As the 4th season of Unforgotten begins, we’re transported to Haringey, London. A man sings in his car before arriving at the scrapyard and getting out. Terry (Terry Alderton) and Ray (Steve North) joke around about the FA Cup before Ray sees something that startles him and tells Terry about it. He tells Gav to stop for a second and we see a young person’s leg sticking out from the debris. After the intro, DI Sunny Khan (Sanjeev Bhaskar) talks to Sal (Michelle Bonnard) on the phone and says the girls will handle it. When the call ends, he makes sure DS Fran Lingley (Carolina Main) is ready before looking in at Cassie’s empty office. Meanwhile, Cassie (Nicola Walker) stays at home and says she is heading in around one and she wants to be on her own for half an hour.

She yells for Adam to tell him the estate agent is coming at ten and she wants him up by then. She talks to John Bentley (Alastair Mackenzie) about his upcoming interview. He offers to reschedule, but Cassie doesn’t want that. She turns her attention to Adam once again in hopes of waking him up. Sunny arrives at the scene of the discovery and tells Fran about getting his daughter to clean the chimney and it turning into a big fight. He says it was when she was 12 but Fran hopes he is joking. DS Murray Balcombe (Jordan Long) approaches and tells them about the discovery of the body. He says security is excellent so the owner doesn’t think the body was dumped illicitly and they believe the body might’ve been hid in something. Sunny greets Leanne (Georgia Mackenzie) before checking the body.

He lifts the shirt sleeve and finds a tattoo that has the initials MFC. He consults with Leanne who says it will be hard to age the body without the head and teeth, but they believe it is a relatively young adult male. Sunny suspects the body was mutilated in an attempt to obscure the man’s identity. Leanne finds it odd that the man’s skin appears to be wrinkled so she checked its temperature with her thermometer and it broke. She used another more carefully and got a reading of minus 15 so it is believed that the body was frozen in a freezer like a piece of meat. Next, we jump to Southall and Ram Sidhu (Phaldut Sharma) parks his car illegally but waves at the policeman who seems willing to ignore it. He steps inside his clothing store and gives one of the workers a gift before passing out through the back and heading upstairs.

Seconds later, Bal Sidhu (Ronny Jhutti) tells him he is late, but Ram doesn’t want to hear it since he has a major hangover. He checks on his mother who says she is okay today, but yesterday wasn’t so good. Ram’s father doesn’t seem too happy to see his son. Next, we’re taken to Buxton where Fiona Grayson (Liz White) works with Geoff Tomlinson (Daniel Flynn). Fiona admits she doesn’t want to be there and it is already hard enough without Geoff spending money they don’t have. That convinced Geoff to put carpet in the room before he gets a call from Amy. He asks Fiona if she can go to his brother’s office after work for mortgage forms and she agrees to do so. Next, Fran finds a freezer that has been secured with a lock and finds that odd. Sunny gets the freezer open and discovers blood inside. He suspects they’ll be able to use the blood to find out who their victim is.

Then, Cassie finds out that they’re not willing to budge and that they’re happy with the first six months as sick leave. They’re willing to go half pay for another six months, but they’re not going to support a medical retirement. She is three months shy of her full 30 years and retirement. DSI Clive Andrews (Colin R. Campbell) claims he is just as angry as she is and says they’re still counting every single penny. He tells her the number again which is 124,467 pounds and Cassie would lose that although she couldn’t come back three months ago. They claim it isn’t the case and that upsets Cassie. She refers to them as bean counters since they’ve never done a day on the job and don’t know what 29 years and nine months on the job will do to a person. She argues that the judgment doesn’t cut her any slack but Clive can’t do anything and says they’ll have to go back to them.

Cassie leaves after saying she needs to think about it. After that, we’re taken to Cambridge where we’re introduced to Liz Baildon (Susan Lynch). She rides her bike back home and says hello to Eugenia who is in the kitchen cleaning up. She checks on her mother Eileen (Sheila Hancock) upstairs but her mother is busy listening to something. When it finishes, Eileen talks to her daughter about her love for music and her dad’s disappointment that his daughter didn’t love it too. Eileen goes on to say she is lying in bed wishing she was dead because everyone she liked or enjoyed spending time with already is. She tells her daughter that it was an asinine question so she gave her an equally asinine response. Eileen complains about the soup being cold so Elizabeth says she’ll ask Eugenia to heat it up on her way out. Meanwhile, Sunny finds out that the freezer model was only manufactured between 1998 and 2008.

