As the fourth episode of Crime begins, Ray (Dougray Scott) and Amanda (Joanna Vanderham) arrive at the scene as the lock is cut from the storage unit. While the van is not there, they find rope, duct tape, a camera, and more evidence. Ray also finds a yellow notebook and one of the pieces torn out with a smiley face on it. He suspects Confectioner is leaving clues for them because he wants to end it. He decides to go to Manchester so he can speak to Robert Ellis (Kris Hitchen) in person. Trudi (Angela Griffin) attends a meeting and looks at pictures of young women while McKendrick gives his presentation. Estelle (Allison McKenzie) is there as well. Ray arrives at the prison to meet with Ellis while Amanda waits in the car. Robert immediately says he shouldn’t be there although he has adjusted to prison life.

Ray understands because his girlfriend is into all this mindfulness stuff. Then, he says he doesn’t believe Ellis was responsible for the murders of Stacey or Nula. Although a few journalists have told him that, this is the first time a cop said it. Ray doesn’t like the fact he got caught masturbating over a child’s grave, but he doesn’t think he is Confectioner. Ellis begins telling him about Parka Man who he met at the gravesite. He had a scarf over his face and he could see a weird eye through the man’s glasses. It looked like David Bowe’s frozen retina. When he told the man it was a sad thing, the man replied that kids die all the time from malnutrition and disease. He couldn’t place the accent although it wasn’t posh. Before Ray can leave, Ellis says he came back later to wank on the grave because the man scared him and he wanted to prove that he was the baddest man around.

Once Ray leaves, he calls George and asks him about Parka man. George insists he told everyone about him. Ray asks him for the videos he had from the grave. He tells Amanda that George set up a camera because he knew he’d return to the grave. However, they snagged Ellis instead of Confectioner. They return to the station and ask Bob Toal (Ken Stott) for permission to put a camera up near Britney’s grave. He doesn’t want to cooperate because it would be too expensive. Ray promises that Parka Man is Confectioner and argues they have to do it. We see Parka Man drawing a picture of a girl tied up with the name Kylie under it. Trudi begins watching McKendrick and Estelle. At the station, Bob tells Ray to play this lightly. He doesn’t and immediately tells everyone that Parka Man is their culprit. Ray and Amanda leave as Gill discusses the movements of the white van.

Ray thanks Amanda for bringing him because Trudi would be angry if he didn’t make it. They talk about their personal lives including the fact that Amanda split from Keith 18 months ago after living together. Amanda says she went to therapy to get over it and it was the best thing she ever did. The therapist pulled her out of a deep hole. Ray asks for her number. Georges Fournier (Ewens Abid) goes to a restaurant and gets spotted by one of the workers. Louis Leblanc (Reginal Kuwidu) gets a call and arranges for Georges to be arrested. Dougie Gillman (Jamie Sives) refuses to answer his call or help. Trudi catches up with Ray who is trying to apologize for leaving her in the middle of the night. He has a beer but promises it will be his first and last for the day. Once they sit down, Trudi tells Ray about Estelle and McKendrick trying to talk Carly into a threesome. She believes there could be a history of it since other young women have left the company prematurely without a good reason.

Management has a complicated grievance procedure so it is difficult for the women to get assistance. Ray recommends screwing them up by working outside the system. If she wants to beat the system, she’ll have to operate like the system. Ray follows Alex (Reuben Joseph) to the bathroom to purchase cocaine. He buys some but refuses to snort the line Alex laid out for him because he doesn’t want to mix business with pleasure. As he leaves the bathroom, Amanda stops him and gets properly introduced to Trudi. She pulls Ray aside to tell him they’ve found the French murderer. They’re going to need their assistance because Gillman isn’t answering his phone. Dougie sleeps with a prostitute while Ray and Amanda rush to the restaurant.

Louis and Amanda go in through the front door while Ray guards the back entrance. Georges stabs Louis and headbutts Amanda in the face before running out the back. He gets into a fight with Ray until Amanda arrives and throws scalding hot food in his face. During this time, Gillman finally finds a way to get off with the prostitute. With Georges arrested, Ray and Amanda wonder what Dougie has been up to. Later, Ray’s mother and father wake up in separate beds. Trudi goes to one of the higher-ups at work and tells him about the sexual harassment. He asks if Carly is willing to come forward because he can’t investigate unless she does. He goes on to say Carly will have to follow the precise procedure since it could ruin reputations. Trudi doesn’t like hearing it could be a misunderstanding or joke. Louis survives the stabbing and prepares to leave. He runs into Amanda and tells her that he wanted to say goodbye to a beautiful woman and trusted colleague.

Then, he runs into Ray and tells him he was lucky that it hit nothing serious. They talk about Georges and his future in prison. Louis believes Ray will catch his man soon. Gillman interrupts so he can take Louis to the station. As they leave, Louis tells Ray to keep the ladies in his life happy because that will ensure a happy life too. He recommends sleeping with them when they’re sad although Dougie says that wouldn’t work well with his ex. The man in the white van pulls into the garage and switches to a black van. Ray returns home and talks to Trudi about beating the system. He believes it is different because he is working with cops who could teach career criminals something about subterfuge. She encourages Ray to stop putting the weight of the world on his shoulders. Trudi says he is a good man and cares, but she needs him to care about her as well. Later that night, she wakes up and finds Ray looking at the evidence in a trance.

