As the first episode of The Tower: Gallowstree Lane begins, a boy is stabbed on the street. The assailant casually walks away. Sarah Collins (Gemma Whelan) receives the call. She says goodbye to Julie Woodson (Camilla Beeput) before leaving. Lizzie Adama (Tahirah Sharif) wakes up to comfort her baby when a police car speeds by outside. Sarah meets Elaine Lucas (Ella Smith) at the crime scene. There was an off-duty paramedic named Owen Pierce who went to get milk a Yilmaz. The shop’s CCTV is not working. Sarah learns there were two kids at the time. She speaks to Owen who says the victim’s friend stole his phone. Owen asks why she’s going to stop this stuff.

Lizzie arrives at the Farlow Police Station where she’s greeted by Ash. They talk about the GBH she’s investigating and Friday night’s brawl in the mall. He mentions Arif Johar (Michael Karim) so Lizzie goes to speak to him. He’s an acting Sergeant now. They go through the CCTV from Friday night. Lizzie says they broke two of the victim’s ribs. Arif admits it might be a gang initiation. The violence is up and it’s like a turf war between Eardsley Bluds and the Soldiers. Arif manages to identify the man in the gray hoodie as Ryan Kennedy (Lamar Waves) who is from the Deacon Estate. He insists Ryan isn’t a bad kid although he just punched someone. They talk about Lizzie’s baby. Lizzie says Kieran Shawn (Emmett J Scanlan) is with his family and she’s with hers. Elaine tells Sarah that the victim has been identified as 15-year-old Spencer Cardoso.

DC Lee Coutts (Bobby Lockwood) arrives and says there is no family. The mother died seven years ago and there never was a dad. Sarah wants to track down the kids with the phone. Lee is asked to check CCTV in the area where the phone pinged. A young woman watches from a nearby balcony. Kieran Shaw is told that one of Shakiel’s road men got killed last night. They’re almost certain Ryan Kennedy was with Spencer when he died. Kieran doesn’t want to give Homicide Ryan’s name because he could jeopardize everything. Ash and Lizzie visit Ryan’s mother, Loretta. Tia comes in and complains about Ryan being in handcuffs. The pathologist (Kirsty Hoiles) tells Sarah about Spencer’s injuries. Elaine arrives with the 999 call. In the call, Ryan mentions Spencer’s name confirming they were friends. Ryan doesn’t give his name though.

Sarah suspects he saw who did it. She wants to get to work, but Elaine needs to pick up her kids. Ryan doesn’t cooperate with Lizzie. Ash believes he is another wanna-be gangster, but Lizzie doesn’t think so. Lizzie takes Ryan outside so she can try to get him to open up. She asks what he’s going to do with his life. Ryan says he and Spence are going to do something before he stops. He knows Lizzie is trying to get him to spill info. Lee uses CCTV to find a picture of Ryan under a bridge where another call was made. Sarah suspects he called his handler who told him to dump his top and phone. The number he called had only been active for a month and it was likely a trap line. Sarah agrees with Lee that Spencer and his mates went to Gallowstree Lane to do a drug deal. She wonders who his boss is.

Fedden rushes by so Sarah goes after him. She speaks to DCI Tim Bailie (Karl Davies) and DCI Jim Fedden (Stuart McQuarrie) about last night’s stabbing. She wants to set up a press conference because there is only a wall of silence this time around. Sarah believes putting the Met on offer might be a good idea. She alleges they wouldn’t be hesitating if this was a white girl. Tim says that’s the same old Sarah playing the race card. He agrees to set it up and wants the Safer Neighborhood Officer there as well. Lizzie possibly notices Ryan getting into a car so she writes down the information. Ujal Jarral (Omar Malik) asks Ryan whether he said anything to the police. Shakiel Oliver (Daniel Adegboyega) asks if they asked him about the other thing. Ryan says they didn’t ask him about Spence. Ujal complains Ryan called Shakiel with the stolen phone and put him in it.

Ryan wants to get them back. Lizzie plays with her son, Josh. Kieran arrives with a toy. He insists all of this isn’t good for her. Kieran asks if she knows the neighbor, Sandy, has a criminal caution. Lizzie argues she was only 19 at the time. She convinces Kieran to leave. Ryan steals another phone. He meets Steve Bradshaw (Jimmy Akingbola) and says he has something for him. Ryan tells him he knew the boy who was stabbed. He blames Lexi for setting them up. Ryan and Spencer went down there to meet Lexi Moss (Allie Aylott) before Spencer was fatally stabbed. Ryan gives him the phone he just stole. Steve pays him and says he’s there if he ever wants to talk about Spence. Steve’s room is being monitored since he’s undercover now. At the station, Lizzie speaks to DS Ash Curren (David O’Reilly) who tells her she’s been officially, temporarily transferred.

