Episode 4 opens with Grace Narayan (Anjli Mohindra) sharing the news of her posting on St. Jory with her mother, Jasmine Narayan (Renu Brindle). The meeting appears to be going rather well until Jasmine tells Grace that she isn’t her daughter, her daughter is a wh*re.

Ian Prideaux (Marc Warren) lounges behind bars while Grace and Owen Parry (James Bamford) find they are severely limited on the Cai Prideaux (Charlie Thould) case without access to the Internet. Their discussion about Silas Bennion’s (Aled AP Steffan) stolen file leads to Owen sharing what he knows about the 4 Gods that the True Way worships. There is the Wood God, the Headed Goddess, The Red King, and The Holly King. Silas brings their lesson to an abrupt end when he shows up at the station to say that he doesn’t want to press charges against Griffith/Gruffudd Prosser (Mark Lewis Jones). Silas doesn’t appear too happy to learn that his file was stolen.

Elsewhere, Winter Bain (Maeve Courtier-Lilley) is on her way to visit Grace when she’s stopped by her mother, Lowri Bain (Lu Corfield) with requests to deliver a bag of homemade cakes to Grace. This only leads to an argument and Winter’s subsequent storming off when she notes that Lowri only ever made her lunch once.

Lucy Popkin (Lauren Morais) and Elan Parry (Rosie Sheehy) visit Mihangel Pugh (Oliver Ryan) at home to learn that he has nothing further to add to Cai’s death after speaking with the ‘others.’ Lucy appears equally horrified and disgusted when she inadvertently catches him flogging himself. She keeps the discovery to herself but does advocate for going to the police to claim that True Way is being framed. Both Elan and Mihangel both disagree.

Lady Heather Nancarrow (Adjoa Andoh) and Father Douglas Carrisford (Sam Swainsbury) show up at the station to vilify Grace needlessly and irresponsibly driving the locals into a panic with her accusations. Grace doesn’t have a problem standing her ground or justifying her actions. Grace ends the encounter by telling Nancarrow the best thing she can do for the people and Cai is to let her do her job. Winter has arrived just in time to catch the last bit of Grace’s stand and later admits to being impressed and turned on. Owen and Father Douglas are equally impressed. With that out of the way, Winter volunteers to help around the station. Much to Winter’s and Owen’s surprise, Grace immediately agrees they could use the help. After a bit of protesting by Owen, Ian has somehow escaped his confinement and is studying the satellite photos. He tells Grace that the vehicle belongs to Mihangel.

On their way to question Mihangel, Grace tries to learn more about Beth Ann’s disappearance from Owen. He accuses her of having a vendetta against Griffith and claims to know that she doesn’t think he had anything to do with Cai’s death. It doesn’t take them long to spot the Range Rover or Mihangel when they arrive on his property. When they approach him on the porch, he silently gets up and casually walks inside, grabbing a shotgun on the way. Although he holds them at gunpoint and Grace attempts to talk him down, he ultimately ends up blowing his head off.

By the time Elan delivers Ian to the scene, Grace has discovered the sun mask from the Wood God costume but still hasn’t located the file. While Elan remains outside with Owen and demands to know what’s going on, Ian puts on his TYVEX suit and joins Grace. Although Grace never confirms that Mihangel had anything to do with Cai’s death, Ian becomes agitated with the thought that Mihangel is going to avoid justice. Ian is eventually ordered to return home and not say a word about what he saw.

Grace and Owen receive a hero’s welcome when they return to the station. Grace isn’t at all happy about the intrusion and refuses to comment. She whisks Owen into her office and closes the shades where they discuss who broke the news and how the investigation will proceed. Despite Owen’s astonishment at the need to investigate further, Grace points out that they virtually know nothing more than his Range Rover was spotted at the shelter on the same night Cai died. Winter’s sudden arrival and instance to celebrate only further stresses Grace and when she spots of group photo of Griffith and Owen with several of the locals, she appears to have more questions than answers.

When Grace shows up at Griffith’s flat to question him, she is stunned to learn that Minh Prosser (Tuyen Do) speaks nearly perfect English. She’s even more surprised when Minh admits that Griffith left for several hours to supposedly deal with a cow during last year’s Widow’s Whale. Minh cannot explain how he received the alert about the cow because the lines were down and she doesn’t recall anyone coming to the door. Grace excuses herself to the bathroom and uses the opportunity to scope out Beth’s room. She appears to struggle with the decision to take Beth’s laptop before leaving.

Lady Nancarrow shows up at the station to congratulate Grace but instead finds Winter. This leads to an awkward conversation that only gets stranger when Nancarrow asks Winter if she’s a member of the True Way and why she stole Silas’s file from Grace’s car. Across town at the pub, Grace finds herself in a similar situation when Griffith accosts her for invading his privacy. He admits to taking a lackadaisical approach to Cai’s search but turns violent and storms off when she asks about Beth Ann.

Elan and Lucy visit the parish where Lucy once again advocates going to the police, pointing out that the only thing they did was believe. Elan practically ignores her but becomes upset when Lucy says she doesn’t know what they are anymore. Elan is quick to remind her that they are the last living subjects of the old kings and they have nearly reached their goal. When they finally make it inside the church, both are stunned to discover Mihangel, stripped down to his underwear and hanging from what appears to be a huge easel. He’s also outfitted with a blue mask, crown, several True Way insignias, and a wooden board with Romans 6:1 painted on it. When Father Douglas and Owen show up, Grace learns the meaning of the bible verse as well as the fact that only a few select individuals had keys to the church. Grace eventually tells Owen to tell Lucy and Elan to go home but stay available for a statement.

Meanwhile, Grace visits Lady Nancarrow to share the discovery of Mihangel’s body with her and ask about her keys to the church. It turns out that Nancarrow still has her keys. More importantly, she also has Silas’s file and although she returns it to Grace, she refuses to say who gave it to her. Grace doesn’t express much gratefulness.

Grab returns to the pub to find a seemingly stressed Lowri who insists on making sure Grace has someone to lean on. When Grace expresses an urgency to dig into the file, Lowri hints at seeing Winter with it. It’s not long after this that Grace finds herself at the police station arguing with Winter. Winter admits to taking the file but denies all involvement in the True Way and Cai’s death. Grace flips out and tells Winter she can no longer volunteer.

Later that night after a cup of tea at home, Owen encourages Elan to go to bed, given that their son will be waking up early. He tells her that he’s going to be tied up with securing the crime scene all night. Before he leaves, he also mentions possibly leaving the island, which she appears to be completely opposed to.

Elsewhere, Lucy wakes up in the middle of the night and goes to the kitchen to get a drink of water. While doing so, her attention is drawn to a dark figure in the garden. Once she goes outside the figure is nowhere to be found but on her way back inside, he/she attacks her from behind.

Owen arrives early at the station the next morning, but before he can even get inside he is met by a frantic Grace who whisks him inside to reveal her big discovery. She spends the next several minutes frantically explaining how someone has been trying to frame True Way.

 

The Red King Review

Unfortunately, they cannot all be winners and that is the category I would put this episode in. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy it or thought it was horrible. It was neither, although it did feel entirely like a filler episode. I can only hope that the two following episodes aren’t the same. Other than that, episode 4 was enjoyable. There was the scene where Grace made Ian verify Mihangel’s death that seemed a bit strange. I know it intended to look like she is a stickler for protocol, but it just seemed strange. I’d still have to give the episode a 5.4 out of 10.

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