A wrapper for a Marathon bar is pulled from the victim’s pocket and given to Sunny who says it is what they used to call Snickers bars. However, he thinks they might’ve rebooted the Marathon name last year. It would’ve been plastic so they try to figure out when the company changed it originally. Next, we move to Rochester, Kent and Jill is told that there are three ways to make money from a charity event. Dean tries to tell her that the most important is the money brought in after the event. Right now, their most important priority is getting the last two tables sold to the richest people they can find. When the call ends, he begins working on the Mother’s Day card for Mary. Marnie (Lucy Speed) barges through the door and tells him he needs to see this. He goes downstairs and finds his son, Jack, dancing and singing. We can clearly see that Jack has mental deficiencies.

Jack and Marnie try to force Dean to dance for them and he agrees but says it better not end up on Facebook. Dean dances with his son while his wife films the dance session on her phone. After that, Sunny meets with Cassie and encourages her to start on one of the projects or take a job in admin, but Cassie doesn’t want a job in admin. He asks her to come back and join them, but Cassie is worried she would lose it again. Sunny isn’t sure what to say and Cassie doesn’t either so he changes the subject to John and the boys. When the conversation shifts to Martin (Peter Egan), Cassie says she told him it was rapid onset dementia and he is having a lot of memory issues. He knows what is happening and it is terrifying and angering him. Sunny apologizes for that. Before Cassie leaves, Sunny asks her about the Marathons changing to Snickers.

She believes it happened in 2000 but Sunny says it was 1990. He tells her more about the victim and the search for his DNA. The lab has confirmed traces of blood in the freezer so the body was likely kept there. Sunny mentions the Millwall tattoo on the victim’s arm before Cassie tells him to check to see what else they dumped when they find the right vehicle because she wonders if there is another freezer with the rest of the victim in it. Bal finds Ram smoking near the windowsill and sits down next to him. Ram says it reminds him of the day 40 years ago when he was looking down from there and feeling petrified. He says it was the first time they showed them they were the smiley, waggly-headed twats they wanted them to be. Ram goes on to say it is good to be reminded of that once in a while because they both know it isn’t over.

Fran checks the serial number and learns that the freezer was purchased in August of 2001 from a branch of Curry’s in Croydon. And, she has learned that the buyer’s name is Robert Fogerty, but his last known address was a block of flats that were demolished seven years ago. Murray says he was on the phone with the firm that dumped the freezer and they’re a household clearance firm that is contracted by the Haringey Council. They cleared a house that was owned by Robert Fogerty and that is how they dumped the freezer. Unfortunately, he died two months ago. Dean enters a building and greets Claire (Alice Sykes) before he is given paperwork that needs signing for the Morrison contracts. He also learns that a man named Felix called for him. He gives her the mother’s day card and asks her to take it to the post before entering his office.

Dean checks his phone but doesn’t find a Felix in there so he checks the contacts on his computer. Cassie returns home and learns that John changed the interview to next week. She thanks and hugs him. They discuss the retirement decision before Cassie says she needs to check on her father. Then, Sunny meets with the mover and is shown the house where Robert’s body and the freezer were discovered. He explains it had an odd bracket on it so they couldn’t get it open. He tells Jake (Lewis Reeves) and Sunny that they didn’t care because the money was rubbish so it was a get in and out job. There was no other freezer but the rest of Robert’s belongings are at their warehouse waiting to get sorted. There were no relatives so nobody took anything.

Jake will need to go with him and Sunny explains why. Cassie tells John she doesn’t want to return to her job so she’ll need to give up the money. John believes they can make it without it, but Cassie isn’t sure about that. She doesn’t think she has any choice but to return to work. Next, a search is conducted on Robert Fogerty before Sunny gets a call from Leanne. Also, Murray checks for men with a Millwall tattoo. Leanne says there is no obvious cause of death so she believes the head can help determine the death. Sunny gets a hit for the name Robert Ashley James Fogerty and he looks at the man’s fingerprints. Cassie and John sit down with her dad and his girlfriend. Martin says they need people to work for 30 years and can’t make exceptions for people who’ve just had enough. His comments upset Cassie. He goes on to say that they take off a day just for breaking a fingernail and taxpayers have to pay for it.

After a brief argument about pensions, Cassie decides it is time for her and John to leave. Sunny spends the night eating pizza while Martin’s girlfriend tells Cassie that Martin wants to talk to her about his will. She offers to call when they have a date in the diary. Geoff talks to his children about Mother’s Day, but Sam hasn’t done anything despite being reminded multiple times. Fiona hauls them away for school. Cassie meets with Clive and tells him she might as well do what she does if she had to return. She wants to start on the Fogerty case and Clive gives her the okay to do that. Fiona talks to Geoff about Mother’s Day and says it is good to remind the kids how lucky they are to have both parents since she didn’t. She also mentioned working with messed up families before she is dropped off at The Hartbrock Family Therapy Clinic.

