Not Dead Yet – As the finale of Grace begins, Eric Whiteley (Jake Davies) is shown walking alone. Gaia Lafayette (Victoria Emslie) stops to buy candy floss. Eric comes up behind her son and gives him a gift, but gets away before Gaia can see him. Once Gaia reaches the set with the band, she yells at Anna Galicia (Hollie Burgess) to ask for a favor. She explains she isn’t sure she’ll have time to drop Roan off at her mom and dad’s place. After Anna agrees to do it, Gaia tells her son. She gets a call from Larry Brooker (Chuku Modu) and mentions they’ll be on in an hour. Roy Grace (John Simm) looks at the bracelet that he gave to Sandy (Clare Calbraith) for her birthday.

He talks to Cleo Morey (Zoe Tapper) about finding room for some of his stuff. As they embrace, Sandy is shown standing outside. While Gaia performs with her band, Larry gets a note saying Alvin wants to see him outside right now. Outside, a woman yells that she needs to get in to tell everyone they’re giving their money to a thief. A woman gets into a vehicle with Alvin Smallbone (Niall Greig Fulton) and confirms she gave it to him. Gaia continues performing with her band. She tells the crowd that a promoter heard their Poison Lover EP and asked them to support Jocasta Rose on tour. They’re going to LA. She wants to thank Larry who seems to be rushing out of the back. Later, the band discusses going to America when their pizza arrives.

It isn’t their pizza. When one of the band members goes to the door, she is shot by a shotgun. When Roy arrives at the scene, he notices that Kevin Spinella (Alexander Cobb) is already there. He asks if he’d like to name his source. DS Glenn Branson (Richie Campbell) tells Roy about Gaia who is a big deal locally. The victim is the drummer named Amber Tanaka (Amber James) although she goes by Tank. She is still in surgery. DS Bella Moy (Laura Elphinstone) tells them that they ordered pizza and the victim volunteered to answer the door. They look at the scene as Glenn explains the antlers belong to Gaia who wears them on stage. Roy suspects the shooters thought they were shooting Gaia.

They go to the hospital to speak to Gaia. They tell her that she might’ve been the target before asking if anyone has made any recent threats. She doesn’t think so although Larry’s company handles the social media. She has noticed lots of people hanging around gigs though. Gaia says it doesn’t make any sense that someone would want to kill her. When the detectives visit Larry Brooker, he quickly hides the note so they don’t see it. They hope he has insight into why Gaia would be the intended target. Larry has been managing Gaia for nearly seven years and they’ve noticed the normal threats online. He explains some hate the way she looks while other people tell her to kill herself.

Although he thinks it is just noise, there are threats of rape and murder. Gaia didn’t know about them because she wouldn’t have stepped on stage otherwise. Roy wants Brooker to help them gain access to Gaia’s social media accounts. Larry says Anna will sort it out, but he doesn’t agree that Gaia should stop performing for the time being. He explains that this is a breakout moment for her so he can’t afford for her to hide away. At the station, DC Nick Nicholl (Brad Morrison) says most of the properties on Gaia’s street are rentals with old-fashioned entry systems and no CCTV coverage. Although the gunshot woke people up, no one saw the shooter escape. The cartridges have been recovered so it may be possible to get print or DNA evidence.

They discuss whether it could be a professional hit, but Glenn doubts it. Workers in a barn find a bone that they believe belongs to a sheep. Once the female worker is alone, she finds something else. She decides to call the police to report the discovery of human remains. In the morning, Roy and Glenn meet Cleo who has been sent there to get the remains. Cleo reveals that pigs aren’t keen on teeth or hair. Roy steps outside to speak to James Stettner (Anton Valensi) who claims not to know anything about the body parts. When asked if anyone else works there, he says not really. He mentions Ginny (Nancy Jenkins) who called them. James isn’t much help since he doesn’t have CCTV and doesn’t seem eager to answer questions.

