As the first episode of Redemption begins, Colette Cunningham (Paula Malcomson) helps coordinate an arrest. When they see the suspect come out of the house and go back in, they decide to make their move. They bang on the door and yell for Tommy Brennan (Shane Fallon) who tries to hide stuff before heading out the back door. Colette follows him in her car until he runs into a woman pushing a stroller and is promptly arrested. Then, she receives a call from Detective Garda Luke Byrne (Patrick Martins) who is with the Irish police in Dublin. She takes a break from the call to tell Tommy to calm down since he isn’t doing himself any favors. Luke eventually tells her that they’ve found Stacey Lockley’s body. Colette doesn’t seem to know her even though she is down as the next of kin.

She hangs up to chase Tommy when he breaks free and runs for it. At the station, Tommy is interviewed about the drugs he has been selling that have hurt people. One man had to have his skull cut open because his brain was swelling so much. Colette wants to know who gave him the drugs to sell, but Tommy refuses to comment. She tries to guilt him into telling her. Colette says she is going on holiday for two weeks to Tenerife. She doesn’t know who will take his case when she is gone, but she knows some of these guys are much worse. It doesn’t work until she pretends she is leaving. Once she finishes, she gets another call from Luke who offers to give her a description of the woman.

He explains that she is 36, around 5’6”, and of medium build. She has brown hair, blue eyes, and a large birthmark on the side of her shoulder. Something clicks for Colette when she learns about the victim’s birthmark. When she exits her office, she learns that her coworkers all threw in money for her holiday booze fund. She is in a daze and just walks out while ignoring them. Colette goes to Dublin to speak to Luke in person. After she identifies the body, Luke tells her that they’re still waiting on the post-mortem results. At this point, they’re treating the case as an apparent death by suicide. Colette asks for time alone with her daughter. Luke wonders if he can ask her a few questions since he wants to find out what Stacey’s life was like before her death.

Colette doesn’t think she can help because she hasn’t seen her daughter in 20 years. He suspects she has spoken to her daughter in that time, but Colette has not. Stacey left home when she was 17 and cut all contact. She knows nothing about her life even though she went out of her mind trying to look for her daughter. Colette suspects the fact that she changed her name from Kate Cunningham to Stacey Lockley says it all. She didn’t want to be found. Luke says they can leave it there for now before showing her a list of support agencies that they recommend. He offers to arrange for someone to take her to Stacey’s house although Colette says she’ll drive herself. Before she goes, she’d like Luke to answer some questions.

First, she learns that her daughter was found in Phoenix Park. Colette asks what he knows about her life and career. Until recently, Stacey worked as a nurse at St. Peter’s General Hospital. She worked there until she was suspended prior to her death. He doesn’t want to tell her more so Colette asks who is in charge. He gives her the name of Detective Sergeant Jane Connolly (Siobhan McSweeney). She asks him to tell her that Detective Inspector Colette Cunningham from Serious Crime in Liverpool would like to speak to her. She sits down with Jane moments later to ask a few questions about her daughter. Jane asks Luke if she is up to date on the Organized Crime Investigation Unit’s investigation into Stacey. She learns that she is being investigated by them because of the allegations leveled against her.

Colette learns that there were allegations of theft against Stacey by her employer. Jane reveals that Stacey was suspended from the hospital due to suspected theft of opioids. It is standard for organized crime to investigate when controlled drugs are involved. As far as Luke knows, the hospital is still carrying out the investigation. When Stacey’s body was found, there was nothing unusual about the scene so they do not suspect foul play. Jane tells her that they haven’t been able to get in touch with Cara (Abby Fitz) or Liam Lockley (Evan O’Connor).

Colette doesn’t know who they are or where they could be. Once she leaves, she goes to her daughter’s house to look around. Cara and Liam enter to tell their mother that they’re back from Debbie’s. They’re surprised to find Colette in their home. She tells them she is their grandma from Liverpool. Cara reminds her brother that their mother said she didn’t want anything to do with her mom. Colette has to explain to them that their mother is dead. Cara begins freaking out so Liam tries to comfort her. Later, Colette joins Liam outside as he asks where they’re going to live and what is going to happen. Liam says he hasn’t seen his father in years. Colette agrees to stay tonight. Liam and Cara argue whether she can sleep in their mom’s bed. Colette says she’ll sleep on the sofa before she is asked about Stacey’s death.

Cara doesn’t believe that her mother would take her own life. Liam confirms his mom mentioned Colette sometimes and said she was a police detective or something. Cara claims her mom said she threw her out of home when she was 17. She was too strict and wouldn’t let her do anything. Stacey was glad the day she was thrown out because she couldn’t breathe living under her roof. She said she loved her dad, but her mom was a total b!tch and was as good as dead to her. Once Colette goes inside, Liam asks his sister why she had to say that. Later that night, Colette looks through their letters and finds out that some of their bills are overdue. Liam believes she was late on the mortgage payment as well. Colette promises to sort it and the funeral too.

Colette brings her luggage in and looks at the pictures of her daughter. She checks her voicemail messages and finds one of her colleagues singing her happy birthday. She calls Chief Superintendent Brown to ask for a favor. In the morning, Jane tells her that her chief spoke to their chief and she is going to join them for the next six months. She’ll be on probation for the first couple of months as a detective garda so she’ll be handling the grunt work. She’ll have to complete a refresher course before they can issue her a firearm here. Jane calls her an expensive resource and she had a hiring freeze because of her transfer. When she hopes she’ll be worth it, Colette says she comes with 30 years of experience and 53 years of life experience. She won’t let them down. Colette would like to keep her association with Stacey’s death under wraps for the time being because she doesn’t want people walking on eggshells around her.

