As the second episode of Beyond Paradise begins, viewers see the empty house of the Colbert family. A woman enters the house looking for Laura (Jaye Jacobs) only to find that no one is home. Martha (Sally Bretton) and Humphrey (Kris Marshall) try to come to grips with their loss. When Humphrey returns, he tells Martha he left her to sleep. She wants to get to the café to check on things. Martha reminds him that they have an event to get the word out about the upcoming opening. When Humphrey gets a call from work, he offers to put it off. Martha questions why he’d do that. He explains it has been over a week so he thought they could talk if she wanted to.

She doesn’t want to do that now. Humphrey meets DS Esther Williams (Zahra Ahmadi) who tells him about the Colbert family disappearing. Their neighbor Dorothy Trowman (Ella Kenion) come over this morning and found the house empty. The television was on and half-eaten meals were at the dinner table. The only family Esther has found is Matthew’s elderly mother who is in sheltered housing. Humphrey finds a necklace that might’ve been for Laura’s birthday. Esther argues that they couldn’t have vanished in thin air because Dorothy said they’d never leave the place like this. Humphrey finds a DVD that he sticks in his pocket before noticing a hook on the wall nearby.

He can’t imagine what it was used for. Esther isn’t sure it is relevant since all the doors were left unlocked. When he pulls out random bits of paper, Esther gives him the notebook she bought for him. They’d tried calling both phone numbers and they go straight to voicemail. Esther has requested call logs from the service providers. They go next door to speak to Dorothy. While Humphrey tries to get answers, he is attacked by her roosters. She last saw the Colberts over the weekend when they brought the children over to see the goats. After he gets bit, Humphrey and Esther discuss Dorothy’s opinion that the family was murdered by a passing vagrant.

Esther gets queasy at the sight of Humphrey’s bloody leg. She says the family must’ve left the vehicle on foot so someone had to see something. Humphrey wants to see a map of all nearby footpaths. Martha works at the café while Anne (Barbara Flynn) worries she won’t be done painting in time. She says she isn’t painting. Anne questions whether Humphrey is having an affair because they’ve been creeping around for days. When Martha says that isn’t it, Anne asks what it is. PC Kelby Hartford (Dylan Llewellyn) talks on the phone about getting to speak to Christopher Bromley (Dan Ball) when possible. After the call with Lucy ends, Margo Martins (Felicity Montagu) asks if he had any luck.

When Esther and Humphrey return, Margo says there is no family nearby except for Matthew’s mother. Humphrey learns about the hit-and-run. Witnesses say they heard a screech of tires and the collision, but no one actually saw anything. Kelby found broken plastic at the scene so it looks like one of the headlights was smashed. Humphrey asks Margo about Mr. Colbert’s employer because he’d like to talk to him. She reluctantly gives him that man’s information. Anne can’t believe her daughter went through all that without telling her, but Martha says she didn’t tell anyone. Martha explains why she kept it hidden before blaming her stupid body.

She wants to make Humphrey a dad and Anne a grandmother. Esther tells Humphrey it must feel like a step back for Martha moving back in with Anne. They speak to Marvelous Harris (Phil Daniels) who says people are saying Humphrey is odd. He offers to go in with them if Margo frisks him when he gets there. Harris tells them how he thought he’d marry Margo before confirming Matthew was at work yesterday. Matthew got his bonus and went home as happy as Larry. Marvelous Harris is convinced Matthew would’ve called him to let him know he wasn’t coming if he could’ve. Humphrey gets distracted by the old boat in the distance that is for sale.

Marvelous tells him about it and agrees to let him look around inside. Kelby goes to Shipton Autos to see if Adam Avery (John Macneill) can tell him what type of car the headlight came from. Adam explains he’d have to see the shape of the headlight before he can tell him. Esther and Humphrey speak to Rosie Colbert (Ruth Madoc) about the disappearance. She can’t think of anything that would explain their disappearance. Rosie last saw Matthew two days ago when he brought her fish and chips after work. Before that, she saw him on the weekend of her fall. Rosie doesn’t think Matthew would go anywhere without telling her. As they leave, Humphrey thinks they should get people out looking.

Humphrey gets a call from Martha who asks him to stop by. As Kelby begins working on the headlight, Martha tells Humphrey that the bank has refused her overdraft because their savings have dropped so drastically. She believes she’ll need to use the house deposit to pay the contractors. Humphrey tells her that he bought a houseboat and it can be their new home. He offers to send it back because it was a stupid idea. Martha agrees although she says it is very beautiful. She says she’ll talk to the bank again. Police begin searching for the missing family. Kelby tells Esther what he is doing with the headlight. One of the neighbors said they heard an argument between Chris and his wife so that might be why he wasn’t looking where he was going.

Esther tells Margo what Harris said. Margo insists he isn’t right in the head and never has been. Humphrey learns that the search teams found nothing. Chief Superintendent Woods called to ask if they know how much a helicopter costs. Kelby says they’re still waiting for the phone records. After Martha tries calling the bank, she is surprised when Archie Hughes (Jamie Bamber) arrives. Humphrey and the others watch the home video of the Colbert family. He goes through what they know and what they don’t know. He suspects they’re missing something. When he opens his notebook, he is shocked to see that all of his notes are there. On their way back to the Colbert house, Humphrey visits Martha.

