As this episode of Shetland begins, we see a flashback of John Harris (Vincent Regan) with a young Fergus. John tells Fergus that the boat will belong to him and his brother at some point. In the present, John works on Fergus (Macleod Stephen). Patrick (Ross Anderson) gets in touch with Archie and asks for assistance. John worries because Fergus is not breathing. DI Ruth Calder (Ashley Jensen) and DI Alison ‘Tosh’ McIntosh (Alison O’Donnell) are there when they arrive. Patrick says John won’t let anyone touch Fergus. Tosh tries to convince John to step away from the body. Ruth tells Patrick he’ll have to stay off the boat because it’s a crime scene now. She tries to keep him calm. Patrick blames himself. He says he was arguing with John and Fergus got between them. He admits they were arguing about Annie. Ruth says they can talk about that later. She asks where he was on Friday night.

Patrick admits he did the break-in at the Bett House. He heard that Ian kept a lot of cash in the house for his business. Patrick needed the money he owed JJ. He says there was no money and JJ can verify this. Patrick thought Annie was a piece of work, but he insists that he did not kill her. Ruth says he’ll go to the station for an interview. He’ll be remanded in custody and there might be a trial. John is taken to a cell where Tosh tells him he won’t see Fergus again until after the postmortem. Sgt Billy McCabe (Lewis Howden) gives Tosh information about the flights Jamie mentioned. Tosh asks him to take John a tea if he gets a moment and keep an eye on him. Karin Jakobson (Nathalie Merchant) reminds Stefan Jakobson (Johannes Lassen) that he didn’t come to bed last night. He says he slept in the spare room and Astrid had a rough night. Karin doesn’t want to fight, but she thinks he needs to ask himself whether all of this is worth it.

She mentions the risk for Astrid as well as them and the company. Stefan asks if she’s worried about the money. Karin says she’s worried about their future. Stefan admits Astrid (Ines Hoysaeter Asserson) is the only thing he cares about. He goes to her room to check on her only to learn that Astrid is missing. Karin wants to call the police, but Stefan insists he can find her. He doesn’t want the police involved. When Astrid sees a vehicle, she tries to hide. Ruth speaks to Harry Lamont (Tibu Fortes) and Sandy Wilson (Steven Robertson) about the facility. Tosh joins them. Sandy says the marine lab is being funded by a company called PharmaRes. They learn that PharmaRes was chartering inbound flights. Harry won’t let them search the lab unless they have evidence that crime is happening there. Lisa (Tara Lee) and Angus (Jimmy Yuill) are with Reverend Alan Calder (Steven Miller) now. When they speak to Angus, he complains about the deep state. Angus was given Paracetamol.

Ruth asks him about Anton Bergen. He says Anton claimed they were doing sinister stuff inside the research lab. Anton got in touch with him through the website, Shetland Confidential, which is full of Angus’s conspiracy theories. Angus believes he’s right since he got inside. However, he can’t remember what he saw in there. Angus talks about being attacked and waking up in a medical center. In private, Ruth complains about Alan letting them move into the house. Tosh tells Ruth that Harris is getting them the search warrant. Stefan still can’t find or get in touch with Astrid. He sees someone walking down the road but it’s not her. Dr. Devinda Mohan (Bridgitta Roy) enters the lab and gets a call from the desk phone nearby. Ruth and Tosh arrive to search the facility. Ruth wonders where the experiments were taking place. She notices that a door has gone missing and someone has covered it up. They ask Lorna for help to move a cabinet.

