As the third episode of DI Ray begins, Thao (Narayan David Hecter) is taken away in an ambulance. DI Rachita Ray (Parminder Nagra) asks the security guard about the containers and CCTV footage. She checks on PS Tony Khatri (Maanuv Thiara) who complains about the conditions in the container and the fact that Thao was just a kid. DCI Kerry Henderson (Gemma Whelan) instructs DI Ray that she needs to lead her team because they need a proper briefing back at the station. She will but she is going to the hospital first to make sure any disclosures made by the young survivor are recorded.

Although Kerry says someone else could do that, DI Ray thinks it makes more sense for her to go. Rachita wants to take Tony so she can use his interpersonal skills. As for the rest of the team, they can begin tracing the driver who transported 15 dead victims. At the hospital, the doctor says they’ll have to put Thao in an induced coma to reduce swelling on the brain. They’re not sure how long it’ll be and they haven’t had any luck finding his next of kin. Rachita asks Tony to get a uniformed officer down here so she can know as soon as the boy is conscious.

Back at the station, Ray tells her team that the likely cause of death was suffocation. Some of the victims had small amounts of dong, which is the currency in Vietnam. Until they can talk to Thao, Ray wants to focus on finding out how Imran Aziz was involved in the trafficking. DC Liam Payne (Sam Baker-Jones) says CCTV footage picked up the driver dropping off the container and leaving 30 minutes later. They’re tracing it now. It is hard to know who owned the container at the moment. Ray argues that traffickers are always involved in other crimes. The hauliers working with cash-and-carry businesses is the perfect front for people smuggling.

Rachita says they need to find out where people go once they get here because it might lead them closer to finding out how brings them in. DS Kwesi Edmund (Peter Bankole) will call the modern slavery unit since they will be familiar with the social media groups advertising illegal crossings. He believes they call it labor exchange programs. Rachita wants to pose as someone who is interested so she asks how quickly they can get a Vietnamese translator. Later, they discuss the fact that none of the victims has mobile phones. DS Clive Bottomley (Steve Oram) suspects they were taken off of them by whoever brought them over.

DC Carly Lake (Jessica Temple) reveals they found some family photos on the victims but no forms of ID. When PC Debs Knott (Demelza O’Sullivan) arrives with the translator, she calls Ray DC Ray before she is quickly corrected. Min (Jan Le) is introduced to Ray once PC Knott walks away. Rachita tells Min that she wants her to start up a conversation with the people who are likely transporting Vietnamese while pretending she wants to cross over too. They respond that they’ll be able to get her in around the end of the month. They can do it sooner, but it’ll be more expensive.

When they’re asked about getting her a job, they say they have good positions as delivery drivers. She can work as many hours as she wants without a contract. Min says she is interested but would like to learn more before sending money. She is told they have businesses they work with. They’re proper businesses and nothing illegal. When she asks how she’ll know that, Ray begins worrying that they’re suspicious. They respond by giving her the name Dish2U and recommend that she looks them up.

They also tell her to let them know as soon as possible because they only have a few spots available. Once they end the chat, Liam says the ANPR cameras picked up the truck heading westbound on the A12. Ray asks him to contact Felixstowe and tell Border Control to check the number plate. Then, she changes her mind and tells him to go down there because she wants a priority action to trace the driver. Carly says Dish2U works all over the West Midlands, but there is a central hub where a lot of the fast-food takeouts work from. Ray decides to go there with Carly and Min.

Before they leave, Ray tells Min that the boy in the container kept repeating something that sounded like “Cha”. Min reveals it means dad. They arrive at the Dish2U hub. When Ray tries to chat with some of the delivery drivers, a man tells her they don’t speak English. Min attempts to speak to them, but they say they can’t talk to her. Rachita contemplates talking to the cook nearby instead. Min says maybe before Rachita apologizes for her ignorance. Min is glad she isn’t assuming everyone is Chinese. The lady tells them the people here are too scared to talk. Then, she is asked about the advertisements for the labor exchange program.

She says they work together and she has never dealt with the people arranging it on this end. The workers come from an agency that pays them and most don’t have bank accounts. The agency keeps the documents as well. The woman doesn’t know the agency’s name although she suspects they’re making a lot of money. Most of the workers don’t take home anything and it is common for six of them to rent a place together. Once they finish with her, Ray says they should ask around with the drivers again. Kerry calls and asks Ray to come back to the station. When she does, she learns that PC Knott has accused her of bullying during a couple of incidents.

Rachita tells Kerry about Knott giving her the wrong lanyard on her first day and gives her side of the story. Kerry questions her about earlier today when she corrected Knott regarding her rank. Knott found it derogatory. Rachita is surprised because it seems like a joke to her. Before Kerry lets her go, she reveals there was no forensic evidence of an intruder at her property. She suspects the investigation is impacting her more than she realizes, but Rachita is adamant that she was attacked like Anjuli. Once Ray leaves, she listens to a message from Carly saying they didn’t have any luck with the Dish2U drivers.

