As series two of Granite Harbour begins, Mariam asks Hassan Faraki not to leave her. Hassan overhears men talking about putting a code in. When they hear him, he tries to flee but gets knocked out. One of the ship’s workers finds Mariam Faraki (Afsaneh Dehrouyeh) who drops an ultrasound picture when she leaves. Once she’s off the boat, he notices that the picture is gone. DS Lara Bartlett (Hannah Donaldson) is shown leaving home. DC Davis Lindo (Romario Simpson) arrives at the Aberdeen International Airport. Lucas Galloway (Russ Bain) enters a flat. It looks like he snaps pictures of a drug operation. Mariam finds out that her phone’s battery is dead.

DCI Cora McMillian (Dawn Steele) says hello to Grace McFadden (Lesley Hart) who didn’t think she could afford a ticket. Cora is introduced to Grace’s nephew Duncan (Sam Garioch) and his wife Ruth. Cora believes they are interested in getting the first dibs on any investment opportunities in exchange for free refreshments. Cora steps away when she gets a call. Lindo gets in touch with Lara who explains a body has been found on the wasteland at John Street. After the call, Davis greets his father Grantley Lindo (Patrick Robinson) who complains about being delayed. Davis tells him there is a work emergency so he has to go. Once he arrives at the scene, he learns that Lucas Galloway is dead from a suspected overdose.

Cora arrives and learns that the vehicle is registered to Lucas Galloway. She says she was just at a party with Lucas’s boss. Mariam tries to steal from a shop but gets caught by a worker. DC Jay Mallick (Bhav Joshi) arrives at the crime scene. Cora tells everyone that Galloway was Billy McFadden’s go-to enforcer in the 80s and 90s. Billy has been gone for a few years. Grace is trying a whole rebranding thing. The McFadden business has a long way to go before it is legitimate. Cora puts Jay in charge of the operation. During breakfast, Davis tells his father about a tour bus that will allow him to get to know his hometown. Grantley isn’t impressed with breakfast. Jay takes his mother Sharmila home and talks to her about his brother Nazir who has a nice car now. She insists she’ll be fine since the caregivers are in and out all the time. At the station, Cora says Galloway died of a massive ketamine overdose.

There were minor bruising and traces of blood on his neck. There is another puncture consistent with a syringe. The most likely scenario is that someone injected him in the neck to make it look like an accidental overdose. Lara points out that there has been a spike in ketamine use in conjunction with cocaine recently. They call it CK. Jay ribs Lara for trying to get a promotion. DS Simone Montrose (Michelle Jeram) says the GPS in the vehicle was turned off. Katie Forsyth (Kate Bracken) arrives to see Lara Bartlett. Lara tells Katie that refugees and asylum seekers aren’t really their field. Mariam begins shouting about her passport and entry card. She is introduced to the detectives. Kate says she wants to report a murder. Mariam explains she was on a ship hiding with her husband Hassan. She was sick.

Hassan went for water because Mariam was dehydrated. Mariam heard four or five angry people running and shouting. She cannot tell them the name of the ship. Katie says it’s common for a dock worker or delivery driver to sneak people on board. Mariam was given a blanket and told to cover her eyes before being removed from the ship. She went to the memorial to wait for Hassan who never arrived. Lara admits there’s no evidence that a crime has been committed. Davis and Lara speak to Cora about Mariam’s case. Cora eventually gives them permission to visit the harbor to speak to the harbor master. Cora and Jay visit Grace. Lara tells Davis that she saved Katie’s life. Davis tells her about his father visiting him. Grace learns about Galloway’s death. She insists Lucas wasn’t a drug user, but she won’t say whether he was a dealer.

Grace thinks she might need legal representation before going any further. She reveals that Lucas was on the verge of retirement. Duncan checks in and learns something has happened. Davis and Lara learn that three vessels docked from Oslo in the last 24 hours. Davis says the Stolthet is the kind of size Mariam described. They speak to Axel Berg (Christopher Rygh) who is the cargo hold supervising officer. He eventually agrees to let them speak to the captain. Duncan tells Jay and Cora about the last time he saw Lucas. Since Lucas was drunk, Ruth asked Duncan to take his keys and drive him home. Duncan asks if he needs an alibi and whether he’s a suspect. Grace reminds Cora they were with her when Lucas was killed. Cora says the time of death was a few hours earlier. Grace claims she was getting her nails done.

As for Duncan, he was working from home and Ruth was there. Cora asks Grace if this is the start of a turf war. Grace thinks Cora should tell her since she’s the detective. Captain Nielsen (Soren Malling) speaks to Davis and Lara. He denies that any violent incident happened on his ship. Nielsen says they’re reloading cargo for their return voyage. In 72 hours, they should be back at sea. He agrees to escort them back. As they leave, Davis points out that Nielsen had whisky on his breath at this time of the day. Lara suggests there’s something heavy on his mind. She admits it may not matter since they’ll be gone soon unless Mac can find something to impound the boat. Simone tells Cora that SOCO found the DNA of two other individuals in Galloway’s vehicle. Neither is showing up in their database.

One of them is likely Duncan McFadden since he drove Lucas home that night. Cora points out he doesn’t have a record so he’s being groomed to be the face of the McFadden family business. SOCO also found fibers in Galloway’s hair. They were aligned with some minor head injuries revealed in the autopsy. Lara suggests he was thrashing around since a ketamine overdose can cause seizures. Cora learns they didn’t get much from their visit to the ship. She thinks they should let Mariam be processed for the shoplifting and end it. Cora asks Lara and Davis to check Galloway’s flat. Jay is told to help Monty trace the ketamine. Katie and Mariam aren’t happy to learn there’s not enough evidence. Mariam says a van nearly hit her by the harbor so the driver might remember her.

