Hi there! LB from Facebook asked me to look at recapping Rose and Maloney and I said OF COURSE once I saw it had Sarah Lancashire. I hear Anne Reid’s innit too, squee! Rolling S1:E1 Pilot after the break!

We open on the courthouse steps, Jonathan Rothman (Michael Nardone – I just saw him as Frisky in The Night Manager!) has been cleared of all criminal charges and his lawyer is practically spitting he’s so happy.  And shouty. Rose Linden (Sarah Lancashire – ooh looking even fancier yet!) watches from the side before being pulled over by Rothman “it’s all due to her!” Just then he pulls her even closer and whispers in her ear “I did it. I killed them” and then turns and shouts “I’m going home!!” to the cheers of the crowd. She looks devastated as we get a close-up of her beautiful eyes (was that creepy? Sorry, it’s the Last Tango Effect).

We see her drinking and drinking and smoking and I (FINK) pricking her finger then injecting insulin? That’s all I could imagine that was for. The next morning, the Criminal Justice Review Agency finds her passed out on the floor with the detritus of her office scattered around her.

“Jesus, Rose” is how we meet Derek Ryecart (Daniel Hill), she’s got to quit drinking like this, she IS a diabetic, and ah I thought that was what that was about. I’m not hep to the drug scene but I don’t know what kind of narcotics require finger pricking first. At least she was managing her sugars!

She should be out celebrating, she solved a huge miscarriage of justice, the police are being investigated, and it’s her shining moment! Why is she drinking herself to oblivion in the office? “Because he bloody did it, Derek!” She tries to resign, but he won’t accept that, instead sending her down to a Time Management Study that’s ongoing, she’s not working in case work anymore, maybe she’s doing her job too well?

Somehow, she transforms from a woman who slept on her face all night to a lovely young woman in full makeup with hair wisps artfully arranged around her face. I need an elevator like that, it’s like magic!

She walks in to meet Maloney (Phil Davis), she’s his secondment! He’s reviewing cases rejected over the last few years and whether they could have been turned down more quickly. “Riveting” she says, but he finds it quite interesting! But if he doesn’t even KNOW its shit work, I mean. Her boss is trying to bury her, doesn’t he like her, Maloney asks? We get a flash of Derek and Rose banging in the office; it looks like her likes her just fine! But she says no. Oh and he’s heard her name, she is by FAR the least efficient case worker on the job. “That’s because I do it properly” she replies archly (I’ve never actually seen anyone reply archly before, but I bet f I asked The Google what archly looked like: that scene would come up) but he suggests that is because she’s only looking for one answer. Time to do it to it!

Rose is visiting Jonathan at his house; he’s having a party to celebrate his release. He stares at her for a bit before coming over to gloat some more. She wants to know why he told her, he says in a thick Scottish burr that it’s because she’s a stuck up bitch who thinks they know everything.  It gave him a kick. She warns him; she’ll be coming back for him and oh, he hopes so. He’s looking forward to it.

Rose and Maloney are working in the basement, Rose looks about to pass out from boredom until Maloney passes her a tape that has been separated from its bundle and has no label. She says the officers will identify it verbally, and pops it into the tape player. It’s an interrogation, at least I think it’s an interrogation, a woman is yelling at a man to find out where “Lindsay” is. He sounds exhausted and terrified and utterly at his wits end.

It’s to do with the abduction and murder or Lindsay McVay, her dad David McVay was convicted in 1997, Rose takes it to Derek as he was the case worker who reviewed it. The body was never found, but he was convicted nonetheless; did Derek listen to the tape, she asks? Because on it McVay sounds completely bewildered and no, he didn’t listen then and he won’t listen now to her about it “feeling” wrong. It’s what got her sent to the basement and now he’s cuddling in for a snuggle, I hope she knees his wobbly bits. She does tell him she never repeats a mistake though, not unless she’s enjoyed herself. Hahahaha. Shot DOWN in flames.

She listens to the tape at home over a glass of wine (I’ll be keeping count now, sorry) as Maloney goes through her bag she had left behind, finding her syringes and starts looking for her, alarmed. He bursts in her door just as she’s going into a hypoglycemic attack and gets her sugar, as she moans on the sofa. She wakes up at midnight to find him in a chair next to her, be a dear and don’t mention, will you? The agency doesn’t like instability. And fanks for bringing her stuff. I have known a few diabetics in my time, one I’m visiting right now! You cannot mess with the sugars. All the ones I knew in their 30s have it somewhat sorted by that time (as sorted as diabetes can be, given how many variables you have to take into account constantly) but I imagine it’s hard to sort anything when you’ve got an addiction on top of it.

