Hi guys! Welcome back to Paranoid where we’re unprofessional and unusually suspicious! Rolling S1:E5 after the break!

I’m sorry, but look at the glory of this visual above: I don’t even know who it is!

Oh and Nina (Indira Varma) is pregnant, mazel lady! She looks conflicted, which makes sense, given that her and Alec (Dino Fetscher) aren’t in a super solid relationship. I guess her Women’s Greatest Existentialist Crisis is solved, though! Congrats!

Nina and Niles (Neil Stuke) are interviewing the Ghost Detective; oh noooo the photos of women with blocked-out faces that Dr. Stephan Fairweather (Kevin Doyle) sent the police were from his wife. She made them to show him how lonely she was, but he didn’t have time for her moods! Depression is for whiners, he hid at work.

That was sarcasm, in case anyone didn’t pick that up.

How horrible to be lonely and trapped and so dependent on someone who didn’t care enough to even try and understand.

Niles isn’t interested the least bit in the Fairweather marital problems, but the good doctor will not be stopped. His wife took an overdose of anti-depressants and ended up with brain damage. He lives with his regret and guilt every say.

Linda Felber (Christiane Paul) is getting the bottom of what single man Bobby (Robert Glenister) needs; it’s sex. Um. BOUNDARIES, FELBER! They’re off to search Reuben Locana’s office for clues to his wholesale drugs side business.

Nina doesn’t care about Dr. Fairweather’s guilt either, what was on the pages??? Why did he deliberately obstruct justice? Dr. Fairweather has NO poker face, lying that the pages were burned in the fire.

Niles reminds Fairweather what he’s up against: charges for impersonating an officer, obstruction of justice, perverting the course of justice and LOADS more. Bad Cop isn’t working, so Alec asks for a run at Fairweather, after he’s had a chance to see that his wife is okay.

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a better representation of how the pharmaceutical industry sees it’s place in the world than the giant plastic Jesus made entirely of pills in their lobby. Bravo, Big Pharma, slow claps all around.

Bobby’s not even paying attention, he’s too busy not respecting Lucy (Lesley Sharp), her boundaries or her wishes and calling repeatedly. Some people call that “romantic!”

Alec and Nina have very different responses to watching Fairweather fawn over his wife (MY KINGDOM FOR A NAME!); Alec looks like he might cry, Nina looks deeply skeptical. Stephan croons “I know what you want…I know what you want” while the rest of us look for a shower.

Dr. Fairweather is TRYING to tell the rest of the story of why he ended up tangled up with Angela Benton’s murder, but Nina and Alec think he’s just storying them along as in the interview room. Go on, Stephan, I’m listening! He was deeply concerned about the medication his wife Hester (A NAME!! YAY! Natalie Amber) had been prescribed and started investigating the very same pharmaseutical company with a God complex that Reuben worked for! Stephan aksed Dr. Benton about the pills and she cried, which Stephan took as confirmation that something odd was afoot. Nina archly suggests that perhaps Stephan spooked Angela with his intensity? But then she was killed, Stephan arches right back

Felber is literally stuffing her face with French pastries, I think Bobby might hurl.

Dr. Fairweather’s believes that the pills Hester (I got a name!!) was taking were bending her brain, and that the manufacturer knew that. Something on Dr. Benton’s pages was the proof, which Stephan kept for leverage in case they came for him.

A commotion in the hallway puts the interview on hold; PC Megan Waters (Anjili Mohindra) tells everyone there’s been a car accident and one’s German, so it must be hoodieman.

Is there only one German allowed in the country at one time? Is this a Brexit thing?

Nina takes a moment to tell Alec about her pregnancy just before they leap out in pursuit of Hoodieman. He must have badly hurt, so he can’t have gone far. He must be our mud crawler above!! He’s one tough German.

He’s done a bang-up job hiding, but Alec finds him anyway. This whole scene: so striking, the desperation and determination of the lone German, the futility of his efforts. Like a torch in the night

I literally gasped when I saw Nick Waingrow (Danny Huston – I LOVE HIM!!), but calm down, calm down, TTM, he’s here to do a job. He’s the director of External Affairs for Rustin-Wade and was in the pool. Sorry. He knew all about Reuben swiping drugs for sale, in fact: he, Director of EXTERNAL Affairs, caught Reuben with his hands in the plastic Jesus. There was a reason Reuben was allowed to retain his position, even after grand larceny and other criminal activity, and that reason is…for later, apparently. We’re back to the filthy hoodieman, being brought into the hospital.

Nina and Alec have a minute to talk in the hallway while they wait; ohhhhhh this baby’s father would be Dennis, given the timing, which makes sense. I was wondering if we’d had a time shift! She cries and she’s happy but it’s a mess and Alec comforts her: she’s having a baby! That’s all she needs to know right now

Hoodieman is severely hurt, no ID, nothing useful at all, but maybe once they scrape some of the mud off, they could run facial recognition?

Nick shows the detectives Reuben’s playground, he created drugs for developing nations. Was he doing that like Nestle: developing new markets in what some would deem unethical fashion, or like Bill Gates: giving medication out? It seems to impress Nick anyway, who was glad when he heard that Reuben had died and finally achieved some peace. Nick is a self-styled clean-up man, the type to send people to clean up loose ends?

Bobby gives Felber and Nick the slip at the end of the tour; Nick literally runs back in to find him but he’s gone. Bobby prowls around this massive pharmaceutical plant that looks JUST like the oil plants I worked at!