Ash says he’ll handle the GBH case. He believes this is a good break for her. Kieran says goodbye to Mary and his daughter. Tim Bailie calls him to tell him about the murder two nights ago in Perseus’s operational area. Kieran knows about Spencer, but claims he’s heard nothing on the street about the murder. He learns Sarah is involved in the investigation. Kieran says he knows nothing specific about the murder. He claims Shakiel’s arrest is imminent and he doesn’t want to compromise that. Kieran warns him that Shakiel wants to give the kids machine guns. Lizzie joins Operation Perseus. She’s asked to sign the Official Secrets Act. She’s told to make transcripts of the videos. DS Mark Angel introduces himself and explains they’re behind. Tim and Sarah speak to the press about Spencer. Sarah sees Lexi through the door.

Steve watches a video of his boys singing happy birthday. Kieran tells him to make a wish before he blows out the candle. They talk about kids. Steve tells Kieran he’s lucky that his wife still lets him sleep at home. They step out of the van and talk about Ryan’s visit. Shakiel is losing his roadmen so he wants guns. The shipment has either arrived in Rotterdam or it’s already there. They really don’t know. Steve says Shakiel is paranoid so his guy Jarral keeps sniffing around. Kieran insists Steve’s cover will hold. He offers to pull him out if he doesn’t feel safe though. Steve doesn’t want to give up now. Sarah talks about the boy who fled from the murder. One man says they’re never around and don’t solve crimes even though he sees ten-year-olds selling drugs. One woman points out it’s just harassing black kids.

Arif says knife crime is mostly black kids killing other black kids. The woman claims they don’t care when a black boy is stabbed. Lizzie learns more about Shakiel. A woman drops off something to Mark who gives it to Lizzie and tells her to work on it. She’s told to enter the undercover officer as UC1. Lizzie begins transcribing Steve’s conversation with Ryan earlier. Kieran enters and speaks to Angel. Lizzie learns about Lexi. Tim told Sarah this would blow up in their faces. Arif says Loretta knew Spencer well. Her son came home late and has been behaving oddly. Lizzie arrested him recently. Kieran tells Lizzie why this job will be good for her. He thought it’d be good to work with her again too. Lizzie learns about Steve going undercover. She reveals that Sarah has been calling her.

Kieran says she can’t let anything from here slip out. A panicky Lexi calls someone. Jarral visits Steve to say Shakiel wants to talk. Two men meet Lexi who asks for a hit. Danny calls Shakiel to say he just picked up his girl. Steve meets Shakiel who tells Jarral to go do that thing. Once they’re alone, Shakiel tells Steve why Jarral doesn’t trust him. He admits he’s not happy because of this stuff going on. He questions where the police are. Shakiel says cops love operations and send in snitches. Steve suggests backing off a bit if he’s worried. Shakiel doesn’t back off. He just moves forward. He asks Steve if he wants to come with him. Sarah visits Lizzie at home. Lizzie admits they arrested Ryan for assault but couldn’t make it stick. They did not find an orange anorak or any phones.

Sarah complains no one including Lizzie is giving her anything. She asks Lizzie to call if she thinks of anything. Lizzie tells her about the vehicle Ryan got into when he left the station. Sarah takes the registration. Ryan buys a knife. Lexi is told to get out and call when she has the money. She works the streets with other women. Mary picks up the phone when Lizzie calls. Mary tells Kieran who says working together is temporary. Mary reminds him he agreed not to work with her again. She makes him leave. Sarah speaks to Julie at home and says she has to go back out. She gets upset because of the school kids she’s dealing with. Jarral sees Lexi and accelerates towards her. He possibly hits her as the episode ends.

 

The Tower Review

The opening episode of The Tower’s third series was okay although a little preachy at times. The color grading isn’t great because it makes everything look colorless and dull. That’s probably intentional to try to set the mood, but the story and characters should be able to do that on their own.

There isn’t much new here. The police are still dealing with the same allegations and yet another victim. Sarah is on the right side while everyone else seems to be on the edge. In the first episode, the victims aren’t particularly sympathetic although the show is trying to portray them as such.

Some of the casting choices are definitely strange, but this is a very left-leaning show so it meshes well with that. Emmett Scanlan remains as interesting as ever as the perpetual bad guy who sometimes does the right thing. It’s another British series and book wanting so badly to experience an American-like crime crisis.

The opening episode was okay, but a little too preachy and similar to everything else. It scores a 5.75 out of 10. Recaps of The Tower can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. See what others are saying here.