As the second episode of Karen Pirie begins, Karen (Lauren Lyle) wakes up and begins driving to work. Bel Richmond (Rakhee Thakrar) questions why it took so long to start an investigation on her podcast. Once she reaches the office, Karen complains to Simon Lees (Steven John Shepherd) that her suspect is now dead. She doesn’t believe it was an accident since a witness’s statement and the fact Ziggy were killed right next to the graveyard where Rosie is buried. She isn’t happy to learn that DS Phil Parhatka (Zach Wyatt) is put on the case. Ziggy’s husband is there so Karen agrees to sit on the interview with Phil. Before it begins, Karen calls River Wilde (Emer Kenny) to tell her about Phil being on the case. River tells her to solve the case and avoid having sex with Phil again. Phil promises it isn’t an elaborate way to get her to talk to him, but she says he doesn’t need that since he has her number.

They say hello to Paul (Gary Lamont) who learns that an eyewitness said the driver may have intentionally swerved towards Ziggy. Paul only remembers Ziggy saying that what happened to Rosie was awful and it was the worst night of his life. He said he thought about her every day since too. He knows that they went to a party, but he doesn’t know about Ziggy inviting Rosie. After showing him the picture of Ziggy and Rosie together, Karen admits they think someone could’ve killed Ziggy for revenge. Paul suggests the police, press, and podcast have been telling the wrong story for years. He begins telling them what Rosie’s brothers did to Ziggy. In a flashback, Izzy hears someone outside the bottle dungeon so he begins yelling for help. Colin Duff (Daniel Portman) tells him to stay quiet. He lowers down a piece of rope and tells Ziggy to put it around him if he wants to get out. Once they got him out of the hole, they remind Ziggy that he did him a big favor.

He is told not to mention this to anyone or they’ll kill him. After the interview ends, Phil tries to smooth things over with  Karen because he likes her. Karen complains about him giving her the cold shoulder and talking about her with the boys upstairs. She says they’re not going to talk about it because they’re going to work. Karen has a new puppy and doesn’t want him seeing them fighting. They catch up with Jason Murray (Chris Jenks) and begin discussing the Duff brothers. If Ziggy was killed for revenge, they would be likely suspects. Jason says he has been looking at old pictures of the Lammas Bar. There is another exit around back. Iona left Colin in the pub at 2:30 AM. CCTV shows he left through the front at four, but he could’ve left and came back at any point through the rear. Jason believes Rosie was scared of her brothers. He is asked to check with the girl that Brian with home with.

Karen and Phil visit Brian and Colin to ask where they were yesterday around eight. Brian claims he was here working while Colin was at The Red Lion. Phil tells them that he is investigating the murder of Ziggy. Karen asks about them throwing Ziggy down the bottle dungeon. Brian says Colin came and told him what he did so they pulled Ziggy out. In a flashback, they talk about what they did and whether they should’ve let Ziggy down there to rot. In the present, Colin says he doesn’t know how to handle the grief. He wants to do something to make Ziggy admit to what he did. He believes it is a tragedy that they’ll never be able to get a confession from Ziggy now that he is dead, but it isn’t their fault. Karen reminds Colin that his alibi for the time of Rosie’s murder isn’t solid. Colin asks why he’d try to get a confession out of that kid if he had done it.

He would never hurt Rosie. They were broken when she died and that is why he went after Ziggy back then. In a flashback, Janie finds Colin trying in his room. DI Barney MacLennan (Gilly Gilchrist) asks Janice to look through her diary. She finds something saying “cliff path 9 PM” so they wonder if they was going to meet someone out there. Her diary stops in June. On one page, Rosie has written that she hates him and to leave her alone. Jimmy Lawson (Kevin Mains) interrupts to tell Barney that he has been looking at similar assaults and murders. He asks Barney if he remembers the incident in Inverurie. Minnie Maccoll was stabbed and left in a cemetery too. She had a similar wound and both were Pictish sites. In the present, Karen says Murray found a fault in Colin’s alibi. She tells Jimmy (Stuart Bowman) that she can’t understand why he’d kill his sister like that though. She can’t understand why anyone would kill her like that.

