As this episode of Shetland begins, Campervan Angus Wallace (Jimmy Yuill) sleeps outside his campervan. He jumps when and watches a vehicle arrive at the facility. He notices that they left the gate open. Angus walks down to the facility and goes inside. He begins moving down the stairs. When he hears a scream, Angus drops his camera. He has to flee when people come after him. Donnie Russell (Angus Miller) and DI Alison ‘Tosh’ McIntosh (Alison O’Donnell) argue about the arrest. Donnie receives a concerning message. Lisa Friel (Tara Lee) comes out of the campervan and notices that Angus is not there. Tosh goes to the hospital to ask Ian Bett (Robert Jack) who hit him. Ian doesn’t know because the whole thing is a blur. Tosh insists she’ll find out who it was. She says Ian should’ve told them about Joni. Tosh only cares about who killed Annie and Ian lying to them has cost them time.

Tosh says they don’t have a suspect yet. Ian asks about the French guy. Tosh doesn’t know what he was to Annie. She tells Ian that Noah is upset and he needs his father. Tosh asks about the scar on Annie’s arm. Ian asks if she’s talking about the bike accident. Ian says it happened years ago in London before they met. Tosh calls Billy to ask for all of last night’s CCTV footage from near the station. DI Ruth Calder (Ashley Jensen) calls Tosh. Tosh meets Ruth and Euan Rossi (Ian Hart) who says Annie was an analyst. She was recruited last year in Oxford. Rossi says she was like a code-breaker. Annie had a brilliant mind and worked mostly behind a desk. Tosh asks how Annie got shot. Rossi says it happened in a rare field operation that went south. Annie was treated at a private facility. She left the service soon after the shooting. Rossi hadn’t heard from her until that voicemail, but he doesn’t know why she tried to contact him.

Tosh admits Annie had something important she wants to tell her. As for Bergen, the story checks out so far. Tosh and Ruth tell him all about the Jakobsons and their daughter. Rossi suggests whatever they were doing was so dangerous that they needed to keep their friendship a secret. In private, Ruth tells Tosh she knows a guy who works at Thames House. She can ask him if Rossi’s story checks out. DC Sandy Wilson (Steven Robertson) is asked about Anton Bergen. Sandy confirms he was in contact with Andy in the weeks leading up to the murders. They just don’t know what their conversations were about. The calls go back about five weeks and Annie contacted Bergen first. Bergen had been checking out flights to Tallinn last week. Nathan said Bergen was planning to take him to Europe. Sandy says his finances were great because he liked to gamble. Tosh asks about the call Bergen took on Friday night. Sandy says it was from a landline at the Jakobson house.

Ruth thinks they should speak to them again since the Jakobsons say they hadn’t spoken to him. In private, Tosh asks Ruth about the guy at Thames House and whether she used to go out with a spy. Sgt Billy McCabe (Lewis Howden) tells Tosh that he has something on the CCTV footage. Lisa tries to find Angus. She uses the intercom to speak to someone at the facility. The woman on the other end says no one came down there last night. Tosh watches the CCTV footage of the assault. Ruth speaks to Stefan (Johannes Lassen) and Karin Jakobson (Nathalie Merchant). They say they didn’t make the call. Astrid Jakobson (Ines Hoysaeter Asserson) says she was asking about movie day. Karin explains that Anton and Astrid watch a film together every Monday afternoon. Astrid claims she forgot about the call. She says she called Anton because it was his turn to choose the film. Anton was normal when she spoke to him.

Astrid insists she didn’t speak to him again after that call. Karin tells Ruth they would’ve notified the police immediately if they knew about the call. She says Astrid hasn’t been feeling well lately. Ruth asks how much they knew about Anton before hiring him. Karin says he was recommended to them by a friend of Stefan’s. She doesn’t know anything about Tallinn or Estonia. Tosh visits Fergus (Macleod Stephen) and Patrick Harris (Ross Anderson) to ask about their dad. John Harris (Vincent Regan) enters the room and admits it was him. He’s taken to the police station for an interview. John thinks Ian killed Annie. Tosh says Ian has an alibi for the time of the murders. She says it wouldn’t justify his actions even if Ian was still a suspect. Tosh tries to convince him that he didn’t let Annie down. Next, Tosh tells the others that John said Patrick had a problem with Annie and Noah. Patrick clearly resented her. Sandy says Patrick is on JJ Huang’s list of gamblers. Ruth admits she doesn’t believe Astrid.

