As the finale of DI Ray begins, DC Carly Lake (Jessica Temple) arrives at the scene of the shooting and checks on DI Rachita Ray (Parminder Nagra) who is covered in blood. She learns that they’re moving Tony’s clothes nothing before Carly asks for her clothes for forensics. After the intro, Rachita sits down with Ross Beardsmore (Ian Puleston-Davies) and DS Lewis Kay (Lewis Clift) to discuss what happened. DI Ray explains it was 20:30 and she was about to have an early night because it had been a long day. When Ross asks why Tony came over, she says he brought food because he knew she hadn’t eaten all day. They had a short conversation by the door before he briefly came inside.

In that time, she put the food down and took a call from DCI Martyn Hunter (Jamie Bamber). He didn’t know that Tony was at her house. Tony was saying goodbye. Once he was shot and fell on Rachita, she saw two men passing by on a motorbike. Although it happened so quickly, she thinks one of the men had a handgun and might’ve been Magnus Tranter (Rick Carr). She agrees that Magnus would be more likely to be searching for her instead of Tony. Ross says detectives are checking for CCTV footage and also have the footage from her doorbell camera. When the interview ends, he admits he finds it concerning that she was oblivious to the fact that she was being watched.

As a result, they’ve lost an officer. She meets with Martyn who says he would’ve sat in on the interview. Rachita is going to be put in a hotel and has been instructed to keep a low profile. He asks if she wants him to come to the motel with her, but she isn’t supposed to tell anyone where it is. She also reminds him that they were going to keep things on the quiet at work. He asks why she was back at her old place. Rachita just wanted to be in her own bed, in her own space, and check on her tomato plant. Martyn wonders how PS Khatri knew she would be at her old place. She claims he asked if she wanted to go to his mate’s chippy, but she told him she needed to go home to pack some stuff. Although she thinks he was just being kind, Martyn finds it odd that he would show up.

He tells her to be careful before leaving. Rachita calls someone and says she needs to come in because it is urgent. She meets with Maureen Groves (Rowena King) and tells her about Tony’s death. While Rachita doesn’t want to compromise her investigation, she is confident that Magnus was involved. Maureen says he is just a foot soldier and they’re trying to crack one of the largest smuggling networks in the UK. Doing so could possibly cut the supply of drugs to the Midlands by 50%. Rachita says they can work together to bring him in if they obtain intelligence that impacts her case. She asks for a meeting with the controller of Imran Aziz’s handler. Rachita believes they can help her without investigating Maureen’s investigation.

Maureen agrees to speak to those above her. As Rachita goes back to the station, she hears Ross talking to the media about Tony’s death. She goes inside where Clive (Steve Oram), Kwesi (Peter Bankole), Liam (Sam Baker-Jones), and Carly are watching the news on television. Kwesi says he managed to get the birth certificates for Laura Milne’s kids and they have different dads. One is Neil Grant while the other is Magnus Tranter. Since they want to know why she lied, they decide to visit her house. The house is empty and it looks like someone packed before leaving in a hurry. Kwesi is asked to go to the Greystone Junior School to see if they have any other addresses for Laura or the kids. A paper for the school is on the fridge in the kitchen.

She asks for a section nine to cover all bases. They go to an address that the head teacher told them Laura and the kids stayed at for a few weeks a while back. Someone matching Tranter’s description did the school pick-up. The flat is empty. Clive is asked to see how Liam is doing tracking Laura’s phone and card. Kwesi says there is no sign that the kids were ever at the flat. When they flip a sofa over, they find hidden items underneath including jewelry. There is also a copy of a Sri Lanka identification for a woman named Sumaira Kumara.

Rachita wants a search team to itemize all the evidence. Later, Kwesi tells Rachita that he has a mate working at the Elton Road Station and is involved in the investigation into PS Khatri’s murder. The ballistics report came back revealing they don’t match any registered weapon. After that, Rachita goes to the temple where they have a ceremony for Tony. She sees a young boy in front of her holding a woman’s hand so it is likely Tony’s son. She leaves in a hurry and begins crying while putting on her boots. Clive calls to say Laura’s card was used to withdraw 200 pounds from a cashpoint at Grand Central Station roughly 15 minutes ago. Rachita rushes to the station before she sees Laura (Lucy Phelps) with Holly (Zaynah Thompson) and Milo (Gabriel Mullally).

She uses her radio to ask the staff to hold the train on platform seven. Laura is cornered and arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender. In an interview room with Rachita and Clive, Laura is told that her kids are with a colleague while they wait for social services. When asked about Magnus, Laura says she didn’t want to get involved in any of his business and she got pregnant by accident. She didn’t think he wanted anything to do with Milo although he drops money around sometimes. Laura was going to Edinburgh because she needed a break. When Clive asks why she was in a hurry, she says she got stressed because she didn’t want to get caught up in anything. Rachita asks whether she has a current number for Magnus.