Rose and Maloney are in to see David McVay (Tony Maudsley), who doesn’t look inclined to talk to them. She explains about what they do; they check to see if anyone has been put in prison unfairly and they thought it might be a good idea to look at his case. That’s not a very good idea, is it? Giving a prisoner hope on the strength of one tape? I thought they usually try to manage expectations in this situation.

She places a photo of Lindsay on the table, bringing him to tears. They won’t let him see her, no pictures, not anything. His mother wrote a letter saying David didn’t do it; is that true? He can’t remember he says, but she asks him to try. He goes through that day with them, but from the prosecutor’s side, not his, while Rose and Maloney go check the location. She walks out to the tunnel, imagining Lindsay being met there by her dad while Maloney watches.

The evidence is very clear, there’s blood and semen in the back of his van, and I assume this is before DNA analysis in England. She thinks he didn’t, though, she has a feeling. If he had done it, they would have found her body, they’d have gotten it out of him.

They’re off to see Mrs. McVay, Maloney chiding Rose as they go along about not actually BEING on the case. Rose mocks him; anyone would think he would rather sit in an office all day.  Mrs. McVay (Anne Stallybrass) is so relieved to see them! “At last.” She has a murder board up too, a covering more than one wall. “Just one mistake” up there; she knows her David would never have done that. The rest of the family doesn’t talk to her any more, but oy, they’re next door. Whut? That takes a massive act of discipline to not talk to someone located right next to you.

Ah Cathy (Rachel Power) isn’t very receptive to talking about possible miscarriages of justice involving David; she’s worried they’ll be letting David out. And she’s also banging David’s brother, seriously, how does this happen so much on these shows? I wouldn’t touch my BIL with a ten foot bargepole and I don’t even know what that is.

David’s brother Craig (Niall Refoy) is not just stroppy, he’s aggressive too, rushing at Rose and tossing Maloney aside when he moves to protect her. “He came for me” *sneer* sounds like a defense Craig has used before.  Rose and Maloney take their leave.

Maloney asks her, out in the car, is this how she always handles cases? Charging around upsetting people? And I’d say, given Derek’s earlier assessment, that’s a big fat YES. Instead of answering, she asks if he’s ever spent a night in jail. The whole night? It’s horrible, horrible claustrophobic dirty hell and imagine doing 15 years for something you didn’t do? And nobody listens to you after the conviction, they just want it all to go away, so that’s what she does, and maybe sometimes she has to ruffle a few feathers. Maloney asks if she sees herself as some kind of Dirty Harry, then? “Ooh you can be a bit nasty yourself, can’t you, Maloney?”

Rose directs him to drive her elsewhere, but it’s not her house, its Jonathan’s; has he ever made a big mistake? Like getting fired for being drunk at work, losing a credit card, having a baby taken away (whut? Let’s go back to that one) or banging your boss while drunk because you were obsessed with how he looked naked (okay, my hands up for that one, my bad) or like this; her really big mistake. Maloney snidely asks what her “feeling” was about Jonathan; “that he’d be great in the sack” which sounds about right.

She gets out, what’s she going to do now? Find David McVay’s daughter and then put this guy back in jail. Thanks for the lift, right, off you go. She stares at Jonathan through his gate while he and his entourage watch; he’s enjoying the attention. And I even kind of get where she got that “great in the sack” bit from. It’s my everlasting shame that I have a fixation on Putin. Just for a weekend!

Craig’s in to see David, hmm, could he have killed Lindsay? He’s aggressive and hasn’t any respect for his brother OR authority. He threatens to not support Cathy any longer if David keeps up this game of silly buggers and hmm. This David never had a chance, save his mother.

Rose is home and listening to her messages, her mum wants to know when they’ll meet her young man, Mickey (Bill Ward), and then a message from the man himself. He wishes he was there and he loves her. She curls up with a bottle of wine on the couch and falls asleep to his words. I wonder if he’s in jail? There was graveness to his tone that didn’t sound as though he was off on a business trip or somefing like that.

The next day Rose and Maloney are in to see Derek and Wendy (Jenny Howe), when Maloney stops to let her enter first, she spits out “oh don’t be such a p*ssy” and goes in for her scolding. There are numerous things for her to be called on the carpet for: the unscheduled visit to the prison, the working the case without being assigned, the stalking of Jonathan Rothman, all of it! She says Derek didn’t do his job, and she had a bit of a crush on Jonathan; she’s sorry about that, Wendy. Derek stares at Rose’s legs while Wendy explains that inappropriate relationships only distort judgment, hahaha. SORRY

Rose pushes to re-open the McVay case, the timelines don’t match up scientifically, do they, Maloney? They get it, well, SHE gets it; Maloney can’t work like this! He’s a statistician, he doesn’t do disorder and case files! She advises him that disorder is the way of the world and he’d better get used to it.

