The show begins with a police raid from 19 years prior. Jamal Alade (Leon Annor) approaches sees the police in front of his apartment building. He orders the taxi driver to stop and flees the scene. The police chase ends with Jamal being taken down and handcuffed. Jamal is a prison inmate.

Detective Michael Broome (James Nesbitt) tells Lorraine Griggs (Sarah Parish), they should try yoga someday. She suggests they not pretend their relationship is something more. She teases him until he threatens to rip her clothes off, chasing her through the apartment.

Megan Pierce (Cush Jumbo) has a short flashback of Ray Levine (Richard Armitage) while staring out the window. Her fiancé, Dave Shaw (Daniel Francis), and her son, Jordan Shaw (Dylan Francis) bring her back to the present. Dave brought him back home for his cello. He has a lot on his mind. Kayleigh Shaw (Bethany Antonia) asks for her phone to be returned. Megan doesn’t remember why she was punished in the first place. Kayleigh admits to never doing her chores. Dave pleads with Megan to be punctual for the church meeting. She agrees.

As soon as Dave and Jordan are gone, she grabs her keys. Kayleigh asks where she is going. She is going to work and will return in an hour. Kayleigh searches Megan’s desk drawer for her calendar. The Weak Signal Pool Bar popped up on the screen.

Broome visits Sarah Green (Belinda Stewart-Wilson) to ask about a bag of cash found in the basement of her home. She panicked when the money showed up outside her home. Her husband, Stewart Green paid the bills. When he went missing, she became desperate to pay the bills. She doesn’t believe Stewart left on his own free will and asks Broome to keep, yet another secret.

At the police department, Erin Cartwright (Jo Joyner) grills Broome about wearing the shirt from his car. Broome formerly dated Sarah Green. Erin tells him about Megan’s new life as a yoga mum. She questions why Megan changed her identity after Stewart went missing. He points to a board of missing men and connects them to Stewart. Erin doesn’t fully believe Megan’s story of Stewart being alive. Brian Goldberg (Jack Shalloo) shows them “The Pink Poirots” article on the computer. The Pink Poirots is a social media platform for women who investigate missing men.

Broome refuses to work with civilians to search for Carlton. It is no different than asking people what they saw when peeping from behind a window curtain.

Megan visits the Weak Signal Pool Bar in search of Ray. She meets with Fester (Youssef Kerkour) who thought she was dead. He refers to Ray as the love of her life. He refuses to give her Ray’s number because he doesn’t want to be left picking up the pieces. She agrees but pleads with him to ask Ray to meet her. Kayleigh and Bea (Rachel Andrews) watch as Megan comes out of the pub.

Broome visits Priya Suwal (Nila Aalia) a member of The Pink Poirots. She agrees to collaborate with the police, giving them access to her investigation room. Priya has images of the night Carlton went missing from Vipers. Images of Kayleigh and Carlton draw Erin’s attention. She questions her identity. All the men disappeared during Carnival on different dates in April. A missing poster of Zain Kaleed is among the posters of the missing med believed to be connected to Stewart. Kaleed’s body was discovered in the woods. The Police believe Jamal Alade killed Kaleed during a fight in 2003 on Carnival.

Meghan visits the Dream sculpture and utilizes a brass key to open a door to a small room. She has flashbacks of Ray inside the room while waiting for his arrival. Ray arrives and tries to approach her, but she moves away. She asks him to stay away from her family. He found her by luck after thinking she was dead. He never believed she ran away with Stewart. He has a flashback of Cassie telling him to dress up. He questions why she kept the key all these years. Crying, she admits to looking at his pictures. He says why are we here, Cassie. They kiss as Megan tries to resist. Kayleigh enters to find Megan and Ray together.

Megan chases after Kayleigh who believes she is cheating on her dad. She threatens to call him until Megan agrees to tell her the truth. Ray is an old friend from when she was a dancer at Vipers. Kayleigh asks if they had sex. She denied having sex with Ray, saying they were just friends. She agrees to tell Dave about ray.

Broome tells Erin, all the men went missing on Carnival. Kaleed was stabbed in the heart three times. Kaleed and Jamal were enemy rivals. The jury returned a guilty verdict in 30 minutes. Lorraine agrees to send Broome a picture before he visits Jamal in prison. Jamal says a “white jury” found him guilty. He asks which police set him. He is suffering from sickle cell disease. Broome asks if he was at the hospital six days prior and knows Stewart Green.

He shakes his head. He refutes the police report that states, he killed Kaleed for assaulting his girlfriend. They fought, but he didn’t kill him. The police found the knife utilized to kill Kaleed. He says I’m smart enough to kill Kaleed when no one is around, but not smart enough to hide the murder weapon. His shirt was soaked in blood while his jeans were spotless. He continues to deny killing Kaleed and blaming it on the police. Erin says he may be telling the truth and the murderer framed him.

The missing men have a history of beating women. Broome gasps when he receives a picture from Lorraine wearing a man’s shirt. Erin asks him to spit it out. He describes Lorraine as sexy and fearless. He just wants to make her smile.

 

Megan arrives at the church as Reverend James (Chris Tummings) teaches a class for couples. As they close their eyes, Megan thinks about Ray, not Dave. He believes it would be a good idea to get Reverend James to meet Kayleigh. Megan disagrees. She thinks they can handle their children on their own. He promises to wait until after his stag party to talk to Kayleigh. She blames her tardiness on work.

A pair of gray leather gloves trigger a flashback of Dave pushing Carlton’s car into the river. He worriedly looks at Megan and drives away. Megan leaves Harry a message about meeting Ray. Harry is sitting in a chair dead and the police are present. A needle is sticking out of Harry’s arm. Erin questions Broome if he really trusts Megan.

Simona (Andi Osho) enters Ray’s darkroom with a shotgun. She demands to know why the police believe he is Guy Tatum’s killer. Ray says Guy with a woman at Vipers the night he died. He was being a drunken idiot. She breaks down and he takes her shotgun away. She gulps down his beer and immediately spits it back out. She asks who Megan is in a photo. He dreamed of her for 17 years and she walked about like it was nothing. Ray puts all of Megan’s photos in a trash bag and throws them into a garbage truck.

Megan has a flashback of the night Ray gave her the plastic ring. She answers the door to find Broome standing here. He tells her about Harry Sutton (Eddie Izzard) and asks her to go to the police station. Megan agrees to accompany Broome and Erin to the police station.

Ken (Hyoie O’Grady) and Barbie (Poppy Gilbert) visit Megan’s house. Barbie describes Megan’s house as feeling “domestic.” She orders Ken to say, no kids, puppies, or gerbils. She kisses his hand when he says, “Just us.”

Bea makes Kayleigh promise to not slut shame Megan. She says strippers have been dealing with stereotypes for years. Kayleigh arrives home to find Megan not home. Barbie approaches from behind and says she is not a fan of orange. She wears Kaleigh’s clothes as the episode comes to an end.

 

Stay Close Review

It is questionable why they continue to add new characters, with three episodes left. Are the new characters connected to the investigation or do they serve another purpose?

One of the better episodes ruined by wokeness. Jamal’s reasoning behind his murder conviction “an all-white jury” serves no purpose in the show.

Kayleigh’s condescending attitude is understandable as she is an adolescent, fighting for independence. However, the ugly profanity is over-the-top unacceptable.

The sex worker slut-shaming dialogue was unnecessary. Some of the actors portrayed social justice warriors, nothing more or nothing less. This overshadowed the positive, significant scenes.

The episode deserves a 5.

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