Pipe Down – As the third episode of Curfew begins, Tom Banley (Ciaran Owens) speaks to the students in Helen’s class. He says sexual assault is a choice. He wants the boys in class to decide that they’ll never do that. Tom insists they hold men accountable now. They’re going to be discussing the Alpha symbol and the online gurus who peddle their toxic ideology. Max (James Craven) says those guys are losers although James (Bobby Brazier) argues that they’re fighting back. Tom says a man who is hurting is a man who is dangerous. After the intro, Pamela (Sarah Parish) tells Eddie (Mitchell Robertson) that the semen is a direct match to Tom Banley. Aisha (Alisha Bailey) from the tech room calls and briefly speaks to Eddie. Pamela asks Aisha to run an ANPR check on Tom. Aisha reveals Cass is friends with her son Billy (Selorm Adonu) who may know where she is.

Aisha shows them a picture of Tom in his car around 10:45 last night. A mysterious woman meets Sue Ferguson (Lucy Benjamin) who insists she can handle this. Sue says they might have a complication. She gives the woman the USB drive. Pamela and Eddie visit Tom who is using a period pain simulator on a client. Tom knows he should’ve told them about Helen. He explains he works at Total Harmony. He delivers emergency therapy to women who have fled domestic violence. Tom claims he and Helen just fell for each other. A flashback shows them talking to each other in Helen’s classroom. She tells him that she broke up with Patrick. Tom is relieved to know she’s safe. In the present, Eddie confirms Tom was called out. Pamela receives a call. She’s told they found Helen’s car which had been dumped in a lake by the school. They find the vehicle with “b!tch” painted on the rear window.

Eddie and Pamela talk about the distance from the school to the site where the car was dumped. They found a phone but they’re trying to dry it out. Helen’s bag was not found. Pam asks if anyone tried the lost and found. They go to the school to ask. Pamela speaks to Sita (Pearl Dsouza) about getting the video footage from Arjun’s coffee stand. James and Sita aren’t helpful. When Pamela asks them about Cass, she’s told to speak to Billy. Pamela finds Helen’s purse and a phone. She suspects the school might be the kill site. Eddie calls in the evidence while Pamela speaks to Billy. Eddie finds a bottle of pink spray paint so he collects it as evidence. Pamela asks Billy about Cass. He says he was supposed to walk her to school this morning but she didn’t show. Billy thinks she should speak to Max. Cass has been obsessed with him ever since he arrived. In a flashback, they talk about men.

Billy gets upset and tells Pamela they’re probably off somewhere shagging. He kicks the ground and splatters blood everywhere. Pamela believes she’s found the kill site. She has her boots bagged before noticing that a rock is missing. She finds the bloody rock nearby. Billy’s shoes are collected as evidence. Eddie notices that his tag is loose enough to fall off his foot. Billy pleads with him not to say anything, but Eddie calls Pamela over. Billy is taken to the police station for questioning. Aisha pleads with him to tell the truth. Billy says it was Cass. She stole the coder from her mom’s workplace last Tuesday. Billy says he didn’t kill Helen though. Cass never believed it was her dad’s fault that he broke curfew. A flashback shows Cass speaking to Greg (Tommy McDonnell). Greg tells her that the police knew his car was busted, but no one even bothered checking.

Cass visits Billy who agrees to let her stay the night. Cass was upset about not being able to live with her dad. She must’ve thought Billy would be able to help. While Billy is sleeping, Cass removes his tag. Cass only agreed to put the tag back on if he got some old CCTV footage for her. It was CCTV of the night her dad got arrested. Cass thought they might find evidence that could help get Greg’s conviction overturned. Billy admits he didn’t check the footage. Pamela wants more information about that footage. Eddie says they’ve been given permission to see the victim’s house. On the way, Pamela and Eddie find out that Helen used an abortion drug. They need to speak to Patrick and Tom to find out who was the father. They also need to find Cass. Pam ignores a message from Sue before entering the victim’s residence.

They find out that Sian was eager to get Helen’s testimony in the Taser case. They find a laptop that suggests Helen was an influencer. Sue calls Eddie only for Pamela to ignore it for him. Pamela says Sue doesn’t trust her judgment on the case because of what happened to her daughter, Jane. Some boy out to prove himself killed her. Patrick arrives outside because he wants to lay some flowers for Helen. Patrick doesn’t seem to know that Helen was pregnant or that she was seeing Tom. Pamela suggests the baby was his since Helen only got the abortion pill twelve days ago. Patrick wants to know if Tom made Helen abort his baby. Pamela and Eddie visit Ben to ask about Cass. They go inside and speak to Sian. Pamela checks Max’s tag and Ben’s tag. Pamela wants to see the other son who is upstairs with his grandpa. She stays and speaks to Max who says Cass and Helen never saw eye to eye.

Cass once told Max to be careful because Helen likes to humiliate people. Max tells Pamela he doesn’t know where Cass is. In a flashback, Cass visits Max’s house to see him. Cass is introduced to Sian’s father Rhys. During dinner, Rhys complains about the country locking men up. Cass thinks it’s disgusting too. Max says it seems complicated to even ask a girl out there. Cass jokes that she’ll say yes. She’s glad Sian is standing up to her mother because someone needs to hold her accountable. Cass doubts she’ll get Helen to change her witness statement. Eddie interrupts to tell Pamela that all the tags are in place. Outside, Pamela gets a call telling her Patrick has just turned up at the Women’s Safety Centre. They arrive just in time to find Patrick beating up Tom. Eddie doesn’t do anything. Instead, Pamela has to get out and handle it.

Tom remembers Helen telling him that she was pregnant. She asks if she should tell Helen. Tom warns her she knows what Patrick is like. In the present, Patrick mentions the stories with Ava. He explains that Helen was a cam girl and that’s how she managed to pay her mortgage. Pamela tries to speak to Sarah once again. She asks Aisha if Sarah could be capable of murdering her best friend. Aisha says she found the footage that Billy downloaded. Sarah and Helen tampered with Greg’s car on the night of his arrest. Pamela finds out that her access has been blocked. Sue tells her it was the only way to get her attention. Sue complains about all the stuff Pamela has been doing. She reminds Pamela that she asked her to work discreetly. Sue decides to take Pamela off the case. Pam reminds her she covered for her many times so she could have a fling. Steve comes to Pamela’s house later.

He wants to have a serious conversation about their relationship. Steve gets upset and decides to leave when Pam won’t give him what he wants. Eddie tells Billy they’ll get him re-tagged in no time. Pamela finds her house ransacked. She finds “pipe down” painted on the wall. Billy asks Eddie if he’s told the detective about their thing. Eddie says of course not. Pamela finds an anarchy symbol before being knocked out.

 

Curfew Review

The third episode of Curfew had a lot of silly moments that really hurt the story’s overall credibility. For instance, it was so dumb for Billy to kick the ground and find the crime scene. We can also question whether Billy would’ve been able to steal the video footage so easily. There are many things like this that really make the show juvenile.

The whole thing is starting to take too many turns to the point that it’s becoming more complicated than it should be. The detectives should probably be collecting evidence from the school including CCTV footage, but it’s more about dialogue and creating more red herrings. At the very least, it was nice to see Pamela stop saying Freddie on repeat.

The core idea remains strong, but the series really hasn’t pushed that idea enough. Instead, this is becoming a typical British crime drama with dialogue overload. It’s got the same tropes with Eddie being a weakling and Pamela having to save him while simultaneously belittling him. Ultimately, this could’ve been a lot better although it’s watchable.

This episode scores a 4.5 out of 10. Recaps of Curfew can be found here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. See what others are saying here.