It’s been too long since I watched Safe! I know everyone probably binged this in five minutes, but I’m finally back to it, what’s going on in our posh gated community where single cops frolic with surgeons with unwieldy accents? Let’s find out after the break.
We’re back to Day 1, the night of Sia Marshall’s (Amy-Leigh Hickman) party when poor Chris Chahal (Freddie Thorp) lost his life in the swimming pool and was subsequently frozen and thawed then dumped in the reservoir by the Marshall parents.
We’re back before it got so ugly, Chris kissing his family goodbye and heading out with his pals and a bottle of dark rum. One of his buddies is Henry Mason (Louis Greatorex! From Last Tango in Halifax! You know, that show ended perfectly, but I’d watch the Sam Hill out of 4 more seasons) but definitely not a friend is Scott (Tyler Conti), who is the dude on elbow crutches we saw being extra solicitous to (the now missing) Jenny Delaney (Amy James-Kelly) after the party.
Being 16 and completely self-absorbed (NOT SAYING THAT ALL TEENAGERS ARE), Jenny seemed mostly embarrassed by Scott’s attention and Chris laughs at his aggression, so people suck.
During the party it’s mostly the usual: shots shots shot and selfies. Jenny found Chris in the middle of a fight in the living room, but I can’t tell who he was fighting with. We may not have met him yet!
Now we’re at school with Tom Delaney (Michael C. Hall is executive Producer!) and Sophie Mason (Amanda Abbington) watching their offspring sing choir while Sophie’s ex Josh (Emmett J Scanlan) leaves his caravan looking shifty but adorable. The gang is all there at the school, Zoe Chahal (Audrey Fleurot), her estranged husband Neil (Joplin Sibtain) arriving late but Jojo Marshall (Tony Lindsay) and his worried looking wife Lauren (Laila Rouass) are not hiding their stress well.
They were the ones who performed all those indignities to Chris Chahal’s lifeless body, they’d be even more concerned if they knew he didn’t stay where they put him in the water. A fisherman is just about to ring that alarm, ah poor lad. So young.
Sophie gets the call about the body and Zoe gets kicked out of school, she’s a school teacher currently on leave while the police investigate claims of improper relations between her and a student. This trouble oddly seems to be bringing Zoe and her husband closer together.
Sophie and detective Emma Castle (Hannah Arterton) view the body from the lake, immediately identifying it as the missing Chris Chahal. They’re off to see poor Zoe, who falls apart at the news. She and her daughter Tilly (Imogen Gurny) were the only ones that missed Chris. Even Tom just saw him as a means to an end with regards to information about his daughter.
Tom’s tracking down a lead as we speak, he found some parking slips and a note about “Jasmine” between Jenny and the barman at Heaven. See, Bobby (Milo Twomey) was involved with Jasmine somehow (he used to date Tom’s deceased wife Rachel) and Jenny was tracking down that information the night she disappeared.
To be fair, a LOT happened the night she disappeared. Tom’s wife died a year previous to Day One.
Jasmine seems to be Jasmine Hall, a hospital behind locked gates. Tom’s doctorate gains him entrance but he has trouble finding out what he wants to know as he doesn’t know what to ask. He gets busted staring at the guest ledger.
It’s very angry and weepy at the Chahal residence, Sophie is all compassionate care but Emma would like some questions answered, fanks.
Emma’s getting over a relationship breakup and has been secretly filming Tom’s bestie Peter (Marc Warren).
Side note: one of the things I love about Harlan Coben’s books (you know this is his show, right? He also did The Five) is the male relationships. He does fast and funny fraternal friendships like almost no other.
The Marshalls are happy; no news is good news! We also got to see the Chahals happy right before the news of their son got out, so I’d suggest the Marshalls brace themselves.
As should Tom, who’s raced home as he had a feeling Jenny might be home. He rushes past Sophie, who’s got some very bad news for him, her staring after him was beautiful in a way I don’t understand yet.
She spills about Chris, he wants to know how long they think he’s been dead? Because Jenny went off without Chris, Tom’s just trying to keep her alive.
Tom’s supposed to be in surgery, bloody hell, he’s going to operate in that condition? His mood isn’t helped by the sight of Sophie pulling his daughter’s hairbrush for DNA comparison, but off he speeds.
Emma’s really affected by Chris’s dead body, did her ex-boyfriend/husband die? Maybe she’s not running from a bad breakup but rather the death of a partner. She has to leave the autopsy prior to completion, Sophie follows her to the bathroom to find out exactly that.