Karen knows about a similar murder in Inverurie. Jimmy explains that her boyfriend did it and he was nowhere near Fife on the night Rosie died. Since that murder was in the press a lot, Karen wonders if the killer cut Rosie like that and placed her near the cathedral to try to place the murder on someone else. Jimmy argues that the boys were impulsive so he isn’t sure they could come up with a story like that. He could believe that the students did it though. Karen returns to Jason to tell him that the Duff brothers are a dead end. Phil says they didn’t kill Ziggy either. Multiple witnesses saw Brian working and security cameras proved that Colin was in the pub. Evidence from Ziggy’s phone shows that he met with Alex and Tom at Alex’s house yesterday. After Ziggy left, Weird called him over and over again. Phil also talked to the university and found out that he hasn’t turned up today.

Tom Mackie checks his voicemail. He listens to Phil trying to get in touch with him again. Karen goes to the pub to speak to Iona who tells her about Rosie. On that night, Rosie seemed happy because she was seeing someone. Despite what was in the diary, Rosie hasn’t split with the person she had been seeing. Iona is sure that she was meeting someone, but Rosie never told her who it was. When shown pictures of various people, Iona picks out Alex, Ziggy, and Tom. She knows that they found Rosie. Iona had served Tom a lot. Rosie tried to push him off on her because he was intense. Tom could’ve been the person Rosie was writing about. In a flashback, Ziggy hangs out with Alex and Tom who mocks him. Ziggy tells Alex he hates when he does that before describing him as a screaming madman. Tom returns with a car and reveals that Professor Batt gave him another back mark so he stole his keys. They eventually agree to go with him.

In the present, Tom goes to Alex’s house in hopes of talking to him. Alex gets a text message from him. Karen and Jason begin going through the evidence against Tom. The car had a long, dark hair on the passenger seat. In a flashback, Tom and Alex worry whether Ziggy has managed to find and move the car. They’re surprised when the police arrive to speak to Tom. Karen says the keys were still in the ignition. The steering wheel and gear stick were covered in his fingerprints. Since the hair didn’t have a root, they were unable to get a DNA profile from it. They might be able to do it now. They watch a video of Tom’s interview with the police. Since he has been caught in a lie, he changes his story. Tom claims the guy likes him so he didn’t steal the car and he didn’t drive it anywhere besides the party. He tried to drive it home, but he got out and walked because he was over the limit.

Barney asks him about the hair while suggesting it could’ve been Rosie’s hair. Tom claims it was Dorothy’s hair. Barney admits they have spoken to her. Tom says he drove Dorothy home. He tried to go back to the party, but he couldn’t see straight. Instead, he got out and walked. Jason thinks they need to find Dorothy to see if she still sticks by her story. Karen says they need to test the hair so Jason will have to visit the evidence warehouse. He calls the place creepy. In the past, Barney and Jimmy talk about the hair and how they can’t collect anything from it. Barney complains that there isn’t a single piece of physical evidence to tie them to the murder. Jason goes to the evidence warehouse and learns there are 11 boxes of evidence for Rosie’s case. Phil calls Karen to say they think they got the car that hit Ziggy on CCTV, but the plates are covered with mud. He reveals it is a silver Corsa. Jason calls her to say there are only 10 boxes although they got the hair.

The box containing her clothes has gone missing. Karen yells at him to find the box before hanging up. Later, Karen and River talk about the three men in Rosie’s life that they don’t know. They include the one pestering her, the one she was seeing, and her baby’s father. River confirms she tested Rob or the What’s My Heritage guy. Karen owes the podcast lady because Rob listens, loves it, and wants to help. She will be able to run Rosie’s DNA through the database though. Jason doesn’t have any luck finding Rosie’s clothes. The worker admits that stuff never goes missing here. While he is encouraged to keep looking, Karen meets with Rob. They go through the formalities as Karen promises not to implicate Rob or the site in any way. Tom sits alone and reads social media posts calling them homicidal deviants. He tries to call Alex who is with his wife and their new baby. He ignores the call. She checks on him in the past as well. He worries he’ll be questioned next since Tom is being questioned now.

