As the first episode of Witness Number 3 begins, we see someone getting into their vehicle as two people walk by. While Jodie (Nina Toussaint-White) opens her shop, she sees the two men walking by. One seems to be forcibly guiding the other. The man looks back at her. At the police station, Detective Whelan (Clare Dunne) thanks Jodie for coming forward. Jodie’s statement is brought in so she can look over it. She seems to think it is a joke. Her name has been taken off the statement. The detective explains they’re just happy to have her statement on record. If things move forward, they’ll add her name to it. After that, Jodie goes through her normal life at work while her son Kyle (Cole Martin) boxes at the gym. When he sits down with his mother, he uses his inhaler. They sit outside their apartment and discuss whether Jodie will miss it around here since she lived here her entire life.

She isn’t sure if she likes it around here anymore. While walking home, they’re stopped by a man asking to use Jodie’s phone because he got locked out of his flat. The man, Po (Ruaridh Mollica), says he lives over there in Gladstone. He claims someone stole his keys but promises to pay her back. Jodie and Kyle talk about dinner as Po quickly calls someone and says there was no answer. It looks like someone is filming them on their way to their apartment. Paul talks to Jodie about speaking to the police. He reminds her that most people keep their heads down. He suggests she likes to be where the action is. That night, Jodie has a nightmare that someone is knocking on her door and calling her name. At work, she talks to Dee about getting Kyle away from this place. They get a call only for the caller to say nothing.

Jodie goes to the police station where she is shown pictures of the possible suspect to see if she can identify him. She manages to identify the same man that they currently have in custody. Detective Whelan wants to clarify a few things Jodie said in her statement. She mentions that one of the men was wearing a grey hoodie. She remembers thinking it could’ve used a quick wash and thinks it might’ve had a picture such as a pair of eyes on the back. She was inside so she couldn’t hear them, but she didn’t hear any shouting. She can’t remember any man holding anything. The detective shows her a picture of a knife, but Jodie doesn’t remember anything like that. Po watches the police station from across the street. PC Ivan Barkas (Sion Daniel Young) joins Jodie and Whelan as she learns she is now a significant witness. Ivan will be her witness contact office.

They’ll discuss signing the statement if they end up charging the suspect. Once they’re alone, Ivan tells her she has cut her hair and she looks much better without the nose ring. He reminds her she went out with his brother Dan. He confirms there are two other witnesses placing the suspect in the area. Jodie leaves. Her boyfriend shows her the room he put together for Kyle. She asks him if he ever considered moving in with them at the estate. He tells her that she doesn’t have to feel guilty that she has done well. We see a cellphone video of someone following Jodie and Kyle. When Jodie visits her mom Cathy (Sue Johnston), she is asked whether she is happy. Jodie insists Paul (David Crowley) didn’t make the decision for her. She finds it nice to finally have someone look after themselves and her every so often.

Cathy asks if he volunteered to stay here. Jodie asks her mom if she was supposed to stay here her entire life and campaign for new paint for the community center. Cathy wonders if she is going to cut her losses and leave everyone to fend for themselves. Back at home, Jodie receives a message containing a violent video of a wolf. She takes them to Ivan. After the first one arrived, others were delivered about half an hour later. She forwarded them to him and told him about the boy who borrowed her phone. Ivan promises to show them to the team. At work, Jodie notices a strange man standing outside. A bunch of other people wearing black join him. Jodie goes to the station where Detective Whelan shows her pictures of a bloodied hoodie with eyes on it.

She can see where the knife stabbed through the hoodie. Jodie confirms this is the hoodie worn by the man she saw. She learns that the man is dead and they can charge the man who did it thanks to her statement. Jodie asks who he is and whether is a part of the gang on the estate, but the detective won’t tell her anything else. Now that she has identified the hoodie, they can move forward with charging the suspect. She will need to sign the witness statement in her own name so they can submit it as evidence. Once she signs the statement, she’ll be compellable to stand by it in court. It could make or break the case. Ivan suggests giving Jodie a day or two to wrap her head around everything. Later, Jodie gets a call because something has happened to Kyle.

