How is everyone’s summer going? I’ve moved and gone camping all this week so, I’m late, let’s roll right into Unforgotten S3:E04!

We’re not mucking about this episode, are we? We open with DI Sunil Khan (the excellent Sanjeev Bhaskar) bringing DCI Cassie Stuart (the awesomesauce Nicola Walker) the results of the DNA swabs they took of our four suspects the last time. A name has come up and it’s our hapless Peter Carr (Neil Morrissey), so we know for sure he didn’t actually kill Hayley Reid as he also admitted to seeing her the night she disappeared.

My last recap: Unforgotten S3:E03

Peter’s having a great morning with his kiddos, right up until Sunny calls to ask him to come in for more questioning. His wife Maria (Indra Ové) overhears the part where he asks if he needs a lawyer (hellz yeah you need a lawyer, splashing your DNA all over the place) and then he lies to her. Why does everyone lie to their partners about this shite? It’s not like you being arrested is going to go unnoticed!

Cassie briefs the team on their news and assigns tasks. Young DC Jake Collier (Lewis Reeves) is sent after Tim Finch’s (Alex Jennings) ex-wife, you know, the one with “issues.” I hope one of those “issues” is honesty, like Mel Hollis (Sara Stewart), James Hollis’s ex-wife!  DS Murray Boulting (Jordan Long) found out that James Hollis (Kevin McNally) himself was driving a four-door BMW, hmmm, did it have a tow bar as described by witnesses? It DID!

So why did everyone lie?

Just before Cassie and Sunny head out, he gets a text from the woman he met at his house the other day. Usha (Shoba Kapoor) needs to talk to him for why?

Blogger Sandra Rayworth (Tori Allen-Martin) just made a post about James being brought in for questioning, he’s furious and not understanding why he can’t force her to take it down. She’s broke as a joke and has nothing to lose, boo.

Matchmaker Sunny asks how the drinks went the other night…? And we wait…until Cassie spills.

Tim’s visiting fourth suspect Chris Lowe (James Fleet) who LIES and says that Cassie denied him a person to be with him. Let’s roll tape:

THAT’S WHAT I THOUGHT, LIYAH!

Tim offers to make a formal complaint on Chris’s behalf, good luck with that, wanker! He tells Chris he’ll always be his friend, which means I now assume he’ll be throwing Chris under the bus directly. Which means Chris didn’t do it, leaving Tim or James, but it’s something to do with Eliot as well. Maybe Eliot saw his dad James do something untoward?

DC Fran Lingeley (Carolina Main)’s been researching Peter’s time in Hong Kong, he was well known to the police there.

We’re in interview with Peter, Cassie and Sunny, this time under caution. He changes his story, but

*Who leaves a bar right before midnight on the last New Year’s Eve of the century????*

Sunny hits him with the blood on the church, is Peter sure he didn’t break in and steal some silverware?

*Silverware? What is this, Les Miserables?*

He admits to breaking in, he didn’t have enough money for the flight back to Hong Kong. “It was an utterly shameful thing to do and I am so sorry.”

Sunny introduces the Hong Kong information next, he spent three months in jail for investment fraud. He tricked some disabled people out of their life savings and then they got evicted from their rest home. Jeebus wept. He sputters a bit but Cassie is ready to drop the coup de grace. She suggest that Hayley saw him robbing the church and, knowing he was in trouble, Pete got rid of the problem. He protests, but as we’ve seen:

So he’s a liar and a fraud: is he violent?

Chris helps Jamila Faruk (Sasha Behar) pack and get ready to move in together (STOP WITH THE PICTURES OF A MOVING VAN I CAN’T TAKE IT), is he sure he’s ready? He reassures her in between flashes of chasing someone in the woods, oh yes, tip top.

The press are gathered at James’ house, when was he going to tell his wife Amy (Emma Fielding)? Speaking of, Maria is waiting outside the station when Peter comes out, she’d ALSO like to know what’s going on, fanks.

Jake gets the skinny from Derran Finch (Siobhan Redmond), she’d always wondered whether Dr. Tim was involved in the death of Hayley. Because she knew who he really was. And those “issues” Tim referred to? Perhaps borne out of years of abuse, controlling behaviour and manipulation by our eminent doctor. She’s absolutely riveting.

James finally explains a little bit to his wife, who can’t believe he was carrying on like normal, he truly is an excellent liar. Looks like they’ll have lots of time to go over everything, what with his TV show being suspended for at least a month. It is weird that they had sex while all this was going on, isn’t it?

Amy asks is there is anything else she ought to know? His lengthy pause and stare scares her, but she really doesn’t want to know anyway.

Sunny calls Usha, OHHHHHHHHHHHHH she’s his ex-wife! Who walked out on him and the girls!! OHHHHH. She wants to come back, she misses him and the children, she wants to all live together again.

*Now I shall refer you to the excellent three-part miniseries Come Home from Danny Brocklehurst and the Red Production Company*

Sunny is conflicted. I would pay oneleventy thousand dollars for Nicola Walker to say this to me:

Oh I’ll talk! That little smile.

Peter sort of explains to Maria what happened in Hong Kong, he screwed over an entire disabled rest home whose tenants were summarily evicted then stole from the church, but he didn’t kill Hayley he’s not that man any more. She and the boys have changed him. She appreciates his honesty (finally), but he only told her because she made him. Truth found or coerced does not count. Suffice to say: she doesn’t want anything more to do with Peter.

Cassie broaches the delicate subject of her dad’s mind failing, Martin (Peter Egan) takes that about as well as any adult would. He turns it around and blames it on her jealousy of his girlfriend, she doesn’t want him to leave her. She’s lonely.

