As episode 3 begins, Pete Riley (James Norton), along with Anika Chowdhury (Sunetra Sarker), is being questioned by DS Ridley (Alisha Bailey) and DS Chopra (Akbar Kurtha) about the baby tag. Anika ends the questioning once the investigators accuse Pete of swapping his brain-damaged son for a healthy one. In private, Anika (Rebekah Murrell) tells Pete that vouching for Stella Collingwood about the tag isn’t doing him any favors and asks if there is something that she needs to know. After he tells her no, she tells him and Maddie Wilson (Niamh Algar) to keep their noses clean until the trial.

On the way home from the station, Maddie asks Pete if he is lying for Stella because he switched the babies. He tells her about Stella visiting him at work and making him feel bad because they were suing the hospital. She doesn’t take this very well.

Pete is practically asked the same question when he is confronted by Kiera (Posy Sterling) after Maddie drops him off at home. Pete pushes her out of the way to get inside and a nearby hidden photographer captures the whole thing on film. It isn’t very long before he receives a call from Anika about this incident. Maddie begins to doubt if she and Pete are the best parents for Theo (Alban Guo) and David (Fraser Cornelissen) and briefly discusses it with Ollie (Theo Ogundipe). He tells her that she is more than enough for both of the boys.

Pete meets with a court advisor, Lyn Edwards (Sarah Edwardson), and talks about everything from Theo’s old nursery to Pete’s attention in the press. She also asks him if he would be willing to attend parenting classes. Although he mockingly laughs at the question, his answer is not shown. Later that night, Theo has another scare where he thinks monsters are in his room. Pete wakes and comforts him.

After attending a parenting class, Pete receives a message from Jen (Amy Morgan) about another ‘Baby Swap’ article coming out. In response, he calls Maddie and leaves her a message, promising to explain things. The whole ordeal causes him to be late for work and when she finally shows up Benji (Dean Kilbey) tells him that he will no longer be needed. By the time Pete returns home Maddie has already read the article and she’s so upset that she tells Pete she needs a few days.

While Pete wakes at his father’s, John Riley’s (Phil Davis), Maddie drops Theo off at Miles Lambert’s (Jams McArdle) house. While there, she asks if she, Pete, and Jill (Madeleine Akua) can take David to the beach on Thursday. He tells her that he wouldn’t be comfortable with that because of everything in the press about Pete.

Pete gets upset when Jen refuses to let him spend a few nights at her house. She does however give him an idea when she tells him to start looking for dirt on Miles. It takes him a bit, but Pete finally uncovers an article about a fire in Braemyre that leads him to Edith Lambert (Maureen Beattie). When he calls and asks her about Miles, she hangs up on him. When he calls back, she tells him to never call again. Shortly after this, he calls a taxi to take him to the airport.

While Pete arrives in Braemyre, Maddie arrives for her scheduled visit with David. Although it doesn’t take Pete long to track down Edith, it takes him a while to tell her who he really is. This doesn’t initially go so well until he tells her about Miles trying to take his son away. Even after Pete convinces her to listen to his story, he ends up leaving knowing no more than he knew when the conversation began. He does leave his contact information when he leaves.

Later that evening, Pete unexpectedly shows up to tell Maddie about his trip to Scotland. She does not take the discovery as excitedly as he did and carps at him the entire time for missing the visit with David. Things don’t get any better for Pete when he returns to John’s place and finds Miles there. Although Pete tells him to get out of his house, John says they clearly have some things they need to work out and leaves them to work them out. Pete and Miles spend the next few minutes arguing and passive-aggressively threatening each other before Miles leaves.

Maddie is at work when she receives a call from Lucy Lambert (Jessica Brown Findlay). The next scene shows Maddie and Pete rushing to the hospital where they learn that Theo has supposedly eaten more cannabis gummies. Miles claims they came from the bag that he brought with him from home. Despite all the arguing and worry, Theo turns out to be alright but only one set of parents are allowed to spend the night with him. Miles and Lucy win out because Theo was in their custody at the time.

Things do not go the Riley’s way in family court. Judge M Wakefield (Maxine Finch) not only gives the Lamberts custody until the next hearing but she only grants supervised visits to the Rileys. In addition to that, they will be required to undergo drug testing. After the hearing, Maddie accuses Miles of poisoning Theo just to get his way. In response, he throws her against the wall and intimidates her. She doesn’t tell Pete at the moment but does ask him to take her home.

The episode ends by showing Pete and Maddie returning home alone, whereas Miles and Lucy return home happily with both Theo and David.

 

Playing Nice Review

I am almost betting that Maddie and Pete stage Theo’s death just to get him away from Miles. If they can accomplish that and make it look like the Lambert’s fault, they would likely also get custody of David. Either way, this has been a well-acted series. I can actually feel the emotion in each character as I watch the scenes. Considering other things I’ve seen today, that’s saying a lot. Other than that, the series is lacking and could have been put together much better. Those are about my only complaints and for that, I’d have to give the episode a 5.3 out of 10.

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