As she rushes to the ambulance, someone films her from a distance. She tells Kyle he needs to make sure his inhaler is in his bag when he goes boxing, but he says it was. Jodie admits that he scared her. During dinner, Kyle tells Paul and Jodie about a caretaker who killed a girl at the school. He claims he chopped her up with a saw. A few days ago, Kyle, Callum, and Mo were at the back of the school when Callum was messing around new the old caretaker’s shed. He goes into the shed, stays in there for ages, and comes out with a piece of paper with a map of the park on it. They go to the spot where the X is marked on the map. They climb over a bush before finding a half-buried sports bag. Kyle says they open it up and see this before pranking them with his cellphone.

After Jodie checks on Kyle again, Paul begins telling them the ghost story of Wobble Gobble. The phone on the counter begins buzzing while Paul tells his ghost story. Jodie leaves the phone until she can’t ignore it anymore. Once she tells the kids to go upstairs, Jodie watches a video of herself at the estate. There are videos of Kyle near the ambulance and Jodie at work too. The last video seems to be of someone watching Jodie and Paul through the window next to them. When she goes to the police station to tell Ivan, she begins breaking down and admits it is frustrating. He explains they have to apply for funds to take special measures in cases like this. When doing that, they have to look for other potential sources of aggravation.

Ivan mentions her late husband Benjamin Redmond. Although he knows he is just an addict, the system shows he is associated with a gang and arrested three times on drug-related charges. Jodie is convinced this has nothing to do with Benjamin or any other sources of aggravation. Ivan promises to keep watch over Jodie, Kyle, and their flat from this day forward. Jodie complains she didn’t last for this since she just looked out a window. At work, a woman asks Jodie all types of questions about living around here and whether the place belongs to her. Jodie wants to know why she keeps asking all these questions. Dee interrupts to calm her. Later, Dee and Jodie sit outside as she admits she is scared. Dee says her brother used to sell weed. He got jumped outside of nan’s house. Although it was a bunch of kids half his size, they were wild.

They dragged her brother down the road before stabbing him in the shoulder, leg, and neck. He was sliced in the face so bad that he was unable to talk for a month. Dee admits Jodie has done a lot for this estate, but this is bigger than a few jobs. She thinks Jodie should get them if she can. That night, Jodie asks Kyle if he found his inhaler, but he hasn’t yet. Ivan catches up with them before they can go inside their flat and asks Jodie for two minutes. He tells her that the other two witnesses are out so they cannot use them anymore. Plus, they found out that the CCTV hard drive was blank. If anyone asks, he wants Jodie to say he told her to fully cooperate. He warns her that this is serious because the organization isn’t just local or kids. The guy they’re going to charge is higher up and Jodie could be the difference between the man going free and going down.

He wouldn’t think any less of her if she dropped out too. Ivan tells her that she hasn’t changed at all and Dan was heartbroken when she dumped him. When she asks what he would do, Ivan admits he doesn’t want to answer that question. Jodie is awoken in the middle of the night. As Jodie goes out the next day, she sees that a local store’s glass has been broken. Later, she sits with Kyle and confesses that she is not going to sign the statement after all. She believes all the police stuff will go away once she does that. He knew she’d pull out because you have to accept that there are certain things you cannot do. She goes downstairs where she notices an alert on her phone. She checks it and views a video of people running through the state. She watches them go to her shop and break the windows.

Jodie rushes to the shop as the kids begin pouring gasoline. Once she makes it to the shop, she finds shattered glass on the ground and begins screaming. Then, she begins panicking and runs home to check on Kyle who is sleeping safely in his bed. When she looks over the balcony, she sees a bunch of kids in black looking in her direction. She calls one of them to say she is signing the statement because she won’t let them scare her off. The kids walk away as the episode ends.

 

Witness Number 3 Review

After the first episode of Witness No. 3, there were things that I liked and certain things that I didn’t. The story is very interesting and unique since I can’t remember anything like this in a while. The acting is not bad although some of the behaviors of the characters were odd. The cellphone footage was a double-edged sword.

While it is a good touch, it is a bit difficult to watch with all the shaking and jumping around. My biggest issue was Jodie’s nonchalant behavior when filing a statement against a possible murderer. If you’ve never done it before, everyone should understand the potential consequences and risks of squealing on someone.

It would’ve been nice if she hadn’t acted like it was a game. Regardless, the first episode built a good foundation for future episodes. It’ll be interesting to see how bad it gets for Jodie and whether she can actually go through with it. The first episode scores a 6.5 out of 10. Recaps of Witness No 3 can be found on Reel Mockery here. Learn how to support us at this link.