Harrow Season 3 Episode 1 Recap

As the third season of Harrow begins, we see a man who has been stabbed to death under the bridge. After the intro, we join Dr. Daniel Harrow (Ioan Gruffudd) and Bryan Nichols (Damien Garvey) at the crime scene of Daniel’s supposed son. Bryan agrees to let Daniel look at the note when the fingerprint team has finished with it. They’re not sure why the boy was up on the boat or how he fell. The camera was switched off and Daniel finds that weird. Bryan reveals there was a car that was reported stolen nearby. It has been towed to the compound. When asked if he knew he had a son, Daniel admits it is complicated. Grace (Jolene Anderson) listens to everyone before Daniel receives the boy’s note. Daniel reads the note to Grace and we learn that his son wanted to see him but couldn’t find a way to do it.

The boy’s body is taken back to the morgue where Grace tells Daniel he can’t perform the autopsy and he tells her the same. She suggests she can as long as she isn’t supervised by Daniel. Dr. Lyle Fairley (Darren Gilshenan) arrives in an odd uniform and says he came straight from rehearsals. Lyle and Grace team up on Daniel and try to force him out of the PM before Daniel says Grace wouldn’t know because she doesn’t have children. Edwina (Faustina Agolley) interrupts and lets Daniel know that the Deputy Coroner is there to see him. Daniel meets with him and he wants to make sure Daniel knows why Lyle and Grace will conduct the PM. Daniel admits he knows and his suspension is immediately lifted, but he is ordered not to interfere with Lyle and Grace.

Daniel agrees and the post mortem begins immediately. Bryan meets with Daniel and says he can at least work. Bryan wants to know if Daniel can help him get in touch with his son’s mother. Daniel takes Bryan back to his boat and tells him that he met the boy’s mother in London when he was in his last year of post-grad. The mother worked part-time in a Tesco around the corner from the teaching hospital. Daniel explains that the mother’s name is Tanya. Daniel tells him about Tanya working the checkout and painting until midnight. He says their relationship really worked until he got a job offer under Jack Twine and Tanya came with him. She tried to find work while Daniel tried to prove himself by working 15 and 16 hour days. Tanya has no one including Daniel since he was too busy with work.

About three months in, Tanya said she was pregnant and going home alone. Daniel tries to stay in touch and sending money. He never knew whether she had a boy or girl. He tried to visit and find them but he was told to go back and live his own life. Daniel confesses he never had the courage to tell Steph and Fern (Ella Newton) that he had another child somewhere so he didn’t. Fern overhears and tells him that he should’ve before storming off angrily. Bryan borrows the address and Daniel goes after Fern. Daniel is forced to admit that his son is in the morgue. In the morning, Daniel returns to the morgue with drinks for Lyle and Grace. Lyle decides to leave and says Grace might walk Daniel through what they found during the PM. They visit the boy’s body and Daniel learns there was an acute subdural hematoma and intrusion into the central sulcus by skull fragments.

Grace goes on to say there was a total break between his C3 and C4 vertebra. The boy likely died quickly. There are no signs of a struggle and no explanation as to why the boy fell. Daniel admits he knew very little about his son. After that, Daniel joins Bryan at the new crime scene and finds that rat that was with the man caged. A jogger’s dog went nuts and chased the rat down to the corpse of Peter Craig Morrow. The man has been homeless for a long time and usually stayed in the opposite direction. The rat was the man’s pet. He was stabbed multiple times and the knife was found nearby, but there are no witnesses. It wasn’t a robbery since the man had little money and none of it was stolen. Daniel looks around and spots another homeless man. When he looks around, the man is gone.

Bryan wants to have the rat destroyed. Daniel returns to the morgue and argues Edwina until he decides to keep the rat in his office. They discuss Peter Morrow (Warwick Comber) and Daniel learns that his daughter Emily (Jessica Clarke) is on her way. She identifies her father moments later. Daniel tells Emily that she can see him after they’ve finished with him. She asks about the pet rat Maestro and says they were inseparable. Emily is asked about her relationship with her father and his personality. She admits she had no idea why her father did any of the things he did. She thought her dad was okay until he changed a few years ago.