Ray tells her it wasn’t natural for them to go from killing for survival to killing for kicks. She tells him this isn’t healthy and he should come back to bed. Ray goes to the station and finds Stuart McCorkel (Michael Abubakar) still working. He shows him the map of the HS2 train route and explains everything happened within an hour from the hubs of London, Birmingham, and Leeds. Ray isn’t sure about Edinburgh since the high-speed train doesn’t go that far. When the other cops arrive, Stuart begins telling them about the train route and what he has found. Gillman laughs about his toy trains. He tells them how the murders were close to the HS2 or HS1 route so it could be someone who worked on those projects. Ray suggests Confectioner could be responsible for all 15 murders, but Gillman ridicules that theory. Kylie plays with her friends and gets kidnapped when she goes to retrieve the ball.

Ray meets with the shrink Sally Hart (Laura Fraser). She leads him to her office before they begin talking about his job and deepest, darkest secrets. She tells him it is up to him to decide what to talk about as we see a flashback of the train tunnel. He admits he rarely stops thinking about his job. Ray’s mother goes to the hairstylist and learns she is selling the business and moving for true love. When she goes home, she finds her husband trying to water the plants. Gillman meets with his ex to tell her he understands that she is having confidence issues. He knows he works a lot and women can go through a crisis of confidence. Once he finishes, he believes he has cleared the air and his ex will come back home. Instead, she gives him divorce papers and he calls her crazy as she leaves the restaurant.

Trudi gets a visit from Carly and encourages her to come forward. Carly says she has to leave and will be resigning from the company. After Carly leaves, Trudi visits Estelle and asks to talk to her. Estelle goes for drinks while Trudi stays behind and looks at her computer. She finds emails between Mark and Estelle with heart emojis so she snaps a picture of them. Gillman tries to get the prostitute to sleep with him again. She won’t because he is drunk and it would take a month for him to finish. She wants to go home to her boyfriend for a cuddle. Ray and Bob go to the funeral. Angela Hamil (Emma Hartley-Miller) approaches Ray and thanks him for caring. When she leaves, Ray tells Bob he let her down because he should’ve found that kid. Bob reminds him that he is only a law enforcement officer and not a God. He encourages him to get a grip so Ray says he is trying to do that. Then, Bob says he hopes the camera works out for both of them. Ray’s mom and dad met with another man. Ray’s father learns they’ve been having an affair for a long time.

Amanda gets a call from some man who tells her about the other kidnapped girl. When Ray returns to his vehicle, he finds a note with a code on the windshield and a phone begins ringing in the distance. He opens the lock on the wall and finds a cellphone inside. When he answers it, a man tells him that he is going to have some bad news pretty soon. As soon as the call ends, Amanda arrives to tell him about the kidnapped girl Kylie. She tells him that they haven’t found any evidence so she doesn’t know how to catch him. Ray says they won’t because the man is coming to them. Meanwhile, Trudi finds out that Estelle and Mark are going to be spending a night at a motel so she calls and gets the room number. Then, she calls Mark’s wife Danielle (Reanne Farley) to confirm the booking at the Windspear hotel. She explains someone has booked her a massage at 1:15 in Room 217.

Trudi tells her to go straight to the room and not to stop at reception. Ray meets with Alex to purchase more ching to keep him awake. Instead, Alex tries to sell him Dexys or Dextroamphetamine because it is like speed and will keep him awake. He is told to be careful when using them with booze. Ray’s father goes to Stuart’s play and meets him backstage once it is over. He tells Stuart (Stuart Martin) he sat through the play and is proud of him. Stuart believes Ray is his favorite and he is some type of freak because his views on bisexuality are clear. His father apologizes and says he might love him more for being open, honest, and living free. When asked if he is coming out to him, the father says no but he knows how secrets and living a lie can destroy someone. He respects Stuart because he never did that. Danielle catches Mark and Estelle together thanks to Trudi. She watches as they argue and Danielle flees from the motel.

Ray’s mother leaves with her lover while he takes one of the Dexy pills. Before long, the man in the parka (John Simm) arrives at Britney’s grave. Ray and the others rush in to catch the man in the act. The man finds himself surrounded and begins removing his scarf and glasses. He pulls out a picture of Kylie and holds it up toward Ray. He tells Ray it seems to be getting dark just before the episode ends.

 

Crime Review

Crime really brought out the big stars with Dougray Scott, Joanna Vanderham, John Simm, Stuart Martin, and Ken Stott. Unfortunately, the script falls well short of the expectations set by the actors and actresses. Simply put, Crime is an absolute mess without any real purpose or significance. The past three episodes haven’t done anything to push the story forward.

In this episode, only five or ten minutes were actually dedicated to tracking down Confectioner. The writers were likely desperate to find a way to drag out the thin story into six episodes and it backfired. We have two episodes left and need to focus solely on Confectioner. We don’t need to see any more of Trudi’s sexual harassment crusade, Gillman sleeping with prostitutes, false confessions, and Bob Toal crying every ten minutes.

At the very least, they could give viewers a satisfying ending because anyone who stuck through this for six episodes seriously deserves it. Ultimately, I have little hope that this will happen considering how uneventful Crime has been so far. The episode scores a 5.5 out of 10. Crime recaps are available on Reel Mockery here.