Roy calls Norman to tell him to look at the mispers list to see if any of them wore dentures. He also asks him to contact dentists. As they leave, a vehicle nearby catches Roy’s eye. DS Norman Potting (Craig Parkinson) gives Roy the list of missing people with dentures back at the station. Roy notices the name Charles Spring who was a pub landlord and went missing in 2016. He ran a pub just minutes from Stettner’s pig farm. Roy tells everyone that Charles and his wife Nicola ran The Prince Edward pub in Tillingley. An article by Spinella speculates that he might’ve killed himself. Glenn asks how he ended up in a pig sty six years later. Roy wants a fingertip search of the entire farm and wants to learn more about Stettner. He wants his financials since James Stettner claimed he couldn’t afford CCTV but had a new Range Rover.

Larry tells Gaia that he spoke to Jamil from Pretty Machine and he is willing to replace Tank on drums. Gaia isn’t interested in replacing Tank. She doesn’t intend to perform because she wants to stay by Tank’s side until she wakes up. Larry tries to convince her otherwise and promises to guarantee her safety in LA. ACC Cassian Pewe (Sam Hoare) speaks to Roy about the investigations. He admits he is starting to think Spinella will catch the killers first. Roy insists the leak isn’t coming from his team. Cassian has ordered a sweep of all comms coming out of CID to see who has been in contact with Spinella. Roy tells Glenn that he wants to split the cases. He’ll take the pig farm case and Glenn can be SIO on the shooting case.

Roy tells him to handle it well because it could help him with a promotion. Glenn decides to take Bella with him. Roy takes Norman with him. They visit Eric Whiteley who mentions that 60,000 appears suddenly in James Stettner’s account. He reveals that James sold off his woodland. He bought a new car because he needed it to haul his trailers. He says he has done everything by the book since 2016. He won’t tell them what he was doing before that because he doesn’t want to lose him as a client. Norman sees a picture of Roan and asks Eric if that is his son. Eric admits it is although he doesn’t get to see him as much as he’d like to. Norman suggests going to the court. He never saw his dad growing up much so things like that strike a chord.

Bella and Glenn look through the social media posts about Gaia. Glenn finds a video of a woman calling Gaia a thief. Glenn shows the video of Real Singer Drayton to Bella. They agree to go see what Gaia stole from her. Roy and Norman ask James Stettner why he was investigated by HMRC in 2016. James says some fella turned up saying he wanted to rent two of his barns. He agrees to do it. Vans started driving up and down the track at all hours. When he checked it out, he found the barns filled with cigarettes and no tax on them. He told the fella he had to get off his land before finding his dog, Loki, shot in the head. Roy asks if he knew the landlord of The Prince Edward. James does because he used to be his local.

He calls him an arse who fancied himself as a bit of a gangster. He was shifting the cigarettes through his pub even though he warned him not to. After that, Charles went missing. He admits it was a relief when the HMRC turned up because it sent them packing. When asked for the name of the man who rented the barns, James says it was Alvin Smallbone. Roy reveals he put Alvin Smallbone away for GBH on two bouncers previously. One of them had to drink his food through a straw for a few months. When Alvin went down, he threatened to put Roy in the ground if he ever saw him again. Glenn and Bella visit the music agency to talk to someone about Drayton Wheeler who is a Brighton-based singer/songwriter.

Her social media from the last year is just her accusing Gaia of being a thief. She accused Gaia of stealing a song called Peaches. They’re shown a video of Drayton trying to get into the concert that night and calling Gaia a thief. It has been going on for so long that they’ve stopped paying attention. At the station, Nick Nicholl tells Roy and Norman that he just spoke to East Sussex Prison and Smallbone was released under license on Friday. They need to find out who his supervising officer is. In private, Cassian tells Roy that the comms are clean. Whoever is leaking to Spinella is doing it in person. Anna meets with Larry Brooker at a café because the office isn’t the safest place right now. She explains that Gaia has picked up a significant number of new followers.

They’re seeing a big uptick in plays of Poison Lover. Without new content, the story is going to get old fast. If Larry wants this to blow up, he will need to drop a bomb. When he says he doesn’t have any bombs, he is reminded that Gaia is secretive about who Roan’s dad is. Larry thinks that is a dead end. Alvin meets Larry and tells him he hopes he is going to the bank to get his money. Alvin questions whether Gaia’s shooter made a mistake or if they were just sending a warning. Glenn and Bella visit Gaia when he is busy rehearsing with the remaining band members. Gaia tells them that Drayton is a singer like her. She explains that Larry brought her the song Peaches when she first started working with him.