He was still sweet, but he thought Emily was an impostor. He was the same with his friends including Di. Emily tells them more about Di Baverstock (Anni Finsterer) who is in the newspaper with Peter. He wasn’t drunk or ill and didn’t like being on the streets so she can’t understand why he was homeless. Daniel promises her that they’ll find out who did it. When Emily leaves, Bryan reminds Daniel it isn’t his place to promise to find a kill and Daniel admits it is Bryan’s responsibility. Bryan says he didn’t promise because they might not find the killer. Next, Grace walks in as Edwina and Daniel perform the post-mortem on the homeless man. She asks to join them and Daniel agrees to let her. They learn that Peter tried to take care of himself, but there are abrasions that go distinctly side to side on his face.

It looks like he was trying to turn his head when he was being held down by someone heavy or strong. He also has a badly healed scar on his head. They check the CT and find lesions on the cerebral cortex. Daniel believes that might’ve changed his personality. Then, they focus on the knife and Daniel says the stab wounds are consistent with an almost east to west alignment. There is evidence that someone held Peter down while the attacker down the knife into him over and over again. Although Peter was a sweet man who everyone loved, it looks like someone took their hatred and anger out on him. Edwina realizes he was stabbed eight times with another stab wound being on the front of the man’s body.

It looks like the victim and attacker were on their feet when Peter was stabbed in the chest. There is only a shallow penetration into the soft tissue. This leads Daniel to believe it is almost like two different people. Daniel and Grace return to the crime scene and Daniel finds a trail of blood. The droplets are before he was pinned down so he likely stumbled around after being stabbed in the chest. They agree it sounds like two different attackers so they agree to swab the blood on the ground. Daniel spots the homeless man in the distance again, but he tries to get away. Daniel stops the man and tells him he wants to find out who killed Peter. They speak under the bridge and Daniel asks the man about carrying something to defend himself when sleeping rough.

Peter carried a knife and the man isn’t sure why Peter was so far away from his corner. Daniel asks him about Di but the man says Di didn’t have anything to do with Peter’s death. He says they need to stop accusing them and start helping them because they’re not the problem. He pleads with Daniel to leave Di alone before rushing away. Daniel returns to Bryan and tells him about that conversation. Daniel is shown security footage about 200 meters from where Peter was killed. Di is shown running away in fear. Daniel wonders if she was only responsible for the light jab to Peter’s check. He doesn’t think Di killer her friend, but Bryan believes it might’ve been a lovers’ quarrel. They argue until Bryan admits he has issued a POI for Di.

On his way out, Daniel asks Bryan about Tanya from the UK. Bryan says it is going to take a bit of time. The vehicle found near the boy’s body was a company vehicle that belonged to a stockbroking firm in the city. The vehicle had a lot of prints, including some that matched Daniel’s son. Daniel leaves and visits the stockyard where his son was found. He tries to retrace his son’s moves on the night of his death. Later that night, Daniel tries to call Fern, but she doesn’t answer. Daniel tries to visit his daughter and only runs into Callan Prowd (Hunter Page-Lochard). He tells Daniel that Steph is in Toowoomba for a job interview and she is past thinking about moving. Fern is trying out for a new cleaning firm.

She isn’t happy with Daniel who admits it is a long story. They discuss Daniel’s son and Callan knows he can’t be okay with everything that has happened. Callan reveals he had a boy too when he was 17 and his girlfriend was 16. The boy made it to 15 weeks and then there was no heartbeat. Callan admits he should’ve been there for her but wasn’t because he was 17. Before the conversation ends, Daniel asks Callan to ask Fern to call him. He says he’ll ask, but a dead brother is a lot to talk about. Daniel returns to his office and finds that Edwina has gotten food for the rat so he feeds it right away. Then, he uses his computer to try to research his son’s case. He searches for Tanya Reed in the UK but doesn’t find much. He turns to the rat and talks to it about missing its owner.

Then, he notices it is eating something. He joins Edwina who asks about rat-bite fever. Daniel finds blood on the rat and wonders if it is Peter’s. They test the blood and find out that it is O positive so it doesn’t belong to Peter Morrow. Daniel goes to the hospital and tries to find out if Di has rat-bite fever. He finds there was a 16-year-old boy with flu symptoms with a male friend who revealed he had been bitten by something. They left before treatment but they got the boy’s details. Daniel visits the boy and hears the family fighting inside. He asks for Jordy (Alex Cusack) and learns that his mother is likely being abused by her boyfriend. Daniel learns that the boy has been sick. Daniel is given the chance to speak to the boy in private and tells him what he does.

