Watching – As the opening episode of Wolf begins, a person in a hazmat suit drags a body into the field and dances. Jack Caffrey (Ukweli Roach) receives a text message ordering him to wait for backup. Jack moves through the building until he finds children’s toys. He bends down to inspect them before hearing banging nearby. Ewan asks if anyone is there because he is locked in and can’t get out. As Jack tries to open the door, the lights are turned off and someone begins approaching him. He wakes up at home and watches someone through his window.

The man waves at him before Jack wakes up again. Jack’s partner joins him and reveals she bought him clothes. Veronica (Kezia Burrows) asks if he can tidy things up because the guests might like a tour of the house. It is their first party as a couple so she’d like to really celebrate. When Jack says this was his brother’s room, Veronica reminds him it was decades ago. They debate whether the neighbor did anything. Jack insists the police got it wrong and the man is guilty. Veronica sometimes thinks he moved back there because he got out of prison. At work, Superintendent Driscoll (Amanda Drew) tells everyone about two gang stabbings.

There was also an acid attack. In Monmouthshire, Wales a few days later, Matilda (Juliet Stevenson) drives with Oliver (Owen Teale). They approach an old building and see a memorial for a young boy. Once they arrive, Lucia (Annes Elwy) and the others go inside. Lucia carries the dog in. Driscoll notices Jack’s jacket and suggests his girlfriend bought it for him. He isn’t going out for a pint with the others because he doesn’t really drink. Jack notices a picture of Ella on the computer and learns she is in the hospital. When he visits Ella Ward (Saray Trevelyan) at the hospital, he says he hasn’t been in London long enough to have regulars.

If she doesn’t give a statement about what he is doing, there won’t be enough evidence for CPS to consider a victimless prosecution and this will keep happening. Jack warns her that he’ll kill her next time. He manages to convince Ella to give a statement against her husband. When he goes home, he finds two dolls posed erotically in front of his door. Matilda cooks and panics when the sprinkler sprays water on the window. Oliver worries he won’t survive long enough for the cake to cool because of his new ticker. He begins looking for Lucia and calling her name because he wants her to turn the racket down.

Matilda comes in with distressing news. They go outside and look at something. They discuss whether it is a coincidence or he has been let out. Matilda decides to call the police. Jack puts on gloves and looks at the dolls. He goes upstairs and learns that Veronica cleaned his brother’s room even though he didn’t want anyone in there. They discuss what they’ll tell the guests. Jack says it is hard to move on when you can’t bury someone. Although his parents left it to him, Veronica doesn’t think he should’ve moved back into his childhood home. She urges him to choose between his past and future. Jack doesn’t want to do that because he will not choose her.

He isn’t ready for this. Veronica thinks she should go until she says the cancer is back. She didn’t want to tell him until the party was over. She hasn’t gotten the results back, but she knows her body. Jack insists he doesn’t want to break up with her so he tries to smooth things over. Matilda asks Lucia to deal with Bear because she wants attention. Oliver says the phone isn’t working and it might need new batteries. Matilda promised the hospital that she would have a working phone. Lucia is asked to check the cellar door again. Matilda notices a red substance on the ground that resembles blood. Oliver says the phone line has been cut just before they hear the doorbell ring.

DI Honey (Sacha Dhawan) and Molina (Iwan Rheon) arrive and say they’re there for a different matter entirely than the phone line. Jack spends the night looking at the neighbor across the road. The following day, he arrests Clive Ward. At the station, he checks the name Ivan Penderecki in the crime database before learning there are no prints on the dolls. Ivan has a history of child sexual abuse. Jack tells an officer to take a team to the address and turn it upside down. He is warned it’ll fall back on him without a warrant. At home, Jack speaks to Veronica about missing his parents. He offers to come with her to the appointments.

She wants to have fun today and not talk about cancer. Jack gets a call from Driscoll saying Ella Ward has withdrawn her statement. He goes to the hospital only to learn that Ella already left. He asks a woman if the dye they inject you with to look for cancer cells has changed. She says no. Honey and Molina are told that the family splits their time between there and London. Honey explains that there has been a murder in the area and the victim doesn’t live far from there. Matilda thinks they have a right to know if he has been released and he only served five years. It happened when Luca was only 17. When Honey asks who she is talking about, Matilda yells out the name Kable.

Honey seems to know Minnet Kable. Molina gets upset and says he’ll check to see if he has been released. Honey says the Donkey Pitch murders were five years ago and there is no reason to believe the murders are connected. Oliver takes them outside and shows them what they found earlier. It looks like animal intestines. Molina confesses that it is consistent with this morning’s crime scene. The detectives want to take them to the station until they have a better understanding of the situation. The kids tell DI Richards (George Russo) and the others that there is something in the garden.