Alex is asked if he got them into anything since they both know he is a liability. Tom interrupts when he returns. Rob asks Karen if the name Galloway makes sense. He explains that there is a match in the database to a child who was born on August 16, 1993. There is nothing on the father’s side, but the girl’s name is Grace. Karen goes to the warehouse where she finds Jason taking a break on the ground. He admits he hasn’t found anything Kirstie said that all old evidence was centralized here when the Scottish Police Service was formed. Before then, all the stations stored their own evidence. They agree that this cannot get out because the podcast lady will get them good. Instead, they have Weird’s clothes. As for Karen, she confesses that she hasn’t been able to find Dorothy who could’ve changed her name or moved away. She thinks she’ll meet the daughter and tell the bosses later. The tricky thing is that she might not know that her mother is dead.

Jason finds two cardigans in Tom’s box. He is surprised to learn that it belonged to Rosie. Karen immediately says she wants to send them for all tests. When Tom returns home, he believes someone is in his house. They’ve managed to escape the house though. Karen meets with Grace who says her mom died last year and her dad is in a care home. Grace knows about her mother because she found out last year. She felt alone after her mom died because she isn’t close with her dad. Karen insists she really wants to get justice and she can keep her updated. Grace didn’t find anything about her birth father. She asks if she thinks her father might’ve killed her mother, but Karen doesn’t know. She’d like to take a DNA sample from Grace and run it through the system to see if they can find her father. Grace eventually agrees to come into the station so they can take a sample from her.

Karen is called into Jimmy’s office so she can listen to a recording of Colin complaining about them opening a case into him. He suggests they should be looking at the people they know were involved. Simon and Jimmy are upset because the recording is playing on the podcast. When she tells them about finding the daughter, they remind her that she didn’t get approval from Child Services. They tell them how she managed to track down the daughter and how she signed a waiver saying they wouldn’t use their data evidentially. Simon accuses her of sabotaging the case. He suggests that Pirie could’ve ruined the girl’s life. Jimmy agrees because she shouldn’t have gone against their orders although he understands why she did. He knows it is her first murder case and she is learning the ropes so he asks Karen to run everything by them from now on. She promises it won’t happen again. When she leaves, she asks Mint what her nickname was.

He eventually tells her that they were calling her Ticker because she ticked a box. Dorothy Campbell calls her and interrupts her anger. When they meet, Dorothy admits she has been married three times and that is why it was so difficult to find her. She has been listening to the podcast and it has made her look at things differently. She told the police she was with Weird all night. In a flashback, she gets high with Tom who ends up calling her Rosie. As they drive to meet a dealer, Dorothy stands up through the window above her. She explains that Tom wanted to get some acid and go to the cathedral. The dealer was a bloke in a car park on the other side of town. When Tom got there, he realized that he didn’t have any money. When she refused to pay, he got mad and she got out of the car around three. Dorothy never told the police because she was scared of her religious parents.

She last saw Tom in a car park over in Brownhills. That was around three, but she told the police that she was with him until 3:30 or 4:00. Karen suggests he was alone in St. Andrews for possibly an hour or so around the time Rosie was killed. They agree that Dorothy should’ve said something much sooner. Moments later, Phil and Karen sit down with Alex to talk to him about Tom. Alex says his mental health was never good, but it has taken a term for the worse recently. They met and talked about how hard it’d be because of all the attention this would bring them. When Alex is shown the picture, he admits Rosie could’ve been at the party to see Weird. Karen tells him what Dorothy said before asking when he last saw Weird that night. He remembers seeing Weird outside the party and having to help him walk home. He thinks Tom wanted to walk through the cathedral. Karen suggests Tom has fooled Alex for all these years too.