Emma’s colleague was run down during a checkstop, we get a flashback of his cinematically arranged dead body (just one spot of blood, running down from his mouth) as she cries about the loss. Sophie would like her to see the shrink on the force but isn’t talking about kicking her off the case yet.
Jojo is throwing a barbecue, they’ve got to act normal, don’t they? Not like they found and hid and froze and dumped a dead body.
The reason they didn’t report Chris’s dead body when Sia found him in the pool was that she was selling drugs at the party and Jojo was worried about the family reputation.
Tom’s made it to the hospital but hasn’t gone into surgery yet (good call), filling Peter in on the news and attempting to accost Scott in the hallway.
To be honest, I didn’t know if Scott was Scott and neither does Tom, but he looks like the guy in the flashbacks and video from that night. He rolls tape, yep, same guy, so goes running after him but Scott’s in the wind already.
They scam the name and address out of the doctor who took off Scott’s cast and are on the run.
The lab’s come back with some bad news for the Marshalls, the water Chris died in was not reservoir bilge but rather swimming pool water. The police know where Chris was last seen and that there’s a pool there, they’re off to the mansion, where a frozen Lauren would like to get out of the water now, please.
It gets slapstick when they see the police arrive with the coshed neighbour in tow, it’s all “lawyer” this and “exercising right to silence” that when Sophie nails them beautifully: “about what, Mr. Marshall?”
What, indeed.
Peter and Tom stake out Scott’s place then follow him when he takes off on a bike, only to see him enter the Community Centre that Tom’s wife used to work at. Rachel’s office was a shrine to a life that Tom wasn’t a part of, so he yelled a bunch and ruint it for everyone so now it’s mostly bare. Scott stopped by just then to grab something to remember Rachel by.
Tom goes through what’s left, it’s mostly cards from friends but he finds Rachel’s daytimer with a note about a Book Club and a picture of the Masons and Delaneys together in happier times, before Rachel’s cancer and the Masons’ divorce.
Jojo and Sophie are enjoying a staring contest in the interview room, but her junior officer Darren (Raj Paul) is ruining it with his urgent texts! RUINT. It’s the CCTV footage of Jenny at the train station, being confronted by Josh, Sophie’s ex.
Neil Chahal has been the picture of stoicism the entire time we’ve known him, he takes a break from comforting Tilly with Zoe to absolutely fall to pieces alone in his room. Ah that was wrenching.
Peter is still following Scott, who’s headed off with a friend on a motorcycle. Tom’s still at the centre, Rachel’s assistant Alex (Kate Maravan – wooooo, finally got a name!) knows about Jasmine Hall. She says Rachel approached Jasmine Hall about having psychiatric patients come hang at the centre, but I don’t believer her.
Sophie and Darren look for Josh, who finds them tossing his caravan full of the type of clothing typically worn by young women. Sophie gets right up in his grill but it sounds as though Jenny and Josh just had a quick hello and “don’t tell anyone you saw me.” The clothing belongs to a young woman Josh is “helping.”
Peter finds himself in a spot of bother while following Scott, being chased by a half dozen young thugs and just when I thought he was going to pull out some ninja moves, he’s murdered by one of the bastages. What? Okay, stabbed by two of them, maybe he’ll make it, but he’s off in the middle of nowhere and his phone’s been stolen.
Tom’s got stalker app on his phone and finds the dudes right away, heroically punching everyone (the shot where he clearly missed the guy by a foot was fun) with his newfound dad-rage and vanquishing the lot, young men who just stabbed someone in exactly the same circumstances. Scott is so scared (he stabbed Peter first) that he immediately coughs up where Peter is after learning that Tom was Rachel’s husband.
Neil is acting funny, asking odd questions of Sophie and Emma, who are asking everyone in the neighbourhood if they’ve seen Jenny. Speaking of strange, neighbour Helen Crawthorne (Karen Bryson) is clearly hiding something important.
Or SOMEONE: she’s got Jenny! Right there in Tom’s neighbourhood. Honestly. Jenny cries to break her heart as Tom frantically works on Peter.
We’re out.
Huh. So Jenny was hiding behind the gates the whole time, why would she go to Helen? Is she being held there? It doesn’t look like it. And how random is this attack on Peter in the middle of nowhere in broad daylight? Is that a red herring? By the way, does Emma suspect Peter of having killed her co-worker-with-benefits? Because we saw some cuddly photos of her and a guy that were making her sad. Hm.
How exactly do the Marshalls plan to bluff their way out of all of the evidence they’re up against? Their neighbour SAW Chris’s dead body melting on their floor! Saw it! Everyone saw Chris at their house right before then too! Madness.
Until next time! Cheers.