She goes inside and says good morning to Pearl. Eugenia asks Liz if she has a few minutes, but she is in a rush. She stops anyway and learns that Eugenia has been thinking about leaving because the work is hard and Eileen can be difficult. She says she has been struggling with money but Liz says her raise was more than inflation and she is getting more than the going rate for the job. Liz admits she doesn’t want to lose her so she offers to speak with her at the end of the week. Fiona works with a young girl and talks about lying to the people they’re closest to. She tells the girl about the damage that can do. Cassie puts her ID back around her neck and returns to her office. Jake and the others are happy to see her. Sunny approaches her and says he told them not to make a fuss about it like she told him. She says she is going to keep her head down, do the job, and not get too involved.

Sunny sits down and they begin discussing the Fogerty case. He says there was one PNC record for a drink drive conviction from 1990 and that was Marathon year. He has made an application to get the details from the microfiche. Jake is on his way to the house clearance company to check everything they took and didn’t dump. He also thinks they’ve identified their victim. After a brief break, Jake looks through the man’s belongings and finds a picture of Mr. Fogerty. Ram meets with Anna (Clare Calbraith) at the hospital so they can check the ultrasound and look at their baby. It is Ram’s third baby, but Anna’s first. The nurse asks about Anna’s age again and learns she is 46 before stepping out to talk to a colleague about something. That worries Anna and Ram.

Next, we see a picture of the victim and Murray introduces him as Matthew Kieran Walsh. He is referred to as Matt and disappeared when he was 24. At the time, he was an apprentice electrician. Murray tells them about the photos they got from his girlfriend at the time named Karen Chambers. The tattoos match and it is unique so Murray thinks it confirms his identity before he says Matthew was last seen on March 30, 1990 near Copesfield Park in West Hendon. He was last seen about a mile from where he lived. Liz meets with Janet (Amanda Douge) so they can talk about their upcoming wedding. Liz is concerned that her mother is going to hate it, but she is going to invite her anyway. She promises not to let her spoil it for them before Janet admits she would’ve put her out to pasture a long time ago.

Sunny finds something interesting from the front page of the Fogerty drink drive stop. He says Fogerty was stopped at 11:37 on the night of March 30, 1990 on Colebridge Road which is less than a mile away from where Matthew Walsh was last seen. Matthew was walking nearby at 10:55. The arresting cop’s name was Alan Hamilton and his notes indicate there were four other people in the car with Fogerty when he was pulled over. Then, Dean calls Felix and we learn that their old mates before Felix asks for a favor. He explains he has been let down by a massive shipment and he wonders if Dean can help, but Dean says he hasn’t done that for 11 years. Then, he asks how much Felix is talking about. Sunny and Cassie meet with Alan Hamilton (John Ashton) who says he remembers the incident very well because it was so strange and nothing like that had ever happened to him before and never happened again.

The car was speeding and he smelled alcohol on Fogerty’s breath when he got out of the vehicle. Although he didn’t seem drunk, he took and failed the test. Fogerty started crying when he was arrested and he seemed like a child. Then, Fogerty told him he was coming back from a celebration party in Hendon for passing out. Alan goes on to explain that he was a probationer who had just qualified and he was crying because he screwed up his entire career. Cassie asks about the others in the car before we see a glimpse of Ram, Anna, Liz, and Fiona. Alan admits it stuck with him because all five of them were newly qualified coppers and had been at the party.

 

Unforgotten Review

Unforgotten is slow, but when it gets going the speed ramps up significantly. This episode was a good example of that since it started digging deeper into Fogerty at the very end of the episode. I am glad this show is back because I am confident it is going to be emotional, suspenseful, and fantastic from start to finish. Now that we’ve been introduced to the potential key players in Matthew’s death, I am sure things will speed up and we’ll ride on an emotional roller coaster until the last minute of the last episode.

Our victim is Matthew Walsh whose body was kept in a locked freezer in Robert Fogerty’s house. On the night Matthew went missing, Robert was arrested for drunken driving after qualifying to become a new copper. So far, I am suspecting that the four other people in Robert’s vehicle were Ram Sidhu, Fiona Grayson, Liz Baildon, and maybe Dean Barton. I wouldn’t think it was Anna Sidhu since she is just now having her first baby whereas Ram has had three.

Now, we can guess that one, two, three, or all of these people were involved in the murder of Matthew Walsh and the disposal of his body. That is a lot to digest right now. Then, we have Cassie trying to come to grips with having to return to work and her father’s dementia. Although she wants to separate herself emotionally from her work, I’d say she’ll be emotionally invested in Matthew’s case within another episode or two.

I wish I could binge-watch the rest of the season right now, but I guess we’ll have to wait. The opening episode was a bit slow, but it did exceptionally well setting up Cassie’s problems, her return, and the investigation in Matthew Walsh’s death. The episode scores a 7.5 out of 10. Past season recaps and future recaps of Unforgotten are available on Reel Mockery!