As this episode of Sherwood begins, Pam Bottomley (Sharlene Whyte) and the family wake up at their new residence off the grid. Roy Branson (Stephen Dillane) shoots a gun. He tells his man to shoot whoever is the least lucky. Daphne Sparrow (Lorraine Ashbourne) gets a call from Ann Branson (Monica Dolan) who says they’re going to do it tomorrow with Ronan. Daphne admits she’s not happy about this. Ann says Ronan (Bill Jones) only has to point them out. Daphne is adamant that she’s going too. After the call, Daphne tells Mickey (Philip Jackson) what’s going on. Lisa Waters (Ria Zmitrowicz) reads comments about her online including one that urges people to run her over. Another says they need to defend their heritage. Sandy (Aisling Loftus) joins her with the baby. Julie Jackson (Lesley Manville) is surprised when Ian St Clair (David Morrissey) visits.

Ian explains he just lost faith in it all. Helen has moved around the coroner. Julie says Cathy moved as well. She is taking baby steps towards selling. Ronan refuses to tell Daphne who he was with at the rink. Rory (Perry Fitzpatrick) interrupts to tell them to chill since Ronan has had such a shock. Rachel Crossley (Christine Bottomley) finally decides to respond to Ronan’s messages but she doesn’t. The Chief Constable (Jennifer Hennessy) speaks to the press about the shooting incidents. Harry Summers (Michael Balogun) looks around the Bottomley residence. Lisa tells Ian that she runs support groups for victims of crime. She’s not sure Harry is completely fine. Lisa also admits the Bottomleys are part of the group. Ian believes Harry got the promotion because he deserved it and there’s nothing to worry about there. Their conversation ends when Roy and Ann arrive to speak to Lisa.

Ann says she’d like to name a street after her son. Lisa tells her more about the procedure. Roy admits they want her endorsement to get the neighbors to agree. Later, Lisa tries to get Julie’s input. Julie tells her to speak to Janet since she has a couple of boys about to leave school. Lisa looks up to Julie because of what they did back in the day. Samuel Warner (Robert Emms) runs into Rory and tells him the two farms near his have leased their land to their developers. Rory knows Samuel is after their land so they can put solar panels there. Rory tells him to come up for a meeting sometime. Then, Samuel tells the others that moving to green infrastructure needs steel which needs coal. He discusses not having to ship coal across the world. One man is worried about going back. Samuel says Lisa and Sandy are representatives of the district and have to make up their minds.

Daphne finds Ronan sleeping on the couch. She uses his fingertip to open his phone. Daphne arranges to meet Rachel so she can find out who she is. After getting the address, she deletes the messages. Harry calls Ian to say they had ANPR alerts out on the Sparrows and others. He thinks there was something off when he visited. Ian asks if he can get back to him. He visits Julie to ask her about Daphne. Ian asks if she might’ve got herself mixed up in something. Julie doesn’t think that has anything to do with her. Ian eventually asks if she wants to go for a drink sometime. After a while, she agrees. Harry visits the Bottomleys and Stephie (Bethany Asher) opens the door. He tells Dennis (David Harewood) he was just making sure they were okay. Rachel hangs out with her friends. When Daphne arrives, one of her friends calls her a crackhead.

Rachel overhears her saying it’s Ronan’s mom. Rachel rushes down to meet her. Daphne learns that Rachel is Ronan’s sister. Rachel allows her to come inside to use the bathroom. Harry and Dennis talk about Harry coming up there for training. Harry wasn’t sure he was going to stay, but he settled in and met a girl. Dennis tells him a story about King John and the treasure that may still be out there. Daphne tells Rachel she’s not going to apologize for what she did 40 years ago. She learns how Ronan found out. Rachel says she’s fine and her parents were good. Rachel argues this is not her world. She says he showed her a photo at the rink and that’s all she knows. Daphne tells her how Nicky’s family wants Ronan to go with them to speak to the Bottomleys. Rachel refuses to get her hands dirty although Daphne says they’re already dirty.

She reminds Rachel that she ran away and left a frightened boy with a corpse. Rachel doesn’t want to be responsible for anyone getting hurt. Daphne says she won’t be because they’ll stop them. Harry tells Dennis that Chloe was an innocent bystander. When the factory closed, Dennis had trouble with gambling. Harry ends up falling asleep. In the middle of the night, Harry begins screaming in his sleep. Dennis tells Pam it’s night terrors. The next day, Rory gives Daphne two phones that have never been turned on. He doesn’t know how she’ll get a phone to one of the walking corpses without the Branson seeing her. Daphne says it’s about being in touch with them and getting them as far away as possible. Lisa read about the spies during the strikes. It appears she finds information about Franklin Warner. Daphne and Rachel with for the Bransons to arrive.