She likes the melody so she reworked the lyrics, but Drayton started accusing her of stealing the song. When she asked Larry about it, he admitted he had heard Drayton busking and recorded her. Gaia wanted to give it back, but Larry said it was too late and it would ruin her image. When they try to visit Drayton, they learn from a neighbor that she has been gone for a few days. The neighbor also said Drayton didn’t seem well. At the station, Roy says Alvin Smallbone’s supervising officer said Alvin hasn’t checked in since his release. That gives them grounds to arrest him. Roy gives Nick and Norman a list of places to look for him and says his party trick is breaking fingers so they should keep an eye on A&E for potential victims.

At home, Roy tells Glenn that the estate agent has lined up a few viewings for this week. Glenn promises to keep things tidy before they begin discussing the cases. Glenn reveals Ari called because she wants to meet and talk things through. He doesn’t know how he can promise them he’ll be there for the family when he is chasing a promotion with more responsibilities. Roy admits he couldn’t get the balance right when he was with Sandy. When he is with Cleo, his focus is on her. He insists you can only learn from your mistakes. A man stops Myles Royce to ask him not to play any music tonight. Myles (Mitchell Robertson) goes to his room and listens to Gaia’s music while posting on her social media.

In the morning, a man goes fishing and pulls a human hand out of the water. Once Roy and Norman reach the scene, they find that the pig farm is about a mile away. Charles Spring’s old pub is within walking distance. Roy thinks these dump sites mean something to the killer. He suggests it could be a message, but they need to find Alvin Smallbone. Larry Brooker goes to his office to pack his stuff only to be interrupted by Alvin who thinks Gaia is rich by now. Alvin wants to know where all of his money has gone. Larry says promotions, venue hire, and rehearsal time, but he promises he’ll get his money back. Alvin is done being patient with him so it looks like he breaks Larry’s fingers. At the morgue, Nadiuska De Sancha (Carolina Valdes) says it looks like the killer was in a hurry when he dismembered the arm.

She finds freezer burn telling her that the arm was frozen before it was disposed of in the lake. Norman suggests Alvin Smallbone killed Charles and put him in the freezer before disposing of the body parts when he got out. Cleo shows them a strand of clothing they found with the body. Nadiuska thinks it came from a very loud suit. As they leave, Roy tells Norman that they should talk to Nicola who is Charles’s wife. Glenn meets Ari (Rebecca Scroggs) to talk about their marriage and being in it for the long haul. He knows he stopped putting her and the kids first somewhere down the line. He forgot that she had dreams and ambitions too. They never stopped loving each other. When Roy and Norman find Nicola, she isn’t able to answer any of their questions.

Since she isn’t any help, Roy thinks they should speak to a tailor. Norman believes he can help with that. Larry tries to convince Gaia to name Roan’s father to get more likes on the Internet. She refuses because it was traumatic. Anna brings food over, but Gaia says she is too angry to eat right now. Eric Whiteley begins questioning whether Roan should be with Gaia. He calls to speak to a solicitor about getting access to his son. Bella interrupts Glenn to say Drayton used her bank card at a hardware store. They’ve located her on CCTV near Brooker’s office. Norman and Roy visit the tailor named Tyler who remembers the suit. He explains that they made a suit for Gideon Reece for his wedding to Samuel Clark.

Tyler shows them a picture of the suit and confirms it was a one-off piece. Roy questions whether Gideon Reece wears dentures. Tyler doesn’t know about that, but he knows he went to Turkey to get veneers done on the cheap. Bella and Glenn find Drayton beating Larry Brooker in a car park so they quickly stop her. She accuses him of stealing her song and stealing money from charity. She claims he got his acts to sell their gear for charity, but kept the money himself. Larry is fine except for his hand which he claims he got trapped in a car door. Later, Norman tells Roy that he got in touch with Gideon Reece who says he sold the suit after putting on a few pounds. He sold it two years ago to a vintage reseller in North Laine.

