Hi there and welcome back to The Fall for the Wounds of Deadly Hate. These titles…how is everyone liking this season so far? I am finding it a little bit slower than I remember, but then: I binged the first two seasons in approximately one dirty weekend, so that makes sense. Rolling S3:E5 after the break!

Humph, no soggy Stella (Gillian Anderson) to start things off today, that’s fine, FINE. Instead she’s working late again and Dr. Larson (Krister Henriksson) is on the phone. The defense has sent him pages of her dream diary (THANKS, AHOLES); he of course wants to talk about HER. Yay. I bet it’s AWESOME when people randomly psychoanalyze your private matters they inadvertently have access to.

He wants to know why she keeps a dream diary? She believes that the sleeping mind can make connections more easily than the awake consciousness and the doctor and I can understand that.

I understand that on a popular TV show on Sunday two people died horribly, and I’ve been having nightmares of the one I saw (by accident) since then; I’ll let you know if I come up with any answers. And screw you, TWD.

She stares out the window into the rainy night while music eerily reminiscent of the X-Files plays in the background.

Spector (Jamie Dornan) is dreaming too! He’s on top of a very high building, swaying in the wind and

That wouldn’t be the worst ending for Paul Spector, would it? He wakes up sweaty and scared, perhaps he should take his shirt off if it’s that hot in there.

Dr. Larson is briefing his team about Spector’s background while we watch the man himself perform his morning ablutions. Did we cover the fact that Spector didn’t know his father and his mother committed suicide? Maybe during one of Nurse Keira’s prayer sessions.

We get a complete rundown of Spector’s childhood. He was in a relatively stable foster home for two years and then transferred to Kincora (I’m guessing, I looked it up after and that could have been the Slavic pronunciation of an Irish word). I don’t know what Kincora (my kingdom for subtitles!) is, but it made Nurse Ritchie (Chris Patrick-Simpson) look as though he’d witnessed a war-crime.

Then he went to another home two years later and yet another after that. Young Paul was shipped from pillar to post.

The hospital was quite pleased with Paul’s current behaviour, calling him “docile, cooperative and even friendly.” I bet we can guess who gave their opinion on that one.

Dr. Larson gives them Stella’s considered opposite opinion; that Paul is a malingering sadistic bastage. Nurse Ritchie looks thoughtful while Dr. Larson suggest they approach him with “respectful skepticism.”

That’s how I approach EVERYTHING on TV!

Stella is reviewing the Police Ombudsman website, her review is online? Well, her picture and the links are, anyway. DC Turner (Richard Clements) has the letter Katie tried to give to Spector, let’s see what she had to say that is SFW and age-16 appropriate.

Well. Well she is in pain for his pleasure, thoughts of him suffocate her and oh Katie. Beware the teenager nursing an a grudge and with a murdery axe to grind. The hardest part for me is that Paul really had no interest in Katie, so her mad love is for naught. He seduced her in a completely calculated fashion her after she found the lock of hair in his drawer and put one and one together. Her letter ends slightly threateningly, will she kill in his name? I don’t think you have a whole lot to worry about, Stella, but all the same. Be careful

Katie (Aisling Franciosi) herself is in court answering for violating the terms of her probation; her lawyer McSwan (Gerard McCarthy) makes a case for a young, fatherless girl better staying at home, but the judge (Andrea Irvine) stops him right there. It’s not just these charges Katie has to answer to, she sprayed a corrosive liquid in Daisy’s eyes, not lemon juice as we thought, so she’ll be standing trial for that as well. Katie is remanded to juvvie.

Never mind my warning, Stella, you’re good!

Katie directs an ill-advised speech about sheep being fattened for the kill and Paul being the only bearer of truth and blah blah BLAH, it’s all over for Katie and her mum Lisa (Lacy Moore) for now.

Ferrington (Niamh McGrady) and DS Anderson (Colin Morgan) have gotten their hands on the Susan Harper files, here’s hoping it yields something useful.

Sean Healy (Aidan McArdle) and Wallace (Ruth Bradley) have settled on their gameplan for their defense of Paul Spector: It’s Stella’s Fault. They’re accusing the police of having tunnel vision about Paul and they’ll be starting with a charge of Abuse of Process, specifically naming Superintendent Stella Gibson in police misconduct.

Is anyone else frustrated about how this third series is proceeding? I mean, there’s only so many times I can shout “YES HE DID IT, WE SAW HIM DO IT, MOVE ON!” at the screen. It’s not the same show if we’re only going to watch evidence be whittled down to nothing and Stella be reduced to representing the worst part of human nature. Series two of Broadchurch was that as well and I didn’t much like that either.