She claims she always has a different phone. Meanwhile, Milo gets a call while playing a game. Carly asks whether he wants to answer it, but he doesn’t respond. When it rings again, Carly asks who it is and why he doesn’t want to answer. She puts her gloves on and takes the phone. Once Laura is confronted about it, she claims it is only for games and nobody knows the number. Rachita suspects otherwise since his dad might know it. Clive is told to get the number traced immediately. At the station, Carly is asked how they’re moving forward with tracking Tranter’s phone. Liam is working on it. Rachita wants to check the tape they found with the passport at Tranter’s address. Carly says there were no fingerprints or DNA on it.

They have a working copy because the original is in evidence. The date on it is March 2007 around 23:05. When Ray begins watching the video, she notices a man entering the room with a woman who is sitting on a bed. She stops it as soon as she sees the scar on the man’s upper shoulder. Rachita asks Carly to get some evidence files for her from PC Knott. Once Carly is gone, Rachita finishes watching the video of Martyn having sex with the woman. She immediately stops watching and leaves the computer when she sees Martyn’s face. Later that night, she ignores a call from Martyn. She calls to talk to Vice about some historic investigations she is doing. She asks about cases from 2007 involving sex workers.

DCI Kerry Henderson (Gemma Whelan) approaches her and tells her good work for identifying Tranter’s phone. Although Ray says they’re getting closer to bringing him in, Kerry asks her to go home and work with her team. Rachita tells her that intelligence has passed information to her directly. Kerry wants to know more about it. She instructs Ray to brief the whole team in the morning before she leaves. Martyn calls once again. Ray meets with Martyn and apologizes for not picking up the phone, but he says it is okay. She wants to talk to him off the record. She says she has hit a flag while pursuing Tranter because intelligence has him under surveillance.

Imran might’ve been killed because he was informing. She wanted to talk to the controller, but it is a long-standing operation. Although Martyn thinks she should stay out of it, Rachita admits she doesn’t want to. He knows she doesn’t. However, he suggests the last thing she wants to do is screw up the major intelligence operation. Martyn knows that isn’t what she wants to hear but he is just trying to help her out. The next day, Rachita meets with the team to tell them about intelligence and Magnus. She explains that he is involved in an investigation into a huge drug-smuggling outfit that is more than just the fentanyl they were important through Imran’s business.

It also involves the largest quantities of cocaine and heroin they’ve seen. While they’re focusing on drugs, Rachita is more interested in the murders of Tony, Aziz, Anjuli, and Karl and the people smuggling operation. Kerry confirms she has given DI Ray her backing to continue with relevant searches as long as they don’t interfere with the intelligence operation. They will also report any significant findings to them. When asked about Magnus’s phone, Liam says it has gone offline so they’re analyzing call data to see if they can track his location through associates. Clive asks about the girl’s passport and video tape. Rachita thinks she was another trafficked worker and Carly is working on identifying her. She asks Clive to send the CCTV images to more Constabularies to find Magnus.

Carly tells her Sumaira is registered as paying council tax, has a clean driver’s license, and is co-owner of a fully registered business. She runs a mobile cleaning company with her business called Clean Scour and did not change her name. Rachita admits she needs to tell her why she kept the contents of the tape from her. She is convinced that Sumaira is the one in the video footage. Vice told her that a week before the date of the recording there was an attempted armed robbery in a brothel in Digbeth. The police intercepted it. DI Ray believes the man in the footage is one of the investigating officers and could have linked to Tanter’s organized crime group. She may need to escalate the matter before submitting their copy into evidence.

Rachita asks her to keep it secret from the others right now and reveals that Sumaira was only 15 at the time. They visit Sumaira Kumara (Devashrie de Silva) seconds later. When she is asked about working in a brothel in Digbeth, she says that was a long time ago. Rachita knows she was trafficked and insists she wanted to stop this from happening to others. Sumaira is asked whether she remembers anything about the police officers who spoke to her before Carly shows her the video. Rachita questions whether she had sex with one of the officers when she was underage. Once she is asked if he forced himself on her, Sumaira admits it wasn’t like that. She explains her bosses saw that he liked her. They told her she wouldn’t have to work there again if she just had sex with him.

They also offered to give her money and return her passport. Since she didn’t want to be a prisoner anymore, she did it. Carly shows her a picture of Magnus who she claims was one of her bosses. Rachita steps aside to call Clive to ask him to out a call for any patrols in the Harborne area. She wants them to swing past an address and make it look like an average patrol without any fuss. She gets a message from DCI Elaine Peterson who was the controller for Imran with an offer to meet her later. DI Ray tells Carly they should take Sumaira to the station to arrange a safe house since she has a meeting. Ray goes to the motel room to meet with DCI Peterson only to be surprised when Martyn shows up. He comes in and begins searching her to make sure she isn’t wearing a wire.