Lucy affirms for Nina that the banged up hoodieman could be THE hoodieman; will he die then? Nina can’t understand why Lucy is concerned, but you know how hippie dippies roll: they dip. Nina apologizes for how rude she was the first time they met and throws in an “I’m pregnant” which neither Lucy and I know quite what to do with.

Lucy finds Dr. Crowley (Michael Maloney) standing in the hallway; she tells him she called his bluff. She told the police what he demanded and he can either give her the pictures of her (HEY! He had pictures of Alec’s mum too! What’s he doing?? Is this some kind of Compromising Positions thing? Great movie, better book. Susan Issacs!) or he can use them, either way, he will not be manipulating her with them. She states all this calmly and without emotion, completely contrasting his next statement that she needs to calm down: she sounds hysterical!

She stares after him; I hope she’ll be okay. She looks worried and he looks certifiable.

Bobby’s discovered a room where a masked woman is moving bottles carefully from one side of the room, he’s dragged away before he can investigate further. Nick gives a speech about expecting better than how Bobby rolls in Cheshire and Felber perks right up: Cheshire? She didn’t say anything about Cheshire, just England! Encyclopaedia Brown is on the case!

Felber knows they were being recorded; where’s the respect? So it wasn’t just me that thought Nick’s words sounded rehearsed (I thought maybe it was bad acting, but NEVAH) OOOOHHHHHH the woman Bobby saw through the door in the room moving bottles was Marquita Olivo (Nikol Kollars), Reuben’s other baby-momma. Why didn’t she mention she worked there?

Dr. Fairweather really is completely incorrigible, isn’t he? He’s come in for another interview to discuss the pages, but all he wants to do is ask Nina and Alec about the hoodieman, he overhead that they caught him. All I will say about his demeanor is that it is NOTHING like what Lucy described: calm, genuine, a little sad. Stephan Fairweather has the bright orange mark of the fanatic all over him.

He kept a copy of the pages, he will give it to them if he can spend his anniversary with his wife tomorrow. He’s lost the plot, hasn’t he?

It seems Nick Waingrow is a former career FBI agent, hmmmm, assigned specifically to Reuben Locana and that’s quite the kind of person who’d know where to find a hoodieman whose turns it is to visit Cheshire, yeah?

Niles briefs everyone then Nina and Alec stare at each other, what was that???

Nina has gone to see Dennis (Jason Done) in her usual manner; shouting “one word! Just one word” and then kicking out his co-worker and blocking the door with a sofa. I cannot imagine why Dennis is exhausted. She’s not wrong, though, he broke up with her after a relationship of significant length and he should at least talk to her, right? Although I shouldn’t push my nose in, I’ve been on both sides of that equation. She drops the baby bomb and I think it buys her a coffee / glass of wine later.

Walti (Dominik Teifenhaler) is entertaining Felber’s family and Bobby with coin tricks; she brings up Walti’s sexuality again, as I am wont to do of all of my friends when talking to virtual strangers. She asks Bobby: why no marriage? Why no children? Bobby decided not to bring children into this world and Felber thinks that’s the saddest thing she’s ever heard. And then suggests that a threeway between her, Bobby and Walti would be a mood elevator while one of her children giggles from above. Sigh

The Dusseldorf contingent returns to Marquita’s house the next morning, looks like just in time! She’s just heading out on a plane. They’ll take her to the airport, let’s get some answers about Reuben. He worked in psychotropics, which sound scary. No joke.

Someone is going to have to explain Megan to me; is the actress Anjili Mohindra a big deal in England? She’s gorgeous and shows up in the promo photos and all, but her lines seem to consist of a police officer version of a Computer Repeater.

Fairweather gets to celebrate his anniversary with his wife, Nina and Alec are getting along great with the news that Nina and Dennis are a thing again and the hoodieman is awake!

WAIT!! I KNEW Hester was afraid of her husband. One they’re alone, he systematically dismantles every flower, picking them apart petal by petal while she tries not to watch.

Nina and Alec stroll unconcernedly in the hospital until they hear a bunch of commotion. They run and grab the hoodieman, stashing him in the cooler. By stashing, I mean throwing.

Then running out to see a armed man shooting at everything. Nina questions the hoodieman, who isn’t doing so well, but she gets his name: sounds like Goonah Bootlightner! And hey, Lucy, he didn’t die alone! Just with his nekkid arse on the floor of a freezer while being interrogated by the police.

You know who knew the hoodieman was at the hospital? FAIRWEATHER

Ohhhh no, Felber, her husband Cedric (Daniel Drewes) opens the freezer to find stack of cash, run!!! Run!! He calls Felber, who says the same thing: GET OOT!

Alec, Nina and all the police rush to Fairweather, who used those flower petals to place around the wife he just murdered. I mean, freed, she’s at peace now. I’m not buying ANY of this. Alec is, he holds Stephan’s hand and everything in the car while Lucy finally calls Bobby back. To get his voicemail.

Fairweather gets to the field by the trailer they found him at with his wife; he’s buried the pages and now and finally: he hands them over. We’re out.

Hmmmmm, I’m sure I’ve seized on something that makes no sense, I just think something is up with Dr. Fairweather. If there IS something up with him, we’re going to need to warn Lucy, aren’t we? Until next time, keep your suspicions keen and your petals on your flowers!