We’re back with Sarah Lancashire and Phil Davis trying to pry David McVay out of blind Lady Justice’s grasping cold fingers of fate on Rose and Maloney. I understand the series takes a sharp turn at this point; let’s find out what that looks like. Rolling part two of the pilot after the break!
When last we saw our intrepid duo, Rose had figured out where Lindsay had gone and Maloney was being driven into a wall at top speed. We open in Maloney’s hospital room where Rose is badgering him for information about his assailant. She’s much more concerned about nailing someone for it than finding out how Maloney is, who will be totally fine, FANK YOU VERY MUCH! Except for the one testicle he might lose, which is almost funny, Maloney: Rose gives you half a point.
She doesn’t want him to tell the police anything, in this situation the police have suppressed evidence and revealed themselves to be very much not on TeamRoseAndMaloney. So just let things…unravel a bit further, which is fine given that they’re unraveling all over HIS face. The message the heavies gave was simple: “have the b*tch lay off” and if they’d just have been considerate enough to mention their specific animus…
She’s glad he’s all right, now, is he okay to get going? He hasn’t got a car, but no worries, she has a car! The way she says it tells me it will not be a hatchback.
And it is indeed not a Honda Civic hatchback, it’s a red Jeep-like vehicle with a fancy name and several inches of dust. It’s a collector’s edition, only a very few made with this special engine, which makes Maloney and I worry about safety. We’re the buzzkills.
She tosses him the keys; no, she’s no idea how valuable the truck is, it was a present from her dad for her 21st. A little fiddling later, the engine roars to life, just “IGNORE THE PETROL SMELL!” advises a smoking Rose. Someone once talked about how sexy Sarah Lancashire is smoking and er, YEAH.
They’re staked outside Craig McVay’s place, where he’s loading up a big truck without a care in the world. She sends Maloney off to follow Craig inconspicuously (in an extremely loud jeep covered in dirt and two paint colours) while she talks to Effie about the location of the family picture where she saw Lindsay being grabbed at in the videotape.
Nobody searched that location for her body, it seems. It’s thirty miles away and nobody goes there anymore.
Inconspicuous Maloney with his face covered in bloody polka dots, his rat teeth, and suit and tie, decides to unobtrusively search Craig’s van in a wrecking yard, finding two more videotapes that he skips off with. But then he wasn’t paying attention when clever Rose was pushing buttons earlier (although perhaps it would have been more clever to SHOW him how to start the vehicle she was planning on having him chauffeur her around in, instead of showing off) so his fumblings attract the attention of the Bad Guys. He manages to make it out, all the while watched by Craig McVay.
He’s got a message on his mobile! It’s Rose, she’s taking a cab to Rock End Flats on the Isle Of Grey and there’s the police. Apparently it’s illegal to use your cell phone while driving in England, too! It’s up to $5,000 fine here, which is madness. Oh ho, but it’s not a routine traffic stop after all, Jackson the other cop who was beating David McVay in interview is with the constable, I bet this is a warning. Oh, sorry, ANOTHER warning. It is indeed, they take pride in their policing there and don’t take kindly to being accused of incompetence or lying. I’d say an easy way to avoid that is to STOP LYING AND SUPPRESSING EVIDENCE THEN. You’re welcome! While Steph the Constable searches the jeep (*crash* headlamp out!) the videotapes also go missing. He should have grabbed them as soon as he was pulled over!
Rose is communing with the dead in the wasteland that she saw Lindsay, finding her everywhere, but where is she? A lone dirtbiker rides back and forth, Rose says (to Lindsay) that he’s been keeping her in silence all this time. Maloney calls from gate with no answer, why is he here? Rose walks around and around, there is something here (I totally saw Catherine Cawood in that walk!), her gaze finally lighting on a shack near a puddle (my kiddos idea of heaven). The dirtbiker sees where she’s staring, so she points at the shack all triumphant-like, until she realizes that means he’ll be gunning for her now. “Oh shit” and she’s off running while Maloney tries to figure out where the noise is coming from. He makes it just in time to draw off the dirtbiker, who has a long metal pole and smashes the second windshield on Maloney is as many days. Off he goes while Rose catches her breath.
That’s kind of Rose in a nutshell, isn’t it? Full steam ahead, no fear, LOOK: I know what you’re up to and I caught you! Oh shit, you might not have wanted me to know that!
Time to search the disgusting shack full of standing water and possibly a dead body! Rose doesn’t want to wait for the police, of course, I’m with her on that one, so they poke around in the water until they come up with something solid. On top of a plastic garbage bag, full of…more plastic bags and Lindsay’s school uniform. NOW it’s time to call in the police.
Kerraway’s there from Missing Persons, they can’t confirm that it’s her, but yeah, it probably is and that’s the hell of working MisPer, the families always have that hope and usually, as now, it’s misplaced.
They get called back in to the crime scene, ahhh, this has been the work of a serial killer. There are trophies from at least 4 other girls, shirts and ties from the school uniforms, among other things. The bones are extry gross, Maloney yaks on the side of the road.
