.
Not anticlimactic at all is Morgan getting picked up for her driving test by Gary Nair, who must have been watching Annika for ages. He takes her to some isolated street while Annika calls and calls.
Leon is in interview with DCI Oban and Harper; he’s lawyered up but doesn’t have a great explanation for all the stolen goods from the house in his possession. And running from the scene just at that time. He does remember seeing someone else there around that time, someone older with a medium build and now I’ve completely lost my marbles because I’m thinking of Magnus.
Annika and Michael find the abandoned youth driver’s car with nobody inside; Morgan did manage to get away, thank goodness.
Jake is moving in! Yay! I would literally love it so hard if my therapist moved in, I cannot lie.
Holy shite. It is Magnus. Magnus killed Jacqueline Drummond. I don’t even know yet but I know.
There is a message on Jackie’s voicemail, 100% it’s going to be Magnus on it.
It’s Magnus. Annika’s dad killed this detective and that’s probably why he was there because he was always evil, he was always just about himself and nothing meant anything because that’s what psychopaths do.
There is no way to help Annika, that’s the cliffhanger of this series and we have nothing to look forward to! Nothing!!
Bring back Annika for at least series three! Please!
Until then: as you were. Cheers. What the.
Magnus! I knew I didn’t like him but I didn’t realise he was a murderous psycho. I just thought he was literally what I think about dads in general. Wow.