She wonders if Ziggy knew and that is why he was killed. Alex saw him have a bad trip and admits that he got violent once or twice. He goes on to say that Tom got paranoid and started seeing things that weren’t there. When Karen gets back to the office, she learns that the hair belonged to Rosie. Rosie was with Weird in the car that night. Phil interrupts to say Weird called the Glasgow police to report a break-in. Karen says they should follow up with him. Rosie’s father meets with Barney at the pub. Archie believes that they’re going to solve it. Barney says they have a witness now. Karen and Phil visit Tom who lets them inside. He thought someone was there and someone might’ve been following him. Tom claims he was followed from the university by a medium-sized, black vehicle that might’ve been a Peugeot. Three nights ago, Tom says he was here alone. He knows that was the night of Ziggy’s accident and he was here when that happened.

He denies having anything to do with his friend’s death before learning that they’re investigating Rosie’s death. Tom doesn’t want to talk about Rosie because it ruined his life once and he doesn’t want to let it ruin him again. Tom is harassed by people at the school because they think he might be involved. He is forced to take time away from the school. In the present, Tom tells Karen that he isn’t going to say anything. Karen tells him to come down to the station tomorrow so they can question him under caution. Tom tells them to get out. Jason looks at social media posts and learns that people have uncovered the identities of the suspects. Since their names have been out there for days, Ziggy’s killer could’ve been anyone. Karen asks him to send it to her so she can shut it down. She screams for Phil to get in the car. They visit Bel who makes fun of Jason for being stupid.

Karen complains about her listeners revealing their identities online, but Bel says she doesn’t control the internet. They tell her about Ziggy’s death and insist she has to keep their names secret. Phil wants her to issue an update to remind listeners to never identify suspects online. Karen asks her to see if she can find eyewitnesses from the early hours of June 27. Once they finish talking to Bel, Karen kisses Phil. In a flashback, Tom gets stoned at a pub. He eventually runs into Dorothy who calls him a mess. He wants to make sure she told the police she was with him all night. He eventually gets beat up and kicked out of the pub. He continues hanging out and screaming. Jimmy tells Barney that a boy is threatening to throw himself off the castle and it might be Weird. When he goes down there to stop him, Tom accuses them of pushing him there. Tom ends up falling into water. In the present, he begins crying.

He thinks someone is in his house so he calls the police. He locks his gate, closes all of his windows, and locks the door. Karen talks to Jason on the phone to tell him that Tom would’ve given them anything useful although he is rattled now. She is confident that he’ll talk to them once they get the evidence in front of him. Karen believes he tried to kill himself before in hopes of escaping the guilt. They can give him a better way out now and a way to finally come clean. At home, Tom drinks and takes pills. In a flashback, Jimmy jumps into the water to save Tom after he fell in. They manage to save him. In the present, Tom continues taking more pills while drinking. He claims he wasn’t trying to harm himself at the cliff’s edge. Jimmy reveals his boss is dead because of him. Tom imagines Barney and Rosie in his house with the latter carrying a hammer. Grace asks him to tell the truth before he begins seizing on the ground.

 

Karen Pirie Review

The second episode of Karen Pirie was slightly better than the first, but there weren’t enough improvements to make a big difference. Some of the performances are great since the cast is respectable. Again, the story feels like a copy and paste from many shows prior to this one so there isn’t much that stands out.

While some of the characters are good, the biggest issue of all could be the title character Karen Pirie. It isn’t necessarily the acting, but the character is hard to like. They’re constantly making Karen do things that just make her annoying and appear that she isn’t capable of doing the job. For instance, she had to scream obnoxiously four or five times during this episode in scenes that made the character seem immature.

On the plus side, Jason Murray is the far more likable character of the two so he is going to need more screen time or Karen will need to be toned down a bit. The first name fits her perfectly though considering her frequent outbursts. The pace is too slow with overused flashbacks slowing the progress even more.

The Chelsea Detective was more enjoyable than Karen Pirie although neither could be considered a homerun. It is a missed opportunity to cover a series of proven novels. The episode scores a 5 out of 10. Recaps of Karen Pirie can be found on Reel Mockery here. Visitors can learn how to support us and our work by following this link.