Rose gets back to her flat to find Rothman waiting for her and ready to banter, “Don’t you EVER come home?” She’s not in the mood, though, bit of a bad day, Jonathan. Side note: it’s so odd to see him play Frisky in the Night Manager last night and then all young and virile today again. As though some kind of reverse aging happened in the dusk of the evening last night.
Sorry, sorry, I’m a bit punchy as I didn’t get much sleep last night, besides Chicago and the no-gas situation, apparently Americans in urban centers don’t like to camp either, so a lack of campgrounds led to us sleeping in a KwikTrip parking lot under all sorts of bright lights. ANYWAY
He’s already been inside her flat, though, and takes credit for the attack on Maloney, I was WONDERING if that was the case. He’d hate to have to hurt her, though; she would have to be very, very bad. There’s something about her that gives him wood, see *menacing crotch pat*. They do have wicked chemistry, which is lovely to see after what’s been passing for it lately *cough Night Manager*cough The Five cough*. I probably shouldn’t call all this chemistry, with all the dark undertones, but I can actually feel the connection between the two of them, it sizzles.
Rose cries as she asks about his torturing; his victims eventually don’t feel anything, do they? The mind shuts down to protect and he asks her who? “A girl. Girls” she replies and I’m wondering now. As is Jonathan, who cuts the evening’s entertainment short and bids her a goodnight.
That scene did not work at all for me; I will have to try to sort out why before the end of the show. It may be that Rose has run the gamut from elation to devastation to anger to aggression to cringing and I don’t follow. Of course, she has had a stunningly bad day.
So far from freeing MCVay, this new evidence has him charged with three more murders, I hadn’t even CONSIDERED that! I bet Effie’s gonna be soooo maddd… However, what about the dirt bike rider that attacked her? That’s very much Not David McVay
The other fallout is that Maloney’s been sent back to his time management exercise and Rose has been sent on her annual leave: starting NOW. Oh and the police are citing her with withholding evidence. He asks if she mentioned the tapes Jackson and Steph took off him, of course not. She holds things back; he thinks it’s a habit. *Dulcet tones* They didn’t have anything material, they hadn’t viewed the tapes, and he let them take the tapes and or did he? A camera cut to his briefcase makes me think perhaps not.
Maloney doesn’t want anything more to do with it, or her or ANYTHING. He was scared out there! She needs one more thing, though (that dulcet tone from before putting both our ears up), she needs him to attend a dinner. This must be the dinner with her parents and I’m EXCITED!! I hear Anne Reid is her mother again!!! Just one small complication – which I’m guessing that his name is now Mickey.
Oh. Rose’s mum isn’t Anne Reid at all. I am disappoint. The actress is fine, I’m sure, but I don’t know why I thought Anne Reid was her mum. I have the worst reading comprehension on Twitter, perhaps that’s it.
Did you know Rose and Mickey are engaged? Me either! Rose’s mum sounds ALMOST as bigoted as Anne Reid on Last Tango in Halifax, she’ll ask someone if they’re Scottish soon. Rose has explained Mickey’s absence as being “in guns” and “almost permanently detained on business” and that’s a great way to explain a life sentence!
Some of Rose’s previous lovers have been somewhat…unsuitable. And they’ll spend the night; of course, they’ve made up the spare room and got a cracking new electric blanket!
Maloney can’t figure out why he always does whatever Rose wants, but hey, lookit, he kept something back too! He DID have a videotape stashed in his briefcase but he doesn’t even want to look at it, he wants to hand it over to Wendy and they fight and her parents overhear. Speaking of holding things back, she hasn’t told him that the car attack had nothing to do with that case, did she?
Rose is meeting with Kerraway privately, why is that again he asks? She counters by asking about Jackson working with Craig McVay, what was the story there? He and Jackson were part of a tight-knit group in Vice, ah ha. My spidey senses are tingling as Rose decides to take a leap of faith. She hands him the videotape from the back of Craig’s van, it shows a young girl, 13 or so, taking off her clothes and then a bunch of men have sex with her.
Kerraway is visibly shaken, he can’t believe he missed it with Craig.
Derek’s in to see Maloney, good job on the presentation, but er, um, where’s Rose then? Maloney doesn’t know and when Derek complains that Rose doesn’t appreciate what’s done for her, answers that he doesn’t believe Rose cares for him that much.
Maloney’s printing off pictures of a group of men, must be that close-knit Vice group.
Rose and Effie are in to see David again, why was he fighting with Lindsay her last day? He didn’t want her to do what the other girls were doing, he offered to give her the 50 quid instead, but off she went anyway. And I may be misunderstanding, but I think the reason he didn’t say anything is that while ferrying one of the very young girls having sex with this group of men, he had sex with her (he says she made him) and then he felt very bad and did a very bad thing. Sigh. I can’t tell if that means he had sex with the young prostitute or killed her as well. Effie slaps him and leaves. That’s what Craig had over him.
Kerraway shows him a wire; I guess they’ll be using him as a stepping stone.
