The Rule of Three – As this episode of McDonald & Dodds begins, DS Dodds (Jason Watkins) and DCI Lauren McDonald (Tala Gouveia) question a group at the celebration for Mr. Coleman and Miss Green’s engagement. Cal Baker (Dipo Ola) proposed a photo of the happy couple. When Miss Green went into her bedroom to freshen up, she experienced an anaphylactic shock because of a nut allergy. Her EpiPen, which she always kept in her bag, wasn’t there. Dodds explains someone poisoned her by adding nut oil to her lipstick. Lola Baker (Pixie Lott) immediately blames Brad (Daniel Lapaine). McDonald says it wasn’t Brad because it was Lola. Navis McLintock (John Gordon Sinclair) was outside and saw Lola mess with the lipstick.

On her way out, Lola says she wants to see her daughter, Erin. DS Dodds straightens the number plate outside. At the station, Chief Supt Mary Ormond (Claire Skinner) thanks everyone for their hard work on the Susie Green inquiry. After DC Samuel Goldie (Charlie Jones) informs them a body has been found, Dodds and McDonald travel to the scene where they learn the woman’s name is Anne Hegarty. DC Lee (Bhavik Pankhania) says she moved in last week. Anne let someone inside before she was shot in the face with a small caliber weapon. They believe she’s been dead for at least 24 hours. Dodds picks up a small item with the number three from the floor. At the station, the team talks about the case and the possibility that the time of death is 6 a.m. on Sunday.

No one realized the victim had even moved into the flat. They identify the woman as Anne Holgate who was reported missing 38 years ago. Anne vanished during a visit to the hold Holyrod Church in Bradford-on-Avon. Anne was 15 with her twin brother Mark who was the only witness to her disappearance. Later, the mother killed herself and the father died due to alcohol. They visit Mark Holgate (Toby Stephens) and Lucy Holgate (Lydia Leonard) to tell him about his sister’s death. Mark claims he was at home with his wife when his sister died. Lucy reveals their daughter went to India on a walk for charity. They ask about cameras. Lucy follows the detectives out to tell them what happened really damaged Mark. She is adamant that he needs answers. The camera footage seems to confirm they were home together at 6 a.m. on Sunday.

Ballistics evidence shows the gun is a Makarov 9x18mm, but they don’t match anything in the database. It’s a Russian military issued weapon. Chief Supt Ormond interrupts to ask Dodds and Michael in private whether Mark killed his sister. McDonald says no, but they’re not ruling out a professional killing. Ormond gives them the OCG Task Force Intelligence file. Over her two years with the unit, Mark Holgate was a level one target. He was allegedly involved in people trafficking and prostitution. Holgate launders the profits, but keeps himself insulated. He married the daughter of a GP and a lecturer. Mark went to university where he did an MBA before assuming the life of an average wealthy fund manager. Ormond explains more about his criminal activities. Today, he is allegedly involved in large scale cross border criminal enterprises.

Ormond says they can’t rule out that Mark had his sister shot. She wants them to use this to get evidence against Mark. Meanwhile, Mark tells Lucy they need to go see the girls now. McDonald and Dodds discuss that later. She complains that her boyfriend is not answering her texts. Then, they speak to Mark about the weapon used to shoot and kill his sister. Mark and Lucy are flying to India tomorrow. Lucy says they could postpone it, but Mark is adamant that they won’t. As they leave, Dodds is more worried about the number three. McDonald says CPS just reached out about the Susie Green case. She complains that Dodds didn’t get Nevis to sign the front of his statement. She leaves him stranded after telling him to go fix it. DC Lee and DS Dodds visit Nevis to read his statement to him and get his signature.

While they’re there, they find a piece of cloth that puzzles Dodds. Lauren McDonald speaks to Mary Ormond about Mark wanting to travel to India. McDonald thinks they can use Lucy to keep Mark there. She goes to Lucy to suggest taking Mark back to the church where Anne disappeared to try to unlock something. Lucy agrees to speak to him. McDonald still can’t get in touch with her boyfriend. Later, Dodds tells her that he found a piece of a white dress that was torn off in Nevis’s van. The dress was found in Anne’s flat. It matches. They also find Susie Green’s EpiPen in the dress pocket. They wonder if Anne Holgate killed Susie Green. Lucy pitches the idea to Mark who says it’s not going to happen. Nevis is interviewed at the police station. McDonald shows him a picture of a white dress in the back of his van.

