The story begins with a flashback. Young Susan (Connie Kiss Mee) is running down a dirt road. Susan’s father, William Wycherley (David Hayman) is playing the organ while her mother, Patricia Wycherley (Felicity Montagu) ingests some pills. Susan Edwards (Olivia Colman) has her forehead pressed against a wall. Christopher Edwards (David Thewlis) gives her orders for the investigation. He encourages her to tell the truth. Susan and Christopher are put into the back of separate paddy wagons to be transported to jail.
Attorney Douglas Hylton (Dipo Ola) is scheduled to meet Susan tonight to discuss the case. During the call, Susan says she and Chris have gotten themselves into “a bit of a pickle.” Hylton arrives at the prison.
Susan gets up from her built-in bed. Within seconds, the lights in her cell come on. Chris is woken up by a knock on his cell door. He retrieves his breakfast tray through the door slot. He sits back down on his bed to eat his breakfast. Hylton returns to talk with Susan in her cell. Chris’s cell is just down the corridor from Susan’s. She questions why Hylton recommends withholding information from the police. She asks if he believes their statement. He is trying to protect her from getting confused during the interviews. The deadline for a trial or an extension is tonight. Without evidence, Chris and Susan will go free. She wants to relay his “no comment” recommendation to Chris but police do not allow suspects to share tactics. They agreed to tell their story to the police before being arrested. Hylton writes out her verbal statement.
Susan traveled from the Victoria Coach Station to Mansfield via the National Express one day before her parents died. She has a flashback of Chris waiting for her at the Victoria Coach Station.
DC Paul Wilkie (Samuel Anderson) and DC Emma Lancing (Kate O’Flynn) meet at the jail to interview Susan. She describes herself as being explicitly “wired like having “shit” in her pants. Susan and her attorney walk to the interview room. They stop what they are doing to stare at Susan as she passes.
Wilkie and Lancing wait in the interview for Susan. Chris mentally goes over their plans. As Hylton reads Susan’s statement to the detectives, a flashback of her on the National Express pops up. Susan claims her mother shot her father and she shot her mother. She describes her state of mind as “fragile.” Christopher was not present when Susan shot and killed her mother. She says “no comment” to Lancing’s question about the signature on the statement. Hylton interjects, acknowledging they are Susan’s. Hylton encourages her to not answer any more questions. She complies with “no comment.”
Lancing and Wilkie meet DCI Tony Collier (Daniel Rigby) after the interview. He updates them on the Edward’s financial activity and their friendship with Gerard Depardieu (Felicity Montagu).
Susan compliments the chef when her tray is picked up. She rants about the difficulty of making microwave scrambled eggs. In a flashback, Susan and Chris watch the Broadway performance, “The Last Metro”. They visit a local café for dinner. She panics when it is discovered she missed the last train. Chris invites her to stay at his place, with “no funny business.” She reluctantly agrees.
Chris interviews without a solicitor. He provides the detectives an account of the events that led up to the murders. He remained behind in London when Susan returned to Mansfield. He was not aware of her parent’s death until the following weekend. He tells detectives, he could have prevented the shootings if only he had accompanied Susan to Mansfield. They traveled to Mansfield via the National Express.
Lancing, DCI Collier, and other detectives watch the interview from a private location. Lancing says Chris is peddling the same “bullocks” as his “wifey.” Gerard places one of Susan’s celebrity pictures in front of his face and goofily says, “Dear Christophaire, it was a big mistake to tell your stepmuzzaire about ze”. Lancing orders him to “shut it.” DCI Collier jerks the celebrity picture out of Gernatard’s hand when he continues to goof off. He believes they may have enough evidence to convict Susan for manslaughter and Chris for interfering with the coroner’s duties. Lancing suggests “messing with their heads a bit.” She requests to conduct both interviews. DCI collier responds, “You’ve got big bollocks today, don’t you, Lancing.”
Lancing interviews Susan. She answers “no comment” until Lancing mentions Chris and a phone call. She asks Hylton if Chris is talking and if he knows his service is free. Lancing responds, “He’s chosen to be cooperative,” which makes her look “silly.” She scolds Hylton because he told her not to talk to the detectives.
Susan and Hylton are in her cell. She is upset about the interview. He providers her encouragement.
