Hi everyone, how are yous doing? I’m happy to be back in Broadchurch, although it’s not exactly a party these days, izzit? Rolling S2:E3 for JS after the break; my reader friends are the BEST

We open at Trish Winterman’s house, Trish (Julie Hesmondhalgh) was completely freaked out by that threatening text from last week so her daughter Leah (Hannah Willward) called our detectives Ellie (Olivia Colman) and Alec (David Tennant).

Trish has moved between being paralysed with fear to constantly asking herself over and over what she did to cause this. What did she do? Nothing, Trish, c’mere. Trish still doesn’t want to talk about who she had sex with the morning of her attack. I totally agree with her that she shouldn’t have to; it was before the attack! The only problem is that I also totally agree with Alec that she needs to tell them all about her life because they don’t know if her rapist knew her or not.

Detente.

Leah texts her dad, now Ian (Charlie Higson) knows exactly why the police were at him so much. I figured he knew that already, given his cleanup of the clothing and footwear he had on at the party. Scumbag – no decent person scrubs their bootheels!

He drives away from the house and his cranky girlfriend; calling Leah from a parking lot to make sure he didn’t misunderstand. Does Mum, er, know who it was? No and he can’t come ’round because he isn’t supposed to know.

Back at the station; Alec is exhausted but determined. The fact that the attacker threatened Trish now must mean that she is acquainted with the person. It could also be the partner of the rapist. That wouldn’t be the first time someone tried to clean up their spouse’s life. Alec thinks it might happen again, that’s why he’s pushing so hard but he has to be more careful with Trish, Ellie chides.

Broadchurch has been just fabulous about handling this case in as positive and progressive a manner as possible; Ellie has a great line that this attack wasn’t about sex, it was about violence and control.

Ellie leaves Alec with his awful stewed tea and heads off into the night. There’s a man walking his dog on the path ahead of her, we can feel her heartrate increase with each step bringing her closer. They pass a harmless greeting; perhaps it’s not just Alec who thinks women are in danger in Broadchurch.

Now this is interesting but not surprising; Ian went straight to Jim Atwood (Mark Bazeley) after talking to his daughter. He’s shocked to find that Jim and Cathy already knew; why didn’t they tell him?? And another thing, all that stuff he did at the party? He made it up because he was in a blackout. Damn. Anything can happen in a blackout, but the one thing I learned from The Girl on the Train (which I LOATHED) is that you don’t actually make memories in a blackout. Anything that happened: gone. It’s terrifying, truly.

Ian woke up in the morning on the grass, that’s an awful alibi. However. What happened to Trish was premeditated and planned carefully. Nobody can do any of that in a blackout, you haven’t got the coordination.

Three young men stop by looking for Daisy; they won’t give their names but Alec’s not saying where Daisy is so there’s this weird standoff I am so glad I don’t have to worry about. I have boys *hugging myself* squee!!

Mark Latimer (Andy Buchan) is waiting for Beth (Jodie Whittaker) at the end of her run. He brought water! He wants to come ’round later and see her and Chloe, is that cool? Sure, but he won’t tell her what for. Hm

Ian goes to see Trish, who isn’t answering the door so we getta see her listen to him leaving a voice mail on her ansaphone. This shot was poignant for Trish’s fear

But it soon turned into something else; annoyance? She even appeared to roll her eyes a tiny bit and smirk, but then they are estranged. That can happen. He offers his help.

Alec is briefing the team about the status of the case and hey hey hey, hold on, Trish didn’t say she didn’t have sex with her husband, Alec. We all assumed that, but beyond calling it a stranger when pushed, she didn’t specifically rule Ian out. I hear ex-sex is a thing for those slightly further away from divorce.

Katie Hartford (Georgina Campbell – I’m trying my hardest to not be biased against this actress because she beat Sarah Lancashire for a major award but I’m afraid I’m going to HAVE TO SEE A LOT MORE, G! Honestly. Sarah Lancashire is everything) pops up with a snide comment but ALEC ISN’T IN THE MOOD, KATIE! Shut it!! She redeems herself partially with her work on the condom wrapper but she’s tucked in tight now, afraid of being yelled at.

Ellie identifies Lucas (Sebastian Armesto) as a person of interest, she just left out the part about Trish saying he’s asked her out before.

