In Too Deep – As the fourth episode of After The Flood begins, Joanna Marshall (Sophie Rundle) waits for a police officer to arrive at Chris’s house. When Sergeant Phil Mackie (Nicholas Gleaves) arrives, Joanna tells him what has happened. Jo claims she is there for Pat’s sister because she was worried after Chris got fired from his job. Pat (Matt Stokoe) asks Jo about it when she gets home. Jo sits down and tells him what she did with the lift man’s DNA. She explains that she got a match with Tasha who showed up. Then, Pat learns about Daniel faking his death and becoming Alex Welland. Jo tells Pat about the red car that was in the parking garage.

He is also told about the office which had the lock changed. Jo lets him listen to the message Chris left. Pat listens to it and deletes it because it is evidence against Jo. He reminds her she can’t carry out her own investigation. Jo says she told Mackie that she was at Chris’s place helping Kelly get the security pass back. She questions why he killed himself because he didn’t seem like the type. Pat wonders if there is a type. He wants to know about Tasha Eden. Jo admits she likes Tasha. Lee (Jonas Armstrong) and Tasha (Anita Adam Gabay) talk about Daniel. Tasha asks whether Jack Radcliffe knew Daniel. Lee suggests there might not be any answers. He recommends going home tomorrow, but Tasha is going to stay.

When she is alone, she finds a box in the pillowcase. Tasha finds a key to a storage unit hidden in the box. Phil goes home where he speaks to Sarah Mackie (Jacqueline Boatswain). Phil says the best way to cover up an affair is running. The foster agency needs to know if they’re going to take that girl. Sarah says no because she is thinking about herself and getting to Westminster. She goes on to say she is close to Jack because their jobs demand it. In the morning, Pat and Jo go to the police station. DCI Roy (Daniel Betts) tells everyone about Chris’s passing. Jack told him he fired Chris because of a parking scam. Roy wants to check it out before handing it off. As for Daniel Eden, Roy says they could have a minor criminal family on their hands.

Daniel and his father were investigated for fraudulent accounting in 2005. The father did time in Marseille for something similar. As for Tasha, she has been arrested for affray and assault. Jo and Roy argue about whether Tasha could be involved in her brother’s death. Roy reminds her she is on desk duty before leaving with Babak (Heider Ali). Phil finds Molly (Lorraine Ashbourne) speaking to the locals about the flood relief fund. He tells everyone they’re going to test the flood warning sirens. Molly tells him that Jack hasn’t paid despite taking the photo. Phil says Sarah is 70 miles away getting interviewed to be a Tory candidate in a by-election. Finn rushes over to tell Molly that the council has signed off on Uplands Eco Housing.

They don’t care about the water running off the hill. They’re also putting in planning applications to double the size of Uplands Two on the same hillside. It’s the same Chair of Planning, Sarah Mackie. Jo finds Keith (George Bukhari) trying to find what he can salvage. She tells him they can stay with them for as long as they like. Kelly (Faye McKeever) reveals Jack has sorted them a place already. Jo talks to Kelly about Chris and finding his body. She explains why she told the police she was there for Kelly. She agrees to back Jo up in case anyone asks. Kelly says Jack shouldn’t have changed the locks and sacked the security guy because he gets a new key. Jack has been stressed ever since he had the construction plant stolen six or seven weeks ago.

Kelly confirms it was the key that set Jack off. Tasha goes to the site of Uplands Two Eco Housing. Jack sees her standing nearby. Tasha approaches him to say he knew her brother. Jack tries to get rid of her without answering questions. If they want to talk, it’ll have to be mutually beneficial. Jack asks who William Caine is before saying he owns the land they’re standing on. He might co-own it with Tasha now that her brother is dead. Tasha asks if he killed Daniel. Jack says he didn’t, but Daniel’s death is messing things up for him big time. Jack threatens to call the police so Tasha leaves. Finn tells Molly that Jack hasn’t had a planning application rejected since Sarah became the Chair of Planning four years ago.

He explains that they’re not breaking the law because it isn’t a legal requirement there. Jack and Sarah are pushing through planning applications for Uplands Two so they won’t be subject to any changes in the law. As a result, they’re making Waterside more vulnerable to flooding. Jo tells Deepa that Chris was sacked because he got into that locked office. Jo wants to check for CCTV cameras because Chris may have been murdered. Babak tells Tasha he wants her to come down to the station for a chat. Jo and Deepa find a blurry door cam video of someone walking to Chris’s house. Deepa says she has been asking around and no cleaning company has touched the room. If someone cleaned it, they had to do it themselves.

