Troubled Blood: Part 2 – As this episode of C.B. Strike begins, Robin Ellacott (Holliday Grainger) tells Cormoran Strike (Tom Burke) that Oonagh doesn’t remember a scar. Strike calls Anna Phipps (Sophie Ward) to ask if her mom had any identifying marks such as a scar on her left side. Anna doesn’t think she could ask her dad without him getting upset. She suggests asking Cynthia (Mary Roscoe) instead. After the call, Strike asks Sam Barclay (Jack Greenlees) how he is getting on with Gloria Conti. Sam is moving on to the ancestry sites. As for Saul Morris (Jonas Armstrong), he is getting through it. Cormoran asks him to wrap it up promptly because he needs to be back on surveillance with Shifty.

While watching an old video of Margot Bamborough (Abigail Lawrie), Cormoran and Robin discuss the ones who are still alive. They’re surprised when they learn that Steve Douthwaite (Jack Morris) was at their Christmas party. Robin mentions that Carl Oakden wrote a trashy book about Margot’s case in which his big scoop was finding Steve working at a holiday camp called Baxton’s after Margot vanished. He had changed his name to Steve Jacks. Robin hasn’t been able to find anything about him. Irene Hickson (Carol MacReady) is questioned about being a receptionist at St John’s while Janice Beattie (Anna Calder-Marshall) is asked about being a district nurse at the time. Irene remembers that everyone had a theory when Margot died, but Janice argues that they don’t know Margot is dead. They had one nutter named Applethorpe who said he killed her with magic.

He died under a bridge on Walter Street. Janice had to do a home visit to him once and complained that it smelled terrible. Since she was in the papers, they think some people just wanted attention. After Irene passes gas and blames IBS, they’re asked if they remember Gloria Conti. Janice says she was alright, but Irene remembers the girl was rough and claimed her family was in the Mafia. Her brother sold drugs. At one point, Gloria put drugs in the doctor’s tea because she hated him. Irene argues that Dr. Brenner could’ve died. Janice reminds her that there was no proof. Janice told Margot who didn’t do anything because Gloria was her pet project. Robin shows them a picture of the two men Gloria left the party with to see if they can identify them. Irene thinks the young one was Gloria’s boyfriend and the other one could be his dad.

They don’t remember his name. When asked about the scar, Irene recalls that Margot had an abortion at a clinic in Bride Street about a month before she disappeared. She took a call from a clinic there and the only reason people went there was for public abortions. Janice doesn’t think it’d leave a scar like that though. Janice says Margot was a good doctor so it isn’t nice to badmouth her now. Irene thought she was a snob. When Robin and Strike leave, they visit Dr. Dinesh Gupta (Madhav Sharma) who thinks he might have more home movies with Margot in them. Dr. Gupta doesn’t recall the two men in the picture Robin shows him. As for Gloria, he hasn’t seen her since she left. He takes them to Margot’s old office. Once Dr. Gupta is asked about threats to Margot, he explains that this used to be a Catholic area and she would just say yes to giving abortions. He doesn’t know about a scar so he recommends asking her husband Roy Phipps.

The doctor reveals that he last saw Roy in this room when he came to collect Margot’s possessions. The police had already been there so they kept the room locked until Roy came. They ask him about Dr. Brenner and the Amytal capsule. Gupta explains that Brenner was a good doctor, but he was also an addict. He wrote too many prescriptions for benzodiazepine for cooperative patients although he stopped when one of them died. That man had a heart attack under Warner Street Bridge and his name was Athorn. As they leave, Robin tells Strike that there is an Athorn family registered around the corner. They follow the route Margot should’ve taken to meet Oonagh in the pub. They also go past the location where the witness saw two people struggling while taking pictures along the way. While they wait outside for Athorn, Robin asks if he can come to her flat so her roommate can study him since he has been cast as a soldier in a TV show.

Samhain Athorn (Dayo Koleosho) comes out, says his dad is dead, and walks back inside so they follow him. They approach Delia (Claire Dunbar) who mentions that her husband’s name was Gwilherm. He woke her up when he was crying and told Delia that he had killed Margot with his magic. When she told him he was dreaming, he said it was a mistake even though he did it. Samhain heard him doing spells trying to make her come back to life. As they go for hot chocolate, Samhain tells Strike he knows who really killed her, but people don’t like it if you talk. Strike eventually gets him to admit that it was Nico Ricci and his boys. He goes on to say that Nico puts people in concrete. Their social worker named Beth told him that. When Samhain walks out of the room, Strike takes a photo of phone numbers hanging on the fridge so he’ll have Beth’s number.

