As the episode begins, we see a woman in a dress tied to a cinder block sinking beneath the water. She begins struggling to remove the ropes and does, but she can’t make it to the surface quickly enough. After the intro, Dr. Daniel Harrow (Ioan Gruffudd) talks to his potential son James (Harrison Gilbertson) about music and his mom. Then, he asks James how he can be positive that he is indeed his son so James shows him a bunch of childhood photographs with his mother. They embrace before Daniel learns that his ex and James’s mother died from breast cancer. James looked after himself because he didn’t know that his father existed. He only found out after she died when he found a photograph in his mother’s things. He admits he didn’t search for Daniel because he was angry with him for not being there.
Daniel apologizes and says he doesn’t understand why she lied about him. James admits he followed Daniel and watched him carefully to make sure he wasn’t a bastard before finding out about his family and good life. James couldn’t find a place to fit into Daniel’s life so he wrote the goodbye note. Daniel quickly shifts the conversation to the dead boy at the shipyard but James claims he doesn’t know much about the boy or his name. James borrowed the boy’s car and found him dead after returning it to the shipyard. He panicked when he found the car being towed with his phone in it so he had to break into the police compound to retrieve it. James refers to himself as a software programmer but Daniel calls him a hacker and he doesn’t deny it.
As a result, he diverted the security cameras at the shipyard to his phone and it can prove he had nothing to do with the boy’s death. Daniel encourages his son to go to the police but James says he can’t because he made the passport and he could do 15 years for that. Their conversation is interrupted when Bryan Nichols (Damien Garvey) arrives and James quickly ducks into cover. Daniel works covertly to cover up evidence of his son’s presence before Bryan pitches the idea that the young man who broke into the police compound could be Daniel’s son. Nichols is convinced that the boy will reach out again and he thinks it would be best for both of them to tell him. He offers to help if the boy has done nothing wrong, but James motions to Daniel that he doesn’t want it. Daniel tells Bryan he isn’t sure if he even has a son so Bryan leaves a few seconds later.
Daniel looks around and finds that James has sneaked from the boat somehow. Next, Grace (Jolene Anderson) and Ben (Tim Ross) visit their old house together and go inside. Ben says they’ll need to divide their stuff and Grace needs to sign the application for divorce. Daniel meets with Bryan and jokes about his overweight visitor before turning his attention to the unidentified female who washed ashore. The woman has no shoes, is underweight, and Daniel suspects she wasn’t well. He checks her ankles and quickly finds rope burns on her skin, but her hands weren’t tied. Daniel finds a ring and confirms the woman was married before the husband arrives and causes a commotion. The woman is identified as Erin Young (Rumi Kikuchi) and Bryan says the husband just got back this morning from a conference at the Gold Coast.
He found the house empty and there was no sign of a break-in, but Bryan says there was something interesting. They go inside and find a dialysis machine. Erin was suffering from end-stage polycystic kidney disease for which there is no real treatment except for a transplant. Although it can be painful, Daniel can’t find any medication for pain and only low-dose analgesics. We learn that she had two kids and Daniel finds a picture of the jetty. They go down to the jetty in the picture and learn that the water is about four meters. A cinder block with a rope tied to it is pulled from that water so Bryan wonders if she wanted to end her life at one of her favorite spots. Daniel isn’t sure about that before the daughter Izzy (Michelle Lim Davidson) arrives and says her mother didn’t drown herself.
Dave’s son Nate (Charles Wu) arrives seconds later and confirms that Erin called him yesterday and said she wanted to see them. He learns about his mother’s death and says it makes sense but Izzy and Dave can’t understand that. Izzy doesn’t like that Erin called him because Nate treated her bad, but Nate says Erin treated him bad. Dave and Bryan have to interrupt and defuse the situation. Nate explains Erin called yesterday and said she wanted to talk to them today so Izzy believes that means she didn’t kill herself. Bryan consults with Harrow and Izzy and Dave were out of town while Nate claims he slept alone. Daniel approaches Dave and asks if his wife got any bad news from the transplant unit but he finds out that Erin wasn’t on the list since she thought she would beat it.
Next, Daniel joins Renae (Miriama Smith) and Edwina (Faustina Agolley) for Erin’s autopsy. Daniel tells them that her kidney disease did not kill her before turning their attention to the rope burns on Erin’s lower legs. They wonder if she threw herself in and Daniel checks her fingernails but they’ve been chewed down to the quick. He swabs her fingernails and believes the fingernails being chewed means she was stressed. Then, they find rope fibers around one fingernail and Daniel believes she undid the knot. They check Erin’s lungs and discover that they’ve been waterlogged so she drowned alive. They check her stomach and find partially digested capsules leading Daniel to say digestion would’ve stopped when her heart stopped. Erin likely took the Ramipril capsules shortly before she died.
