As the third episode of The Tower begins, PC Lizzie Adama (Tahirah Sharif) meets with DI Kieran Shaw (Emmett Scanlan). He pulls out Farah’s cellphone and explains Hadley (Nick Holder) called him to say it was in his locker on his way to the tower. Shaw insists Hadley Matthews took the cellphone to protect her. She listens to the recording and hears Hadley refer to Farah (Lola Elsokari) as little Miss Jihadi. Then, she hears him call her father Bin Laden although Kieran doesn’t believe it was a racist tirade. He doesn’t believe it was a big deal or that Hadley should’ve lost everything because he talked like he was from the streets. Lizzie isn’t sure though. Kieran still believes Farah was mad. Lizzie insists she is going to tell the truth about what happened and she doesn’t care what will happen to her. Kieran encourages her to change her mind because she’ll go to prison where she’ll be bullied and they’ll put stuff in her food.

He is confident that Farah killed Hadley although Lizzie says otherwise. He asks what happened up there and Lizzie says she didn’t kill him. Then, we join DS Sarah Collins (Gemma Whelan). Kieran tells Lizzie she did good by saving the child, but she needs to allow herself to survive. She accuses him of handling her again before asking whether he slept with her to keep her on his side. Kieran says the Mehenni complaint was nothing and he couldn’t keep her out of his head. He encourages her to stay out of trouble by getting rid of the phone. She believes Kieran has already landed in trouble because he is her inspector. He tells her he searched for the phone for her and could go to jail for her. He takes the phone while DS Collins shows up at his home to question Mary (Laurie Delaney) who says he has taken the dog for a walk. She has a search warrant for the house, but Mary doesn’t want them searching it until Kieran comes back.

Kieran asks Lizzie whether she is going to let this go and become a good job. He believes the people with the politically correct words would want people like him and Hadley when they’re in trouble and not someone hesitant like Lizzie. She isn’t sure why she’d want to be a bully or liar though. He says he is going to dispose of the cellphone on his way home. Although he loves her, he isn’t going to let her sacrifice him as well. Once he returns to his vehicle, he contemplates what to do with Farah’s cellphone. Then, he returns home and learns about the search warrant. Collins tells him Younes made some disturbing claims so Kieran asks whether he told her why he decided to ignore every attempt to defuse the situation. Once they go inside, DC Jez Vine (Jim English) searches Kieran. Mary finds the cellphone in her cup while Collins watches her from a distance. Lizzie strolls by the tower and remembers the aftermath of the incident.

Kieran approaches Collins as she searches his house and reminds her of the Kovacs case. He insists it’ll be her fault if something happens to Lizzie although Collins doesn’t believe so. Then, they discuss their special relationship which Kieran says is none of her business. He says Lizzie is an amazing police officer, but he doubts she’ll want to be one once Sarah is finished with her. Lizzie sits around and thinks about Farah and Hadley before Sarah tells Kieran they’re done and they didn’t find anything. Sarah says she is surprised at how untouchable some people think they are. Sarah meets with DC Steve Bradshaw (Jimmy Akingbola) as they decide to move to Hadley’s postmortem since they can’t find Farah’s cellphone. Lizzie calls Steve but doesn’t say anything. He agrees to get a trace on her phone. She takes out the SIM card and destroys it. The pathologist looks at Hadley’s hands before telling Sarah she needs to reexamine the girl’s body.

She shows Sarah the scratches on Hadley’s arms and explains he had skin under his nails as well. Lizzie climbs on top of the tower and Steve follows her. He encourages her not to do anything as she gets closer to the edge. He convinces her to come down from Portland Tower. Sarah tells him to lock her down and prevent her from talking to anyone. When Steve asks what she is going to do, Lizzie insists her only choice is to tell the truth about what happened now. Steve says he has friends who haven’t talked to him since he joined the police and suspects Lizzie has experienced the same. He wonders if Lizzie wants that to end and says she has a third option, but she’ll have to lie. When Mary returns home, she tells Kieran she smashed the phone with a hammer and threw the pieces in the river like he should’ve.

Sarah learns from Steve that Lizzie just wanted space before DCI Tim Bailie (Karl Davies) arrives and congratulates Steve for finding the fugitive. Tim pulls them aside and asks why they were searching for phantom phones when they could’ve interviewed Carrie whose son is a witness. Steve explains she has refused to let Ben talk to them. Sarah is asked what she has so she begins telling DCI Bailie about the postmortem and Hadley’s nails and the bruises on Farah’s wrists. She believes Hadley attacked Farah and that Lizzie will be their star witness. They prepare for the interview with Lizzie. DC Alice Parker (Harriet Webb) offers to let her use the bathroom or get a shot of vodka, but Lizzie is ready to talk. Lizzie joins Steve and Sarah before confirming she has declined legal representation.