Samhain and Delia do not recognize the men in the picture. Delia also says that Nico puts people in concrete before asking them to go away. A man follows them out because he thinks they’re from social services. He says he needs payment for money those morons have cost him hoarding all that rubbish and his ceiling is caving in. He argues that they’re not stupid and they’ve worked it out so he’d get stuck with the bill. Then, they visit Shanker (Ben Crompton) to see if he can tell them anything about Gloria or Nico. He doesn’t want to say anything about Nico until he knows why they’re asking about him. When Strike asks if the older one is Nico, Shanker questions why he is asking if he already knows. Shanker confirms it is ‘Mucky’ Ricci who came up doing pimping in strip clubs and porn. The younger one is his boy Luca.

He does a bit of everything and got sent down for sticking electrodes on a man’s privates. The guy he did it to told the jury that he asked Luca to do it as a part of a sex game. Shanker strongly recommends staying away from Luca and Nico. Later, Robin finds that Luca’s name is on the fundraising page of St Peter’s Catholic Nursing Home in Clerkenwell. He donated 500 pounds last summer and said “Keep on keeping my old man happy”. Robin suggests she could talk to Nico if he is a resident there, but Strike worries that would put them on Luca’s radar. Pat Chauncey (Ruth Sheen) gives Cormoran sticky notes and markers to use for the evidence board. She also reveals that his sister called again. Strike tells Robin that Lucy is used to getting her way and Joan’s tumor isn’t having any of it. He might have to go down there. Sam enters saying he found a woman named Trudy Mattison on one of the family tree sites.

She listed Gloria as a cousin. Robin visits Trudy (Flaminia Cinque) while pretending she is working for a company that is building a family tree search engine. After she gets information from Trudy, she calls Mary Jaubert and says she thinks she knew Margot when she went by the name Gloria Conti. Mary isn’t eager to talk about Margot. Robin threatens to drag her and Luca to court if she doesn’t cooperate now only for Mary to hang up on her. Strike visits Joan Nancarrow (Linda Bassett) who says everyone starts lying to you once you start dying. The big one is that they will make you comfortable. Joan confesses she is in pain and worries it will get worse. She feels like she had children since Lucy called her mum right from when she was little. She didn’t do it in front of him because she knew he didn’t like it. Joan knows it wasn’t easy for him since he loved Leda.

Later, Ted (Ian Redford) joins Strike outside for a smoke and tells him that Joan wants to plan the funeral. She is sad that she’ll never get to meet his kids, but Cormoran insists he isn’t going to have kids. Ted says his sister having them kids was the best decision she ever made. At the office, Sam tells Robin he is pretty sure his target is having an affair. He keeps shagging this girl he isn’t married to. Saul says he can get his PA to wear a wife in another week. She reminds him that she told him not to approach anyone because this is a surveillance job. Saul told Strike and he seemed to think it was a good idea so he hopes she isn’t upset. Robin tells them about a new job starting in Fulham and she wants him on that. Saul asks for one more week on Shifty because he wants to see the job done properly. Robin refuses to give him another week. When Anna gets a call about the scar, she suggests talking to Paul Satchwell.

Cormoran hasn’t been able to get in touch with him so he asks if she can talk to her dad without it blowing up. When the call ends, Lucy and Dave arrive. Lucy reminds Strike that he was supposed to be spending time with Joan. Lucy and Strike go inside to see Joan. Robin interviews a man outside St Peter’s Nursing Home who came to see his wife Enid. Then, she goes in and pretends she is there to see Enid. When she sneaks into Nico’s room, she notices his ring and remembers it from the video. She gets pictures before waking up Nico (Andy de la Tour) to ask him questions about Margot. She gets mad at him and grabs his face before Luca enters. Luca tries to get a kiss from her. Once she storms out, he follows her. He makes sure she signs off before asking if she wants a life. She leaves in a hurry. Strike makes it up to the bedroom to check on Joan. He tells them that he is going and will be back for a special Christmas.