Daniel explains Ramipril is an enzyme inhibitor that helps lower blood pressure and she took more than she should’ve. Then, Daniel orders Edwina to order a full toxicology test and get Erin’s older medical history. He wants to see if he can find any medication that wasn’t on the prescribed list so he visits the couple’s house again. When he arrives, he finds Nate arguing with an officer who won’t let him inside before Daniel asks why he’d want to go inside. Nate believes Erin never liked him and he isn’t sure why. Nate’s comments make Daniel believe he is hiding something but Nate isn’t willing to tell him yet. Daniel goes inside and checks the Ramipril bottle and finds that they’ve been mixed with other pills. He calls Edwina and orders her to check for opioids. Daniel calls Bryan while he is trying to get a statement from David to tell him about the oxymorphone tablets he found.
Daniel sits in her chair and says he believes someone brought them to her. He checks the chair carefully and finds a hidden compartment containing Erin’s will. David is asked about Erin’s will being changed and Bryan reveals she came from a substantial amount of money so David says he thinks the original will divide everything between him and his children. In the new will, Erin left everything to Nate and Nate took Erin to see the family solicitor not long ago. David acts like he didn’t know about Erin being on the painkillers before he is asked about Nate doing community service for dealing speed and oxy. Erin took a large dose of morphine before she drowned and Nate has a history of selling morphine. On top of that, he is the only beneficiary in Erin’s will. They can’t get in touch with Nate and David doesn’t know where he is either.
Bryan and Daniel discuss the new evidence outside of the interrogation room and Bryan makes it clear he suspects Nate. Daniel returns to the office and bothers Edwina until she accidentally swipes right on someone she knows and didn’t want to swipe right on. It seems the person in question is Bryan Nichols. Lyle (Darren Gilshenan) enters, looks at Bryan’s pictures, and realizes why Edwina swiped right on him. Bryan surprises them and tells Edwina he needs her but not Daniel. Harrow checks on Edwina seconds later and finds her dealing with the boy’s body from the shipyard. Daniel watches as the boy’s mother Mila Zoric (Diana Glenn) enters and looks at her son’s body. She cries for her son but stops when she looks in Daniel’s direction. Bryan tells Daniel about Max Filip Zoric and his mother after that. Since Mila runs a successful company that develops share-trading software, she has brought her in-house attorney with her.
Mila approaches and tells Daniel she would like to talk to his son. Daniel apologizes and says he thought Max was his son for a short time. He says he might have a son, but if he does he lost him a long time ago. When she leaves, Bryan warns Daniel that this isn’t going to go away. Then, Fern (Ella Newton) receives a call learning that her boss has decided to let her go. She enters and expects Callan (Hunter Page-Lochard) to be there, but only finds James. She throws stuff at him until he begins calling her by her name and she calms down. Fern complains about James letting them think he was dead so he tries to explain himself. James says he has known about Fern for years and his mom didn’t want anything to do with Daniel and claims she didn’t know his name. When James was 13, he started looking on the Internet and found Fern.
He says she was doing exceptionally well at school but completely disappeared and went off the grid so he thought he was in trouble. Fern confesses that she was but says she is good now. Now, James is in trouble. Callan enters and interrupts. He says he was handing out his resume before learning about James being Fern’s brother. Callan quickly learns about James’s exploits before James dumps a bunch of fake passports onto the table and says the pay is really good. Callan realizes it is bad though. Ben and Grace look through some of their items together and decide to drink wine. They discuss Grace’s career move and Ben doesn’t understand that decision. She claims he failed but Ben says she never told him how. She says she broke that boy and Ben says it broke him as well. Daniel finds James at Fern’s place before they discuss Fern and the car belonging to Daniel’s father.
Daniel reveals his father was absent and even more so when he was at home. Then, Daniel tells James about his encounter with Mila and James realizes Daniel doesn’t him about not knowing Max. He pleads with Daniel to get him the phone from the car so he can prove himself. James says he and Fern are renegades and they have to get that from somewhere. Plus, he has never asked Daniel for anything so he thinks he should help with him the phone situation. Daniel relents and says he’ll try to get the phone. He returns to his boat later that night and watches old videos of James’s mother. His answer to her question knocks something loose about Nate and his mother. In the morning, Bryan tells Daniel that Nate turned himself in last night and that doesn’t surprise Daniel in the least since he doesn’t think Nate killed his mother.