Martyn asks about the copy of the tape. Although the other copy went into evidence already, Martyn admits he isn’t the only copper they have in their pocket. They’ve already dealt with the original because they want to protect their asset and it is their leverage over him. Rachita has the only copy left and he wants it. She asks whether he told Tranter that Aziz was informing about the drugs and people smuggling. He asks about the tape before saying it was easy to lure her here because she told him how desperate she was to get a meeting with the controller.

Rachita finds out that Magnus has been watching her and reporting everything back to Martyn. He sure didn’t think Tony was her type. Rachita tells him that he took advantage of a young, vulnerable woman or a child. He claims they set him up, told him she was 19, and forced him to make the investigation go away by threatening to release the tape. She asks if he got Imran killed and whether he knew the bullets were for her instead of Tony. Martyn warned them that Imran was informing so they could scare him off not kill him. It got complicated after that so he is going to need that tape. Rachita suggests it just worked because people already have stereotypes about Asian crime.

He says it messed everything up when she became DI of the case, but he still had to steer the investigation. She says they were a step ahead because of him and he was willing to let two innocent men go down for murder. Martyn argues that she can’t prove any of this. As they go outside, Magnus gets out of a car in front of them. Martyn says they’ll get this over with quicker if she gives over the tape quicker. They try to force her to get into the car until the other detectives arrive and arrest both men. As Martyn is led to the car, Rachita reminds him what he said about ABC or accept nothing, believe nobody, and check everything. At the station, Martyn is interviewed by Ross and Kerry. He is asked about the phone and whether he used it to tell Magnus Rachita would be at the motel.

Kerry accuses him of obstructing the investigation at every stage. Martyn finally says he wants protection. Kerry tells him that DI Ray set a trap and he fell for it. Later, Rachita goes to Mr. Kapoor so she can apologize for everything and pay her respects. She gives her a gift before she leaves. Rachita drinks with her team later that night and tells Kwesi that she is going in to see Beardsmore tomorrow. He believes that Ross will make her DCI and he jokes that he can have her job. She tells Clive that a friend of hers introduced her to this booze. They share a toast to Tony. When she goes into the office the next day, Ross tells her that she was having a relationship with an officer who was deeply corrupt.

On those grounds alone, she will need to be investigated. Rachita understands and is confident they will find no wrongdoing on her part. She only regrets that she didn’t immediately report the tape to anti-corruption although she needed to use it as bait. Ross says they haven’t discussed her interpersonal issues with management or allegation of bullying. Rachita admits she might’ve acted with haste, but it was always to ensure public safety. It was never her intention to bully PC Knott. Her concern now is that the big players are still out there. Kerry understands and says they’ll have a new team on it. Rachita believes this is her case since she has accomplished so much already. She believes she has already proven herself and there is more work to do.

Ross admits some of this is on them since they were under pressure to appoint her due to the ethnic needs of the case. He believes they put her in a position where she was out of her depth and just wasn’t ready for it. Rachita believes they both know what this is really about. Ross is waiting for approval from the ACC to suspend her pending further investigation. He has to leave for a meeting so Kerry will brief her on the protocol leading up to her investigation. Rachita doesn’t think Ross or Kerry wanted her in the first place. Kerry confesses she disagrees with him since she was ready. As Rachita leaves, she looks at the poster on the wall urging people to be the change. She puts her lanyard on the desk and leaves as the episode ends.

 

DI Ray Review

DI Ray turned out to be a standard police procedural that was straightforward and easy to follow. There weren’t any glitz or glamor or crazy flashbacks that made things overly complicated. The series and cast made DI Ray feel like a mix between The Tower and The Chelsea Detective. It hit on some of the same topics as The Tower while incorporating many of the characters from The Chelsea Detective. It was difficult to shake that at times since I’ve watched both recently.

The cast was primarily good, especially Parminder Nagra, but we could’ve used a bit more character development to make the emotional scenes hit a bit harder. If the goal was to make the viewer feel sorry for DI Ray each episode, it did a good job of that. This might’ve been taken to the extreme for really no good reason though. At times, the character was being belittled and beaten up purposelessly with the ending driving the point home.

I don’t think it is realistic for everyone to be so unwelcoming and uninviting. The story might’ve been too ambitious for four episodes, but it was interesting enough to hold my attention. The last two minutes are either going to be genius or baffling because it is just too difficult to believe DI Ray would be suspended after this. If the series ends here and there is no second season, I’d consider the ending to be iffy.

I’ll understand that decision if the series is renewed. There are plenty of great ways to make this even better in future episodes. With a more competent and supported Rachita, it could get a lot more interesting. The finale scores a 6.5 out of 10. Recaps of DI Ray can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our work at this link.