He explains that Marvelous has agreed to take the boat back, but Martha seems interested in keeping it. She says the owner of the local vineyard came to say hello and he is an old friend. Archie suggested a solution that will mean they won’t have to sell the boat. Martha explains that he will become a junior partner in the café. Humphrey appears to be okay with the deal until he sees Archie who reveals they were engaged. Martha reminds Humphrey that the party is at seven before he leaves. While they scour through the Colbert house, Humphrey accidentally calls Matthew Archie. He finds a picture on the fridge of a key hanging on the hook.

Kelby returns to Shipton Autos with the headlight he managed to glue back together. At the station, Humphrey uses his phone to see that the tag on the key says “mum’s”. Seconds later, Kelby tells them that he found some markings on the headlight that showed it belonged to a Kia Sportage which isn’t that common. One of the owners can’t account for the car’s whereabouts because he let a mate borrow it. The mate was Matthew Colbert. They speak to Gavin Dixon (Joe Bone) who owns the vehicle. He agreed to let Matthew have the car until the end of the week and hasn’t heard from him. Anne talks to Martha about Archie. Martha insists it is purely a business arrangement.

Humphrey wants to see if HQ has access to ANPR units to check for the vehicle. As they pass by the café, Humphrey sees Archie and Martha talking outside. Esther offers to stop, but Humphrey doesn’t want that. At the station, Esther looks through the phone records while Kelby learns he can talk to Chris now. Esther finds a call around the time they sat down for their evening meal. When Humphrey calls that number, Bromley’s phone begins ringing. At the hospital, Bromley claims Laura said she was going to leave Matthew last night. They agreed and had planned it for weeks. He confirms they were having an affair for nearly two years.

Chris told his wife and Laura was supposed to tell Matthew. When he called her that night, Laura said she’d tell Matt when he got home from work. Once he didn’t hear anything, he called to see if she told him. Since she had bottled it, Chris said he’d come over and they could tell Matt together. The line went dead and Laura never showed up. Chris grabbed his car keys and got hit when he was approaching his vehicle. He has been calling Laura all day, but her phone is switched off. Martha greets guests and tells Anne that Humphrey will be there. Humphrey believes he knows what happened. Matt didn’t know Laura was going to break up with him.

He used his bonus to buy her a present. Humphrey believes Laura was having doubts about leaving Laura and the gift sealed it for her. When Chris called saying he told his wife, Laura told him she didn’t want to do it anymore. She thought everything could go back to the way it was, but she was wrong. Laura made an excuse using his mom to get Chris out of the house. Humphrey says Laura was trapped by her own lies so she had to tell Matthew the truth. He believes Matthew drove over to Chris’s house in a fury and accidentally hit him with his car. Laura wanted to help him, but Matthew sped away from the scene. Humphrey realizes he is late.

Once they reach the café, Kelby calls to say they found the car. Humphrey decides to go with Esther to the vehicle. Anne urges Martha to say something now because people are leaving. She welcomes everyone to the Ten Mile Kitchen. Once Humphrey arrives, he learns that Matthew is threatening to drive off the cliff. He approaches the car as Laura pleads with Matt not to do this. Matt tells Humphrey that he didn’t mean to hit him before learning he is okay. Matt admits he wanted to kill him and he always had everything he didn’t. Matt believes Chris has his wife now, but Laura tries to tell him otherwise. Humphrey urges him to let the kids go. The kids are eventually released from the vehicle.

Matt asks Humphrey what he’d do if he found out his fiancée was seeing someone behind his back. He says he’d be angry, but he would talk to her. Matt yells for Laura to get out so she does. Humphrey pleads with Matt to get out of the vehicle only to be told to get away. Moments later, the car begins rolling over the edge, but Matthew isn’t in it. Later that night, Humphrey goes home and finds Martha on the boat. He tells her about his day which wasn’t great. Martha says Esther called to tell her how he saved those children. She tells him how she made a speech about her soon-to-be husband following her all the way back to Devon so she can open a café.

They talk about the houseboat. Martha admits she has become fond of it in the last hour. They agree to christen it. As they go down into the boat, Humphrey learns it came with a duck.

 

Beyond Paradise Review

The second episode of Beyond Paradise saw Humphrey and Esther investigate the disappearance of an entire family. The truth was less sinister than what was initially believed by the neighbor. It would be easy to gripe about certain things in Beyond Paradise, but the series still has a lot going for it. The main cast is excellent with Sally Bretton and Kris Marshall creating a handful of interesting side stories.

Zahra Ahmadi as Esther does a good job of balancing Humphrey’s awkwardness. Kelby and Margo are good additions as well and brought some humor to the episode. Bringing in Archie was a good touch since it’ll make some interesting storylines in future episodes. Beyond Paradise isn’t overly serious or even believable, but it is uplifting and oozing with charm. It is easy enough to care about the characters and their relationships.

Both episodes have been enjoyable although the second one was even better because it focused on the issues of the main characters. It scores a 7 out of 10. Recaps of Beyond Paradise can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support us at this link. Learn more about advertising on Reel Mockery here.