During the opening of the third episode, Karim’s funeral ritual is held. Matt Bashir (Alex Dimitriades) attends. Along with Tarek (Rahel Romahn) and Mohammad (Michael Denkha), Matt helps to clean Karim’s body. Frank’s (Salvatore Coco) butcher shop is shown. The empty cash register drawer is placed in the window for all to see. Kellie Norton (Mirrah Foulkes) and her partner visit the convenience store and follow up on a robbery report. Back at the police station, Adam Bilic (Aden Young) watches the surveillance video and quickly places the blame on Tarek.

That night, Kellie attempts to rendezvous with Matt, but he jumps into a taxi, before she can catch up with him. In the morning, we see that Matt’s breakfast club has grown larger. The pizza boy, Farid (Cayne Docker-Clay), joins them and complains about the choice of foods. Meanwhile, Adam and Kellie stakeout the drug dealers and Adam reveals his wife is 8 months pregnant. Kellie is tasked with calling Frank, while Adam follows their vehicle. Unfortunately, the vehicle pulls into a car wash and loses them.

After Sisi (Aliki Matangi) is told to stay away, the funeral begins. The cops wait outside and take pictures of the crowd. Inside, Matt notices the gang’s leader (Serhat Caradee) cuddling up to Tarek. After the funeral, Matt speaks with Kellie and learns about the man’s drug dealing and his involvement with Karim. Matt returns to the school, while Kellie drives some of the boys home. At the school, Val (Deborah Kennedy) tells Matt that Ursula has been giving Rina (Rebecca Massey) orders.

Ursula (Di Adams) enters and insists the school needed the money for new laptops. Kellie drops the kids off at Tarek’s house and watches someone drop off something in Tarek’s mailbox. She rushes over and discover his mother’s necklace inside. She chases the person down and finds out that it was Sisi’s girlfriend, Lucinda (Alice Lily Zahalka). Lucinda attempts to pretend she found the necklace, but eventually admits Karim gave it to her and the pair were also dating.

Next, Matt speaks with Dino Abbadelli (Robert Mammone) about the laptops. The pair argue about the decision, before Kellie heads to the school and asks Val, if Sisi is in class today. Kellie attempts to coax Matt into going out with her again, so they can speak in private, but he blows her off. In the hallway, she runs into George (George Harrison Xanthis) and gets snarky with him. Afterwards, she heads to the convenience store again and encounters Frank, who tells her not to go in and meddle with things.

She asks him, if he would be interested in testifying, but he doesn’t answer. Tarek recovers the necklace, collects some of the money and heads into the city. He shows up for the food tech class the next day. He gets angry and makes a mess, before Matt rushes in an escorts him out. The cops are on their way inside, so Matt takes him out and transports him to the hospital. Adam collects Sisi, while Sami Bivas (Narek Arman) watches them leave from the bathroom window.

Kellie returns to the police station and is tasked with watching CCTV footage. Sisi is brought in and he proclaims his innocence to Kellie, before he is led away by Adam. Kellie speaks to Sisi in the interrogation room and he promises he didn’t kill Karim. He insists it doesn’t matter what he says, since nobody will believe him anyway. Kellie speaks to Adam outside and learns that the local businesses were being extorted and Karim was likely their bagman.

Adam tells Kellie that Lucinda believes Sisi did it. He reveals that Sisi has been texting her all day, but has yet to receive a reply. Mohammad visits Tarek in the hospital and learns that his son used Ice and nearly died. Matt returns to the school and groups everyone outside. He pulls up a trashcan and tells the kids they will have the opportunity to get rid of their drugs, without getting in trouble. Meanwhile, Kellie continues scouring through the CCTV footage.

She witnesses something strange on the video and pays a visit to Matt’s ex, Claire (Maya Stange). Claire tells Kellie about Matt’s old friend, who passed away, when they were younger. Matt pays a visit to the drug dealer and tells him to stay away from Tarek and the school. Next, he sits outside of a woman’s home and watches her water her flowers. This is presumably his mother. He drives away, without speaking to her. Next, Kellie gets a call from Dave Santos (Michael Whalley) and learns that Kenny Movondo (Thuso Lekwape) has been brought into the police station.

Santos tells Kellie that Kenny has been accused of attacking someone with a knife. She heads inside to speak with him, while Matt speaks with Tarek at the hospital. Sisi pays a visit to Lucinda, but she refuses to answer the door. Kellie learns that Kenny has been harassed at home and likely took the knife to defend himself. She questions whether or not Kenny could be afraid of more than one individual, before their attention turns to Matt. She shows him the CCTV video and Matt hanging around the school at night.

The pair begin to question, whether or not Matt could be harassing the students. His new breakfast club makes him sound even guiltier. Matt takes Tarek to the restaurant and introduces him to the chef. In the morning, Farid enjoys a can of beans, during the breakfast. Sisi and Pig wait outside for Lucinda, but she never shows up. Kenny is freed. He names “Basheer”, as his primary emergency contact.

Next, Kellie visits the mom of Matt’s old friend, Chris. Tarek loses it in class again, once he figures out that George as given him a demotion. Kellie learns that Matt spent a lot of time at Chris’ house. Tarek attempts to get help from Mark. Unfortunately, Mark cannot help, as he is being hauled to the police station to help with the investigation.

The Principal Review

With another enthralling episode, The Principal is quickly becoming one of the most interesting and spectacular television shows of the year. The cast is fantastic and the show, despite only being 4 episodes, really builds each character. Aden Young, Mirrah Foulkes, Thuso Lekwape, Rahel Romahn, and Alex Dimitriades are all fantastic. The show exemplifies the success of short seasons and puts shame to shows, which feel the need to have 15-20 episodes a season, yet fail to produce anything substantial.

This episode was the best yet and deserves a 9 out of 10. At this point, I am totally hooked and cannot stop thinking about these characters and their potential futures! Be sure to catch up with the other episodes of The Principal now!