At the beginning of the episode, Emma Hedges (Molly Windsor) calls Aunt Julie and lets them know she has made it to Scotland. Moments later, she gets stuck in traffic and the driver in front of her suspects someone is trying to leap from the nearby bridge. During the wait, Emma receives a call from her aunt telling her not to put diesel in her car. Finally, the traffic gets moving again and Emma goes on her way. While driving along, Emma hears a news report about a fire killing several people at the Secrets nightclub. Then, we jump over to the University of Tayside where Professor Sarah Gordon (Laura Fraser) teaches a class.

After the class ends, Sarah learns about the fire at Secrets. She speaks with Kathy (Jennifer Spence) about the fire and the investigation into that fire. After that, Sarah tells her colleague that the new lab technician Emma is going to be arriving today. Sarah tells Kathy that they can travel to the strategy meeting together but Kathy isn’t going. She is headed straight to the scene. Kathy checks her mail and finds a postcard from Australia. The sender says that they’re going to pay her a visit. Sarah attends the meeting and learns that a human body was found in the office and another in the kitchen.

The group sees pictures of two members of staff who have not been accounted for yet. Emma makes it to her room. Surprisingly, there is a picture of a dead woman hanging on the wall. A firefighter tells the group about the fire before Sarah gives them a game plan. After the meeting ends, Sarah and the others head to Secrets to scour through the scene. Sarah finds a burnt toaster and potato chip packages. Moments later, Neil is alerted to another body. Next, Emma heads to the university. She is introduced to Louise (Anna Leong Brophy) who she’ll be working with. Louise and Emma jump right in immediately.

Emma is told about an online course for SIFA and encouraged to check it out. After that, Emma heads outside and runs into Sarah and Kathy. Emma goes to a spot where she used to spend time as a child. She has a flashback of dancing around with her friend and her mother. The camera zooms in on her anchor tattoo. That night, Emma cannot sleep so she accesses the SIFA’s online training course, MOOC. The video features Sarah talking about the university and the training course which will focus on a fictional case. Emma continues watching and realizes that the fictional case seems familiar. She calls her aunt and tells her that MOOC is using her mother’s story.

Emma is told to go to sleep and she does. In the morning, Laura begins working on the toaster evidence collected from the scene and Emma continues watching the MOOC training videos. It appears that someone stuffed cardboard into the toaster. Emma goes to the university and confronts Sarah about using her mother’s case for MOOC. Sarah denies it and says that they invented a crime. Sarah apologizes and says that Emma’s mother is not the body in the MOOC. The investigation into the fire continues. Sarah calls Torrance and suggests she would’ve been aware of the similarities between Marie Monroe’s case and the MOOC murder.

Torrance says that they’ll need to remove all similarities from MOOC so they do not get sued. After that, Emma runs into her old friend Skye (Jamie Marie Leary). Torrance and the others work to identify the bodies. Emma tells Skye about her new position. Skye tells her friend that her mother would love to see it and Emma confesses she hasn’t visited her father yet. Sarah tells the others her theory as to how the fire started. They go outside and Sarah demonstrates how the toaster would catch fire on its side and with cardboard stuck in it. That night, Emma goes to a club where her father is performing. Then, they go back home and speak about the death of Emma’s mother.

Emma wants to know who killed her mother but her father doesn’t have the answer. Emma thinks she has reached the age where she needs to know. She goes to sleep on her father’s shoulder so he takes her to bed. In the middle of the night, Emma is awoken by someone banging on the door. She yells through the door and the person on the other side wants something her father has. When that person leaves, Emma searches through her dad’s belongings. She snaps a picture of her father and mother in bed together.

The following day, Neil tells Sarah that the cardboard led them to a woman who remembers putting the package in the recycling bin. The manager of Secrets lived nearby. Unfortunately, the manager jumped off a bridge and killed himself so they cannot speak with him. Torrance gets a visit from a friend. She shuts the door and speaks to him about sleeping with someone. It sounds like she barely knew the individual but they’re going to be visiting her. The friend doesn’t seem to care as long as the sex was good. Next, Sarah learns that there is no match for the body found in the kitchen. She believes he could’ve been the one who started the fire.

Kathy asks Sarah where they’re at with Marie Monroe. Kathy suggests they apply for the data protection thing and hope it doesn’t take forever. She tells Sarah not to beat herself up over a mistake cause it will lead to another. Emma tries to get in touch with her father before meeting with Skye and her mother at the hospital. They speak about smoking before the conversation turns to Marie Monroe. The mother says something about the bones being cut up. Emma calls her aunt and asks why nobody told her about the dismemberment. Julie says that her sister wasn’t cut up. Later, Emma meets with Jimmy (Phil McKee) and they begin chatting about Marie’s death.

Jimmy admits that he and Julie kept things from Emma. However, he says that Marie was not dismembered. Emma wants to know what her mother suffered. He says that the police told him nothing and they failed them. Jimmy says Marie cut her hair off when Emma was around six. That night, Emma goes through pictures of her mother. In the morning, she rushes to the University to speak with Sarah about her mother’s murder. Sarah doesn’t believe she would be the right one to talk to. Emma shows her the picture of her mom and dad. She explains that they weren’t together when the photo was taken. She was with her step-dad at the time. Emma believes that might have something to do with the murder.

 

Traces Review

I noticed Traces had high scores elsewhere so I was hoping it would be good. At this point, I am not impressed at all. I thought the acting was a bit shaky here and there. Jennifer Spencer was particularly bad and Molly Windsor seemed odd at certain times. The audio is terrible too. It was difficult to hear the dialogue because the music was way too loud. Then, we have the story. I didn’t find it interesting at all.

Who would come up with the name Marie Monroe? Really? Nobody is going to confuse that with Marilyn Monroe. I feel that the show is going to juggle too much simultaneously with the nightclub fire and the murder of Emma’s mom. The opening episode was dismal at best. It was boring, slow, and felt like it was pieced together by an amateur. The episode scores a 6 out of 10.