Lancing interviews Chris. He asks what happened to officers from previous interviews. She answers, “Something more important than this apparently, very rude if you ask me.” He has a flashback of a phone call from Susan who is upset. Her mother was drug and father abusive. When Susan arrives at the Victoria Coach Station, the following Tuesday, Chris is waiting on her. He explains Susan’s behavior as oddly quiet. She says her weekend was dreadful and asks for a drink. Visit the London Pub, where Chris orders a port and brandy for Susan. Lancing and Wilkie are at the London Pub in a flashback. He tells Lancing, Susan shouldn’t go to prison for suffering. William had a lot of power over her, so she couldn’t possibly be the killer.
The following Friday, Susan and Chris board the National Express to Mansfield from London. Lancing and Wilkie are present in a flashback, where Susan and Chris are aboard the coach. While they eat haddock and chips, Susan tells Chris her parents are upstairs. They didn’t go away. He cannot understand why they haven’t come down to greet him. Susan admits they are dead. Chris becomes more anxious when Lancing asks if the home had an odd smell. Her parents were chain smokers, which probably explains why he didn’t notice it.
As Lancing and Wilkie leave the interview room, Lancing pretends to shoot Wilkie who acts the part of a victim. DCI Collier yells for forensics Officer Sandra Winters (Nimisha Odedra). She discovered a bank account opened by Susan after her mother’s death. The account has Susan and her mother’s names on it. When DCI Collier walks away, he nastily scolds Sandra for not keeping up.
Sandra joins Wilkie and Lancing in the interview room with Susan and her solicitor. Lancing presents the bank statement to Susan who is asked to read the date, May 5, 1998. She can’t remember opening the bank account. Chris describes Susan as “economical” when he sees the bank account statement. Lancing calls Susan’s actions “obscene,” “mercenary” and “daft” She interrupts Chris when he describes it as “confusing”. She says, “Bang, bang, open a bank account.” He repeats the word, “mercenary” and later takes it back.
In a flashback, Susan is visiting Chris’s home, where his intoxicated mother is on the sofa. She gently kisses him on the lips before going to bed. They are having breakfast while his mother washes the dishes. Susan begins to feel anxious and decides it is time to leave. Chris walks Susan to her home. She refuses to permit him to meet her parents. She leaves him a short distance from the front door. They say goodbye and walk in opposite directions. Chris walks a short distance when he turns around to see her struggling with the front door. Her parents refuse to let her in.
Chris is pacing in his cell. Susan and her attorney are escorted out of her cell and into the interview room. She begins the interview with “no comment”. Lancing becomes a bit more forceful when Susan refuses to talk. Hylton reminds her, “This is what I mean by bait.” She continues to refuse to answer the questions until Lancing says Chris described her actions as “mercenary.” She doesn’t believe he said it. Lancing says it is on tape. She tells about her parent’s continuous arguments. On the night of the shootings, she had been drinking. She is woken by one or two bangs around 2am. She immediately assumes her father is dead. Her father is lying on the floor dead when she enters their bedroom. She hysterically waves the handgun at Susan. She picked the gun up from the bed. Susan reminds her she failed. Susan is shocked and distraught when her mother admits to knowing what her father did to her.
When Susan suggests calling Chris, her mother says he is no different than other men. He is just using her for sex. Susan is becoming angrier by the second. She says Susan’s life is miserable and which she was never born. Susan pulls the trigger and hits her mother in the chest twice, she slumps to the floor. Her father sexually abused her as a child. He molested her after school when her mom was at work. Lancing says the bullet holes are slightly similar and asks if Chris wasn’t involved. She says Chris was involved and did it to protect Susan. Susan responds, “Course he did, he always protects me.” Chris buried her parent’s bodies. Susan continues to talk against her solicitor’s advice.
In a flashback, Chris and Susan are on a park bench. Chris promises to keep her secret between the two of them. Snow continues to fall as the episode comes to an end.
Landscapers Review
Another great performance by two extraordinary performers – Olivia Colman and David Thewlis. As far as the other characters, there just does not seem to be a connection. The camerawork is flawless, as well as the editing and lighting. DCI Collier and DC Lancing are intolerable. Their cynical, cringeworthy dialogue is enough to make you scream. These two overbearing, arrogant characters and their dialogue take away from the show.
They did the show an injustice by giving DC Lancing so much airtime while her partner seems clueless about what is going on. Although there is still time to improve, my expectations are very low. Colman and Thewlis’s scenes deserve an 8, the other scenes do not earn a rating.
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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.