They’re going back to the station to try to identify the driver. Tony joins her in the car and learns she wants to see if there is anything linking Aziz’s business to the people trafficking operation. They question Mona (Duaa Karim) and Salma Aziz (Siddiqua Akhtar) moments later. Ray asks whether she knows the people Imran was doing business with. Mona insists he wasn’t killed because he was involved in some dodgy stuff. Instead, he was killed because he is Muslim.

Ray says they know Mona’s dad left the family in a lot of debt. Imran might’ve been doing extra favors to try to save the business. Mona calls that bullcrap while her mother admits her father was in trouble when he died. Imran wanted to make it right, but he never told his mother what he was doing. Anjuli claimed Imran wanted to get out but was stuck. Salma remembers her son having an argument with a man outside their house once. When she is shown a picture of the man from the CCTV footage, she gets emotional. Ray promises they’ll find the people who did this. Outside, Tony says Mona believed we thought Imran was a criminal because he was Muslim.

Rachita tells him about Knott’s allegations against her. Although she thought she was just ticked off, she has apparently bullied and intimidated her. Tony finds it humorous that she was given PC Anand’s lanyard. He tells her about the time he went to collect Dylan from football and they brought out a different brown kid. He did what they always do which is apologize for their mistake. Once Ray gets back to the station, Carly tells her about a call she had with a PC from Northwick Constabulary who recognized the person from the image they circulated. Six months ago, he was called to a domestic violence disturbance.

The guy was arrested and kept in custody overnight but released because the girlfriend wouldn’t cooperate. The files are locked down so Carly hasn’t been able to get a name for the suspect. As for the PC, he had an address and a name that turned out to be an alias. Ray asks for a warranty and backup for the address. She also mentions Mrs. Aziz’s sighting of the suspect. Moments later, Ray learns that the property is clear and there is no sign of the suspect. Instead, there is one adult female and two minors. Laura Milne (Lucy Phelps) tells Rachita that she only saw Marco for a couple of months.

She saw him about six months ago and never knew him as anything except Marco. When asked how they met, Laura says they were chatting in the pub and it was just sex. He didn’t even stop over most of the time. Laura doesn’t think he was a big fan of chocolate cereal and apple juice. As for the domestic violence situation, they had been drinking before things got out of hand. Her neighbor Carol called the police because her husband died and she has nothing else to do. She never saw him against after that night. Ray asks whether she ever went to his place, but Laura insists she knows nothing else about him.

Once Rachita leaves, she gets a call about meeting someone. She goes to the location in question and her cellphone is taken. She meets with Maureen Groves (Rowena King) who says she hit a flag when she visited the home of Laura Milne. The man she is pursuing is related to an ongoing investigation into organized crime while one of the deceased in her case was an active informant. Maureen confirms it was Imran Aziz, but she won’t disclose anything about his handler. Rachita learns that the man she is looking for is named Magnus Tranter (Rick Carr). Her seniors have allowed Rachita to continue with her investigation.

However, Magnus is on their watchlist and it needs to stay that way. They can’t allow anything to interfere with their investigation into a major drug smuggling operation. The human trafficking case will need to be studied in a separate investigation. Maureen is going to give Rachita her number so she can keep her up to date with all updates. She’ll also need to be discreet about disclosing information to her team. Martyn (Jamie Bamber) calls to check on her later.

She doesn’t like that Martyn called the station to talk to her since Kerry already thinks she is a token hire. He offers to talk to the higher-ups about the intruder situation, but Rachita doesn’t want him to do that. She knows he is trying to help. She’d just prefer to keep work separate. As Rachita returns to the office, she tells Kwesi to hold off on running a background check on Laura. Liam calls to say the Border Control has an image of the driver and a copy of his driver’s license. The man’s name is Karl Shaw (Michael Jinks). Liam emails the address on the license to her. Kwesi is asked to run a check on Shaw.

While he does that, Clive and Rachita rush to the address in question. Once they arrive, they speak to Karl’s mother Eileen (Bella Hamblin) who tells them he doesn’t live there anymore. She says his phone got cut off although he sometimes calls from his girlfriend’s phone. Clive finds an ultrasound that Eileen says is her friend’s. Rachita tells Clive to have Carly run Louise Bennett through the database since her mobile number could be on file. Rachita warns Eileen that things will be a million times worse for Karl if she doesn’t cooperate. She reveals that Karl was in a state last night and warned her not to talk to anyone.