Healy doesn’t think it will stick, but he thinks they’ll get a delay, anyway and who cares if they destroy Stella’s career? Not their problem!

Do you think lawyers should do this sort of thing, to offer their best defense however the chips may fall? Or do you think they should be held an an ethical standard that would preclude putting forth ideas they know won’t come to fruition and that would cause collateral damage?

They’re going to really make sure they nail Stella to the wall; Wallace suspects about the past sexual relationship Stella had with ACC Jim Burns (John Lynch) and other colleagues too. Well, there was that detective that was murdered completely incidentally after he and Stella spent a night together, Tom Anderson and that one smoking kiss between Stella and the beautiful Dr. Reed, but that’s hardly a pattern. If it was a man, we all know it wouldn’t even be commented on (although I’d be just as shouty about her sleeping with someone she then promoted) but this will be The Official SlutShaming of Stella. We all know Stella will not stand for that.

Spector knew about Stella and Jim; he was hiding in the closet when Jim was begging and Spector read her dream diary, of course. Sean has somehow made this into a motive for Stella to have allowed Spector to be shot in police custody but Wallace and I can’t quite believe or understand what we’re hearing.

Stella is a god now? She knew Tyler was going to come chasing after them with a gun and should have protected him with a vest? Is this what policing looks like in Northern Ireland? Real question. Are police required to fully outfit suspects being taken to show where they’ve hidden their kidnap victims? Or be accused of misconduct that could free a serial murderer?

Bailey (Conor MacNeill) is flirting with Spector in Foyle? I think?

DS Anderson is reading through the witness statements from the Susan Harper trial, oh, no, wait, this is the POLICE OFFICER statement: “what did she do to anger you, David?” “Things can happen.” If ever we think things haven’t moved very far in equal rights (you’re mostly right) for women, consider how consent is discussed right here, and thank the gods and ye boarlets it is not generally viewed it that way any more.

I mean, when you get past the shouty-making parts, you’re left with a police interview where the suspect is asked the same leading question over and over until he answers the way they’re CLEARLY guiding him. Why didn’t David Alvarez’s lawyers object and rip this apart?

There was CCTV in the Susan Harper case. In it, you can see David Alvarez walking with the victim, turning to look at someone who bears a strong resemblance to Spector.

Dr. Larson explains the rules of engagement to Spector for their first session, does he understand the severity of the charges? Does he remember making the confession? He doesn’t, and no clue what his state of mind was around the time of the offenses. Can he testify? Stay calm? Keep track of events, challenge testimony? Not really, unless his memory returns. Does he want that, queries Dr. Larson? Good question!

Turner’s found something; there was a waiter using the name Peter Baldwin (one of Spector’s aliases) in a Caribbean restaurant and received a reprimand the day before the Harper murder. Peter got into a physical fight with a customer (?), but can’t positively identity Spector 100% from the pictures. The owner thinks so, though.

Katie and Paul pass the time in their respective cages.

Healy is furious to find out that the police have a warrant to interview Spector about fresh charges; he wants full disclosure NOW.

Stella is viewing the CCTV footage over Skype with Anderson, just a couple of cops video-chatting from their hotel beds. She has a good feeling about this new information!

Spector is learning more about his fellow inmate Bailey, who broke his sister’s arm badly after she called his effeminate new haircut gay-looking. I have literally no idea how a haircut can look effeminate OR gay. Were there penises sculpted out of hair touching each other? He’s been diagnosed as psychotic with convulsive disorder and doesn’t want to tell Paul how young his sister was when he broke her arm.

Nurse Ritchie is watching carefully as Bailey explains his life as a child communicating with cars, ending the conversation and leading Paul back to his room. Bailey left out he most gruesome parts of his offense, so Nurse Ritchie fills him in. Bailey broke his sister’s arm, then raped her and dragged her out into the street to be run over by a passing truck. JFC, man!

The dregs of humanity indeed

Oh shite. Jim Burns has been drinking and calls Anderson in his hotel room. He has information about Kincora (?? I think this is what made Nurse Ritchie look like he’d swallowed a bomb above) that might be useful. Burns was struck by how grand it looked when he arrived; gardens and the like. This is where David Alvarez and Paul Spector were kept and where grand-scale sexual abuse was perpetrated on the children. Burns whispers that David and Paul would remember the dining room and then he hangs up and cries.

Jim! What’s going on??!! Keep it together, man!

