The episode begins with Detective Grace Narayan (Anji Mohindra) clearing out her locker and making her walk of shame out of what appears to be an actively crowded police station. Her situation appears to worsen when she learns from Keith Litchfield (Andrew Dunn) that Fredrickson and DC Cooper (Harry Hepple) have shown up early. Although she isn’t concerned about a confrontation with them, Keith convinces her to take the higher road. She ducks into a conference room with a balcony that provides a stunning view of the city. This is where she meets Officer Matt Benfield (Connor Calland) who cryptically tells her that all they wanted was a name and if he didn’t provide it, they would kill his son. That’s all she gets before he leaps to his death.

Grace appears to be at her new posting where she has rented a room above Lowri Bain’s (Lu Corfield) pub/bed and breakfast. Her ensuing conversation with Lowri reveals that she isn’t much of a breakfast person and she’s uncomfortable with the religious artifacts in her room. While promising to deal with them personally, Lowri claims she only puts them up for the tourists and today is the last day of tourist season. Grace spends several minutes admiring the masks and costumes of the locals/tourists as she makes her way through the last parade of the season to the station.

After meeting Owen Parry (James Bamford), Grace wastes little time learning the lay of the land. She is shocked to hear that she and Owen will be policing the entire island. When asked about the local troublemakers, Owen claims there aren’t any but mentions the Crowther twins will get into a dustup every once in a while, usually with each other. As far as rotary club and local council problems go there is only Lady Heather Nancarrow (Adjoa Andoh), who the majority of the businesses and properties. When Owen appears to have a problem with Grace moving into Griffith/Gruffudd Prosser’s (Mark Lewis Jones) office, she immediately makes it known that she is there to replace Griffith and doesn’t care.

While the tourists board the final boat off the island Grace clears out the station’s only holding cell. This is where she also meets the island’s doctor and drunk, Ian Prideaux (Marc Warren). She soon has him in her office when he casually mentions his last memory from the previous night as searching through someone’s garage. It’s only minutes later that she has him in her office and learns about his missing son, Cai Prideaux (Charlie Thould). Ever since Griffith wrote Cai’s disappearance off as a runaway, Ian has been scouring the island for clues wherever he can find them. Grace eventually lets Ian go after learning that Mihangel Pugh (Oliver Ryan) is willing to overlook the unlawful search of his garage.

Later that evening Grace spends some time familiarizing herself with Cai’s case before joining the locals at the pub. Despite Owen being there and him introducing her to Griffith and Mihangel, her outing couldn’t have gone more awkward, especially when Griffith tries to turn her questioning into a witch hunt about her past. This leads to her eventually rushing back to her room, but before doing so, she mentions the artifacts to Lowri.

Grace’s evening only gets even stranger when she is later woken by Winter Bain (Maeve Courtier-Lilley), who is in the process of washing sand off her feet. Although strange, their conversation only reveals that Winter knew Cai and suspects that he could have possibly run off. Grace does offer her the opportunity to return to wash her feet any time she pleases. Winter claims to not be interested.

The following morning Grace discovers a Bible in Cia’s room with a passage from Solomon highlighted. The discovery sends her to the Parish doubles as he sort of visitor’s center. Upon finding the place empty Grace spends a few minutes learning about The True Way Liberation Parade as well as how the island closed itself off for 5 years and didn’t lose a single soul to the Spanish Flu. It’s not long after that she meets and questions Father Douglas Carrisford (Sam Swainsbury) about Cia. He admits to giving Cia the book and highlighting the passage when Cia asked what the Bible said about love.

Elan Parry/ Elan Parru (Rosie Sheehy) pays an unexpected visit to the station where Owen introduces her to Grace. The meeting isn’t any less awkward than Grace’s prior interactions and when she retires to her office, Elan hints at being jealous.

Later that day while showing Grace around the island, she and Owen discover an underage house party. After killing the music, Grace also uncovers the culprits as Alun (Dylan Jones) and Eric Crowther (Lloyd Meredith). The Crowthers not only initially refuse to cooperate but one of them jokes about Grace being a stripper. Grace doesn’t have a problem handling both of them with her nightstick when things turn slightly physical. Owens hesitates to cuff them when ordered which later leads to threats of being written up. Despite the boy’s teasing and false bravado, Grace lets them go free and clear after ending the party.

It is suggested that Griffith is hiding something about Cia’s case when he later berates Owen at the pub for not steering Grace’s interests elsewhere. Owen is right in the middle of pointing out that he can’t stop her from asking questions when Grace shows up. After Griffith flat-out tells her she’s not a good fit and makes several racist remarks, Grace proves once again that she doesn’t have a problem handling herself. The encounter eventually leads to her hauling Griffith down to the station.

Much to her surprise, Owen joins her at the station and assures her that not everyone agrees with what Griffith said at the bar. Although he jokes about her ability to handle herself and assess a crime scene, he also shows that he can be serious when he shares some theories about Cia’s disappearance the following day. As it turns out, the ferry to the mainland wasn’t the only way for Cia to get off the island.

Grace has a surprise visitor waiting in her office when she and Owen return to the station. After a quick introduction, Grace mentions a few words about Lady Nancarrow’s grandfather’s foresight to close off the island’s borders during the Spanish Flu. Much to Grace’s surprise, she learns that while the island was shuttered, Heather’s grandfather developed his own religion (The True Way) and convinced the locals to practice it. The discovery leads to Grace asking if someone could have manipulated Griffith into not investigating Cia’s disappearance. Reading between the lines, Heather says they certainly could have, but she would have had no reason to do so.

Grace and Owen learn later that day that the port authority only holds onto their CCTV footage for a month. Much to his surprise, Grace coldly tells him that he can go home. Grace later searches around the woods that outskirt the islands where she discovers what appears to an ancient ruins of some sort. Inside, he discovers a skeletonized corpse.

 

The Red King Review

Despite the ‘slow burn’ feeling and the ‘not-so-stellar’ performances, I was rather enjoying the series until Griffith and Grace’s racial encounter in the pub. That kind of ruined it for me. The whole island theme and the closing of the borders, along with the religious pagan mythology are extremely intriguing. The masks and costumes and the strange behavior of the locals add an eerie atmosphere. I must say that I’d give this episode a 5.4 and only find myself intrigued to learn more about the island and its strange inhabitants. I just hope they can keep the wokeism to a minimum.

I’m also rather interested in learning how Matt’s suicide ties in as well because I’m sure it does.

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