They put their drinks down so they can find the “monsty”. Veronica sees Jack when he steps outside. Jack believed her the first time and thought she might die. He suspects it is a lie. DI Akers (Kwame Banth) searches for the monsters. Jack knows she didn’t have the test because the dye would’ve turned her veins blue for weeks. She tries to explain herself. The detectives come back empty-handed with no monsters. Jack asks what was going to happen when she had to come clean. Veronica claims it was just going to be a scare. She believes it would’ve been good for both of them. As someone approaches, Jack tells Veronica he wants her out of his house.

The neighbor comes over and dumps out a bag of bones in front of Jack and the others. Matilda and the family prepare to leave the house. Molina tells them he couldn’t bring the car up because it wouldn’t start. He goes on to say he saw something. Someone was waiting near the backdoor. Honey suggests they can take the family’s car, but Matilda can’t find her keys. Oliver and Molina want to go to the back door to get the spare keys. Driscoll tells Jack that they weren’t bones. She looked up his neighbor and learned he was released six weeks ago. Jack says the neighbor took his brother although the police could never prove it.

She says they can get him for harassment. Jack doesn’t want that though. She thinks he should take early leave because of the illegal raid. Jack asks if she would really help because he’d do anything to find out what happened to his brother. He explains that Penderecki was in and out of prison for years for sex crimes. Jack spoke to his cellmates and they haven’t helped. There are three weeks he cannot account for. Penderecki was held somewhere before he was transferred. He believes something happened and it is the only lead left. Driscoll checks and finds out that Penderecki was in Long Lartin for the first three weeks of a six-month sentence.

There was a scuffle and Penderecki was beaten badly. Driscoll recommends finding the man who beat him because he may know something about his brother. Jack drives his vehicle into the middle of the woods before meeting the walking man. Jack insists he wouldn’t have called all the search for his little girl after ten days if he was in charge of the case. The walking man says he’ll find her himself and bury her right. Jack confesses to admiring him for what he did to the man responsible. He asks the man about Ivan Penderecki since he served time in Long Lartin. Ivan abducted his brother in 1998 and got away with it. Jack suspects he is the one who beat Ivan. He asks if he said anything about his brother.

The man says he didn’t beat Ivan although he knows who did. He agrees to find out what the guy knows. Matilda tells Honey they found the thing not long after they arrive. She says they couldn’t move after it happened because nobody in the neighborhood could sell. Molina returns without Oliver and says he can’t find the spare keys. Lucia agrees to go with him so she gives her dog to Matilda. The walking man tells Jack that he found a dog near the Donkey Pitch. The collar had the name Bear on it. The man shows Jack something that was on the dog’s collar. Jack suspects it was a prank only to be reminded that it is an adult’s handwriting.

The man says the dog has a limp because her back leg is hurt. He believes the anniversary of the murders is coming up. They couldn’t save their loved ones, but they have the chance to do right for someone else. Matilda tells Honey that she found spots on the floor in the entrance hall. She finds it odd when he says he is fairly sure it isn’t blood. Although Honey says there is nothing to worry about, Matilda doesn’t believe him. Honey has seen some things on the job, but he has never seen anything like this morning’s murder scene. He tells her what the murderer did to the woman.

Honey claims they’re blocking the backdoor to make sure no one gets in. Molina returns and confirms everything is okay. They continue talking about the victim. Matilda asks where her daughter is. Honey suggests there is something wrong with her because of the way she dresses. When Matilda asks where Oliver and Lucia are, the detectives begin laughing.

 

Wolf Review

The opening episode of Wolf showed a lot of promise although there are issues that may prevent it from being spectacularly gritty. For the most part, the cast is great thanks to Juliet Stevenson, Owen Teale, and others. Ukweli Roach does well, but it’ll take some time for the character to really develop.

The story could be gripping as Jack Caffrey gets closer to uncovering the truth about Ivan and his brother. The pacing is a bit too slow and that might be an ongoing problem considering the series has six episodes. Some of the scenes may not be all that important to the core story, but we’ll have to find out about that later.

I really enjoyed the episode more until the last three or four minutes when DI Honey and DI Molina turned into these cheesy psycho murderers. That’ll be easy to overlook if the pace can pick up and the story can become grittier and more compelling. Truthfully, the series is going to take some time to develop and get moving so it may not be a good idea to judge it based solely on the first episode.

It was a decent start though. It scores a 6 out of 10. Recaps of Wolf can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising on Reel Mockery here.