As this episode of Crime begins, a man in a police uniform is shown hanging in the stairwell of a large house. Someone leaves the house. Ten years later, DI Ray Lennox (Dougray Scott) goes for a run. Ray talks to himself about facing his fears and moving on. At home, Ray prepares breakfast while listening to Richie Gulliver (Derek Riddell) speak on television. Richie talks about representing the people in parliament. He claims people want jobs that won’t be snatched by someone with no association with this great country. When the interviewer asks if he is talking about refugees, he calls them immigrants.

Richie no longer wants to send the immigrants home and instead would prefer them to serve the good people of this country. Lauren Fairchild (Rebecca Root) talks to her students about the roles of gender. After that, Ray Lennox visits Sally Hart (Laura Fraser) who learns he has lost his girlfriend. Ray knows that the only thing that lasts for him is the job. When he is asked about his first day back at work, Ray insists he is raring to go. Ray isn’t sure he needs to visit Sally anymore. Sally would like to continue until they see how Ray deals with work. It appears a woman meets with a man at the Landsburgh Hotel. At work, Ray is greeted by Norrie Erskine (Brian McCardie), Amanda Drummond (Joanna Vanderham), and others.

Ray congratulates Amanda on becoming an inspector. DI Tommy Stark says they lost one of their own, but Amanda reminds him he isn’t dead. Bob Toal (Ken Stott) invites Ray into his office to talk to him about his recovery. Bob knows the confectioner case blew the crap out of him. There is no blame if he can’t stomach this stuff anymore. Ray insists he can rely on him. In the car, Amanda tells Ray she is glad he is back because it has been chaos. She explains they put her in the car with Gillman and he couldn’t keep his hands to himself. Amanda recorded every incident until it stopped, but Gillman became verbally abusive. When they were going through the disciplinary procedure, two other female colleagues came forward.

Amanda didn’t want him to lose his job, but it was game over for him. Ray says Gillman couldn’t control himself so he lost the job himself. The man and woman at the hotel get ready for sex. Ray meets his sponsor. He is told to keep going. Room service enters the room to find the man seriously wounded and trying to call for help on the phone. Lauren tells the class to turn in their essays next week. Does increased testosterone or the identities they’re ascribed during early socialization have more impact on the likelihood of violent criminal activity? Lauren says it isn’t a binary argument. Lauren begins talking about being at war within herself and how every man has a woman inside him.

When the man inside her finally surrendered, she hoped to become the most beautiful woman in the world. What happened instead was more important because Lauren became herself. Once the kids leave, Lauren messages Gayle to find out where she is. Angus joins the others. Jock and Avril (Ellie Haddington) sit down together. Jack forgot to put up dad’s ashes and wanted to give them to Ray. Seconds later, Ray walks through the door and tells Jack she is looking good. He isn’t happy to see Jock there and suggests he is going home. He ends up sitting down before Angus serves everyone. Jack stands up and talks about family. She has been made a partner in the practice. Angus (Ben Bradley) thinks they should be more upfront.

Jack agrees before saying she and Angus have been going through a rough patch. They complain about Fraser’s outfit when he joins them. Jack reminds Fraser (Gabriel Scott) that he was born a boy. After Fraser leaves, Ray suggests they should be a bit more tolerant towards each other. Jock admits he is baffled by it all. Ray speaks to Fraser in private. Fraser thinks he is going to tell him he is making a fool of himself. He explains that he is experimenting. Lauren goes to a friend’s apartment and leaves a note asking for a call. When she notices that the door is open, Lauren decides to go inside and begins calling for Gayle. Someone attacks Lauren and flees.

At the station, Bob tells Ray that Gerry McVittie called and they interrupted an intruder last night. Gerry asked for Ray. As Amanda drives him out there, DI Ray Lennox says that Gerry was his first partner and mentor. Gerry left the police ten years ago and started a new life as Lauren. Ray claims he was gifted with a mystical wisdom. He hasn’t kept in touch and hasn’t met Lauren. Once they arrive, Lauren admits she doesn’t know who attacked her. Lauren believes it was more than a random robbery. Gayle is a vulnerable transwoman who has been in a secretive relationship with a high-profile sugar daddy. Once he dropped her, he warned her to never mention his name again.

