As the third episode of Bloodlands begins, DCI Tom Brannick (James Nesbitt) and DC Billy ‘Birdy’ Bird (Chris Walley) sit down to interview Olivia Foyle with her solicitor AJ Boyd. Birdy lets Olivia (Victoria Smurfit) know that she is there to be questioned about her husband’s death. AJ (Don Wycherley) argues they’re trying to catch her in a state of emotional stress since it is her husband’s funeral tomorrow. Tom denies it and says they wouldn’t bring her in without a valid reason. Once Olivia says it is okay, Birdy asks her about entering the storage facility roughly 48 hours after her husband’s death. They tell her about the items found inside before showing her a picture of Robert Dardis possibly leaving the facility ahead of Colin’s death. AJ mentions the three units that are rented by Colin while Olivia insists she couldn’t have possibly known about this.

She keeps her jewelry there. Olivia claims she visited the facility after being reminded of a ring he purchased her. AJ makes them admit that they do not have footage of Olivia entering unit 174 since the facility only has exterior cameras. Once they say they don’t have footage of her leaving with the cases, AJ argues that they’re done here. Tom quickly asks if Olivia knows why her husband would keep these sniper rifles. Olivia says no. She was only married to him for 18 months and she obviously didn’t know everything there was to know. Tom admits they think Rob killed her husband with a weapon he knew about. Birdy reveals that Rob’s car was flagged close to the locations of her husband’s clients so they want to know who was making these trips. Olivia claims it was Colin who was driven by Robert. A few months ago, Colin asked Rob to take him on certain trips.

She suspects he wanted to look important by having a driver. Later, Birdy tells Tom about the footprint they found near the safe house. Tom says Birdy did good in there even though they weren’t going to make anything stick with a lawyer like AJ Boyd. Tom and DCS Jackie Twomey (Lorcan Cranitch) attend Colin’s funeral. Izzy (Lola Petticrew) wakes up when her alarm goes off. Birdy gets up and rushes out of the house because he is late and worried Tom will kill him. They begin kissing so she reminds him that he needs to go. At the funeral, Jackie says Colin must be ticked off by Olivia’s good performance. Tom tells him that there haven’t been any sightings of Robert yet. Jackie is convinced that Olivia knew about those rifles. DS Niamh McGovern (Charlene McKenna) takes pictures of Olivia from a car nearby.

Tom and Olivia talk about the interrogation yesterday and Birdy who she describes as a sweet boy. She believes something happened during the meeting that Robert took Colin to just days before his murder. He came back like the wind was kicked out of him and there was tension between Colin and Rob. Whatever it was might’ve come to a head during that trip. Olivia admits this is why she didn’t want to mention Robert to them. She is telling him now in case they have a deal. If they don’t, the foundation of any good relationship is trust. Tom gives her his address in case she thinks of anything else. Niamh finds their behavior odd. Once Olivia walks away, Tom approaches Stephen (Shaun Blaney) and Louise Foyle (Amy Molloy). Louise is angry about Olivia while Stephen tries to keep her calm. She claims you can’t trust Olivia as far as you can kick her.

When they begin talking about Olivia’s life in New York, Louise asks if Tom has heard the same version more than once. Tom believes that is where they met, but Stephen reveals they met in a bar in Dublin. Then, he went to New York to see her not long after their mother died. Although he said he proposed to Olivia, Stephen doesn’t think Colin was calling the shots in that relationship. They heard that something went on regarding Olivia’s departure from her firm in New York. An investigator was involved, but the whole thing is shrouded in NDAs. Tom asks if they knew about their father’s criminal activity. They knew but not all the details. Once that conversation ends, Tom looks at the website for Chensey Cohen Associates. He calls them to see if he can talk to someone about Olivia.

