Red Lines – The episode opens with Kelly Watson (Mimi Joffroy) elated with her positive pregnancy test. She and Ben Watson (Nathan Parry-Davies) hold hands while they watch their unborn infant’s movement on the sonogram screen. He later surprises her with a newly decorated nursery. They shop for a mobile hanger at Rigby’s Toys. They encounter a guy wearing a backpack on the stairs. Realizing he forgot his wallet, Ben returns to the store. The clerk, Lorna (Natalie Bates) hands it to him. After rejoining Kelly outside, an explosion erupts inside the store. Later, firefighters work to remove bodies as DI Lucy Chambers (Jessica Raines) stares at a tarnished sunflower in the rubble. At the police station, she rewatches a video of Gideon Shepherd’s (Peter Capaldi) interrogation. He warns by next year, the devil will have killed 11 children and 6 children. Nick Holness (Alex Ferns) tells her that the bomber escaped the explosion because none of the 17 victims didn’t fit the profile. A blurred image of someone wearing a hoodie was captured on CCTV. He assures her that they will find the bomber but she disagrees. He scolds her for feeling sorry for herself and calls Gideon a lunatic. His voice cracks while talking about bad things always happening. She points out that Gideon predicted 17 would die and when she last checked, there were only 16. He says Kelly was 9 months pregnant. She lies about watching Gideon’s interrogation video but he knows better.

Next, Lucy tells Dr. Bennett (Meera Syal) that Isaac Chambers’ (Benjamin Chivers) nightmares about the fire are progressively worse. Bennett urges her to let Isaac see his father, Mike Chamber. Lucy vows to never let it happen and claims Mike left Isaac in the burning house to die. Skeptical, Bennett says she is basing her claim on a recurring nightmare, muddled memory, and imagination. She believes Isaac is picking up on her emotions and recommends therapy. Lucy agrees to consider it. Later, Lucy gives Isaac a watch before leading the way to their new house. While playing cards, they hear a loud noise. She assures him that it is just the house settling and there are no ghosts there. He claims to have seen a ghost behind Meredith when she swore none existed. She says they are the first to occupy the house in this loop. He doesn’t believe he is supposed to be there.

Gideon digs up a small metal box in Hackridge Park. As he is walking away, a group of boys on bikes attack him. He stabs each of them in the leg before they flee. A lone boy gets a good look at Gideon. DI Ravi Dhillon (Nikesh Patel) tries to divert his attention away from Rachel Gibson’s (Lizzie Hopley) autopsy. While he tries to not faint, she explains how the victim died after being struck in the head three times. She rules the cause of dead an intracranial hematoma but it wasn’t innocent. He receives a call from Sam Boyd (Saffron Hocking) informing him of a sighting of Gideon at Hackridge Park. He claims to not be interested in catching Gideon. She says he knows him more than anyone but he disagrees. Elsewhere, Lucy panics when she learns about the sighting of Gideon. She enters her childhood home to find Gideon there. He warns her against coming there. She accuses him of hurting children. He claims it had to be done and adds a paper to his investigation. She says something disgusting is out there and it could hurt anyone. He insists they know what and when the faceless monster will attack. At a park, an unidentified man, wearing a yellow hoodie, retrieves an empty bottle from a waste bin. While smashing the bottle with his right foot, he throws bread crumbs on the grass. He feeds ducks bread crumbs with glass shards. Later, dead ducks float in the pond.

At 3:33am, Lucy wakes up and vapes. The next day, Ravi voices concern about Lucy working too much and not sleeping. Agreeing with him, she says they should have a baby. Lucy struggles to get pregnant, leaving her devastated.

Sitting alone in the dark, Sylvia (Barbara Marten) imagines hearing a care home resident (Martin Bishop) refusing to take his medicine. He orders her to not look at him. She becomes frantic and refuses to sleep. The next morning, Lucy finds Sylvia standing up in her room alone and a wall painting missing. Tracey (Karina Fernandez) claims Dr. Ellis requested it to be removed to see if Sylvia is staring at it. Lucy asks her to put it back and insists the care home is making Sylvia worse. Tracey says Sylvia needs assisted care. Lucy accuses Dr. Ellis of not listening to her and asks Tracey to leave. She stresses the need for Sylvia to come back. Ravi temporarily returns to his former position to assist with Gideon’s case. In school, Isaac stares out the window while the teacher, Elena Rogers (Rosie Jones) explains to the students what they are to do with their cameras. She asks him to take a seat. He snaps a photo of her soul appearing to leave her body. A short time later, Ravi informs Elena of the reported sighting of Gideon in Hackridge Park.

Gideon is sketching on a notepad when he hears a noise coming from the kitchen. He imagines seeing a woman holding a glass of water. Racing to retrieve the metal box, he removes the tie and pulls back the lid to find it empty. He closes and reopens it to find a page from a book. In a flashback, a young Gideon reads to another small boy. With his shirt covered in blood, he watches a bus pass. Back in the present, he unwarps a metal object and recalls seeing a man holding a whistle. Hearing Lucy return, he hurriedly replaces all the items back into the box. She informs him of her decision to bring Sylvia there. He says Sylvia’s body rejected him when he tried to give her a life and she will return like everyone else. He claims to have hundreds of lives in his head while she only has two. She pleads with him to let Sylvia stay there. He warns her that he kills people. She says Sylvia will not bother him.

Rob Show (John Alastair) tells Ravi that Lucy no longer works there. Karen Mulligan (Sandra Huggett) claims to have seen Lucy at the Wimbledon Final and she won a lot of money. A short time later, he surprises Lucy with a visit. Isaac gives him their special handshake. He tells her that he is back on the Shepherd case. She shrugs off his warning that Gideon is dangerous. He admits to keeping a Taser in his car after Gideon attacked him. He stays for dinner and agrees to wash the dishes. While Lucy is tucking Isaac in, he says Ravi makes her smile. She catches Ravi reading her “dream diary.” She kisses him. He hesitates before kissing her back. The next morning, Boyd is upset when she learns Ravi spent the night at Lucy’s. He claims to have slept on the sofa. She warns him that Gideon got to Lucy. He asks her to see what she can find on Evelyn Wiseman (from Lucy’s diary).

Lucy and Isaac get a goldfish. Ravi continues to investigate Gideon’s case and spends time with Lucy. The episode ends.

 

The Devil’s Hour Review

The episode shows Lucy on amicable terms with Gideon. Seeing Sylvia progressively get worse, Lucy signs her out of the senior care facility and takes her home where she will stay with Gideon.

Gideon digs up a time capsule in the Hackridge Park. A group of boys attack him. He stabs several of them before they flee. The sighting of him spreads quickly. Boyd convinces Ravi to assist in the Shepherd case. He reluctantly agrees and immediately starts a relationship with Lucy.

 

The scene in which the bomber kills ducks by feeding them shards of glass should’ve been cut. It sends the wrong message and in some sense, promotes animal cruelty. It adds nothing to the story and wasn’t needed to make the bomber look crueler because he had already killed 17 people.

The episode deserves a 5.7 out of 10. Get more of The Devil’s Hour recaps here. Find out how to support our independent work at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. See what others are saying here.