Decoys – As this episode of Showtrial begins, Sandra Vodanovic (Anna Prochniak) is questioned by DI Miles Southgate (Joe Dempsie) and DI Iain Packham (Tom Padley). She tells them they’re crazy. Sandra claims to know nothing about a bicycle. Justin just told her to get Ivo to fix the car. Miles urges Sandra to cooperate with them. Sandra says Justin didn’t tell her to get rid of any evidence. He just told her she should get Ivo to fix the car. She tells them to look at her phone. Miles accuses her of lying to protect her partner. Sam Malik (Adeel Akhtar) thinks the detectives should come up with some actual evidence. Miles says Sandra will be released, but she will have to surrender all travel documents. After the intro, Sam struggles to sleep and looks for pills.

He sends a message to someone saying the gift still hasn’t arrived. In the morning, Mani (Ali Khan) tells his dad about Fight Climate Genocide which is a new group. The group says street justice will only stop the genocidal racist capitalists. Police visit to ask Sam whether he knows Roger Blumenthal. The female officer tells him that people are ordering controlled drugs from the Internet. Sam is warned it would not be a good idea to do something like that. Sam visits Justin Mitchell (Michael Socha). Sam spoke to Sandra and they have a date so he can prepare a pre-trial defense statement. Justin is going to ask Sandra to marry him when she gets out. Sam wants to put her on the stand. Justin suspects that would be a good idea. He says Sandra kept pestering him about the dog which was not cheap. That’s why Justin didn’t go to the races with the gang.

Miles calls Leila Hassoun-Kenny (Nathalie Armin) to say Sam Malik is possibly in hot water. A few weeks ago, they received a routine call from Border Force which found generic Alprazolam wrapped in sweets from Holland address to Roger Blumenthal at Sam’s address. Leila tells Miles to leave it with her. A news report says the government has promised to act swiftly following attacks by Fight Climate Genocide. Sara (Daisy Badger) tells the press that Stop Climate Genocide does not support attacking individuals. Patrick Norris (Aidan McArdle) arrives and tells Felix Owusu (Fisayo Akinade) he has a right to be there as well. Patrick jokes about having him killed. He suspects Felix wants to know what he has to say. Before the interview, Felix denies running Indifference Kills. Patrick denies having anything to do with Marcus’s murder. He says he admired him because he respects people who are true to their beliefs.

Patrick says he and Justin had common interests although murder was not one of them. He also doesn’t think Justin would do something like that. Leila watches the interview as Justin says his past and character are not on trial here. Alex (John Marquez) interrupts to tell Leila that Tamara (Anna Wilson-Jones) has unblocked him. Tamara has posted a picture that upsets Leila. Mani brings his dad pills. He tells them they’re higher dose so he needs to cut them in half. Mani tells him to get back to Dr. Nesbitt and talk this stuff out. Sam thanks him and says he loves him. Sam finally gets some sleep that night. The next day, Leila goes to Dame Harriet Kenny (Francesca Annis). She shows her the picture and says she’s the bride with her face cut out. Leila explains she’s married to a friend of Alex from Guatemala. It was just an administrative thing so the guy could get an EU passport.

Leila pleads with her to use her power to stop this. Harriet tells her that she’s fine and she’s always been fine. She insists Leila isn’t as easy as she likes to think. Leila thinks Harriet likes it when they’re suffering because it elevates her. Sam speaks to Sandra about her initial statement. Sam says the person she hit was a very respected scientist who received an honor for his services to malaria research. He warns Sandra the detectives think she’ll change her story to save her skin. Sandra says she’ll never give up on Justin. Claudia Wood (Nina Toussaint-White) brings water for Pancho. Sandra believes Sam is going to free Justin. Leila and Miles watch a video from Fight Climate Genocide. Adrian Gilligan (John Light) enters with Philip Holmes (Pearce Quigley) who is the KC for the trial. Philip begins asking about the car and whether they can prove it didn’t happen.

The test on the pedal is still inconclusive. They’re taking a fresh sample to a lab in France that specializes in this kind of thing. Philip says the defense will make sure the jury is aware of Patrick Norris. PC Jones is pleading guilty. They hope Nicky Taylor and Becky Hollis will testify for them. Sam visits Justin and confirms he slept a little better. Justin learns Patrick did an interview on the SCG Live channel. Justin admits they spoke about Marcus. Patrick got obsessed with the tree business even though Justin said it was a lost cause. Justin talks about Patrick being game, but he wasn’t as game as his missus. He discusses the possibility that they found the bike and Norris was involved. He says Norris would have to find a place to dispose of it in a hurry. Justin doesn’t know where Norris would dispose of it although he would be checking the lakes. He says Norris knows all the diversions and decoys in the area.

Soon, Sam begins looking for lakes in the area including one called Decoy Pond. It just happens to be linked to Danver House. Sam tells Claudia he thinks Justin was hinting at the location of the bike. If he knows it’s there, he has to be involved. Sam believes he’s trying to drag Norris into it. Later, Sam tells Mani about it. Mani thinks someone should tell the police. Claudia tells Matt on the phone that she’s going to have a drink with Nisha. Masked men enter the office and ask about Sam. They end up destroying stuff and pouring the foul chemicals on Claudia. Sam arrives at the scene and checks on Claudia who reminds him she told him not to take the case. News reports discuss the Fight Climate Genocide attack. Felix calls Helen McGuire (Zoe Telford) to say he received an anonymous tip in his DMs.