She denies Hadley said racist things although he had a way of saying things that were misunderstood. She refuses to say that Farah lied too. When asked about the second statement, Lizzie insists she just didn’t get around to it because she was so busy as usual. She is asked if Hadley or Kieran pressured her although she denies those claims as well. Lizzie doesn’t deny being in a relationship with Kieran but insists he didn’t pressure her. Sarah insists she wasn’t there and never heard Hadley’s statement. Lizzie says no. Both agree that a police officer needs to follow the law 100% of the time. Sarah plays a recording from Younes which says Lizzie couldn’t hear anything because she was in the backyard. When Lizzie hears him talking about Farah’s phone, she tells Sarah to stop. She keeps asking them to stop and Steve agrees. During a break, Sarah tells Steve they’re getting close and they only need one more push. Steve concurs although he doesn’t seem as excited as his partner.

When they return to the interview, Lizzie tells them about the call about the 5-year-old boy missing. She knew it had to be Ben Stoddard (Rex Parry) and Farah told her she liked to go to Portland Tower. When she is asked about Farah recording it, Lizzie says it isn’t true just because Younes said it. She believes Hadley heard the same radio calls and came to the tower as well. By the time she got to the tower, Farah was already there with Ben and Hadley. Sarah argues that Farah is upset because Matthews took her phone although Lizzie only says she believes the police lied to her. Lizzie denies knowing anything about the phone. Sarah wants to know why Farah took Ben. In a flashback, Lizzie tells Hadley he shouldn’t have taken the phone before encouraging Farah to come back from the edge. Lizzie tells Farah she wants her and not Ben. Farah tells Ben to let them know she let him go before he is released into Lizzie’s arms.

Lizzie insists they were there and then they weren’t. Sarah believes Hadley was only going to get his life back if Farah went off the tower so he went after her. Sarah continues pushing until Lizzie says she is right because she did see it. However, she denies that Hadley killed Farah. Lizzie blames herself while saying she tried to grab her. Instead, Hadley and Farah went off the tower together. She goes on to say Hadley was safe but tried to save her. Lizzie tells Sarah she doesn’t know Hadley at all before taking the blame for killing Farah. Steve says trying to save a life isn’t a chargeable offense and immediately ends the interview. Steve approaches her later to tell her she is free to go. Their case will go to the CPS which will decide whether to prosecute. Sarah notices them talking outside. Steve tells Lizzie that is the end of it because Hadley and Farah found each other and neither would back down. He says the service is better with Lizzie in it and that is why he betrayed his friend for her.

He encourages her to learn from it, move on, and become a good cop. Back inside, Sarah asks Steve why it took so long for him to take Lizzie into custody the night before. Then, she accuses him of helping her through the difficult part, but he tells her not to be ridiculous. Steve tells her to punish Shaw because he should be the one in the interview room. He asks Sarah whether she joined the force to send an inexperienced cop to jail. She says yes. As for Steve, he joined to put away bad guys. He admits she is a good detective, but she wastes her talents. Sarah is told to put her complaint about him down on paper. We jump ahead 11 days after the fall. Shaw visits Lizzie to tell her she is glad she didn’t give Collins anything. Then, he tells her that Artemis arrested Laszlo Kovacs last night and they need her to identify him. He tells her where to go and how to identify him. She goes and identifies Kovacs as number six in the pictures.

When she finishes, she runs into PC Arif Johar (Michael Karim) and they briefly talk about Kovacs. She asks him if he can forgive her for backing Hadley and not the girl. Arif says he asked himself what he would do although he hasn’t been able to answer. He forgives him as a result. Arif encourages her to come back and they hug. Tim shows Sarah the letter about CPS refusing to prosecute. She lays out her theory although Tim reminds her that she can’t prove any of it. He also says they need people like Lizzie who just identified Kovacs. As for Sarah, Northumbria Police have asked for her help. She reveals she accepted a job on the homicide team and starts in two weeks. She thanks Tim for everything. Sarah attends Hadley’s funeral after that. Kieran says goodbye to Hadley and the other officers follow his lead. When Mary gets in the vehicle, we see that she still has Farah’s cellphone. Lizzie goes to Farah’s grave and Sarah joins her seconds later.

Lizzie admits she didn’t go to Hadley’s funeral. Then, she tells Sarah she is wrong about her because she is just as good of a cop as Sarah and will prove it.

 

The Tower Review

The Tower would be a hit television show if politics made great television because it certainly ticked all the right boxes. It had racism, overweight cops, powerful females, overly bad officers, and anything else you could throw into the melting pot. Unfortunately, the premise really let the show down considering it never delivered any form of urgency or suspense. A female cop is on the run because she is likely covering up the racial comments made by her dead partner, but no one is at risk.

We needed legitimate, cutting-edge drama in which characters could be killed or at least put in danger at every turn, but The Tower never delivered on this. None of the characters were likable except maybe Steve and that might’ve been by design. At the very least, I appreciate that they didn’t go with a cookie-cutter finale although we don’t need another season of this either. The Tower was mediocre at best and laughable at worst. The finale scores a 6 out of 10. All recaps of The Tower are now available on Reel Mockery here.