Hello everyone, I am TalksTooMuch (TTM) and I will be recapping this second season of Unforgotten for your reading pleasure. I recapped season one starting here; let’s get rolling right away, shall we?
Now. I wasn’t completely happy with how last season ended, it didn’t make sense to me however much disbelief I suspended. However, I am very much looking forward to seeing what’s in store for us this year! I also love Nicola Walker, so I’d be in anyway, you know it. I tweeted quite irreverently at the show’s creator / writer the other day without knowing who he was, because that’s kind of what I do, but I think I made it right.
We open on the River Lea in North London, workers are bringing up a storage container; they’re not happy when they see what it holds.
DCI Cassie Stuart (Nicola Walker) is headed that way, calling DS Sunny Khan (Sanjeev Bhaskar) who’s busy wrangling the girls we heard so much about in season one. That’s why I only make and receive calls after bedtime, y’all! Nobody wants to hear alla that. Pick me up on the way he says!
Jase’s mum has come to see him for his birthday, she’s disappointed that he’s broken up with another young lady before she could meet her, she just wants him to be happy! There’s something hinky there, I’m sure we’ll find out in the fullness of time. Jase (Will Brown) is adorable.
Cassie and Sunny head to the site, discussing the comparative benefits of online dating: I can only give mixed reviews on that.
Over in southeast London, a young cancer patient is giving and getting an extremely hard time from a nurse
Nurse Marion Kelsey (Roise Cavaliero) should never ever do motivational speeches, but she gets the young girl to take her chemo meds, so…?
Cassie and the pathologist are trying to sort out timelines; the river was dredged in 1994, so it would have had to be after that, but Cassie thinks this is a super new body, given how well it’s preserved. It still looks exactly like a pile of bones to me. Ahhhhh gross, there’s skin too!!!! For the love of. The pathologist tells Cassie that the body could be up to 25 years old, she’ll know more when she gets it back to the lab.
Cassie wonders about all the people who sat here and enjoyed a picnic while the body moldered away nearby; Sunny only wants to discuss sandwiches. He hates baconcress and I probably would too if I knew what it meant.
Jason’s flatmate apologizes for missing his party, it’s uncomfortable enough that there must be drama there. Cath (Bryony Hannah from Call the Midwife!) doesn’t want to reschedule right now, let’s see, perhaps tomorrow! That was very polite and so awkward. He gets up to his room to stare at the cards he got for his birthday; one from his mum and one from a Chinese takeaway. You know you’re a good customer when…
Cassie’s tapping away on her computer at home with a glass of wine when her dad pops in; Martin (Peter Egan) has been dating! But he’s not impressed, they’re “all little old ladies, aren’t they?” Says little old man Martin. I had a friend that was like that; she was married for ages and it’s like she was in a state of arrested development when she got divorced, she only wanted to date men ten years younger. Not for a boytoy sitch, but rather because that’s who she felt she connected with. Men her age were OLD. Cassie says the same to Martin, he skidootches sulkily.
Paul Nixon (Douglas Hodge! From Unforgiven, let’s not start THAT messing up again) offers to get another ticket to Spain, his kindness makes Jason’s mom tear up. She’s just WORRIED about him! He’ll find his way! Wait: is Paul supposed to be Jason’s dad? He doesn’t look near old enough
Back at the lab, the body and container are being carefully examined, that’s SUCH a creepy skeleton with flesh and all.
They’re able to identify the watch it was wearing right off as a Blanchard, I’ve never heard of it either! It’s quite expensive, at least, and since they were kind of lemons, they should be able to identify whichever watchmaker had to fix it. Then maybe the watchmaker could identify the owner! Cassie and Sunny exchange smug grins while I wonder if it will turn out to be a red herring like the car key in season one; it’s easy enough to steal a watch, just like a car.
Over in Brighton (we’re going all over the UK today, woot!), we’re in court with prosecutor Colin Osbourne (Mark Bonnar from Home Fires!), now THERE is a Scottish accent! He’s trying to put Jordan Brown (Bradley Connor) in the clink for something serious ohhhh no, wait, he’s not! He’s a defense attorney, trying to get Jordan the drug dealer into help for his addiction. After all, he spent all of his dealing profits taking his disabled brother on a holiday, who’s a good lad!? The judge and I can actually SEE Jordan during this speech, though, so
The judge erring on the side of compassion. Colin looks at his watch and RUNS as the techs pry apart the watch from the container.
Colin’s late for meeting his partner at the Child Contact Center to pick up their daughter, it’s lovely except for the part where Tyler (Josef Atlin from River!!!! Oh I loved River) is watching all from his car and following them.
They were able to get a watchmaker name from inside the watch; unfortunately it’s Smith. W. Smith to be exact and it’s still the best chance for finding the owner.
DC Jake Collier (Lewis Reeves) breaks the bad news to Cassie and Sunny; over 7,500 possible misper matches! They’re on the way to The British Watch & Clock Makers’ Guild to track down this W. Smith, the man in charge should have something for them in half an hour or so.
We’ve over in Salisbury now at the Academy School listening to a lecture about Shakespeare. It veers into a discussion about why women murder: either for a man or because of a man. She’s missed the point of Aileen Wuornos though: she killed for MONEY. And that is why most women murder, Professor Mahmoud (Badria Timimi), whatever Shakespeare thought. Women can be ruthlessly pragmatic.
The professor calls her husband Hassan (Adeel Akhtar from River!!) for support, not getting much. Love the new beard, Adeel!
The Daddies are grocery shopping, no junk cereals for breakfast, sorry! Daddy Colin wants only fresh fruit for breakfast, how about a protein source too! The other Daddy goes off to get yogourt with the kiddo while a stranger pours poison in Colin’s ear. He hopes they all die of AIDS, the girl too and WHO SAYS THAT??? How can anyone hope a little kid dies????