Daphne has to explain to Ann that Rachel was there with Ronan. Daphne and Rachel go with them. Dennis tells Pam they should get out today since they have to live. Pam agrees they should go and have some fun. Daphne tries to find out how Roy knew where the Bottomleys are being kept. Roy notices he has a missed call from Kyre. He explains it’s a burner phone and unregistered. They have to stay in touch with their nephew Kyre because they knew none of them would want to get their hands dirty. They go through the messages and find one of Nicky when he was in Wembley. The voice message rambles on until Roy gets out of the car to collect himself. Harry drives past Skeg Vegas and passes their vehicle. The Bottomleys hang out in town. Roy and the others can’t find them. He asks Daphne and Rachel to go inside and look for them.

Daphne and Rachel just happen to see the Bottomleys inside the restaurant. Daphne wants to tell them quickly, but she’s interrupted by Ann who enters. Ann suspects they’ve found the family. She says it’s pretty obvious when you see a family like that. Daphne tries to change her mind. Rachel pays for Ann’s drink although Ann tries to stop her. Daphne tries to linger inside the restaurant so Ann waits for her. Ann calls for Pam and confirms it’s her. In the bathroom, Daphne finds out that the phone batteries are almost dead. She sends a message to the phone and puts it in Pam’s pocket on her way back out. Pam finds the phone before they get back to the house. The phone is dead so she can’t read the message. Kyre and Roy prepare to raid the residence. Pam calls Harry at the station, but he isn’t there. The caller taker, Marcus (Jorden Myrie), pretends he’s not there when he walks by.

Pam tells him that they found a phone when they were at a pub. Marcus says they’ll send a couple of uniforms over. Roy and Kyrie approach the residence. While they wait, Ann tells Daphne about coming there when she was younger. Dennis speaks to a nearby neighbor while Stephie goes detecting. Dennis asks the neighbor if he has a charger for the phone. Roy gets a message about retrieving the phone. Ann throws her bottle out on the ground despite it being evidence. Pam begins charging the phone while Dennis uses the neighbor’s lawnmower to mow the grass. Kyre and Roy sneak in and retrieve the phone. Kyre tells Roy to look outside. Roy finds Pam and shoots her in the head. Kyre shoots Dennis before they take their masks off and leave. Roy calls him daft because he already did Pam. They leave Stephie on the beach.

Roy returns and tells Daphne that they got both of them. Ann reads the message on the phone and says someone tried to warn them. When Roy calls the phone, it vibrates in Daphne’s pocket. He warns whoever it is that they’re dead. Kyre is told to get rid of the phone. After the others leave, Stephie attacks Kyre from behind with a pair of sheers. Daphne and Rachel leave Roy and Ann. Harry walks around the crime scene and sees Stephie nearby.

 

Sherwood Review

The first episode of Sherwood’s second series was dull. At the very least, the second had some excitement between the overall stupidity of everything that happened. Most of the scenes were just too implausible and predictable. Nevertheless, the sheer laughability of the characters’ actions made the episode a step up from the previous one.

In the first series, we had someone killed because they caught a masturbator. Even then, that was less egregious than what the second series is trying to pull. It’s upping the ante with the implausible writing. For starters, it’s hard to believe Daphne would risk everything to save people she doesn’t know, especially when she’s supposed to be a “crackhead” and a criminal too.

Even if we overlook that which is possible, there’s more stupidity around the corner. She would never be able to unlock Ronan’s phone using his finger while he’s sleeping. No one is that heavy of a sleeper. Just before Roy and the gang decide to give up searching for the Bottomley family, he decides to send Daphne and Rachel into a pub. Sure enough, the Bottomley family just happens to be there.

The phones aren’t charged because we need a delay and a way to drag out the episode instead of having Harry aimlessly walk around the crime scene for a few extra minutes. Roy and Kyre’s actions are dumb as well. As they flee from the residence, they immediately remove their masks and show their faces. There’s a good chance there would be security cameras on those fancy beach-side residences, but authenticity is clearly not a strong point for Sherwood. That’s not mentioning Harry spending all day with the family and sleeping at their hideaway or Rachel’s involvement in the whole thing.

Plus, Ann and Roy are throwing out evidence everywhere. While the ending was designed to be shocking, it was just another stupid twist to try to salvage a sinking ship. At this point, the only reason to stick with Sherwood is to see how dumb the writing gets from here on out. When it’s not being dumb, it’s being tediously boring so being dumb is actually the show’s strong suit.

The episode scores a 4 out of 10. Recaps of Sherwood can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. See what others are saying here.