When episode 3 begins, the crime scene at the fracking site is bustling with activity. Despite their very recent argument, Riya Ajunwa (Wunmi Mosaku) and Chief Constable Linda Markel (Jo Hartley) sit sidelines, debating the possible causes of death. It doesn’t take long for Linda’s anger to return and storm off when Riya expresses an interest in ‘investigating’ the crime.
Very early the next morning, Katie Wells (Rowan Robinson) sets out on foot to catch the first bus to Manchester while Riya and Jim Bracknell (David Threlfall) go back over the evidence at the fracking site. After learning that the line to the surveillance system was cut, she encourages him to shut down the site. His stunned look gives the impression that it’s a suggestion that’s never crossed his mind. Riya sets out to question Eddie Wells (Barry Sloane).
Much to Katie’s surprise, Joanne Wells (Natalie Gavin) joins her at the bus stop. Joanne claims to be there to give Katie a proper send-off, but her questioning gives the impression that she’s worried Katie is leaving because of Eddie. Katie assures her it has nothing to do with that.
Riya arrives to question Eddie and find out front smoking. Her questioning doesn’t provide anything useful until she demands an alibi and turns to leave. Just as she does, Lilly Wells (Matilda Freeman) opens the upstairs window to alibi him.
Riya’s next visit is to the Britannia Chippy where she shares the news of Mehmet Shah’s (Shervin Alenabi) death with Inaya Shah (Anna Tymoshenko). John Trowbridge (Jack James Ryan) is next to get the news when he arrives for his shift at the bread factory. Katie nearly misses the news as she’s already seated on the bus when Lilly comes running up the path. Although Ali Day’s (Ella Bruccoleri) reaction is much more emotional, Nish Chowdry (Arian Nik) appears to have a hard time with the loss as well. Riya eventually seeks comfort from Jakub Makowski (Hubert Hanowicz) at the garage.
Riya, Nish, and Linda are in the middle of debating Mehmet’s death when Ali informs them of the suicide note forensics found. That appears to be the end of it for Linda and she makes it clear that she doesn’t want anyone, especially Riya, looking further into the case.
Inaya meets with the Local Imam (Elijah Braik) to make arrangements for Mehmet’s burial while Katie seeks comfort from John. When she finds him at the fracking site, he expresses his fears about being like his father. After a bit of an emotional breakdown, he asks her to marry him, which for some causes her to experience some kind of supernatural flash/vision.
At the bread factory, Kane Jackson (Nico Mirallegro) appears to struggling with whatever shady deal he and Derek Jackson (Daniel Ryan) are involved in. The more he expresses an urgency to step away, the more upset Derek becomes. Derek tries to reassure him by pointing out that they haven’t done anything wrong and they are only a day behind. When he suggests getting caught up with another batch tonight, Kane tells him they can’t and shows him the empty cage in the back of the bread truck. This appears to both frighten and upset him.
Elsewhere at the bread factory, Joanne attempts to comfort Katie and encourages her to follow through with her plans to leave by saying Mehmet would want her to. When she shares the news about John’s proposal, Joanne reluctantly shows her a photo of John with Debbie Nickson (Alexandra Hannant) at the pub.
Katie unloads her frustration on John in front of most of the factory. Although they both end up storming off in an emotional mess and he doesn’t get two words out, it appears he is embarrassed by some of the things she says.
Riya appears to be seeking comfort and advice from Jakub, but she clearly does not want to hear him tell her that she might be overthinking Mehmet’s death. She only becomes more frustrated when he encourages her to listen to Linda or take the day off. Since she’s certain she isn’t going to sit around and do nothing, she decides to investigate the missing bins. Her investigation begins at what appears to be a waste municipality building where she is initially encouraged to take her complaints to the police. After a quick explanation, she ends up learning from Trish McHugh (Kristy Hoiles) that two replacement requests were filed in the last month, 129 in the last six months. Riya shares her discovery with Ali and assigns her the task of checking CCTV footage near the addresses.
When Riya returns home at Sue Goodheart’s request (Clare Burt) she finds herself in an intervention-like scenario with Nick Goodheart (Tom Lister) and Yolanda Sanchez (Alejandra Bacelar Pereira) in attendance. Sue appears to think Riya has a drinking problem because she couldn’t reach her on the night of her 40th birthday. Sue is already in the middle of packing her suitcase but Nick clearly makes a mistake when he blurts out that Riya should be looking after Sue. She immediately unloads on him, reminding him that Sue is his mother and he’s the one who ran off with Yolanda. Riya eventually averts her anger to Sue for calling Nick in the first place. Riya clearly makes him jealous when she claims that she’ll be at her boyfriend’s, who is supposedly hung like a Japanese war donkey.