Dr. East (Luiza Patikas) takes Cassie through what they’ve found out about the dead body; it was indeed a man, 5’9″ and a little overweight, between 30-50. They found a kitchen knife buried in his chest cavity, that skin is GROSS. Dr. East did find something else useful, a pager was found in and around where a shirt pocket would be, that’s probably more traceable than a watch!
Colin didn’t say anything to his partner, but out in the parking lot, he’s clocking the man who approached him. He takes a minute to express displeasure
While their watcher takes note.The Daddies are mid-adoption, this is a trial run to see if they get to keep Flo (Any Jayne) and now I’m wondering if that’s her bio-dad watching.
The head of the watchmakers guild gives Sunny a list of possible leads for the watch, that’s not too bad! Better than 7,500! He pounds the pavement while DS Murray Boulting (Jordan Long), DC Fran Lingley (Carolina Main) and Collier work the phones.
Marion gets home from work to find her husband Tony (Nigel Lindsay) feeding her children, well, TRYING to, anyway. An older woman shows up and after some confusion as to when she was supposed to pick up the boys, she sweeps them off while Marion and Tony try to figure out why she’s such an “annoying bitch.” Fish finger fight!
Cassie is checking out the pager angle at a tech repair shop; Nathan (Bobby Lockwood) is an old friend of Cassie’s son! There may have some peeing on a couch involved, but let’s move on.
Sara Mahmoud is off to another school, this time for an interview at the Highbrook Academy School while Cassie gets the good news on the pager. They just need to find a working model of this one and they should be able to pull off the last twenty messages or so from it. Go eBay!
Ah, it’s Joy’s (Wendy Craig) birthday and the annoying older woman is Marion’s sister Elise (Holly Aird), than explains a lot! She was collecting the children for the party and now everyone’s there. Marion and her sister do not see eye to eye on much, it appears.
Sara’s not interviewing well; she’s applying for a headteacher role and I’m not confident she’s putting forth the right demeanor. She leaves, but bursts back in to give an impassioned speech about understanding and working for disenfranchised kids. Plus she’d be cheaper made me laugh and the board members smile.
Marion and Elise are arguing in the back about Marion blowing out her mum’s birthday candles; Marion stomps off after Elise brings up Marion disappearing for the better part of a decade. Tony barely has time to get into the car!
Colin puts Flo to bed, promising she’s safe now, which gives me all the premonition shivers. It’s best to keep things non-specific with kiddos.
Sunny arrives at W. Smith and Watchmakers just as he’s closing up; he recognises the mark as his uncle’s, woot! A break in the red herring!
Adam (Jassa Ahluwalia) is living at home again, yay! Cassie’s concerned about Adam’s girlfriend cheating with his best mate, Adam’s remarkably ehhh about it. “A ten second shag” still counts, yeah? Sunny calls then with the news about the watchmaker, she fills him in on the pager news as Sunny sees what a mess his kitchen is in: GIRLS!
Sara gets home to find her entire family (three boys! Like me!) watching TV with their dad Hassan, awww, that was sweet. She’s not too hopeful about the position.
Tyler the watcher stops Colin the next morning, Colin doesn’t remember him but he’s very important right now. He’s Flo’s stepdad, her birthmum’s partner. Colin is floored; Tyler can’t be talking to him! Tyler saw the car keying, though, so he has enough leverage to force a chat.
It’s taken this long to find out, but Jason’s mum is DI Tessa Nixon (Lorraine Ashbourne) and she’s retiring from the police force in April.
Nathan does not want Cassie looking over his shoulder as he attempts to retrieve data from the pager; HE WILL CALL YOU, CASSIE!
Tyler pretends he and Flo’s birthmum are worried about Flo’s wellbeing and I’m sure it’s difficult to be in that situation (well I don’t know, really) but all Colin wants to know is: how much? Tyler finally spits out 5,000 quid, Colin needs to think about it.
Ah the young cancer patient is Zoe (Jodie Tyack) and she and Marion are close enough that they talk on the phone while Marion is at home. Hm. Closer to her than her family? Tony is equally confused by the home number bit, but I’m glad Zoe has someone to talk to, anyway? That’s the problem, though, when people talk to the wrong people instead of addressing issues: things stay the same.
Sunny’s got the watchmaker’s information, he thinks he has the name of the misper: D. Walker or David Ewen Walker
Missing since May 8, 1990 from a public house and all these people we’ve met are connected to David, his wife and previously 5 year old son.
WAIT. Is Jason Walker the son???? He is! Just as I’m wondering, Cassie and Sunny are knocking on Tessa’s door: this is indeed about David.
All the foreshadowing with Shakespeare means we’re looking for a female killer; but are we?
Tessa can’t believe the news; she always thought David had suicided. How could they find anything after being in the water so long?
Colin gets home to watch Flo and Other Daddy cuddling, how far will he go to protect them as a family unit? I think I’ve cast him as a villain because A) he’s a lawyer and B) he has white hair like Trevor Eve in series one. My bad!
Cassie asks Tessa to arrange for her son to come give DNA for comparison, she tries to give condolences but Tessa’s a copper too. She knows they’ll be looking at her for this, so she brushes the platitudes aside.
Sunny and Cassie contemplate just that out in the car while Nathan calls with good news: they were able to retrieve some data! And so it begins as we finish the first episode.
I do love a good mystery and Unforgotten is very good at setting the stage and peeling the onion ever so slowly back for us, a layer at a time. I am interested in all the characters this time, I canea wait to find out who killed David Walker in the kitchen with a knife! The only certainty is that it won’t be straightforward. I look forward to the next installment! Cheers
