The episode opens in a dark car park garage where DCI Adam Guthrie (Derek Riddell) questions Lexie Noble (Morven Christie) about the surveillance photo of her accepting money from Cal Morris (Peter Mullan). She attempts to avoid his questioning by accusing him of accosting her and claiming that he could be anyone. He reminds her that he’s already shared his credentials and points out that it’s much safer for her if no one knows they’ve spoken. She denies knowing that Jared Noble (Thoren Ferguson) was receiving payments through shell companies belonging to Morris. Showing her the photo, he says it doesn’t look that way while reminding her that DI Jean Royce (Andi Osho) already suspects her of murder. He warns that the photo will only strengthen Royce’s suspicions before proposing a mutually beneficial trade. He puts his number in her phone under the name Marie and tells her to say nothing to anyone until she hears from him.
At the precinct, Royce gathers her team for a debriefing. DS Rob Livingston (Steven Miller) begins with the ME’s confirmation that wounds from the murder weapon are consistent with that of a pointed dagger-shaped blade (similar to that of a common kitchen knife). DC Nanette Young’s (Laura McMonagle) search for the mistress, Sarah Blaine, hasn’t yielded any results and PC Sarah Naylor (Rori Hawthorn) is still waiting to hear back from several agencies regarding Lexie’s background. After the team disperses, DCI Sian Scanlon (Hannah Donaldson) reviews the CCTV footage with Livingston and Royce. Scanlon notes the lack of gang association before asking about voice identifications of the attackers, which hasn’t provided anything useable either. When Scanlon leaves, Royce has the tech bring up footage from the two cameras on Frensham Road at the time of Jared’s attack (8:10). Royce suggests bringing Lexie back in when the footage reveals that she was right around the corner at the time of the attack.
Elsewhere, DC Jibran Khan (Prasanna Puwanarajah) and DC Alice Hardy (Grace Chilton) monitor Lexie’s phone. Jibran becomes distressed and rushes out of the room when he overhears the call requesting Lexi’s presence at the station.
With her solicitor, Rufus Hayes (Henry Pettigrew,) at her side, Lexie confirms that she was parked on Frensham Road at the time of Jared’s attack to spy on her au pair Doris Szabo (Eileen Duffy). When Royce points out how suspicious that looks, Lexie asks about the progress of Jared’s murder. Royce says they are working to identify the 4 attackers as well as Jared’s mistress. Lexie claims to know for a fact that Jared wasn’t sleeping around. Guthrie doesn’t like the line of questioning as he and Jibran remotely monitor the questioning.
In an abandoned warehouse, Cal questions Stevie’s (Ross Mann) claims about knowing who killed Jared while Billy Ross (Douglas Russell) kicks the crap out of him. Stevie blames the talk on one too many drinks and assures Cal he doesn’t know anything. He claims that it couldn’t have been anyone local because they wouldn’t dare disrespect the Morris name.
At dinner, Rowena Hayes (Anneika Rose) expresses her displeasure about Lexie being considered a suspect. Although Lexie admits that the police showed her receipts of Jared’s dinners with another woman, she appears to not believe it. She continues to not believe it when Rowena says Suzi claims to have seen him several times at the Grassmarket with a lady. Lexie says it could have been a client.
Later at Cal’s office, Lexie witnesses an argument between Malky Roberts (Steven Mackintosh and Cal. Cal is worried that the Island Community Land Trust is going to steal a land deal out from under him, while Malky tries to assure him they can’t match his bid. Malky says the problem is that the seller wants to appear as a fair man to the island community by giving them a fair chance to buy the land. Seconds later they join Lexie in the next room where he shows her the fake banking portal that Jared used to steal his money. She lays out her strategy for tracking the money but assures Cal that Jared was not savvy enough to create such an elaborate website. When he asks if anyone at the office could have helped, she says they use an outside consultant for that type of work. This gives Cal the idea of sending her and Aaron Morris (Jack Greenlees) to Jared’s office to gather more information on the company. During their trip, Aaron ties Cal’s bad mood to not getting what he wants.
Sian Scanlon orders Royce to back off questioning Lexie because it’s compromising a much bigger investigation involving Cal.
Lexie doesn’t get any usable information when she questions Kathleen (Rebecca Benson) about the outside IT company Jared used. Kathleen offers the phone number but warns it will probably take days for them to return the call. This inspires Lexie to pry deeper into Jared’s “so-called” meetings at the Grassmarket with an unnamed client. Kathleen claims to know nothing but gets suspicious and asks if there is a problem. Lexie says it’s just a mystery she’s trying to solve.