Deepa urges Jo to speak to Pat about it. Tasha tells DCI Roy she believed Daniel had died five years ago. He asks how she knew about Nanta which has only been in existence for three years. She says Nanta was Daniel’s nickname for her so she tried her luck online and found it. Tasha doesn’t want to tell them who she was with. DCI Roy reveals Daniel flew to France three and a half weeks ago. He was supposedly twelve miles from her home in Gallargues-le-Montueux. Roy shows her pictures of Daniel in France. Tasha asks what he is doing to find out who killed Daniel. Jo runs into her outside and finds out what Tasha learned. Tasha gets upset that Lee is telling her nothing even when she saw him arguing with Jack. She runs away.

Pat comes over to ask Jo what she said. Jo insists it is ridiculous if anything thinks Tasha is wrapped up in this. She shows Pat the video outside of Chris’s house. Pat believes he always comes last before complaining about Jo lying when the baby was due. He says a lot of couples break up after the first baby. Pat asks if she wants to be with him. He tells her to sink their careers while he goes looking for Tasha Eden. Tasha goes to the storage center with the key she found. Molly catches up with Jo who admits she is in too deep. Jo asks what her father would’ve done. Molly says she should ask herself since she is like him. When they see Phil, Molly says she feels sorry for him because Sarah is playing away with Jack Radcliffe.

Tasha finds documents pertaining to the land in the names of Alex Welland and William Caine. She finds an envelope with a possible address for William. Finn tells Molly and Jo that the site was sold to a firm called Nanta. The new owner, Alex Welland, let Jack do whatever he wanted with it anyway. Alex and William are letting Jack build drainage outlets on a piece of land he doesn’t even own. Molly tells Jo they’re going to hijack the next meeting. Tasha frantically looks for information in the storage unit before finding a bunch of money. Finn takes Jo that you have the right to discharge water into the river when you own land next to it. Jack is going to feed run-off from Uplands directly into the river. Even though it’d increase the risk of flooding, it would be legal.

Tasha calls Jo to say Daniel would always go off on his own when he’d visit in the summer. When Jo returns, Molly tells her that Finn’s final exams start tomorrow. Molly urges him to do his exams and come back. Next, Molly overhears Jack and Sarah talking about the investment people. Sarah thinks they need him because Jack is Uplands Eco. Jack says the police called to ask him where he was yesterday evening. He told them they were working. Sarah worries that this will be back to Phil. Jo sends Deepa a location so she’ll know where she has gone. Jo opens a storage container and finds heavy equipment with the series number scratched off. Lee sees her and pulls out a knife until he realizes it is her.

Jo questions who killed Daniel and put his body in Jack’s building. Lee says Jack sold him and Daniel the riverside brownfield site to raise finances. Jack had agreed to pay them back double when his current deal came through. The site was the access road for Uplands Two. Jack ran out of money and he can’t get any more. Jo knows Jack had a load of plant stolen last month. Lee says Jack asked them to steal it so he could do an insurance job. Daniel and Lee were trying to go legit. Daniel did all the exports so Lee hasn’t been able to get rid of the stuff. Jack is getting more and more irate about it. Lee finally found a place for it. The friendly banker let him have it in cash. When asked about William, Lee says no one knows him. His name just started popping up when Daniel died.

Molly and Phil watch the council meeting. Molly asks why the flood prevention measures haven’t been built. Sarah threatens to have her removed from the chambers. Molly keeps going on until she is pulled out of the room. Lee asks Jo how they can help each other. Jo wants to find Daniel’s killer. Jack is the person who keeps pushing to the front of the line. Jo questions whether Jack needs the money enough to kill. Molly rides home on her bike in the rain and gets hit by a car.

 

After The Flood Review

The fourth episode of After The Flood was easily the worst so far because it focused entirely too much on the political side of the story. The rest of the story is pretty straightforward and simple to follow, but the political stuff is unnecessarily complicated and uninteresting. At this point, nothing about the story has been surprising and very little has been original since the first episode.

The series could’ve been so much more, but it has become just like every other British police drama. Not to mention the fact that the characters are putting themselves in dangerous situations by doing stupid stuff. Jo has repeatedly gone off half-cocked despite being pregnant.

Molly blurted all that stuff out during the hearing even though she knew there was a chance that Jack was involved in Daniel’s murder. Despite all the prior issues, the series was watchable until it started focusing on all the building regulations nonsense. It’s like the series is doing everything it can to not focus on Daniel’s murder and keep the train rolling for six episodes.

The episode was dreadful so it scores a 4 out of 10. Recaps of After The Flood can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. Discuss this series and more at the Reel Mockery Forum.