The shop has no idea who bought the suit because they encourage cash buyers. Norman gets a message and has to leave. Roy follows him so he can see how he is meeting. Norman meets Bella and gives her a present before they kiss. After that, Roy speaks to Glenn at the station and learns they did not find a shotgun at Drayton’s flat. Her clothes did not show any sign of gunpowder residue. They’ve been looking into Larry Brooker who has a string of collapsed companies and a terrible credit rating. He also has a lot of unpaid debt. Glenn explains that everything is a lie because Brooker is on the verge of another bankruptcy. When Roy learns about his broken fingers, he suspects Alvin Smallbone could be involved. He says there is a line that goes from James Stettner’s pig farm to Alvin Smallbone, to Larry Brooker, to the shooting.

Roy finds a picture of Gaia wearing the suit so she must’ve bought it at the vintage shop. They discuss Larry’s scam to sell the gear of the artist and give the money to charity. Myles Royce ended up buying the suit. Glenn says that makes sense because they’ve seen many posts from Myles who could be Gaia’s number one fan. Roy and Glenn visit Gaia who confirms she sold the suit to Myles who is a massive fan of hers. She confirms that Myles wore dentures because he has anodontia. He didn’t form teeth so he had to wear dentures to school. At the station, Roy tells everyone that the human remains at the pig farm and lake belonged to Myles Royce. Nick Nicholl isn’t sure about that because Myles has been posting comments about Gaia up until yesterday.

Roy and Glenn visit Myles’s neighbor who complains about him playing his music too loud. He tells them that Myles is there every night since he knows his long coat and silly hat. Later, Roy talks to Glenn about Cassian wanting him to find the mole in CID. He tells Glenn about Norman and Bella being an item. They can’t figure out how the information is getting out although it isn’t one of them. They see the man walking towards Myles’s flat. They chase him into his flat and find a bunch of pictures of Gaia. The man in question ends up getting away after a brief chase. They check the flat and find body parts in the fridge. It also looks like blood on the walls. After finding more fragments from the suit, Roy says Myles Royce is definitely dead.

Glenn says the killer has been keeping him alive on social media for months. Next, Nick Nicholl tells Roy that there was a tracking device in his car. When it is triggered by speech, it calls a number specified by the user who can eavesdrop using their phone. Nick says he just needs to put the SIM card back in to get it working again. They manage to lure Kevin Spinella to a scene and arrest him for bugging Roy’s car. Kevin thinks he can strike a deal so he reveals Charles Spring gave him money to write a couple of stories about him being missing and most likely dead. It was enough to convince Alvin Smallbone who wanted to harm him. Kevin goes on to say Spring is living in Amsterdam. Despite giving up that info, Roy arrests him on suspicion of breaching the Data Protection Act and illegal interception of communications.

Eric gets upset when a solicitor tells him there is nothing they can do. At the station, Bella tells Roy about the disturbance and says it was Eric Whiteley and it was his son with Gaia. Glenn wonders if Eric has been impersonating Myles Royce. Roy wants him found and brought in for a chat. Roy and Glenn visit Gaia to speak to her in private about her son Roan. Gaia claims not to know who Eric Whiteley is. When she was young and playing in pubs, one landlord went out of her way to be supportive by letting her play on Friday night. She was thrilled even though it was out in Tillingley. One night, he told her that she owed him for all of his help. Gaia claims Roan’s dad was a rapist.

She heard he’d killed himself so she didn’t bother reporting the rape to the police. When questioned by Roy, she admits that the pub landlord was Charles Spring. They promise not to tell Roan. Roy gets a call from Bella who says Eric didn’t show up to work this morning. He says they need to get her away tonight. Gaia asks Larry if they can go to LA tonight. She goes with Anna to pick up Roan from school. At the station, Nick Nicholl tells Roy that Eric Whiteley was arrested for snatching a child in 2017. He claims the boy was his son although he wasn’t. The charges were dropped when the boy was sectioned. In 2016, he was interviewed after a drowning. It was his son and it looks like he wasn’t able to accept his son’s death.