He storms out for lunch as the phone rings, it’s Mickey. And she wants phone sex, even if it’s tough for him right now, since he IS in prison. He gives it a go, though and she sinks down among the boxes and starts to giggle and moan. She looks GORGEOUS. Maloney gets back from lunch to hear Rose thrashing away, making him pause outside the door.  One of Rose’s coworkers walks by, giving Maloney a chance to talk out loud and allow Rose to collect herself.

He’s come to a decision: he will help her with her technical timeline check if she promises to fully commit to helping him with his research.

They painstakingly recreate the timeline, this is where having a statistician on your team pays off! She’s all figurative cock and balls, he’s the bean counter who makes sure things work at they should. Go Team!

And there we have it: the mistake made that may free David McVay. He ordered Peking Duck at the Chinese Take-Away, but that’s a special order and there’s a 25 minute wait.

Rose and Maloney are in to see the detectives who handled the McVay case; they’re condescending arseholes of course. She starts to set the hook; it must have been tough closing the case without a body, even with the detectives comment about “blood and spunk” notwithstanding. But there’s more! They withheld evidence from the defense, too, didn’t they? Like the witness statement from the Chinese Take-Away who they say didn’t happen but oh! Here it is. Hook fully set and the fish have taken the bait.

They cops get mad now, they don’t take kindly to the inference that there’s been any malfeasance, if she wants to fill out an Evidence Order through the proper channels. Oh, there you go, Maloney’s there with it and they’d like it all now, please, before it goes missing. Lots of insults thrown about while the fish thrash about and are reeled on board. They’re refusing to get the documents, pretending they aren’t being drawn inexorably to their fate.

Side note: I’ve never fished and should probably drop this analogy now, I understand that watching Jaws more than once isn’t considered practical knowledge.

Can they speak to a superior maybe? And yes, Inspector Alan Kerraway (Bill Fellows) from Missing Persons is right there and ready to help. Unlike his detectives, points out Rose, but that could be due to the case involving children, says Kerraway, if it isn’t the family link. Family link? Mine and Rose’s ears are up… what family link? Oh, Craig McVay was a police officer there, sure. Now we’re getting down to it. He offers to get people to help them carry the documents out, but she declines, which he takes as a sign of distrust. It gets their backs up, see.

Rose is looking through evidence, the first thing she sees is a doll, which sends her into a dismayed trance, broken by her query, does Maloney have children? No and neither does she (what was that part about having a child taken away?), she can’t because of the diabetes and they say her lifestyle is wrong.

Mrs. McVay is trying to get David to remember what happened that night; trying to get him to read his first statement over, but the warning by Craig took and he’s worried he might not see Cathy and his son again.  And maybe he did it anyway; he’s done bad things before. She can’t believe that and starts reading his statement to him again.

The smarmy detective that did most of the talking, Campbell (David Kennedy) makes a call to someone, “she’s” been here and there’s maybe trouble. Ten bucks says that was to Craig.

The other cop Jackson (Graham McTavish) is taking another crack at David, oh but not just figuratively, he starts hitting him with a truncheon.

Meanwhile, Rose is sorting through files to find that the witness statement from Chee Long of the Chinese Take-Away is missing, “game on, boys.”

She smokes and drinks and smokes and drinks and looks through more evidence then puts on a videotape of car racing in the files and falls asleep while looking through journals. She wakes up stark up right and dresses, off to Jonathan’s house for a midnight stalk. She taunts him a bit, “you big baby, ringing your lawyer” and not to worry, she’s busy right now but she’ll be back to get him soon. She turns to walk away as he starts to talk about her boyfriend Mickey, whom he met in jail. Shame about the life sentence. Why doesn’t she come up and see what she’s missing? Another time, Jonathan, close your gates. Make you look cheap.

Rose gets back and finally sees why that car racing videotape was in evidence. In the middle is Lindsay, being tormented by a man (or men) off camera, I think without clothes. Rose recognizes some of that background in the video; it was in the picture taken with Uncle Craig. She calls Maloney.

Maloney’s getting into his car in the parking garage; I had to laugh because I wasn’t even looking at him the whole time, just the backseat, which he took a big look at too, hahaha. All was well back there, apparently, so off he goes, to be immediately rammed by a huge pickup truck intent on reducing him to a smear. He’s driven into a wall and we are oot.

It’s lovely to see Sarah Lancashire again. She looks so young and pretty here! Even fancier than Last Tango in Halifax and light years from Catherine Cawood in Happy Valley. I lurve her in whatever incarnation I can get, and the story is compelling. I hope poor David, who hasn’t ever had much chance does get a run at a new life, but the odds are certainly stacked against him. See you next time!