Guthrie belittles Jibran when he tries to tag along to his covert meeting with Lexie. Guthrie reminds him of the importance of keeping his source a secret but does offer to monitor the meeting. Minutes later at that meeting, he’s showing Lexie an article on his phone while accusing Jared of helping Cal with the island land deal. She’s hesitant to offer what she knows until he points out that they can’t protect her unless she provides usable information. She admits that Cal asked for help with the deal when Jared was out of the picture but she didn’t know who he was at the time. When she says the article says that Cal’s no longer buying the land, Guthrie assures her Cal always gets what he wants. He adds that Cal’s purchase would work in the investigation’s favor before requesting that she get her hands on any information about the deal. She claims that she’s too closely monitored to attempt to steal information. He dangles immunity from the money laundering charges and the safety of her children to change her mind. She agrees to try but only after he promises witness protection.
While further researching the deal at home, Lexie apparently uncovers something significant.
Back at the prescient, Livingston jumps onto Sarah Naylor for an oversight on Lexie’s background check. Once Royce arrives, he explains that Lexie was convicted of conspiracy to commit serious assault when she was 15. Apparently, she had her boyfriend assault her father. While Livingston explains this, Aaron is shown driving Lexie to Cal’s office. He orders her to head in without him when he receives a call from his girlfriend. In the offices, she uses the opportunity to capture several photos of the land documents before Cal interrupts. She uses her earlier discovery as an excuse to be there. She goes on to explain that the community can only qualify for the grant if they can prove that all members live on the island for at least 183 days of the year, for the past three years. She then shows him an article about two members who just recently returned to the island 18 months ago, which disqualifies them. He lets the information digest before he gets in her face and asks if she really had her boyfriend beat her father. She responds by asking how he found out.
At the station, Esme Noble (Olivia Lucking) eagerly tells Livingston and Royce that Lexie was a helpful and courteous kid until she met “that boy” and discovered drinking and smoking. She claims to know for sure that when Lexie’s father tried to stop it, she had “the boy” nearly beat her father to death.
Lexie finds an opportunity to visit the bathroom and send the land document photos to Guthrie. Aaron nearly interrupts by announcing his plans to consult a hacker friend, Kaz (Helder Fernandes) to see what information he can gather from the fake banking website. After a few seconds on the laptop, Kaz claims the work is sloppy and dull, although the IP address has been bounced all over proxy servers from around the world.
Royce shares Lexie’s conviction with Dian Scanlon and asks to bring her in for questioning.
Lexie is getting Donny Noble (Roman W. Sharkey) ready for bed when she’s interrupted by Esma, ringing at the door. Once inside, Lexie learns about Esma’s meeting with Royce. Remotely monitoring the conversation, Jibran learns that Esma lied years earlier to get Lexie convicted. She claims that Lexie was out of control. When asked, Esma claims to be there to help the children through Jared’s death, although she never met him.
Scanlon meets with Guthrie to tell him that he has to pull the plug on his investigation because the evidence is starting to make Lexie look guilty of murdering Jared. Guthrie meets with Lexie to tell her that he can no longer help her because her previous conviction makes her look guilty of murdering Jared. He apologizes and tries to assure her that Cal won’t find out about her involvement. She tries to explain how he is wrong she gets frustrated and storms off. While researching the deal further at a café, Lexie comes up with a clever way to hide Cal’s purchase of the land. When she later presents the idea to him and Malky, she points out how the smokescreen will also help with any future island projects while also saving him money on the initial purchase. After considering it, Cal orders Malky to board the ferry and make the deal happen.
Malky is shown meeting with the Island Community Board members while Aaron and Lexie meet with Kaz to quickly build a website for the fake startup from the Netherlands (CVB Investments).
Jibran meets with Guthrie to ask if there isn’t something they can do to help Lexie now that they have proof Esma lied about Lexie’s conviction. Guthrie claims there is nothing they can do while assuring him it’s just a matter of time before Royce ties her to the murder. The episode wraps with Jibran and Guthrie learning about the Netherlands startup buying the land while Aaron, Lexie, Malky, and Cal celebrate the ruse with champagne.
Payback Review
The amount of information they manage to cram into 46 minutes of runtime is astounding. It’s not like the content is hard to follow, but it feels like an overload at times. Lexie’s familial background and the mystery around Jared’s involvement in the banking ruse are intriguing and I can appreciate the slow-building suspense. The acting isn’t the greatest and some of the things seem to happen at breakneck speeds while others drag out. The background checks compared to the building of the startup and IP tracing would be the perfect examples. Other than this, the show is watchable. I’d give it a 5.4 out of 10.
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