Later, Liam asks what the funeral will be like. Colette believes it can be whatever he wants to be such as an opportunity to honor his mom. He has trousers and shoes, but not a black shirt. Colette says they can get him a black shirt. She surprises Cara moments later to see if she’d like to go shopping this weekend. Colette thought she might want to find something special to wear to the funeral. Cara says that is fine. Later, Colette visits Ryan Shelby who leads her to her new desk. She puts her gun in her locker before returning to her computer to learn more about Stacey. Siobhan Wilson (Thaddea Graham) interrupts to ask about her being in the lead on the Loftus Hill Prison case involving two prisoners who overdosed in their cell. Siobhan introduces herself before introducing Colette to the others.

She invites her to join them at the pub one night after work. Colette says methamphetamine was found in the cell after it was brought in by a drone. The operator crashed into a tree and it was registered to someone named Dylan Horgan. They agree to visit him. As they leave, Colette asks what she did to tick off the boss and get stuck with the newbie. Siobhan confesses that she went on a few dates with her son until she found out that she prefers women. They talk to Marlene Johnson (Eva Bartley) who is the foster parent for Dylan Horgan (Darragh Malone).

He tries to run from the house only to be caught and put into the back of a police car. Colette tells Marlene that the drugs were laced with a deadly substance. Since two people have died, Dylan could be in a lot of trouble. Marlene does her best as a foster parent although the kids come from crappy backgrounds. Officers find a smart controller for an FPV drone upstairs under the bed. The cop picks it up without gloves. Marlene thinks they’re mistaken since this is Aisling’s room. Colette gets Marlene to confirm that some of the parents are in prison before confronting Aisling (Florence Adebambo). She is asked about the controller that was paired with the drone and her father being in Loftus Hill Prison. Aisling admits it is hard and her dad sometimes calls her from prison.

They know that she talked to him last week so they believe she might’ve told her dad about the drone. Dylan also told them that he has been teaching her how to fly it. Colette asks whether her dad asked her to fly a package into the prison for him. She eventually says she just wanted to help her dad. Later, Luke catches up with Colette to say they got the general report back from the coroner and Stacy had a mix of lethal drugs in her system. The coroner believes she overdosed so they ruled her death a suicide. Organized Crime will be closing their investigation into Stacey because they haven’t found anything to implicate her. Once they go shopping, Liam asks whether he has to wear a suit. Although Cara thinks he should, Colette tells him to wear whatever he wants.

Once Liam picks out a shirt, Colette asks if there is anyone in particular they should invite to the funeral. Cara mentions Debbie who was her mom’s best mate. As for anyone she was seeing, Liam says Eoin (Moe Dunford) although they shouldn’t worry about inviting him. He thinks they broke up. Colette tells him it is okay to invite his boyfriend Kevin (Sean Hughes). Cara says she is going to invite her boyfriend too. Later, Colette meets with a solicitor named Shane Kinsella (Sean Duggan) because she is thinking about staying in Ireland for the kids. He says guardianship didn’t automatically go to the kids’ father because they were born outside of marriage. Only the mother has that right in Ireland. Stacey only asked him to make Colette the guardian recently. It was changed a week before she died. Shane doesn’t know why she changed it.

Back at the office, Colette is introduced to Patrick Fannon (Keith McErlean) who was involved in Stacey’s case. Although he was the first there, Organized Crime took it off his hands pretty quickly. He doesn’t remember anything suspicious. Colette looks at the evidence on her computer again. At home, she tells Liam that the car is here. He is wearing yellow because it was her favorite color and he misses her. Colette comforts him before we jump forward to the service. Colette is allowed to speak to the small crowd. She admits that she didn’t get to know the adult Stacey became. She didn’t get to share the life Stacey built in Dublin with Cara and Liam. Colette tells them about the poem that Stacey loved when she was a little girl and remembered by heart.

When Colette gets home later, she finds a black bag in the laundry hamper. She opens it and finds a bunch of drug bottles and money. Liam tells her goodnight so she quickly hides the drugs before the episode ends.

 

Redemption Review

The first episode of Redemption was a good starting point for a potentially emotional detective drama. The music sets the mood as Redemption attempts to pull on the viewer’s heartstrings. This will likely be a common theme throughout the series. Paula Malcomson does well in the lead role while the remaining cast members were good in the first episode. There are certain aspects of the story that are difficult to believe so viewers will have to bend reality to accept everything that is happening.

For instance, it may be difficult to accept that Colette would be able to transfer to Dublin temporarily so easily or that she’d be allowed to enter Stacey’s residence despite not seeing her for 20 years. Her first case involving the drone drug delivery was glanced over just to fill space and to introduce viewers to some of the side characters.

The show is heavy on inclusivity for viewers who appreciate that sort of thing. It was odd to see the characters handling the drone controller haphazardly considering it is evidence in a drug case involving two deaths. The same could be said about Colette looking through the black bag at the end of the episode. Regardless, the first episode felt stronger during the second viewing.

Depending on how it plays out, this could become a worthwhile detective drama that packs an emotional punch. The first episode scores a 6 out of 10. Recaps of Redemption can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our work at this link.