Dodds reminds him he said he saw Lola Baker near Susie Green’s handbag while wearing a white dress. Nevis says he saw someone who looked like her. He remembers going into a shop to get paracetamol for some woman. Nevis claims she was wearing a white dress, but she was gone when he returned. Later, Dodds suggests Anne used Nevis’s van to get in and out of Susie’s house. He goes through everything someone would need to know to kill Susie and frame Lola. Dodds wonders how Mark would’ve known all of that. When asked why Mark would want to kill her, Ormond says Susie Green was a fearless investigative journalist. Dodds and McDonald visit Susie’s house to try to find out who she was investigating. While they’re there, Lola returns. She says she’s going to sue and she’s there to organize her mother’s funeral.

Lola talks about Susie who she describes as an amazing person. McDonald breaks the news that her husband’s business is going under. When she’s asked where her husband was on Sunday morning, Lola admits she doesn’t know since he didn’t come home until after eight. McDonald questions Cal who claims not to know anything about Anne Holgate. McDonald says Anne killed his mother-in-law. Cal denies doing anything wrong. Dodds speaks to Brad Coleman who claims he went straight home alone. He tells Brad about Anne Holgate who murdered his fiancé. Brad admits he has a history, but he denies being responsible for two murders. Later, McDonald tells Dodds that she’s tracked her boyfriend to London. At the station, Ormond tells them Mark has agreed to an interview at the church.

McDonald tells Dodds what she did and how she thinks Mark might be abusive. Dodds is tasked with looking through Anne Holgate’s disappearance files. Then, they meet Mark who tells them about the day Anne disappeared. He tagged alone and Anne told him to look at the Six Deadly Sins. Dodds reminds him it’s Seven. Mark says he looked and Anne was gone when he turned back. Dodds finds out that there are only six deadly sins there. Mark doesn’t know how his sister knew about it since she hadn’t been there before. Dodds wonders if Anne staged her disappearance. Mark thought she’d returned to the train so he didn’t report her disappearance immediately. Dodds begins traveling the only other route if she didn’t go to the train station. McDonald asks Mark about Susie Green who was murdered.

Mark claims not to know anything about that. McDonald catches up with Dodd who talks about the old barges. They discuss the fact that the cops were three hours behind because of the reporting delay. At the station, Samuel says he thinks he has the boat Anne left on. Three hours before the police were informed, a barge called the Walrus went through the East Lock. The Walrus is still moored in Reading. The registered owner of the Walrus was Joe Hegarty who died in 2014. McDonald suggests Anne disappeared with Joe and took his surname. She heads to Reading with Dodds. McDonald says she got in touch with her boyfriend, but she doesn’t understand why he’d just take off like that. Then, they see The Walrus nearby. They’re approached by a young boy who says no one uses the boat anymore.

Luke Hegarty (Rico Canadinhas) seems interested when he learns Anne was killed. He looks at her body. Luke confirms Susie came to the boat last week on the day his mom left. Mark learns he has a 15-year-old nephew who is all alone now. McDonald asks if he wants to meet his nephew and break the news to him. Dodds asks him about Susie being in contact with Anne. Mark tells the detectives he knows they’re using his sister’s murder to worm their way into his life. He sends his wife upstairs. Then, he blames Ormond for targeting him. Outside, Dodds admits their position is compromised if it’s personal between Mark and Ormond. When McDonald confronts Ormond, she admits it is personal. She explains that her son, Philip, died from ecstasy linked to Mark. That’s why she joined the choir.

Luke is ready to be interviewed. He tells them how his mom and dad lived on the Walrus. His mom left him on the boat alone after the woman in the photo showed up. She told him it wouldn’t take long. Luke believes Mark is his mom’s brother. Anne was really scared of him. Luke asks if his mom did something wrong. Dodds admits they’re still working on that. Mark calls his daughter to tell her he misses her. Dodds tries to find his chair at the police station. McDonald interrupts and they begin talking about the case. They believe Susie was doing a story on Mark and that’s why she was looking for his long-lost sister. McDonald denies that it’s personal between Mark and Ormond. Samuel says there’s more to Brad than just being an antique dealer.

When they visit him, Brad says he gets nothing from Susie’s death. They ask him about the weapon since he served in the Australian forces. McDonald questions whether Mark paid him to kill Susie and Anne. Brad shows them something Susie gave him for safekeeping. At the station, Ormond is shown the newspaper clippings and told that Susie was writing a piece about Mark. They have a witness statement from Anne that was signed and dated last Wednesday. Lucy calls to say her husband has disappeared. McDonald tells Lucy that Mark launders money. She shows them the door Mark left open and insists she didn’t know it was down there. Lucy admits they have separate bedrooms. The police find Lucy’s car and it’s still occupied by Mark. In an interview room, Mark is told Susie found Anne and convinced her to do a tell-all.