Stefan and Karin co-own a company called Jarnhus Investments which specializes in International Wealth Management. Ruth says Harry managed to get an interview with Noah. She invites Tosh to come with her and lead. They speak to Noah Bett (Jacob Ferguson) moments later. Tosh asks him about the night of the big party. She questions what happened after he left the party with his mother. Noah says they were going to John’s house, but someone phoned Annie so they didn’t make it. It was a call from the man who had an accent. They picked up the man on a road. The man was upset because he was crying. Noah says his mom drove to the Croft and she put him in a room to go to sleep. There weren’t any beds so she went to the bath. Noah says he woke up because he was cold. He shouted for his mom but she didn’t. He went into another room and found her lying on the floor.

Noah eventually went out to try to get some help. Rossi is watching the house from outside. He takes a call and asks what they have for him. Ruth speaks to Noah about his dinosaur. He claims he saw something that looked like a dinosaur the night they picked up the man. Lisa runs to Reverend Alan Calder (Steven Miller) to say she needs his help. Alan tells her about the police looking for her and Annie. Lisa insists she doesn’t know anything about that. At the station, Ruth and Tosh discuss whether Noah slept through three gunshots. Sandy interrupts to say Patrick Harris is up to his eyeballs in debt. He was getting regular payments from the mussel farm account until that stopped six months ago when Annie started doing the accounts. A print from the Bett house break-in matched Patrick. Tosh is going to head up there. Ruth gets a call from Alan who needs help. She meets him at the campervan. Ruth speaks to Lisa about Annie Bett and the argument. Lisa insists she had no issues with Annie. After she left the shelter, she caught up with Angus.

Ruth finds out about Angus’s logbook which he uses to keep track of the cars coming and going from the lab. Lisa asked but they said they haven’t seen him. Ruth finds out that the logbook suggests otherwise. Tosh speaks to Fergus Harris. They talk about John’s relationship with Annie. Fergus claims he liked her being there. When Patrick enters, Tosh says they need to speak. Ruth goes into the lab. Dr. Mohan approaches and introduces herself to Ruth. She claims the place wasn’t open last night and they primarily deal with marine research. Ruth gives her a number in case she finds Angus. Patrick tells Tosh that there must be some mistake. He denies being involved in the break-in. Patrick says he was with JJ Huang (Nicholas Goh). Tosh asks if he was gambling. She says he never told them that he knew Anton Bergen. Patrick still says he was with JJ. Tosh calls Sandy to ask him to speak to JJ Huang and check out Patrick’s alibi. Ruth calls Billy to tell him about Angus Wallace.

When she notices construction equipment nearby, she asks for everything they can find on the new marine lab. Patrick visits JJ and says things didn’t go as planned. Rossi visits Ruth at her house. He says he has some information on Bergen. Ruth finds out that Stefan has been on a watch list for a while. No one is sure how Stefan managed to get the money to start his business. Rossi asks her about talking to the boy today. Ruth tells him more about Noah. Rossi warns her it’s best not to get attached to the boy. She asks him to never come to her house again. Karin and Stefan talk about whether they should get Astrid back to London. Astrid listens to them argue. Stefan says Karin can go back to London but Astrid is going to stay. Tosh runs into Jamie Connal (Johnny Panchaud) who is sad to hear about Annie. Jamie is with Joni (Gemma McElhinney). Then, she joins Frank Kirk (Richard Thomson) and Tara Kirk (Nalini Chetty). Jamie joins them as they talk about John Harris beating up Ian.