Larry Brooker tries to book a flight for Gaia. At Eric’s workplace, Roy and Glenn learn that Eric has been spiraling and he made a bunch of boats like the one he made for his son, William. Eric turned away for a moment when William fell into the water trying to reach the boat. Eric often spends hours at the pond where William drowned. They go there and find William sitting on a bench alone with a boat in his hands. He says he is sorry about Gaia, but the grief gets so overwhelming sometimes he doesn’t know what he is doing. He says it makes the pain go away if he pretends Roan is his son. Eric denies shooting anyone although he follows Gaia and Roan while pretending the boy is his. After eating some of Gaia’s food, Larry gets sick and collapses outside.

Bella calls Roy from the hospital to say Tunde told her Brooker ate some food at Gaia’s house and possibly got poisoned. After the call, Roy tells Glenn about it and says the poison came from Anna. When they search for the poison, Roy finds a plant that might be the problem. He tells Glenn that Sandy dug up all the dangerous plants from the garden when they were trying to have a baby. These were the worst because they cause hallucinations and heart failure. Glenn mentions the name of the song which is Poison Lover. At the hospital, Bella tells Norman that it is foxgloves. Roy and Glenn begin worrying about Gaia since Anna and Gaia should’ve picked up Roan by now.

Roy finds the coat the suspect was wearing when they thought they were chasing Myles Royce. They realize she was impersonating him. They look at family pictures and notice that it is Charles Spring and his wife Nicola. One of the pictures is from the fishing lake where they found the severed arm. Bella and Norman speak with Nicola who claims Gaia came into her pub, seduced her husband, and ruined her family. Myles had the nerve to tell Anna that her dad was a rapist. She just wants justice for her dad. Anna takes Gaia to The Prince Edward and tells her it is where she used to live. Anna gets a shotgun from the boot and points it at Gaia. She takes her inside and ties her to the floor before telling her that she is going to take her own life.

Roy and Glenn arrive outside and try to get into the building. Once Roy gets inside, he finds Anna sitting with a lighter waiting to burn the place down. Roy tries to convince her to stop. Gaia tells Anna that her dad raped her, but Anna believes he killed herself because of her. Roy tells Anna that Charles is still alive and living in Amsterdam. She ends up starting the fire, but Glenn manages to move Gaia before she can be burned alive. Glenn comes back in to look for Roy. They manage to escape with Anna. Later, Drayton performs and collects money. Cassian complains about Roy letting his car get bugged. Roy says they’ve got the whole force looking for Alvin Smallbone.

He puts in a good word for Glenn. Cassian tells Glenn that he has passed the promotion boards. Roy invites him to dinner with Cleo, but he reveals he is going on a date with Ari. Glenn says he has a viewing and he left him a bit of a mess. Sandy goes into the house, feeds the fish, and walks upstairs. She collects DNA for a paternity test. Roy comes home while she is still in the house. He finds signs that someone has been in the house, but he doesn’t see Sandy. Roy makes it to the restaurant where Cleo is already waiting for him. She reveals that she is pregnant. Roy says he thinks they’re going to be a family.

 

Grace Review

The finale of Grace’s third season was really just okay because it suffered from the same problems as the previous two episodes. The episodes are far too long and that leads to unnecessary characters, red herrings, and twists that amount to very little in the long run. It seems each episode this season has had one major red herring character with Eric Whiteley filling the role in Not Dead Yet.

The Kevin Spinella storyline ended with a whimper that had no real impact on the show. That’s too bad considering there was so much they could’ve done with that aspect of the story. The Sandy storyline continues to be extended so it can be covered in the next season. At the very least, Gaia’s musical performances were a good addition to the episode and Eric was an interesting character.

It just doesn’t seem logical how everything neatly meshed together in the end. The first episode was the best of the series and it somewhat went downhill from there. Although Grace remains watchable, it’d be much easier to justify if the runtime was cut in half and the seasons were extended by a few episodes. The finale scores a 6 out of 10.

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