After the briefing, Katie pout/complains to Ellie (to ELLIE of all people) that Alec doesn’t like her, Ellie reminds her that it isn’t about her, is it? Alec is just tired and worried and really? Katie is a twat.

Chez Miller, Tom (Adam Wilson) has found his confiscated phone; that was a pretty good hiding job though, Ellie! I just wouldn’t ever bet against a teenager separated from his phone.

Ellie’s dad delivers Tom and his friend to Reverend Coates (Arthur Darvill) for their punishment and no, David (Roy Hunt) doesn’t want to talk to the man of God, he’s “not into all that bullshit.” Reverend Coates has an unfortunately thin skin for someone in his position; he better toughen up. Rumour has it there are atheists about!

Our intrepid duo have finally made it to visit Katie’s dad Ed (Lenny Henry) and collect his DNA; nobody mentions Katie’s personal connection to the case as yet. Ed does pretty well, dismissing the fight as a tempest in a tea pot, saying he doesn’t drink and talking about how much he respects Trish. Then he blows it with his comment that Trish isn’t “the sort of woman” this happens to and Ellie and I go still, the room drops ten degrees. What kind of woman would that be, Ed? The kind that could be hit, restrained and raped? There’s a type?

He and Cath (Sarah Parish) watch the detectives drive away; for a best friend, Cath’s sure staying away from Trish, isn’t she? I get that people don’t know what to say and maybe she feels responsible because it happened at her party, but that’s not a best friend.

Arthur (Richard Hope) gives Katie the CCTV footage from the Axehampton house; he offers a lot of information about his whereabouts without being asked, doesn’t he? He talks about coming there as a child and hiding in his own special spot down by the waterfall, but he won’t be renting it out any more. “An act like this sullies everything.”

Trish and Beth are meeting again; Trish is having a harder time leaving the house now and that probably has more to do with everyone knowing rather than being afraid from the text. Beth asks if she wants to talk to anyone else about the attack? Cath maybe? But Trish feels bad that Cath’s party will always be painted with this brush and while that’s absurd, I totally understand. I think women in general tend to feel bad about everything possible.

Trish knows who Beth is; she’s so sorry for what she went through. Beth is intensely uncomfortable under Trish’s scrutiny but she is uniquely positioned to talk about the long term effects of unexpected major trauma. Beth reminds Trish that she’ll need her friends and family, don’t leave them out.

Ellie and Alec have made it to the restaurant that catered the party; Chaz the Cook (Charles Babalola) gives them the details and mentions a walk to the lake he took during the party around 11:30. That will help narrow down the window a bit; previously they only knew between 11 pm and 1 am. He agrees to a DNA swab and then asks if they want anything to eat while waiting, “thin and grouchy” Alec demurs as we watch Ellie’s face fall to the floor.

You know the waiters and caterers hear and see everything at these events, spill it Chaz the Cook!

Tom and his friend watch the Scarlet Porn on Tom’s phone after their work at the vicarage; there’s something on with Tom’s friend. He looks scared and in need of help with his stepdad, who’s THAT?? I bet they’re involved!

Mark and Beth are working through child custody arrangements in a lovely casual fashion when the doorbell rings. Mark’s invited Ben Haywood (William Andrews) over to discuss pursuing a civil case against Joe Miller, who killed their son Danny. Even if they all agreed to do so, they’ve no idea where or who Joe Miller is any more; he’s changed his name and disappeared as they wanted.

Beth and Chloe don’t want anything to do with a civil suit, they want it over and in the past but Mark is having trouble letting it go.

Alec and Ellie are with Alex the Muso (Alex Hopkinson) of the band who played at Cath’s party; he’s thrilled to be asked for a DNA sample. He has the good stuff (I expected more from the caterer *slow head shake*); overhearing Cath and Jim arguing and seeing Ed ready to kill someone and heading into the gardens at 11:30 or so. Quite a lot happened at half-eleven, didn’t it?

Alec and Ellie sit an reflect for awhile, thin and grouchy Alec still refusing any food, including a delicious-looking Scotch egg proffered by Ellie. She wants to know why he came back, anyway? He didn’t write, he never called, not so much as a text and then here he is again. It was for Daisy, you see, she and Alec were rowing with Daisy’s mum and he thought Broadchurch would be just the place for her, safe and everything. They sit for a moment to soak that in.

