The episode seemingly begins with several mish-mashed visions, leading up to Eddie Wells’s (Barry Sloane) arrest.
Kane Jackson (Nico Mirallegro) is still cooling his heels in lockup when Riya Ajunwa (Wunmi Mosaku) arrives with several forms for him to fill out. As Kane continues to repent for the stolen bins, Riya attempts to lead him into a conversation about Mehmet Shah’s (Shervin Alenabi) murder. She eventually tires of the back-and-forth and tells him about finding Mehmet’s suicide note and Katie Wells’ (Rowan Robinson) bracelet at his farmhouse.
Dr. Singh (Narinder Samra) updates Vicky Trowbridge (Gemma Wardle) on John Trowbridge’s (Jack James Ryan) condition. Although John appears to recuperating, Dr. Singh seems concerned with an unknown substance found in his blood. According to him, more testing is needed but it appears the substance causes hyperactivity in the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain where fear is regulated.
Riya attempts to ‘butter up’ Derek Jackson (Daniel Ryan) with leftovers from her party before telling him they are holding Kane. She follows that up with several questions, including how he and Kane just happened to find John in the forest. Derek advocates for Kane’s innocence by claiming that Kane has issues but he keeps to himself and doesn’t harm anyone. He appears to not know how to respond when she points out that he couldn’t possibly know what Kane was up to if he kept to himself.
A heated argument ensues when Riya approaches Constable Linda Markel (Jo Hartley) with her suspicions about the forest. Riya expresses a need to investigate while Linda simply tells her to relax until her transfer comes through. As the dispute gets more vocal and spills into the parking lot, it becomes clear that Linda is more concerned with winning the ‘Best Kept Town Certificate’ than solving the mystery of the forest. Much to Riya’s surprise, Linda tells her to be at The Carvery in an hour as she is speeding away.
Along with Ali Day (Ella Bruccoleri) and Nish Chowdry (Arian NIk), Linda fails to excite the town about the upcoming competition. She makes it a point to remind the Carvery patrons that the judges (Natalie Grady) will be arriving in a matter of days.
Katie becomes incensed and attacks Debbie Nickson (Alexandra Hannant) in front of her coworkers when she learns about her getting hired at the bread factory. Much to Katie’s surprise, she later learns that John turned down Debbie’s attempts to get intimate.
Riya questions John about his time in the forest. Before he is overtaken by a fit of coughing, he claims she wouldn’t understand. Despite that, he pleads with her to stay as Dr. Singh rushes her from the room. Outside, Keith Grouse (Andrew Readman) appears equally perturbed when Riya questions him about Mehmet’s autopsy. Despite only having 10 minutes with the body before the Met swooped in, he discovered Mehmet’s lungs full of a black liquid resin-like substance. He suspects it led to his eventual drowning and was able to procure a sample. Riya later tasks Ali and Nish with uncovering everything they can about the substance.
A very quick scene of the Kid on the Wall (Luke Ayres) shows him eavesdropping on an argument between an unidentified man and woman. Kane continues to waste away in his cell Riya receives a call from Terry Jackson (Debbie Rush). She confirms that Kane’s DNA was a match to that found on Mehmet’s clothes and note.
Riya encourages Kane to share the truth about his involvement in Mehmet’s death when she tells him he’s being arrested for murder. He doesn’t advocate for his innocence but shares a cryptic story about not knowing what he wanted to be growing up. Despite that, he did know that he wanted a quiet life where he could remain out of public scrutiny.
Riya attempts to rely on Jakub Makowski (Hubert Hanowicz) again for comfort but much to her surprise, it appears he hasn’t had the best of days either. The heated discussion leads to an intense makeout session that is eventually interrupted by Nick Goodheart (Tom Lister).
Despite discovering Sue Gooheart (Clare Burt) in the middle of what appears to be a mental break, a gourmet meal suggests that Nick was hoping for more than a casual visit. His confession about Yolanda Sanchez (Alejandra Bacelar Pereira) returning to Spain confirms this.
Elsewhere, Nish has not only made it to the end of the game he found in Nina Karlsson’s (Synnove Karlsen) belongings, but he got a high score. The game crashes when he tries to enter his name, which eventually leads to him discovering a hidden note inside the cassette.
Early one morning while lying awake in bed with Jakub, Riya raises her concerns about messing up on the case again. Ultimately it appears that she doesn’t know whether it is her slipping or if it’s the town.