Ali isn’t having any success with the missing garbage bins when Cath Benjamin-Dale (Karen Kenthorn) arrives at the station. After confirming that Linda isn’t around, Cath gives Ali a bag of things that Nina Karlsson (Synnove Karlsen) left from her stay at the bed and breakfast. Nish discovers an old 80’s video game titled, ‘Passenger’ when he receives a call from Inaya, informing him about Mehmet’s 6000 pound withdrawal from her account.
As it turns out, Nish proves to be a worthy investigator when he shares his findings with Riya at the boxing gym. He’s managed to track the purchase back to Starlight LLC. Despite there being little to nothing available on the company, he managed to find an online forum mentioning the company. He says the posts were mainly about cryptics but there was mention of others paying 6000 pounds to the company, including Nina Karlsson. Excited over the discovery, Riya tells him to print up more missing flyers, do some more research into the company, and be sure not to tell Linda.
While buying ibuprofen a quick discussion with Jill Haleford (Lisa Allen) leads to Riya learning about Mehmet and Katie’s earlier encounter in the store. Riya later approaches Katie at the pub but doesn’t learn much more than the fact that Mehmet was going to join her in Manchester once he took care of something in town. As far as the 6000 pounds, Katie can only confirm that Mehmet had been working extra hours.
Riya takes Jakub by complete surprise when she returns to his garage at nightfall and practically tells him she’ll be spending the night. She follows that up quickly by laying out some ground rules. Apparently, she doesn’t have a problem with sex but doesn’t want a relationship or him telling people they are in a relationship. It appears he doesn’t know how to respond.
A quick scene showing John running for his life in the woods, Nish speaks to someone on the phone about Starlight. While he’s placed on hold, he digs out and boots up his old computer. It takes a bit of tweaking but he gets it to read the game he found in Nina’s belongings. Although their prey is not specified, Derek (Daniel Ryan) tells Kane Jackson (Nico Mirallegro) that they have to find ‘it’ and get back in the game. As they continue their preparation, John is shown in the woods again. He’s no longer running but now appears more frightened as he experiences visions of Katie and Tom Trowbridge (Michael Hodgson) hurling insults at him. He eventually drops giving the appearance that he’s had a heart attack.
All of Chadder Vale gathers for Mehmet’s dedication. As the Imam speaks about grief and overcoming it, the story proceeds with several quick flashes of the characters that aren’t at the gathering. Derek and Kane arrive in the woods while Nish appears to learn where the 6000 pounds went. Lilly visits the fracking site where she burns the hanging mannequin. Derek and Kane soon discover John’s body in the woods. Kane appears to want to do something while Derek merely wants to walk away. He tells Kane that such things have been happening for years, they just haven’t been exposed to it.
When the Imam ends his sermon, Ali shares her discovery from the surveillance footage with Riya. This eventually leads Riya to what appears to be a storage shed of sorts. Before going inside, she receives a call from Nish that basically amounts to him tracking Starlight back to a much bigger company known as ‘The Pangaea Initiative.’
Cath has an eerie experience with a guest, Simon (Harry Egan), when she returns to the bed and breakfast. Although their exchange gives the illusion that it’s a first-time meeting, there is something about him that terrifies her. After giving him the keys to a single room and the details for breakfast, an entire conga line of people follows him to the room.
Riya has an equally frightening /strange encounter with a rat inside the storage shed. After catching her breath and turning on the lights, she finds herself even more confused. It appears the case for the missing bins is nearly solved.
Passenger Review
As a pre-final/midpoint episode, episode 3 did an excellent job answering some questions with more questions. At least, that’s how it felt for me and I am not complaining because I enjoy the intrigue. Despite beginning incredibly slow with very little lackluster action, I always find myself on the edge of my seat. As I’ve said before, I could do without the ping-ponging, especially near the end. That said, I understand it as an effective approach to developing the story.
I find the missing bin incredibly intriguing as well as The Pangaea initiative. For those that can remember back to 5th or 6th grade social studies, Pangaea was the name given to all 7 connected continents. Supposedly, all 7 continents were at one time connected until tectonic shifting had other ideas. I don’t know if or how that’ll play in. I’d give the episode a 5.5 out of 10.
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