Then, they look around a hidden room. They find a creepy chair. Ruth says they need to get Cora down there. In an interview room, Dr. Mohan tells Ruth that she can’t give her any information. Ruth asks her about Anton Bergen and Annie Bett. Mohan refuses to answer any questions. Tosh stops the interview when Cora calls her. Cora McLean (Anne Kidd) tells Tosh that Mohan has been working with stem cells. She would need a license to use them. Cora believes she’s been developing a bespoke treatment down there. She probably only has one patient with money. Ruth immediately thinks of Astrid. She returns to accuse Mohan of treating Astrid using stem cells from human embryos. Ruth argues the treatment is unlicensed and possibly illegal. After the interview, Ruth and Tosh talk about Mohan who was developing a treatment for Astrid. That’s why Anton Bergen was at the lab on the night he and Annie died. Bergen was trying to stop it. Mohan said Stefan stepped out of the lab to confront Bergen and didn’t return for an hour.

Nathan Huang (Marlowe Chan-Reeves) opens the door and finds Astrid outside. Once he lets her come inside, Astrid tells him that she needs his help. Astrid doesn’t know what happened to Anton. She wants to leave Shetland without anyone knowing. Astrid says Anton loved him and talked about him all the time. Anton said they were going away together. Ruth and Tosh visit Karin who asks if they’ve found Astrid. Tosh calls Billy to tell him about Astrid’s disappearance. Ruth checks her room and learns that her passport is gone. Karin says Anton was Astrid’s only friend. Ruth suggests Astrid was trying to escape. Karin claims she’s not involved although she’s the stepmom. She says Stefan made it clear that Astrid is his domain. Karin sometimes wonders whether the treatment does more harm than good. She doesn’t think Stefan had anything to do with the deaths though.

Billy calls Tosh to tell her that Astrid is booked on a flight from Sumburgh to Edinburgh. Tosh wants units at the airport and a search team at the Jakobson house. Karin says she doesn’t know anyone in Edinburg. As for her birth mother, Esther, she hasn’t seen her in years. If she wanted to see Esther, she would go to Tallinn. Outside, Tosh and Ruth discuss the possibility that Anton was trying to get Astrid to her mom. Karin calls Stefan and leaves a message telling him about the police. Ian Bett (Robert Jack) visits Noah (Jacob Ferguson). Noreen Stack (Lesley Hart) welcomes Ian home. Euan Rossi (Ian Hart) watches the house from a distance. Tosh and the others check the airport. Nathan speaks to Joe about getting something down to his cousin’s restaurant in Aberdeen. Joe shows him where to put them and takes his paperwork. Astrid gets onto the truck and hides. Ruth and the others realize that Astrid is not coming to the airport.

Sandy sees Stefan and arrests him on the suspicion of murder. Astrid begins panicking and beating on the side of the truck. Nathan gets a call from Astrid’s phone. He calls her back but she is unable to answer his call. He tries calling Joe who isn’t near his phone. Eventually, Nathan calls Shetland Police. Billy calls Tosh to tell her where Astrid is going. Tosh and Ruth rush to the scene and eventually find Astrid passed out in the back of the truck. Alan tells Michael Stack (Andrew John Tait) that he came to collect Lisa’s stuff. They talk about holding a memorial service for Annie. Euan Rossi approaches Noah and says he was a friend of his mother. When Ian comes out, Euan tries to get away in a hurry. Euan gets rough with Ian and says he doesn’t want any trouble. He claims he’s working to put this right. At the hospital, Ruth and Tosh try to get Astrid to talk about Anton. After Astrid collapsed one day, Anton agreed to help her leave Shetland. Anton found a friend and she would be able to get Astrid to Estonia.

Astrid believes her name was Annie Bett although they never met. Stefan found maps of Tallinn on her phone and made her tell him about it. Astrid says she did not see Annie or Anton at the lab that night. She remembers Stefan leaving and coming back an hour later. He had been crying. Astrid insists Stefan wouldn’t hurt Anton. Tosh and Ruth speak to Harry about Stefan. Harry asks them to speak to him. When they question him about the stem cell therapy, Stefan says he was thinking about his daughter. He believes Mohan’s procedure would work. Stefan claims Anton manipulated Astrid. Stefan confesses that he got into a physical altercation with Anton that night. He insists he didn’t see Annie Bett. For the rest of the time, Stefan claims he sat in his car because he didn’t want Astrid to see him in that state. He was crying because he may have realized that he can’t save her. Next, Sandy tells Tosh and Ruth that they downloaded the data from the Jakobson car.