It is alleged that Anne was scared of him and in danger from the people Mark works with. Dodds tells him about the killing of Gary Graham. He believes Mark killed him and Anne witnessed it. They arrest him for the murder of Gary Graham. Mark tells his solicitor he knew it was personal. Mark says he was on a video call on Sunday. He denies having anything to do with Anne and Susie’s deaths. Outside the room, Ormond and the detectives discuss whether Anne killed Susie. Dodds says Nevis is the only one who saw the killer. When they visit Nevis, he isn’t eager to help this time.

Nevis declines to identify the woman in a photo, alleging he has double-vision. Dodds asks if he can provide any details, he says the woman’s eyes were brown. Seeing Susie’s eyes are blue, Dodds and McDonald rule out Anne as the killer. Nevis claims Susie’s brown eyes and smile distracted him. The way Nevis tilts his head urges McDonald to request today’s flight reports from all airports. A short time later, the police stop a plane from leaving the tarmac. When Mark and Lucy emerge from the plane, Nevis recognizes her from the crime scene.

Mark contributes his successful business to Lucy. He claims she convinced him to cooperate with the police and so, he did everything she asked of him. He signed all his assets over to Lucy this morning. McDonald says afterwards, Lucy set him up to be arrested. Mark refuses to testify against her because he is still in love with her. Mark refuses to testify against Lucy. Ormond agrees to speak to the appropriate agencies for the greater good. Dodds watches them talk from outside. Dodds and McDonald question Lucy about the murders. In a statement, Lucy says Susie was a friend. She discovered Anne who was prepared to testify Mark had stabbed Gary Graham in 1986. Susie gave her a week to get away from Mark. Lucy’s solicitor says they’re proposing a four-year sentence for his client for financial irregularities and no murder charges. Dodds yells that she did it.

McDonald agrees but says Lucy has to provide information about Mark and his associates. Lucy says she’s a gold mine. Dodds and McDonald argue about it. She reminds him that she’s his boss. Dodds notices the number three and believes he might have something. He asks for an hour and tells McDonald not to let her sign anything. Lucy is taken to her house and questioned. Dodds explains how they rewired the electric box with the correct signage, but the number three happens to be missing. He has the number three. Dodds believes it was picked up on someone’s shoe. He blames Lucy. On the sole of her right shoe, they found traces of adhesive. Dodds is confident it’ll match the adhesive on the number. McDonald says the deal is off. Ormond tells Mark he’s going away for a very long time. Lucy says it wouldn’t have happened if Mark had just told her everything.

She decided to send him down and take his money because that’s her nature. Dodds and McDonald discuss the case later. They also talk about her boyfriend. Ormond apologizes to Dodds later and admits she stole his chair after her chair malfunctioned. She’s ordered him a new one.

 

 

McDonald & Dodds Review

There’s a lot that can be said about McDonald & Dodds, but very little of it is good. Even when there’s a good performance, it’s offset by terrible writing or downright horrible characters. For instance, Jason Watkins tries to do well with the character, but it’s written so horribly. It’s hard to care about the Mr. Magoo-like character running about being belittled by his colleague at every turn.

As for McDonald, the character is a little better but the portrayal is awful. McDonald is easily one of the least likable detectives in any of the thousands of similar shows like this. In this episode, the tropes were pretty much endless and they started appearing in the first few minutes with the poisoned lipstick. There’s the innocent daughter who is arrested and the gangster who just needs to be sent down. The episode went further with an old missing person’s case, an old murder, spousal abuse, and a missing chair.

Not to mention, all of this is drug out for a staggering hour and a half that makes everything much, much worse. There’s no originality here unless we’re supposed to be impressed with the intellectually inferior Dodds character, but that ends up being more annoying than anything. Much like the thousand other British detective dramas, McDonald & Dodds has no real substance, no emotion, and no heart.

At an hour and a half, it’s pretty much unbearable. This episode was no different considering how predictable it was in the end and how tedious the story unfolds. As usual, the story tediously drags for an hour and 20 minutes before it turns itself into knots to come up with a half-baked conclusion.

This episode scores a 4 out of 10. Recaps of McDonald & Dodds can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link.

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