After leaving a message, Tom meets with Niamh at the station. She is going through the pictures to see if anyone is paramilitary. Tom doesn’t think the kids should be treated with suspicion since they were out of the country. They learn about Birdy sleeping in before asking him to find out when Robert last used his fuel card. Tom also wants to know if he refueled close to any of Colin’s clients. Jackie storms in to ask about the footprint. It doesn’t match the shoes Robert had, but it could help them find an accomplice. Jackie takes Tom into his office to say traces of banknotes were found in Colin’s car so he was transporting large amounts of money. He sent the results to the detectives working the case of the recent armed robberies. Niamh suspects Birdy got lucky. Once he confirms it, she tells Tom as he steps out of Jackie’s office. Birdy reveals that Robert used his fuel card two days before Colin was shot.

The closest client is a Lauren Fitzpatrick who is a jeweler. Niamh suggests she could be a conduit for high-value items. Niamh and Tom visit Lauren Fitzpatrick (Jane Brennan) who complains about the motorbikes flying up and down the street. She reveals she has been one of Colin’s clients since the beginning so roughly 35 years. Colin visited her last week to talk her through her books. They tell her about Robert. She claims she doesn’t know him before asking Niamh not to touch things. She denies ever selling anything to Colin and meeting the new wife. Tom finds material that is similar to the one they found previously in the storage unit. Lauren insists she doesn’t know anything about that. They arrest her and begin searching the property. They find a single-stage reloading press so the jeweler has been making ammunition. Tom believes Lauren is an old pro. As officers put her in the police car, Niamh says she won’t give them anything.

Niamh prepares to go up to the Dardis crime scene. Tom tells her not to beat herself up about it, but she thinks he would if he was the one who lost him. Tom calls Olivia to say he wants to talk and it’ll be strictly between them. Once he arrives, he tells her about Lauren. Olivia asked her to do a commission for her one time, but Colin didn’t think she’d be interested. When Tom mentions Robert disconnecting the GPS unit, Olivia reveals that Robert didn’t always drive the BMW. The last couple of times she saw him he was driving a silver Mercedes. Izzy goes to the Legacy Trauma Centre. She talks to a counselor about Tom saying he was staying in the house so her mom could find a way back. She confesses that home has become like a weight or an anchor and not in a good way. She can’t get away from it no matter how hard she tries. It is always going to keep pulling her back down so it is like she has no choice.

At the station, Tom learns more about the silver vehicle. He uses the recording he made to access Birdy’s account. He uses that account to send an email to the ANPR team to request the history for the silver car. Birdy meets with Izzy who wanted him to see it and now. He thinks she is brave talking to someone. He agrees not to tell Tom if he happens to learn about their relationship. Izzy gets upset when Birdy asks if Tom has to find out right now because she thinks he wants to get out. Tom gets the results from the ANPR team. He picks up Olivia and tells her about the car going to a yacht club. When they arrive, Tom lets Olivia go inside so he can avoid being picked up by the camera. She talks to the secretary and pretends she wants to buy a yacht. Tony introduces himself before she tries to convince him to let her check out the owners of the yachts. She gives him money and says they’re in this together now. Niamh and Leah Hardy (Vanessa Emme) check the spot where the petrol bomb and thrown from.

They haven’t been able to get anything from the neighbors since no one else has cameras and nobody saw the bomb being lit. They discuss the possibility that the bomber wanted to hit the shed. Niamh doesn’t know why they’d throw it from that far since they could miss. It makes her believe that they knew where the camera was. Tom is impressed when Olivia returns with a list of people who own boats here. Niamh calls Birdy to ask him to check the camera footage from Rob’s house to make sure nothing was missed. Birdy promises Izzy that he isn’t going to her hurt while ignoring a message on his phone. Olivia notices the name Noel Timoney on the list because he is a solicitor and an old client of Colin’s. Tom says he’ll look into it. Next, Tom meets up with Noel (Dan Gordon) at his office to ask him about a meeting with Colin at the yacht club. He eventually admits that they had a drink at the yacht club, but they only talk about personal stuff.