*Um. She has a date with a hunky cold case detective, FANKS*

But he is going to marry that awful Jenny, a tough pill for Cassie and I to swallow.

She stays up too late and makes the bitter trip to Middlewhatsit to give the Reid family back their other daughter. Jessica Reid (Bronagh Waugh) accept her twin’s remains in heartbreaking fashion.

Derran’s come to see Dr. Tim, he’ll pay her the rest of her settlement or she’ll share the evidence of his behaviour with the police. She asks for $50,000, which he dismisses with a laugh. I hope she does have evidence.

We’re with Chris’s daughter, who hasn’t spoken to her father in decades. Cassie wants to know why Chris resigned from his own company, it wasn’t at all to do with his bi-polar disorder. He’d been looking at child pron online. Oh noooo. We all immediately worried about Jamila’s son, didn’t we?

Amy heard James’s ex-wife Mel shit-talking her husband on the radio, so she confronts Mel in person: why would she do that? Five new women have come out of the woodwork since the interview, frightened at what James’s sexual appetites and what he made them do. If I were Amy, I’d be checking my email too.

Sunny’s been reading those emails, they involve descriptions of outdoor sex and James having rape fantasies. Jake followed up on the medical history of Derran Finch, she did indeed have mental health issues. Which does NOT mean she wasn’t abused, jaysus. Get it together, Lazza.

Sunny tries to call Chris Lowe in for an interview, Chris threatens him with a complaint so Sunny reels off his name and badge number while holding his temple. Does he need Sunny to send him the form? HAHAHAHA

Chris will be in the next day.

Tim sits his family down to manipulate their reactions jointly, everyone is so sorry he has to deal with his ex-wife like this. His daughters Emma (Jo Hebert – looks exactly like an English Sandra Bullock!) and Claire (Lucinda Dryzek) are sympathetic but surprised he didn’t say anything about talking to the police. Emma in particular seems preoccupied.

Derran has come to the police station with her evidence, it is Polaroids of a headless woman’s injuries taken by a friend who has passed away. Cassie struggles to understand how Derran can think this is evidence, they can’t see her face, the photos are undated and the person who took them is dead. Derran doesn’t understand why they think she would lie, she just wants them to understand what Tim is capable of.

Cassie and Sunny try to work it out as Derran leaves.

She wants to speak to the daughters and tells Sunny to check Tim’s medical history, which was recently quite interesting! Then she’d like a year of sleep and if you can lock that down, Cassie me darling, you let me know and I’ll bring my pillow.

Amy’s confronted James, who has no problem admitting to infidelity: he only loves her! Do women get that kind of pass? They’re interrupted by Peter, whose been kicked out by Maria. James does not need another person in his (HOOGE) house, he’s working through things with Amy. Peter warns him, he knows stuff about Eliot (Tom Rhys Harries), dun dun DUN.

James throws Peter out.

Ahhhhhhhghhghgvhjv Cassie reviews police files in a diner LEAVING ONE BEHIND. Ack!

*But. Why review files in a diner? She has a massive office*

Sunny’s been checking phone records and he’s found when James called everyone after his initial police interview, they picked up on something I’d missed. James did not call Chris, why is that? “The most vulnerable of the four is the most isolated.”

Cassie and Sunny interview Emma and Claire, Claire doing all the talking and Emma looking conflicted. Cassie doesn’t know what to think about Derran, but I believe her.

Peter heads to the airport while Cassie figures out she’s lost a file, who was it on? She’s got to explain to her boss, it was Peter Carr’s file and it had lots of sensitive stuff inside. So much sensitive stuff. All that sensitive information is now in the hands of Sandra Rayworth, who wastes not a second amplifying it online. She’s being encouraged and fed info by a user called @YouCantHandleTheTruth.

Cassie holds her head in her (massive) office, is she losing the plot? No but Fran’s got some good news. She did some more digging on the kiddos who were in Middleham in the cottage, it seems our Eliot was 16 with a record back then. That sounds young until you realise that the girl who was killed was also only 16. They want to interview James again NOW.

Peter gets a call from his boss; he’s been fired. Cassie is under review, she might be taken off the case for that breach of confidentiality. Peter calls Tim to spill about what he saw Eliot do that night, he’d like Tim to pass that on to the police.

Sunny’s trying to reach Chris without luck, he suggests that perhaps she and her young son go stay somewhere Chris doesn’t know of for the next few days. That is just never what you want to hear about a partner.

Cassie does a press conference about the leaked file, apologizing for the security breach. It’s so difficult to put that genie back in the bottle, isn’t it? Cassie warns that the police will move against anyone seeking to incite violence against Mr. Carr (cut to Sandra Rayworth contentedly scrolling through the comments on her site calling him a “pedo”).

Poor red herring Peter is stabbed by a disguised man, was that Tim? Or James? I don’t know, but we’re oot anyway.

So! What do you think? What’s going on with Cassie? Is she really coming to the short end of a bumpy stick? I think her dad’s relationship is bothering her for the normal reason (nobody can replace her mother, etc etc) but this file business…I wish we’d got a bit more about Sunny’s deal, why did his wife leave in the first place? When was this? Must be ages, he’s been a single dad as long as we’ve known him.

My money is firmly on Tim with a side of James interfering because of Eliot. They’ve given us far too much on the other suspects, so it can’t be them. A bit of a shock about Chris, that doesn’t have anything to do with mental illness! I was all up in arms about advocating for him, but that’s on hold. Until next time! Which is the next to last time, so we’ll find out almost absolutely everything, including whatever Emma’s holding back about her mum and dad. Cheers!