Nate is questioned and is quickly asked about the drugs. Daniel believes Nate didn’t want his mother to die because he was finally connected with Erin. Then, Nate says Erin asked him to drive her to the solicitor so he did. He goes on to say he wanted to be with her every moment before she died. He denies knowing why she wasn’t on the donation list. Daniel and Bryan argue about Nate after the interview concludes. Daniel says regret is a strong force before Bryan says he is going to track down Izzy. Daniel calls Edwina and asks about Erin’s old medical records which still haven’t arrived. He encourages her to get on the phone and start making a nuisance of herself to speed up the process. She gets them for him immediately after that. It sparks his interest when he learns she had a tonsillectomy in 1986 and asks if Exam Room 1 is free.
In the exam room, Daniel explains that Nate was born in 1996. Before Erin and her husband moved to Brisbane, Erin had a double tubal ligation or had her tubes tied so they aren’t sure how they had Izzy in 1999. Daniel checks and confirms that this woman’s fallopian tubes have never been touched so she isn’t Erin Young. Edwina says one person must’ve known and Daniel believes it too. Daniel drives to their house once again and looks around for David Young. He walks to the pool area and finds that a few tiles have been removed. Skeletal remains are found inside so Daniel calls Bryan who is busy interviewing the daughter. Daniel is attacked by someone and finds himself tied up when he awakes. David is busy tying Daniel to a cinder block likely the same way he did Erin. Daniel knows he has found the real Erin Young and he wants to know more, but David tells him he doesn’t need to know anything more.
David denies killing Nate’s mother before blaming Bron for it. Daniel realizes Bron is the mistress and David says he wanted to keep Nate, but Erin was mad and jealous. Erin was rich and Bron wasn’t so they decided to replace Erin to keep her money. And of course, that is why Erin wasn’t on the transplant list. Bron wanted to confess so Erin had to kill her. David works to push the cinder block closer to the water. Daniel says David gave Bron morphine so she could barely move when he weighed her down and put her into the water. Bron wanted to live and she almost did. David tosses the cinder block over before Nate arrives, attacks him, and pulls the block back up. He attacks his father again and unties Daniel’s feet. He says he heard it all and placed the rope around his dad’s throat. Daniel tries to talk Nate out of being like his father and murdering someone.
Eventually, he sets the block down and sobs. Before too long, police and Bryan arrive at the scene. Nate looks at his real mother’s bones while Bryan tells Daniel they’ll have to look at dealing charges for the oxy. Daniel calls him a poor lost body before asking Bryan about the phone he found in the Mercedes at the shipyard. The phone has been sent to cyber crimes and they’ll have to wait to see if they can open it. When asked why he is interested, Daniel says he doesn’t like loose ends. Daniel encounters James when he returns to the boat and tells him about his workplace incident and that he won’t be able to get the phone. James is sure they won’t be able to open the phone, but Daniel still won’t be able to get it. He believes only Max’s mother would be able to get it since it was found in her car and she can claim it belonged to her son.
James doesn’t like that idea because he made the false passport for Max and he won’t do anything for him. James says he has made it this far without Daniel so he’ll be fine without him. Later, the attorney tells Mila he spoke with his contact at police headquarters and the phone has gone to cybercrime, but Max’s phone was found in his apartment. Although there likely wasn’t anything useful on it, she still wants to see it. She looks through the phone and finds a picture of James and Max that interests her.
Harrow Review
Although the episode was slightly drawn-out, it wasn’t bad and it seems the writers haven’t run out of ideas regarding bizarre murders just yet. The case of Erin Young and her replacement Bron was very interesting and slightly emotional. It also seems that the cases almost always reflect Daniel’s current struggles with his family and whatnot.
I am not sure how the whole James situation is going to play out, but it seems it is getting more complex with each episode. James has been creating fake passports and ultimately sold one to Max Zoric whose mother Mila runs a powerful corporation. That corporation may be involved in shady tax dealings, but authorities haven’t been able to catch it yet.
Mila obtained her son’s phone and a picture of James sparked her interest. She might send her people after James in hopes of beating information out of him or she might try to steal the cellphone before Daniel can get to it. Who knows? I wish the show would focus on that a bit more but it is Harrow being Harrow.
The 3rd episode wasn’t bad. I’d give it a 7.5 out of 10. Previous recaps of Harrow are available on Reel Mockery.
Jay Skelton is a fan of all television shows and movies. He tries his best to keep up with the latest foreign television shows and movies. Jay loves skinny dipping in the dark too.