The GPS data from that night shows that Stefan drove from the house to the lab and back to the house. He was nowhere near the croft. Ian Bett has called Ruth. Billy tells Tosh that Stefan wants to talk to his daughter. Ian tells Ruth about Euan Rossi. Ruth calls Rob Harding (Michael Higgs) to talk to him about Rossi. She asks him to call her back. Sandy tells Tosh he pulled the admission records for the day Anton took Astrid to the hospital. They might’ve met there since Annie was in the A&E at the same time. Sandy says Annie brought someone in. Tosh visits Tara Kirk (Nalini Chetty). She says they believe Anton and Annie met at Lerwick Hospital. Tara asks if she read her medical records. Tosh says she’s only interested in Annie. Tara says she was losing her baby. Tara says Frank doesn’t know. She eventually admits to remembering the girl and the guy. Tara didn’t see Annie speak to him. She remembers the girl’s parents were outside and Annie seemed a bit spooked.

Later, Donnie (Angus Miller) asks Tosh about her conversation with Tara. They argue about it. Tosh says they really don’t know these people. Stefan is allowed to speak to Astrid on the phone. Astrid admits she’s tired of it. They talk about stopping for a bit and try being a family. Rossi receives a call. Rob calls Ruth and they talk briefly. Rossi asks about the drop-off. Rob tells Ruth he got the message about Rossi. While Rossi is busy picking up a gun, Rob tells Ruth that she needs to bring Rossi in. Rob warns her that Rossi is dangerous.

 

Shetland Review

This episode of Shetland was another descent into boredom with a bit of stupidity sprinkled throughout. The writing quality has undoubtedly dipped significantly to the point that it’s difficult to take any of this seriously. For starters, John managed to nearly kill Ian in a hit-and-run and a beating. Nevertheless, he was out and able to kill his son, Fergus.

Maybe they’ll keep him behind bars at some point. Shetland doesn’t seem to have an overnight jail or a court system since the inmates are usually released in the next episode or the next scenes. In that sense, the entire Shetland police force failed Fergus because his killer should’ve already been behind bars for good.

Another stupid scene was when Astrid was walking down the road and a vehicle showed up behind her. If that vehicle hadn’t been driven by her father, she made the situation worse by jumping off the road and hiding. Regardless, the driver would’ve seen her since she obviously saw them. The way the police searched the lab was pretty silly as well.

They didn’t know what they were getting into, but there were supposedly sinister things going on there. Plus, this is a lab with experiments ongoing. It’s odd that no one wore masks or suits considering the potential risks involved. It’s really questionable whether the hospital would’ve collected Annie Bett’s information since she only came to the hospital with Tara.

Tara’s information would be on file, but it’s hard to believe an untreated guest’s information would also be kept on record. Finally, the dialogue is definitely getting worse. Tosh and Ruth often speak to strangers who aren’t on the police force and give them inside information about the case. As an example, Tosh told Tara a lot of information about Anton, Astrid, and the case in general.

This may be amplified by the fact that Tosh really shouldn’t be working a case that hits so close to home. Nevertheless, Tara isn’t a police officer and shouldn’t be treated as such. She’s a witness and possible suspect like everyone else. Everything going on with Euan Rossi is just silly as well. That’s one problem with long-running shows like this. You really don’t cast someone with the stature of Ian Hart unless that individual is going to play an important role. As a result, this somewhat spoils everything.

Adding something a little exciting to the mix may make it easier to overlook these silly bits. Sadly, we’re just moving between incredibly dull dialogue-heavy scenes and stupid scenes with a lame hook at the end to possibly justify returning for another episode. The episode scores a 4 out of 10. Recaps of Shetland can be found here.

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