Back to the case; Ellie is worried that they haven’t been able to narrow anything down at all, in fact, the more people they interview, the more viable suspects they have. Why has nobody dropped off the list yet?

A call interrupts; it’s the woman from the cab company and they’ll be going to see Lucas again. They bring him into the station this time and have all sorts of questions for him that he won’t answer properly. He lied about ferrying people back and forth to the party, but his explanation seems to be the only honest thing he’s said. He picked up a cash fare outside of Axehampton and decided not to tell the dispatcher. There is a history of boundary crossing with Mr. Lucas, however, he had scared a previous regular passenger by trying to invite himself into her house. Ellie makes a big deal about the Lucas being married but that’s truly the least of his worries right now. The part where he lies about never seeing Trish again after dropping her off seems to be more important.

Mark and Beth are meeting by the sea wall again; she’s furious about the lawyer and the potential lawsuit. He’s so focused on fixing what happened to Danny that he’s missing everything that’s happening right now. He and Beth are separated, so she can’t reach him any more. It’s like turning off a light switch, suddenly no access to someone you’ve known for years, maybe even decades. He refuses to understand what she’s saying: he’s doing this for Danny. It’s like he thinks that being as miserable as possible will make up for letting Danny die, even though what happened to Danny was in no way his fault or something he could have stopped. He’s throwing himself against a wall and Joe Miller is close to claiming his second victim.

Alec and Ellie get back to the station to the news that Lucas was totally lying, someone saw his car empty in the carpark at midnight so what’s he playing at? That was an officially recorded statement, you can’t lie to the police. Trish’s phone buzzes with another text from an unknown number; this time “I’m sorry.”

They interview Lindsay Lucas (Becky Brunning) next about her taxi-cab driving husband’s whereabouts that night; she thinks he got in about 1 am or so. He sleeps on the couch, you see, because he cheats. She’s known he’s been cheating for the past decade, but she won’t leave him because she made a vow. He married her and helped her raise her child from a previous lover; she won’t ever leave him. What an extraordinary point of view.

Alec says the thing he hates most about this investigation is that it makes him ashamed to be a man.

Cath comes out of work to find Trish waiting for her, she’s finally ready to talk. They walk on the beach and discuss; which of Cath’s mates could have done this? Unless it was an outsider, it would have to be somebody known to them both. So who could it have been?

Katie’s been earning her money this week! Every man at the party

Cath’s been drinking when Jim gets home for his pasta dinner (AGAIN); she asks him flat out: did he have anything to do with Trish’s rape? Did any of his friends? Then she forces him to answer clearly if he raped one of their best friends, jaysus. They’re past that point where you can divorce amicably, they’re gonna get the cancer you get from being bitter.

Ian’s asked young Leo Humphries (Chris Mason) to meet him in a dark parking lot; can Leo remove all the stuff Ian asked to have put on his laptop? Well sure, but he’ll need to have the actual computer, he can’t do it remotely. What stuff? Spying software on Trish? How odd.

Lucas gets home, ohhhh, he’s Tom’s friend’s stepdad that’s freaking him out! OH! This must be Michael (Deon-Lee Williams)! And he doesn’t seem to be having any trouble with Lucas; he’s actually pretty rude to his stepdad. Hm

There’s a knock at the door at Trish’s house; she finds flowers with a card “Thinking of you” but nobody around. We’re out as Lucas goes into his garage and digs out Trish’s keyring; a trophy?

So. Hmmm, we’re just really getting into the investigation now and I find myself more drawn to Alec’s side of the argument re: Trish’s love life. One of the avenues they will have to investigate is whether someone had a grudge against Trish and they’re going to need to know everything they are dealing with. There are just too many suspects and they have to start winnowing out sooner rather than later. It’s one of the truly horrible things about reporting these kind of crimes; everything that was yours is now held up for speculation, viewed through a million personal lenses and always, always coming up lacking.

There was one shining moment in this episode that didn’t advance the plot so I left it out above but had to mention it here. When Alec was talking to band member, Ellie and musician Alex shared a grin over Alec’s brusqueness. It was just so natural and unexpected that it made the whole show seem more real and was like a breath of fresh air.

Until next time, which would be as long a time, cheers!