As the opening episode of The Boy That Never Was begins, Harry (Colin Morgan) and Robin (Toni O’Rourke) wake up and check on Dillon (Emily O’Neill) who has a scrap on the knee. They hang out and Uncle Ollie (Kerr Logan) eventually wakes up. They talk about what they’re going to do today. Harry says Cozimo has a buyer for one of the portraits he finished. He asks Robin to join them, but she has to go to work. Later, they check out the market with Cozimo (Simon Callow). Harry talks to Cozimo about cooking for his wife. Cozimo asks if he was disappointed with the price he got for the painting. Harry thinks it’s worth celebrating that it actually sold. Harris makes it home with Dillon and takes a call from his wife. Robin admits she’ll be late.

Harry says he wants to have words with Samira (Fatima ezzahra El Jaouhari). Harry says he sold that painting and he wanted to celebrate. Robin will get home as soon as she can. Harry tries to cook for his wife. He finds Dillon away and urges him to go to sleep. Harry calls Cozimo to tell him he took the bag with Robin’s present in it. Harry asks Cozimo to call him back. Dillon finally goes to sleep. Harry asks Amina to look after Dillon for him for two minutes. Harry tries to find Coz. He manages to retrieve the present for Robin before noticing that the birds are behaving oddly. Morocco experiences an earthquake. Harry is knocked out by falling debris. Once he gets up, he tries to make it home and find Dillon. Robin makes it back and finds Harry and Ollie digging through the rubble. Harry insists they’ll find him.

Three years later, Robin and Harry wake up together. Harry says he’s going to visit the new gallery because they need the money. Robin wants to say something, but Harry doesn’t give her the chance before he gets up for toast. Robin watches a video of Dillon. She tells her boy happy birthday. Later, Ollie comes over drunk and surprises Robin. He explains he came to help. She shows him the marks on the wall where they used to keep track of their heights. Robin remembers searching through the rubble for her son. Cozimo tries to convince her to come back to his place. The rescue workers pull a body out of the debris. Harry sits down with Robin and tells her they have to keep looking. Robin asks Harry how he survived. Harry admits he went downstairs for five minutes. Robin suggests Harry could’ve saved Dillon. She asks why he didn’t run up to him.

She yells asking where Dillon was when Harry went downstairs. Harry tries to calm her down. In the present, Harry sees a young boy with a woman at the train station. He yells Dillon’s name just before the train speeds by. Harry rushes to get to the other side of the station and onto the train. He tries to get information about the woman and boy. Harry ends up leaving the train station and seeing them walking down an alley. They get away from him. When he gets home, Robin tells him she made a cake for Dillon’s birthday. She also reveals she’s pregnant. Harry asks why today of all days. Robin thought it was like Dillon was looking down on them. She believes that’s what he would’ve wanted. In the past, a man with the police tells them there’s no hope after 96 hours.

Robin argues that they still find people five or even ten days later all the time. They’re told many families are holding funerals with items belonging to their loved ones. Harry asks who will be rebuilding. He suspects those buildings were meant to be knocked down for new apartments anyway. Harry accuses them of being corrupt. Ollie comforts Robin when she rushes outside. Robin tells him that his dad should’ve been there. Harry yells that they need to keep looking. Cozimo tells Robin she needs to speak to Harry who made a stupid mistake. He insists Harry had no way of knowing. Robin goes to Harry’s easel and sees the sketches of Dillon he has made. She also finds pills and remembers Harry trying to stop the bulldozer from removing the debris. Harry tells Robin they will kill Dillon. She convinces him to stop.

Harry apologizes to Robin and asks if they can go home. One day, Robin decides to track Harry’s phone. She finds him in the pub drinking. She wants to know what’s going on. Harry is worried she’ll think he’s nuts. Harry says he saw Dillon at the station and came to the pub to see if they had any CCTV footage. Robin saw the drawings of Dillon. She asks Harry if he’s still taking the medication. Robin says there’s someone she can ask. If she gets the footage, they can let this go. Later, she meets Ollie and tells him she believes it’s happening again. Robin went to college with a woman in the guards so she might be able to help. She says Harry can watch the footage and put this behind him. Robin tells Harry that he has to promise to stop when he sees it wasn’t Dillon. Harry is adamant it was Dillon. Robin can’t do this again.

In a flashback, Harry takes another woman’s son thinking the boy is Dillon. Robin admits they have a lot of footage. They start looking through the footage together. Robin doesn’t see anything, but Harry remains adamant that he saw something. Harry tells Robin he’s going to be a better dad to this one. Robin insists he was the best dad. They agree to take a break from the video. While Harry is away from the computer, Robin sees the woman and boy together. She deletes the video without Harry knowing. Harry returns and keeps looking through the videos. He begins crying before saying he wanted Robin to see him too.

 

The Boy That Never Was Review

The opening episode of The Boy That Never Was did a good job of setting up the story and quickly introducing the characters. The story is a little familiar, but it’s also original compared to everything else coming out right now. The performances are very strong here and they’ll likely pick up as the story progresses.

It’s hard to say too much about the value of the story because we’re so early into this thing. It will depend on how it plays out and what direction it takes from here. However, this was a pretty decent way to start the series. Harry and Robin lost their son, Dillon, while staying in Morocco during an earthquake.

They had to give up looking for him and move back home. However, it seems Harry isn’t ready to give up just yet. He’s been incorrectly spotting Dillon out of the blue while Robin seems to have moved on for the most part. One day, he sees a woman with a boy who looks like Dillon at the train station.

Robin finds out and agrees to help Harry track down the CCTV footage so they can find out and put it behind them. When Harry is out of the room, Robin sees the boy in question and deletes the video without telling Harry. The possibilities here are endless so it’s hard to know exactly where the story will go.

The episode was really slow early on, but it picked up superbly at the end and made the whole thing worthwhile. After the first episode, I am cautiously optimistic since the writing can take this in so many directions. The opening episode scores a 6.5 out of 10. Recaps of The Boy That Never Was can be found on Reel Mockery here.

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