Alright, I’m going to try to finish Unforgotten series 4 off tonight. I won’t lie, I found it very distressing and it led to taking a few months off. Okay, it wasn’t JUST that but it wasn’t not that either, so there. Rolling into the second part of my Unforgotten S4:E1.6 recap with Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar after the break.
We ended things with all our suspects being rounded up for various things, DCC Liz Baildon (Susan Lynch) for accessory to murder, DCI Ram Sidhu (Phaldut Sharma) for that and a thriving drug smuggling business, Fiona Grayson (Liz White) and Dean Barton/Quinn (Andy Nyman) for MURDERING MATTHEW KIERAN WALSH WOOOOOOOOO.
I called that and it’s the only thing I enjoyed about this last episode. That was it, full stop.
DS Sunil ‘Sunny’ Khan (Sanjeev Bhaskar) has been running point on closing this investigation as his boss DCI Cassie Stuart (the incomparable Nicola Walker) was recently in a devastating car accident. We all miss Cassie. I was pretty sure Dean had hit her with his car but turns out it was just a random druggie that Cassie popped out in front of. She’d been working all hours and was exhausted; under stress from work and family life.
Specifically in her family life was the strife with her jerk dad Martin Hughes (Peter Egan) who is grappling with a recent dementia diagnosis. He’s super unhappy with his terribly hurt daughter lying silently in her hospital bed, though, I’ll give him that.
Everyone struggles to cope, Cassie’s son Adam(Jassa Ahluwalia) and Cassie’s boyfriend John Bentley (Alistair MacKenzie). It’s he who spots Sunny running down the hallway with the good news of the successful completion of their shared case. They just heard the news that Cassie will not regain brain function.
Sunny is all of us.
I never though they would do that. I never in one million years thought they would take away the messy and glorious beating heart of this show: DCI Cassie Stuart played with warmth and prickliness and verve by Nicola Walker.
I needed a few minutes. Or three months. One of those.
I quite like Sanjeev Bhaskar, the gentle humour and giant heart he’s imbued Sunny with have kept us together and engaged and focused but. Nicola Walker’s Cassie Stuart, gone.
If you think we’re upset, you should see Martin, Cassie’s dad. He cries as he listens to her final message to him, over and over.
We have to mention that she’s only back at this job that drains her so because the higher ups would not allow her to retire a few months shy of her 30 year mark at full pension.
I never thought Unforgotten would do us like this.
It’s a somber mood in the dark detective’s room, followed by an impassioned speech by Sunny at Cassie’s funeral as we watch him place flowers on her grave. And we’re out.
Cheers everyone who’s read along with the Unforgotten recaps over the years. It was a difficult ending for me, but I appreciate what they’re trying to do and I will watch series 5 as they’ve already said there will be one.
Until then, friends.