Tom believes he is lying about something so he asks if he’d like to talk about it at the police station. Noel confesses that he wanted to make an amendment to his will and a payment to someone, but he won’t say who or how much the payment was. Later, Tom gets a call from Olivia’s firm and the man isn’t eager to talk because there are legal issues. He asks what Olivia did this time before admitting he shouldn’t have said that. The man promises to talk to the lawyers to see what he can tell him. Tom meets with Colin’s kids to see if they know what he wanted added to his will. They haven’t finished looking through it yet. Instead, they checked the headlines to make sure she wasn’t getting the lot. She has been written out of it. Although Noel says she agreed to it, Louise admits that doesn’t found right. They’re having her investigated so they can be prepared when she tries to make a move.

While watching the video footage again, Birdy admits it may be possible for the bomber to have known where the cameras were. He zooms in on the hand that throws the petrol bomb. Tom puts the gun in his glove box before going into the interview room with Niamh so they can question Lauren. Niamh says the oil found on the cloth matches the oil on the rifle. She keeps repeating no comment to each of their questions. They confront her with the evidence found in her house. Tom asks how long she was a member of Real Republican Youth since they know she got caught sticking up posters. Eventually, Tom asks how many other shootings they’ll be able to connect her to now that they have the machine. He says she is going to prison and how she answers the questions may determine for how long. She refuses to answer. After that, Birdy tells Niamh about the watch the bomber was wearing.

If it is a smartphone, they might be able to track it. They’d have to know the phone though. They discuss the footprints that might belong to the accomplice. One is worn away while the other one looks new. Niamh suggests he prefers a specific brand and replaced them after the murder. However, she has another idea too that she won’t expand on. One of the gold bars is found in Lauren’s workshop. Tom tells Leah to inform the DCS. At the station, Jackie says the gold belongs to the US and they want them to speak to the FBI. FBI Agent Paula Halcrow (Rachel Handshaw) tells them that the bars were stolen on their way to the Boston reserve in 1998. The current value is about $6 million and the thief was never found. It is believed that a criminal organization called the Savage Family was responsible. They’re an Irish-American crime family that used to work closely with the Irish Northern Aid Committee.

They believe it could have been meant for the IRA. They had an informant at the time. Paula confirms that the Savage Family is still active and is one of the major players in organized crime in the US. They want the British to find and return their gold. Jackie wants them to use that to pressure Lauren to see if she’ll give them something. She says Colin brought it to her and asked if she could somehow turn the gold into money. Lauren had been expecting to see the gold twenty years before. She told Colin she wouldn’t do it because it wasn’t his gold to be selling, but he already knew that. She didn’t tell any of her IRA contacts from back then. Colin told her that an assassin client of his supposedly owned the gold. He said the assassin or Pat Keenan was dead so he felt okay taking the gold. Later, Tom runs into Olivia who knows he found one of the bars of gold. She reminds him they’re in this together now.

While they hang out and drink, Niamh realizes that the gold belonged to Goliath. Jackie reminds her that he is dead, but Niamh says he might still be out there because they could be wrong. Tom and Olivia prepare to have sex.

 

Bloodlands Review

The third episode of this season of Bloodlands was possibly the weakest of the three even though it had some interesting moments. As a whole, the series has been a lot better this time around compared to the first season, but the series may be getting a bit too complicated for no good reason when a more simplistic story was working better. There was no need to bring in the FBI or come up with a criminal organization to link to the gold.

The entire meeting with the FBI agent and everything it revealed just felt forced and didn’t work honestly. Bloodlands is working when Tom is breaking the law, manipulating evidence, and sinking bodies while Niamh and Jackie try to catch up with him. On the plus side, Tom and Olivia are now working together and that should create some interesting scenes in future episodes although it is likely one of them will have to die.

Tom has also pulled Birdy into his web since he used his login details to obtain information about the silver Mercedes and never told anyone about it. The episode would’ve been better if the story hadn’t been overcomplicated by the introduction of the FBI agent and everything that came with it. It scores a 6.5 out of 10. Recaps of Bloodlands can be found on Reel Mockery here. Want to support our independent website? We appreciate it! Learn how to do so here.