Sometime later, Riya meets with Keith where she learns about the Scheramine Plant, also commonly known as Devil’s Door. The plant is so rare that it only grows one 1 of the 18,000 islands in Indonesia. Even more shocking, is that as a plant alone, it’s virtually harmless. However, when broken down into a gaseous form, it can cause crippling anxiety. Somehow, this is the substance found in extremely high traces in Mehmet’s blood. After a visit with Dr. Singh and some careful convincing, Riya learns that there was one other patient admitted with traces of Scheramine in their system, Nina Karlsson.
Armed with the new evidence, Riya returns to question Nina but doesn’t learn much more. Their conversation makes it seem as if Nina was part of some testing company/group and willingly took Scheramine after signing a nondisclosure-type contract. She admits to knowing Mehmet and speaking with him multiple times using the online forum. Nina also claims she survived by overcoming the fear the drug caused.
John continues to suffer nightmarish vision at the hospital while Jim turns to Tony Corrigan (Sean Gilder) for help at the fracking site. Much to Tony’s surprise, he learns that Jim has been receiving duffel bags full of money every week for the past 5 years. According to him, they are coming from the Wells Family. He seemingly has plans for this week’s duffle.
Eddie has his own set of problems as well when he learns that his feelings for Joanne Wells (Natalie Gavin) are unrequited. Not only that but she chalks their previous night’s romantic encounter up to a mistake. Katie expresses an equal frustration with Joanne when she visits her later in her room to inquire about John. Katie appears to hurt her feelings when she tells Joanne that her biggest fear is becoming her.
Elsewhere at the Shah Café, Lilly Wells (Matilda Freeman) sneaks off to snoop around Mehmet’s room while Inaya Shah (Anna Tymoshenko) helps a customer. Although Inaya catches her, she chooses not to intervene at the moment. The scene ends with Lilly finding some kind of report/printout/letter addressed to Mehmet from the Pangaea Initiative.
Jim makes of spectacle of returning the duffle full of cash to Joanne. He doesn’t appear to believe that she has no idea of the origins of the money.
Inaya finally chooses to confront Lilly about snooping around in Mehmet’s room by basically reciting the same speech that Jim gave Eddie earlier through the door. Lilly later turns her frustration into an argument with Jim. Despite professing that she wishes he was dead, she chooses to follow him into the forest where he wants to show her something. The further they go, the more frightened she appears to become but never turns back. They eventually arrive near a lake where he leaves her on the main path and goes into a thicket to retrieve something from the ground.
Joanne returns the duffle full of cash to Jim and basically laughs in his face for thinking that she could possibly afford to pay him off. Their dispute is eventually interrupted by an urgent call from Lilly. Jim drives Joanne to the forest but stays in the vehicle. Lilly is still waiting on the main path while Eddie has made his way to the frozen lake. By the time Lilly and Joanne find and try to coax him back, his plans of suicide become clear. Jim surprises everyone by showing up with a rope.
Although the rescue is not shown, Jim’s subsequent discussion with Riya reveals that Jim saved Eddie’s life. Jim shares the money with Riya before Eddie tries to convince him that he’s suffered just as much as him. This leads to an argument, with Jim claiming that Eddie knows nothing about pain and suffering. It isn’t long before Riya intervenes and has Jim go back over the story of the night he was attacked. It immediately becomes apparent that there are some inconsistencies and the black oily substance on the cash appears to mean something to Riya. The episode ends with her taking the duffle to Jakub at the garage.
Passenger Review
Not a terrible way to lead into the finale. If there are no twists, it appears that the biggest portion of the mystery was solved. Whether or not and how Riya will act on the discovery is still to be determined as well as Mehmet’s connection with the shady corporation. The town’s connection to the mysterious fear-inducing plant and Mehmet’s connection to the shadow corporation are without a doubt the most intriguing for me, but I would enjoy learning even more about Jim’s attack and how it apparently led to the death of his family as well.
I feel that the complex evil father/devil spawn daughter couldn’t have played out better. Both Eddie and Lilly give heartfelt performances. Katie and Joanne’s complex relationship is just as equally entertaining to watch. Despite Jim being over the top sometimes, I feel he does a commendable job of playing the town nut. I’d have to give the episode a 6 out of 10.
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