Donnie joins them and they share a drink to Annie. At home, Ruth learns more about the lab and Dr. Devinda Mohan (Bridgitta Roy). She calls Noreen to check on Noah. Ruth apologizes for bothering her before ending the call. In private, Frank apologizes to Tosh about Tara. She tells him that Ian was found at the Mission. Frank says he’s never heard of it before leaving. Jamie tells Tosh that Annie came to see him at work last week. She was asking about some freight planes that had come in. Tosh asks for a list of the ones she asked about. In the morning, Billy calls Ruth to say they might’ve found Angus. Patrick tells John and Fergus that Ian Bett deserved a kicking anyway. Patrick and Fergus don’t blame him. John says the lorry will be there soon. At the hospital, Finlay Morton (Ros Watt) tells Ruth she can’t get a word of sense out of Angus. Finlay found Angus lying at the entrance this morning. He was talking about experiments. Lisa and Alan arrive moments later. Ruth notices that Angus has an injection mark on his arm.

Finlay says they didn’t administer anything. Angus tries to tell them something. He wants Lisa to tell Bergen he was right. When Ruth asks what he was right about, Angus says everything. Next, Ruth meets Tosh at the lab where the cranes are being kept. She suggests they are the dinosaur Noah was talking about. Ruth thinks Annie picked up Bergen there and the answers are inside the lab. John and his sons work. Patrick and Fergus argue about Tosh’s visit. John asks Patrick what she wanted and what questions she asked. Patrick insists he was with JJ on Friday night. John knows he was already up when he came down the stairs on Saturday morning. He doesn’t think Patrick came home on Friday night. John says Patrick never liked Annie or the boy. Patrick yells that they were leeches. He also claims Annie played John like a fiddle. Annie drug all of them into her life. John says Annie told him about the books and Patrick taking money from the account.

He knows Patrick is in debt to JJ and he took the money to get himself out of that hole. Patrick asks if he really thought he had a chance with Annie. Their argument turns physical. Fergus tries to break it up. John ends up hitting Fergus in the head by mistake with the hook. Fergus possibly dies.

 

Shetland Review

Shetland has been on a steady route downward in terms of quality and this episode definitely hit a new milestone. Besides being as dull as watching grass grow, the episode was full of clichés and idiotic moments. There were really too many idiotic moments to count here creating a massive believability issue.

For starters, Ruth and Tosh seem odd in their handling of Rossi. At one point, they were feeding him all kinds of information about the case. Later in the episode, Ruth made it clear that she doesn’t fully trust him. With that being said, it would be stupid for two lead detectives to disclose such information to an outsider, especially one they don’t trust.

After Angus disappeared, Lisa spoke to Dr. Mohan who claimed he didn’t stop by the lab. Ruth immediately found out otherwise by checking Angus’s logbook. Now, Lisa might be missing a few tools upstairs, but there is a good chance she would’ve looked at the logbook as well. After all, she didn’t want to get the police involved. That was a really weak and convenient way to have Lisa speak to Ruth about Annie and other things.

Angus showed up outside the hospital in an incoherent and despondent state. The medical staff would likely want to find out what was going on. It’s a bit silly for Ruth to be the first one to notice the needle mark on his arm. Statistics show that drug abuse has been an ongoing concern in Shetland and Scotland in general. The doctors would’ve found any needle marks because they could’ve made the difference between saving Angus’s life and letting him die.

Finally, the episode ended with another unbelievable twist with John accidentally hitting Fergus and possibly killing him. The problem with that is that John had just committed and admitted to attempted murder which is usually not bail applicable. At the very least, he probably wouldn’t be out so quickly. The series is nearing rock bottom with its believability issues and it doesn’t make up for it with anything thrilling.

The outlandish narrative is just growing larger and more complicated until the finale when everything will be conveniently solved. Some performances are even weaker than they were previously. The series has probably outlasted its natural shelf life at this point. The episode scores a 4 out of 10. Recaps of Shetland can be found here.

Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. Join the discussion here.