Stella is stopped by Eastwood (Stuart Graham), Healy has filed the police misconduct and Abuse of Process motions as advertised, I laughed out loud when I saw her walking with a handful of drycleaning. If we don’t see at least one silk blouse on a hanger, it’s not The Fall.

Gratuitous gif: she just looks BEAUTIFUL here. Dem bones!

David Alvarez (Martin McCann) looks a LOT like Spector, holy shite. He identifies Spector as Peter Baldwin; he knew him from Kincora (?) but didn’t see him for a long time. They did share a flat later in Brixton, where they drank and took cocaine together. Anderson asks if Peter was there the night of Susan’s murder; Ferrington shows Alvarez the CCTV footage.

We’ve got Alvarez’s interview interspersed with Spector talking to Dr. Larson. Spector started his voyeurism around 13 or 14. He liked to not just see naked people, but normal families. Lives being led, full lives. He imagined himself as part of those lives, looking inside made him feel angry and lonely. Harassed? No answer. He started breaking in when he worked up the courage, he started stalking the people he was watching. He would make elaborate plans for his break-ins, he wanted nobody to feel safe.

Dr. Larson is trying to understand the progression of Spector’s criminality; Paul thought he was cured when he married Sally Ann and had Olivia. Dr. Larson says those manifestations are not so easily cast aside.

Anderson is walking Alvarez through his confession; it’s clearly a coerced and confused interview. Why is he protecting Peter? Nobody understands how bad Kincora (??) was unless they were there. Anderson brings up the dining room and it gets VERY tense. Father Jensen called Spector Pretty Boy, he was a favourite of the Father, and as such had to nominate a successor when it was time to leave. Oh you guys.

Peter saved Alvarez; he could have chosen him, Jensen wanted him but Peter chose someone else and he didn’t care who, because being Jensen’s favourite was the worst thing that could be. Anderson asks if he’s sure and Alvarez is: for a full year Peter was Father Jensen’s favourite.

Cuppa

Paul is telling Dr. Larson about his childhood; he thought his mother died because his love wasn’t enough. Just before she died, his step-father explained that he wasn’t his father and that nobody knew exactly who it was. He found his mother who had hanged herself; that is not a sight anyone should see.

I’ve been wondering if Spector killed her himself, finding out someone had been lying about your paternity seems like ample motive for someone like him.

Dr. Larson asks why Paul was drawn to be a bereavement counselor? Something morbid within himself, Spector thinks.

Anderson fills Stella in on the Susan Harper interviews; he felt that Alvarez enjoyed the flattery and attention of the detectives and perhaps even viewing the act itself: that’s perhaps why he took The Fall for Paul, especially in light of the help Paul gave him with Father Jensen.

I think Alvarez and Peter/Paul had a bond over what the grotesque abuse in Kincora (?); a survivor’s connection that was not easily to be lost.

It’s time for the police to interview Paul; it’s Anderson and Stella who are asking the questions and I KNOW this is her case, but wouldn’t it be wise to have a step away at this point, given all the latest allegations by the defense counsel?

Stella isn’t talking anyway; it’s Anderson who takes Paul through all the evidence from the rental. He declines to answer about the lease agreement and doesn’t say much of anything while Stella STARES holes in his face.

Things go off the rails slightly when Anderson starts introducing evidence from the Susan Harper murder; they haven’t apprised Spector or his lawyer of these charges. This offense falls outside the period of amnesia, so he wouldn’t have that defense here. Eastwood enters then, formally charging Paul with the murder of Susan Harper and Healy calls the interview.

Healy is FURIOUS again; asking Paul who the hell is David Alvarez? The police have him sorted, figures Paul.

And we’re out. So. The show is clearly making a case of nature  vs. nurture: did Paul go bad from his horrific childhood, or was he always bad and the assault and abuse pushed him into these acts? Stella isn’t concerned with the atrocities committed against him in his youth: should we? I think it would be impossible not to, does anything think those are mitigating circumstances? I do not. I think Paul’s life was the worst that could be imagined and I understand that we are being asked to get how he felt in relation to other people and their “normal” upbringing but he has used his life to be a force for pure evil. I’m glad Jim Burns and those other policemen arrested Father Jensen and his collaborators and I’m relieved Paul is behind bars, for however long.

They did succeed in making me care about Paul as a child, though, so there is that. And I’m happy we’ve found a workaround for this whole business of Does He Remember or Doesn’t He? that they created with a faked brain whatsit. I’d be happier if that part didn’t feel like a complete waste of time but I will take it. Until next time, which is the last time this season, cheers!