Robin goes back into the nursing home to take a picture of the logbook. Strike gets a message from Anna saying her dad will meet him. He tells the others at the office. Robin tells him that Luca wrote the note to Margot because the handwriting matches. Strike reminds her that he told her not to go there because he doesn’t want Luca to throw acid in her face. They’re surprised when Gloria Conti (Cherie Lunghi) walks into the office. Gloria wasn’t expecting to come until she read about them and thought they might be on the side of the angels. She also needed to talk to them because she thinks Margot might’ve died because of her. She tells them that her family wasn’t criminals, but she hated being shy. Although Margot wanted her to go back to school, she was set on becoming Michael Corleone’s wife. She ended up with Luca who thought she was sleeping around with a Paki in a flashback. Margot manages to stop him from assaulting her in the car.

Margot tells him to go away and stay away from her, but Luca wants her to tell Gloria that he’ll see her later. Gloria admits she didn’t end the relationship because she kept making the same mistakes. She eventually told him it was over before he turned up to their Christmas party with his dad. Gloria left with them to avoid causing a scene. When Gloria got pregnant, she thought she’d have to marry him. Margot booked an abortion under her own name so she wouldn’t have to stay with him. She is asked to walk them through Margot’s last day. She remembers being there alone when Theodora came in. The girl had an ectopic pregnancy so Margot agreed to see her right away. Before Margot left, she noticed a spot on Gloria’s neck and warned her that he’ll kill her. Gloria claims she was there another ten minutes after Margot left. She feels responsible for what happened because she thinks someone Luca knew kidnapped Margot.

He threatened to have her killed if Gloria ever left him and claimed his dad killed a girl named Kara for informing on them. She would’ve told the police, but Luca said they had detectives on the payroll. Once she realized Margot wasn’t coming back, she went to France and stayed there. Gloria promises to go to court if they find anything that proves Luca did it since she owes Margot that. The next day, Robin and Strike meet with Roy Phipps (Michael Byrne) who says she had a couple of moles but no scar on that part of her body. He lets them look through pictures that Anna didn’t know they had. Strike quickly confirms the woman is not Margot. Anna complains that they lied to her before saying she hired these people to find out what happened. Roy tells her about the other men he met who had missing wives and how it destroyed them. He goes on to say there was no proof that Creed killed any of their women. Roy says he tried to prevent her disappearance from destroying them.

He gets sick and has to be taken away in an ambulance. Although Robin wants to continue looking for her, Anna is ready to quit. Later, they learn that the woman in the film is Kara Wolfson who worked at The Carnival Club in Soho. She went missing after work less than a year before Margot vanished. They tell DI George Layborn (Samuel Oatley) and give him the evidence against Nico before he asks if he is competent to stand trial. He isn’t optimistic about Nico going down for it. Later, Robin leaves flowers for Kara. When Strike leaves the office, he is approached by Brian Tucker (Billy Boyle) who claims to have proof of who killed Margot in the form of a written confession.

 

C.B. Strike Troubled Blood Review

The second episode of CB Strike Troubled Blood slowly unraveled the mystery surrounding Margot’s disappearance while also delving into Cormoran’s personal drama. A lot of the episode focused on trying to find out whether Margot had a scar on her body. The team spoke to Anna who eventually gave them permission to question her father. Along the way, they learned more about local gangsters Nico Ricci and his son Luca who might’ve been involved in Margot’s disappearance.

They also spoke to Gloria Conti who is now going by a different name. She told them what happened between herself, Margot, and Luca before discussing the last time she saw Margot alive. In the end, it appears that their efforts were in vain since they learned that Margot didn’t have a scar even though that led them to another murdered woman named Kara Wolfson.

The episode was okay although it felt a bit long-winded at times. Most of the performances are great while a few stand out like a sore thumb. There isn’t much in terms of investigating because Troubled Blood has been very dialogue-heavy through two episodes. The show is missing a few pieces here and there. Saul and Sam are obviously working on different tasks that are rarely touched upon.

Plus, the show spent an entire episode trying to find out whether Margot had a scar on her stomach only for Cormoran and Robin to identify the woman with the scar on her stomach in the next scene. There is a lot that feels off about Troubled Blood so the believability factor is going to be a serious issue for keen-eyed viewers and maybe even casual viewers.

With nothing out of the ordinary and not much of significance happening, the episode was bloated so it could’ve been cut down by 10 minutes without missing anything. It scores a 6 out of 10. Recaps of CB Strike Troubled Blood can be found on Reel Mockery here. Have you found our site beneficial? Consider supporting our independent endeavors by following this link.