Daniel tells Jordy that his rat bite is infected and he needs to go back to the hospital. Jordy denies it, but Daniel says he knows what he did. He accuses him of killing Peter Morrow who was bleeding when he found him. Daniel believes Jordy had a bad day and decided to hassle Peter. In return, Peter provoked him. Jordy lost it and killed Peter. He understands that Jordy’s stepfather hits him and humiliates him. He can’t fight back so he took his frustration out on the homeless man. Jordy admits the rat was just there and it bit him. Jordy says Peter shouldn’t have waved the knife but Daniel says Jordy should’ve helped Peter. Then, Daniel says he called the police but wanted Jordy to have enough time to explain things to his family before he is arrested.

Daniel tells Bryan about the murder while Jordy is hauled away by police officers. Daniel admits Jordy wanted to hurt his stepfather, but the human trait means we usually punch down during our worst moments. Di is off the hook but she doesn’t know it yet. Daniel is led to Di so he can tell her about it moments later. Peter got worse until he believed Maestro had been switched too. He nearly killed Maestro so Di had to save the rat. She ended up stabbing him in the chest while trying to save the rat. Daniel returns to the morgue and talks to Emily about her father and his death. Daniel says he spoke to Di and learns that Peter had a terrible childhood and was locked in his bedroom every night. He waited for his stepfather to finish with his mother and come in. Peter was embarrassed that he couldn’t get over it so he likely never told Emily.

Later, Daniel learns that Edwina had decided to take Maestro with her. He finds a woman using his coffee mug. Lyle returns and wonders what Daniel is doing to his office. After that, the Deputy Coroner tells everyone that they’ve been searching for someone to replace Maxine Pavich. Fairly isn’t happy that the new person isn’t a pathologist. Daniel tries to keep him quiet until Fairley learns that new head Renae Warrington (Miriama Smith) is listening right behind him. She apologizes to Lyle and admits she needs him to take on more duties. They think Grace can be released from her probationary period and Lyle will be supervising Dr. Harrow. Daniel doesn’t understand that and questions Renae’s decision. She says Daniel is eligible for early retirement. Lyle will supervise his actions and she will decide whether or not he will be given that retirement package.

She knows Maxine used to extend Daniel a lot of latitude and she says it ends now. She wants Daniel to know that she won’t tolerate any more secrets. Grace goes to the cold storage and finds Daniel checking on his son. He apologizes for being a jerk. She tells him that there were no drugs or alcohol in his system. Both agree that the note read like a suicide note. Daniel says everything comes back to the morgue. It is where his father came and where he met his mentor, whose name was Jack like his son’s. Grace offers to cook for Daniel tonight, but he believes he’d be better off alone. Later that night, Daniel drinks and gets a call from Mike from Brisbane Medical Laboratories who is calling for Lyle. Daniel gets Mike to email it to Lyle so he can check it from Lyle’s account.

Daniel checks the information and compares his DNA profile with Jack’s. Surprisingly, no match is found. When he leaves, a boy who calls himself James asks if the DNA results came in. He tells Daniel he is his son before asking about the DNA results again. James asks Daniel to keep the DNA results secret as long as he can because there are people after him. James is worried they’ll come after him if they know he is alive. He runs off from Daniel before the episode ends.

 

Harrow Review

I’ve stuck with two seasons of Harrow so far. Although it isn’t my favorite show, I’ll say that it has gotten better with each subsequent episode. Compared to everything else I’ve been watching recently, this episode was very good. It was entertaining and had just enough twists to keep me locked in from start to finish.

I appreciate that the episode focused a bit more on Daniel and his supposed dead son. The show is better when it focuses on the main storyline and less on each episode’s case. It is hard to complain about any of the acting since everyone seems to do well in their respective roles.

I enjoyed the episode and can’t wait to see where the season goes from here. I liked the case of the homeless man, Peter Morrow, as well as Daniel’s investigation into his son’s death. I’d give the episode 7.5 out of 10. Previous recaps of Harrow are available on Reel Mockery. Please overlook any errors above. It took me a few hours to recap this episode extensively and I need to get back to work.