Lara doesn’t think that proves anything though. Davis catches up with Monty to ask who he should contact to access CCTV from the harbor. She mouths something to him before the conversation ends. In the car, Davis tells Lara he wants to get the CCTV footage so they’ll have something else to take to Mac. Lara gets upset when he mentions her possible promotion. When they enter Lucas’s flat, they’re attacked by two men who flee. Davis chases them outside and watches their vehicle flee. Monty talks to Jay about caring for his mother. They keep an eye on a drug dealer. Duncan returns the laptop to Grace and asks if there is anything he should be worried about. Grace reminds him she needs to stay clean. Ruth (Layla Kirk) thinks it’s a good thing that Grace is keeping him in the dark.

Jay and Monty confront the drug dealer to ask for CK for lab analysis. At the station, Monty tells everyone about the drug dealer, Mr. Pierce (Macleod Stephen). He’s a known associate of Galloway and a long-time dealer for the McFadden family. There is no evidence of a turf war. They discuss the possible source of the ketamine. Lara says they’ve taken carpet fibers from the flat to see if they match those found on Galloway’s hair. The only thing missing was the laptop. Davis is put on the footwear database for the night. SOCO found some decent footprints at the crime scene. Cora confronts Grace and threatens to get her put in prison if it was her men who assaulted her people in Galloway’s flat. Grace denies everything. Cora knows the flats were built by the McFadden Family Group.

Cora warns her before leaving. Outside, she confronts Ruth who refuses to tell her anything. At the station, Davis and Lara discuss their progress before he learns Mac wants to see him in her office. Lara asks if he’s been looking at the harbor CCTV. Davis says there’s nothing to see anyway. There’s no sight of Mariam or a clear view of the driver. Davis is surprised to find his dad in Cora’s office. Grantley heard he is looking at pictures of running shoes. He speaks to Cora briefly before leaving with Davis. Outside, Grantley tells his son he was hoping he’d see sense. Lara says hello. She tells Davis that Mariam is being transferred. When they’re alone, Davis tells Grantley he knows he wants him to come home. Grantley says there’s a lot they need to discuss before leaving. Lara tells Katie that Mariam’s passport was forged. Katie has advised her to claim asylum.

She believes they’ll take Mariam to the hotel on Powell Street. Jay and Monty can’t get anywhere with the ketamine. Cora believes they’re looking at stuff coming in from down south or being smuggled from abroad. Monty says the Northern Region’s Procurement Service is responsible for the ketamine in the first place. Their records will show how much went to each hospital and clinic. Jay says he’ll get on it since he has a contact there. Davis catches up with Mariam at the hostel. She says she’d still be trapped where women are being killed for showing their hair in public without the forged passport. She’s from Iran. Mariam explains why she’s an enemy of the state now. She asks what he’s going to do. That night, Davis decides to sneak onto the ship.

He takes a picture of the lifeboats and one appears to be missing. He’s confronted by Axel Berg who tries to remove his forcibly. A woman arrives and says the officer understands he has no business on the ship. Their manifest director, Elsa Henrik (Melina Akerman Kvie), tells Davis she’s already informed the harbor master. Davis alleges someone put a terrified man on a small, inflatable lifeboat and pretended they were letting the sea decide his fate. Captain Nielsen believes the sea decides all of their fates. Later, Davis calls Cora to tell her about the missing lifeboat. She tells him to forget it and focus on the Galloway case. Nielsen and Berg drink to the departed. He says they will drink to the dead man. Berg argues they don’t even know if he’s dead yet. He is adamant that they gave the man a chance.

Nielsen says he saw the mother and an unborn child lost its father. Elsa sees them arguing through the window. She calls someone to say they might have a problem. Jay is approached by his brother, Nazir (Sani Mamood), and learns he’s trying to find out more about the importation and distribution of ketamine. Julie is asked to print off the distribution lists and email them too. Nazir offers to give him a tour tomorrow. He makes a call in private to someone at the drug operation. Nazir tells them about his brother asking about ketamine imports.

 

Granite Harbour Review

The opening episode of Granite Harbour’s second series was a decent starting point since it did enough to establish the story and the new characters. There’s a lot going on, but these stories will probably become intertwined at some point. There isn’t much new here since most of these stories have been done so many times before.

The biggest difference between Granite Harbour and everything else is the inclusion of Romario Simpson as DC Davis Lindo, but it feels like the character is being restrained here. The character had authentic charisma in the first series that could’ve been carried over to the second. There are good performances here, especially from some of the main cast.

On the other hand, some of the supporting cast is less than ideal. The episode was pretty much just setting everything up so it’s hard to judge the entire series based on that. As far as the story goes, Mariam and Hassan Faraki decided to flee from Iran so they ended up on a ship. Hassan may have been killed while Mariam was arrested for shoplifting once she was removed from the ship.

Lucas Galloway was possibly killed with a ketamine overdose and he’s linked to Grace McFadden who is already known to Cora MacMillan. Truthfully, there’s nothing new here. The stories are all the same, the casting ideas are similar, and the agendas are clear. These aspects of every modern series have become exhausting by this point.

At the very least, the series should lighten up a little and let DC Lindo be a little more charismatic. Otherwise, this was a decent episode that still leaves a lot to be desired. It scores a 5.5 out of 10. Recaps of Granite Harbour can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link.

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