Lauren doesn’t know who the man is. Tommy tells Norrie that Drummond messed up Gillman and they’re next on her radar. Norrie shows him that Helena Cairns has put up a new video. Helena (Kim Chapman) talks about women’s rights in the sex industry. She says they’re going to name politicians, businessmen, and cops that have been their clients. Amanda and Ray reach Gayle’s apartment. They quickly find that she spends a lot of time at the Landsburgh Hotel. Ray learns that someone made Gayle sign an NDA saying she wouldn’t talk about their relationship. Although his name is blanked out, the lawyer’s name isn’t. Ray notices that it says Wilberforce.

Tommy and Norrie visit a sex worker so they can find Helena. The woman says Helena has packed it in now that she’s paid off her student debt. Later, Tommy says he doesn’t think Helena would grass him up. If she did, he’d never be promoted again. Tommy believes it’ll be between him and Drummond because Ray will be out soon. Nicky Corby comes over to tell Tommy there was a boy in here yesterday. He works for the Landsburgh Hotel and said some toff got his tackle sliced off. Nicky says it was a bloodbath. When Tommy grabs Nicky’s testicles, Nicky quickly tells him that nobody reported it because the whole thing got cleaned up by dodgy guys who weren’t police. Tommy tells him the wallet stays shut until he says the name.

At the station, Ray tells everyone about Lauren running into an intruder at Gayle’s flat last night. Everyone is introduced to their new tech whiz, Anstruther Magnusson, who says he goes by Struthers. Amanda thanks Sophie. Ray says Lauren is one of them, but Tommy argues she isn’t. Ray argues there is more to it because Lauren thinks there is. Once they finish talking, Tommy tells Bob about the incident at the motel. Bob tells them to get down to the hotel and speak to the staff discreetly. As they leave, Ray tells Amanda they need to make a detour. They visit the lawyer to see what they can learn about the man who was in a relationship with Gayle.

As Ray yells at Ralf, Jack enters and stops him. Ray and Amanda end up leaving without any helpful information. Jack mouths something to Ray before he leaves. Ralf calls someone. Then, Amanda and Ray go to the hotel to see what they can learn. Penny denies that anything happened at the motel and says CCTV was down for maintenance yesterday. They are called back to the office because Sir Oliver Heathcoat is there representing the Home Office. Oliver tells them that the identity of the person who ordered the NDA is immaterial to their case so they should be dropped immediately. Ray ends up arguing with Oliver. He tells Lennox that he knows where he came from and he doesn’t want to find himself back there.

Tommy watches a video of Helena saying every sex worker should be a feminist. Bob tells Ray to get a grip before asking Amanda what they got. She doesn’t think it is a coincidence that they can link Gayle to the Landsburgh Hotel. Ray argues they need to find out who was in that room. Bob begins crying about his job which he calls daily torture. He orders them to find Gayle and to stay away from the hotel. Later at home, Amanda looks at pictures of herself with her boyfriend. She ends up deleting them. After getting upset with her cats, Amanda begins watching Helena who says she wants to hear from prostitutes, pimps, johns, and vice cops.

Ray goes to a meeting where he says he is an addict. He tried to say goodbye to his father today. As Ray talks about trying to say goodbye to his father, he breaks into a gate by picking a padlock. Ray walks into a stadium with his father’s ashes. Richie joins them as Ray talks about people who don’t care about anyone except themselves. At the stadium, Ray cries while talking to his father’s ashes. Before he can scatter the ashes, the security arrives and threatens to call the police. In the meeting, Ray talks about burning to get rid of society’s vermin and cheats. Someone has been hung to a lamppost with “# two, the strange case”.

 

Crime Review

When some television series receive renewals, it can be downright baffling. When the next series starts like this one, it is pretty obvious that the decision was a mistake. Crime’s first series wasn’t anything to write home about, but it at least had a story that could connect with viewers. The opening episode of series two was a mess filled with blatant agendas, no sympathetic characters, and lots of unnecessary chaos.

Dougie Gillman, who was an unrealistically deranged character, has been replaced with another by the name of Tommy Stark. Bob Toal remains a whiny character that always has something to complain about. Ray Lennox spends more time in meetings and screaming about society’s vermin or his family than solving crimes. This guy would never cut it as a detective although he might be more competent than the whiny Bob Toal.

Truthfully, the cast is far too good for the drivel thrown together pretending to a be sufficient script. For a series like this to work, there has to be at least one sympathetic character but there isn’t. The opening episode focused more on pushing multiple agendas and less on telling a story to make those agendas seem to matter.

It scores a 4 out of 10. Recaps of Crime can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising on Reel Mockery here.