She thinks it had something to do with Louise’s scan at 20 weeks. As the detectives leave, Rachita tries to find out the scan time for Louise. They eventually meet with him at the hospital. Although he begins running away, he eventually stops and admits they told him to shut off the air to the container at Felixstowe so Border Control wouldn’t get suspicious. He was supposed to open it again immediately after, but there was too much traffic. When he could finally stop, it was already too late. They ask who he was driving for before he is hit by a car.

Rachita calls in the description of the car while checking on Karl. At the station, Rachita confirms that Karl died at the scene and the driver of the car looked like Marco. The car was lost 30 minutes after the incident on cameras although Kwesi suggests he switched plates. DI Ray tells them that Marco’s name is Magnus Tranter. She suggests he could’ve tracked their movements to get to Karl first. Carly is tasked with making sure Louise gets into refuge outside of the Midlands. Kwesi offers to do it, but Rachita thinks it should be a female officer. Later that night, Rachita and Tony talk about how crappy the day was.

Tony agrees to go for a drink with her. He takes her to a local pub where he regularly watches football with Dylan who will be eight in September. Tony admits his mother isn’t with them anymore because Kirin got breast cancer. The chemo worked and she is in remission, but they didn’t stick together. Now, they’re just co-parenting. They share their son 60/40 although he is with his mother tonight. Tony tells her about Lata Mangeshkar who did all the music for the Bollywood films. Rachita didn’t know since they didn’t have a lot of Indian music growing up. Instead, her mother mostly listened to The Archers.

She remembers one bhangra song that her nani had on cassette though. When she says it was Soho Road, Tony quickly remembers it since he has it on his playlist. He plays the song before convincing Rachita to get up and dance with him. When they leave for the night, Rachita kisses Tony. She wakes up with him and finds five missed calls from Martyn. Tony checks on her. Once he goes for water, Rachita gets into the shower. She looks at her ring before getting up. They share an awkward moment. Then, Tony agrees to get out of her hair.

After that, Rachita meets with Martyn and her parents so they can tell them about their engagement. When Debo (Shobu Kapoor) asks about getting a house, Martyn reveals he has been looking at one on Farquhar Road. By the time they leave, Debo had consumed most of the champagne herself. She says it was a long day so it was easier to stay at her place last night, but Martyn doesn’t think it is safe to be there. He has been thinking about getting a second viewing of the house too. Clive calls to say the Vietnamese boy has come around. As she walks away, Martyn says there is always somewhere else she has to be. She apologizes and leaves.

At the hospital, Min is told to go gentle and make sure he knows he isn’t in any trouble. They’re surprised that the boy knows English. Thao explains that his mother was sick and they needed money for her treatment. His father talked to some men who agreed to arrange visas and work for a short time. The 16-year-old came with his father because he doesn’t speak English. He mentioned Manchester United which is his favorite team. His father talked to the men on the phone and the Internet. They were told there would be four other people and they would go through Doha before Hungary.

They’d wait a day in France but be in Birmingham in just one week. They lied about there being no trucks. A few hours later, they closed the lights or air vents. He tells them how Ti tried to break the ceiling using wood. Once his father found a small hole, he told him to stay there. Another lady revealed she was going to get married. Although the driver opened the container, he closed it and drove. Then, an angry man opened it while he was shouting on his mobile phone. Thao tells them that the angry man was big like a wrestler. When he is shown a picture of Magnus, he quickly agrees that could be him although he closed his eyes most of the time.

He asks about his father several times. Later that night, Tony visits Rachita at home to make sure she is okay. He brings her something to eat too. Rachita hugs him before they kiss again. She tells him that she is engaged and his boss. Tony recommends getting some rest since she looks shattered. He opens the door to leave and tells DI Ray not to get stuck because you only get one shot. She jokes she is Hindu and doesn’t believe in the one-life crap. She receives a call from Martyn so Tony begins leaving. Someone seems to be watching him as he walks outside. Rachita tells Martyn she is going to stay at her place tonight.

The man across the street appears to be Martyn. He gets a picture of them hugging. Martyn calls someone to say they were right and they should do it. When Tony returns to Rachita, someone who looks like Magnus drives by and shoots him. He falls on top of Rachita as the episode ends.

 

DI Ray Review

While DI Ray might not be groundbreaking in any particular way, the series is at least watchable. The acting from everyone is mostly competent even the minor characters. The story is difficult to believe at times, but it has enough twists to keep things interesting. Some of the relationships are better than others. Tony and Rachita dancing at the pub was moderately enjoyable.

There is only one episode left so we’ll find out what this develops into when all is said and done. The show could do without some of the silly things like PC Knott complaining of bullying. This episode scores a 6 out of 10. Recaps of DI Ray can be found on Reel Mockery here. Learn how to support the Reel Mockery project at this link.