Maloney shows up at Rose’s house to tell her that Mickey’s called a few times: he’s shocked by her Murder Wall showing Jonathan and the McVay case. He shows her the picture he found on the internet, it was from the gang when they busted a pedophile ring. Except that’s not what they did, they took over the business, she tells him. Kerraway’s running a wire operation.
It’s probably best if he goes back to his real job, yeah? But he’s been missing her, which she knew of course. She stares at the picture of Jonathan Rothman, which he thinks she should let go, but does he know about double jeopardy? Yes, you can’t be tried for the same crime twice, that’s why you have to find another crime, even if it’s part of the same crime, they can be tried for that. I’m worried that she’s setting herself up as bait. He cautions her, but she knows how dangerous Jonathan is, she won’t ever let it go.
Maloney catches the news; one of the young girls has been identified as Phyllis Jane Morris, who was tagged as a runaway after she ran away in October of 1997 but phoned home in February of 1998. Hasn’t David McVay been in jail since 1996? Invigorated, Maloney asks for the tapes of today’s news.
Wire operation time! Can David pull this off?
A woman is packing tapes in her luggage, is that Cathy, David’s estranged wife and her BIL’s lover?
Craig is laying it on thick with David, trying to convince him that he killed all the girls, which is tricky since he was in jail. Craig owns up to having sex with Lindsay, but that’s bye the bye. Craig figures out David’s wired and jumps on him as the police close in.
The police also arrive at the warehouse where all the rest of the tapes are stored; everyone, including Jackson is picked up but Cathy, who sneers at her son on her way out the door. There are some messed up people in this world, yo.
Oh and Jonathan’s inside Rose’s flat again, going through her things, smiling right up until he sees a picture of a bloody young woman with “Victim 3???” written next to it. Oooh Rose, get some new locks, lady.
Maloney’s going through the police press conference on the news again, he sees Kerraway and that’s what he was shocked by previously. Was Kerraway one of the men in that photo? Perhaps without a beard? Could he have been the dirt bike rider?
Effie’s taking care of David and Cathy’s son now, she’s done her that favour, anyway. She talks about wanting to preserve the idea of Craig as her “good” son, they didn’t want to think about who else could have been up there at those caravans, so when they pressed record, they just blotted it out. I do apologize, I have no idea what any of that meant, but it freaked Rose out. Effie found a tape in her things (whose things? What’s going on??) but she was really nice about it (nice about what?? None of this is making sense to me); nobody should see her like that (see WHO??).
Rose is off to see Kerraway at home, I don’t like how he’s slinging those hedge clippers about as he greets her. She lifts her head, ready, as Maloney goes through all the missing persons cases for the found girls. Kerraway was associated with them all. Isn’t he the sole Missing Persons lead, though? The music tells me it’s more than that, though.
Rose is checking out everything in Kerraway’s house, he’s a collector, a weakness he calls it but I bet compulsion is a better word for that. You know, military badges, small china plates, ties from murdered girls.
What’s she been up to? Just thinking about cardboard, really. Is it okay to say that Sarah Lancashire looks incredibly beautiful here? She glows in the light as she brings the fight to the killer. David McVay’s semen was in the back because he gave in to temptation (and because a 13-year-old girl “made him”), but the cardboard with Lindsay’s blood on it could have come from anywhere. Kerraway just smiles, she “displays a consistent quality of thought.” She’s done that thing again where she’s pointing out the “Ha! I got you!” without a whole lot of regard for her own personal safety.
Is this whole police force in this town bad? I mean
Ah, he lives right out by the caravans at Rock End, does he have a dirt bike handy? She gets a call just then from Maloney, who tells her of his suspicions. She turns to leave, but then can’t resist looking in the garage for his dirt bike, which is totally there. Also there is Kerraway, who tells her she should have just kept walking. That’s not our Rose’s style, though. She calls him a “you little sad sack of shit” and now we get the story.
All these girls were missing, guess who’s really good at finding missing people? He just didn’t give them back after; he kept them and brought them back to his house. It was different with Lindsay, though, he didn’t want to kill her; he was looking for perfection and “she.was.it”
Rose rushes him them and they fight, the really creepy part being when being when he says she would have been wonderful when she was younger. He knocks her out
Rose wakes up to the sound of the dirt bike motor idling, looking into the garage to see Kerraway lying near the exhaust tube, dying in the locked garage. She screams “no!! You don’t get to get away!!” while trying to open the door but stops, seeing Lindsay’s ghost watching her, vengeance in sensible shoes and a uniform jacket. “All right” she says, all right, and walks away while Kerraway dies.
We’re at the courthouse where we began this series, David McVay being walked out by his mother while Rose watches and Maloney watches her. He tells her They want her to come back, They think he has influence and he must, because she’ll see him Monday. He waits and she says “consider yourself kissed;” he blushes and leaves.
She walks away, followed closely by a clearly angry Jonathan Rothman, er-ooh Rose, be careful!! Next season coming up next week! I’m enjoying this series because I get to see Sarah Lancashire kick arse again, but I like the contrast with cool and collected statistician Maloney. She never goes completely over the line, just that but where you believe it comes from passion and not as a plot device. All the kudos; see you lot soon! Cheers!