Miles arrives at the lake where they’re searching for the bike. Iain confirms they got something. The bike is pulled from the water. Miles says it can’t be his because it has both pedals. He suggests the pedal they have isn’t Marcus’s. At the station, Miles says it is Marcus’s bike and helmet. They talk about it at the station. Leila looks at Tamara’s social media and finds that her face is now visible in the wedding photo. They’ll never know who tipped off Felix because the tip was sent from a VPN. Miles says this brings Patrick back into play because the decoy pond is on the grounds of his shooting club. Patrick has a lawyer since he’s going to sue Felix. Leila visits Tamara to ask her to stop this crazy behavior. They end up arguing about Tamara’s life coach and other things. Tamara says she doesn’t need it before threatening to call the police.

Tamara says it’s hypocrisy for a crown prosecutor to be guilty of a crime herself. Leila curses her and calls her selfish. Justin visits the police station. He tells Miles and Iain that Justin had visited his club before and he was aware of the lake. Patrick says Justin isn’t the only police officer he has social interactions with. He reveals they share other interests besides fishing and gambling. They share grown-up interests. Sam gets a call from Sandra who says the police want her to come in again. Leila arrives at the station and hears Miles complaining about something. She learns what Patrick said during his interview. They just recovered material from a niche homemade porn site. It shows Justin Mitchell and Patrick Norris’s wife. It was likely filmed by Patrick Norris because this is something they all enjoyed. They don’t know whether Sandra knows. Leila wants to use that to pressure her.

The pedal is still delayed. Leila tells Miles to kill the Sam Malik thing. She doesn’t think it’s right to use someone’s private life to settle old scores. At home, Sam asks his son if he tipped off Felix. Sam is looking up painless suicide. Next, Sandra is questioned by Miles and Iain once again. Miles immediately asks about Elena Norris. Sandra says they both enjoy sex. Sandra learns what Justin said about her being a naked cleaner. She says Justin is a gambler and owed money he couldn’t owe money to. Sandra says she only did it once. Iain and Miles try to use that to get Sandra to switch sides. She says she might want to tell them something. Sam asks for a break first. Harriet visits Leila to complain about her visit to Tamara. She tells Leila to try empathy before leaving. Miles calls to tell Leila that they’ve lost the pedal. She is glad to hear Sandra is making a witness state. Justin asks Sam why he didn’t stop Sandra.

Sam admits it would’ve been a conflict of interest for him to continue representing her. Justin doesn’t think sex work is degrading now. He says the problem with Sandra is that she’s sweet but simple. Sam asks what the problem with Justin is. Justin ends up making him angry. Sam tells him about the bike. He asks about his relationship with Norris. Justin says Chief Superintendent Whitley also visited the shooting club. Norris likes to keep in with people who matter so he can use them to his advantage. Justin tells him that they have to close their angels and destroy their arguments. If they don’t win, they’re just like Daniella Fielding. Justin isn’t going to spend the rest of his life behind bars because of some jealous woman. He gets mad when Sam says Sandra wept for him.

Sam warns him he’s in trouble if Sandra gives a different version of events. Sandra signs the witness statement. That night, Felix writes an article for Indifference Kills questioning whether Patrick Norris was a police informant. Sam struggles to sleep. He gets up.

 

Showtrial Review

The show has real potential when it focuses on the actual trial and whether Justin is guilty, but that’s rarely the case here. However, there are too many coincidences here that make the whole thing unbelievable. Isn’t there a single decent person in the whole city? How many problems are going to be loosely covered in this series?

Since the beginning, we’ve covered police corruption, violence in Colombia, climate change, capitalism, racism, passport fraud, gambling addiction, homemade porn, and so on. I am surprised Sandra didn’t disclose that Justin likes wearing women’s panties or something along those lines. That’s really the only topic that hasn’t been covered here.

It’s really just unbelievable to throw everything into a single show because most crimes don’t cover all of these topics. Every character seems to have a soppy backstory or some kind of turmoil going on behind the scenes. Again, the case and the trial are rarely the focus of the show. Where is the actual evidence here? Why aren’t the detectives actually questioning anyone besides the same two or three people?

There’s a good chance there would’ve been more evidence at the scene. Or, why haven’t they talked about those ANPR cameras that are mentioned in every other British crime drama? I do like the fact that Leila say she didn’t want to use someone’s personal life to settle a grudge, but she ordered Miles to do just that. That’s another issue here. There isn’t a single character worth cheering for besides Pancho.

It also seems hell-bent on covering as many political topics as possible. The problem with that is that it makes everything seem overblown and corny. The climate activists are a good point here. Just Stop Oil is vandalizing paintings and not pulling people out of their cars and assaulting them. This just adds more chaos to an already messy series.

The potential was definitely here, but it’s getting exhausting keeping up with everyone and their ongoing problems away from the office. Through three episodes, the first series was far better though. This episode scores a 5 out of 10. Recaps of Showtrial can be found here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link.

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