The advantage to shows which start slowly is that as they continue, they get discernibly better week-by-week as the plot kicks in and the tension ratchets up a notch. I was pretty riveted from start to finish this time around, with the various detectives pooling their resources in the hopes of finding Delplanque before he dies of hypothermia. Elsewhere, subplots that have seemed rather irrelevant are getting sewn into the fabric of the murder case, with various clues dished out as to how the killer is pulling all this off. It’s like watching a huge jigsaw puzzle be slowly pieced together.
One thing I appreciate is that the killer (whoever he or she is) is clearly human, capable of making mistakes and missing details. There’s nothing that robs a drama of its integrity faster than a murderer who can get away with absolutely anything, including the ability to defy the laws of space and time. In this episode, the police notice vibrations on the tape that provide a definite lead and successfully follow up on it, leading them to the correct location and catching the killer (almost) unawares.
Throw in three teenagers who wander haphazardly into his scheme, and there are quite a few spanners in the works. It makes me rather fearful for Sophie though – I think the French teens got lucky, but I suspect that TT won’t be willing to take that risk for a second time.
That said, I’m afraid that I found the climactic scene, in which the police SWAT team storm the abandoned station, a little silly. The moment where the killer steps out of the shadows and immediately shoots Elise in the chest was shocking, but the rest of it: that Karl and Elise didn’t wait ten extra minutes for back up, that the two of them ended up alone at the correct location (despite the 50/50 chance), that the cops went down like Stormtroopers despite their training and body armour, and that Karl came a hair’s breath away from being shot in the head, all seemed a bit much. It was excellently staged, but so far this show has worked a lot better with the subtleties of the investigation.
Afterwards though, Elise raises an interesting possibility that the killer might have deliberately targeted Karl in the groin, knowing that he’d had a vasectomy. It seems unlikely that anyone embroiled in the investigation could be the killer (we’ve seen them regularly at the police station during crucial moments) but it does suggest a level of surveillance or even a mole - if she’s right.
I’m not sure whether to be amused or dismayed that Danny’s nickname for the killer has caught on. He doesn't need that kind of validation, but at least he got in a few scathing lines, such as describing his readers as living on: “saturated fat and envy” who want “their opinions, but typed, not just in crayon.”
Sophie (the teenage girl) is a bit of an idiot, isn’t she. And I’m not going to say “even by teenage girl standards” because I’ve known plenty of teenage girls who are mature beyond their years. But honestly, if you are in a stranger’s house (which is daft enough) there are several clear signs that indicate you should get out of there: a) your host not recognising you the next day, b) boxes of unused medication in the cupboards and c) mentions of a mysterious “no one” who is “very interested in you.” RUN GIRL, RUN.
As an aside, I wonder if this guy is somehow involved in how TT managed to kill all the pensioners.
Charlotte Joubert’s little side-story comes to a bittersweet conclusion (of sorts; I’m sure that the unresolved issue of her husband’s death will bring her back eventually) when she discovers that her husband not only kept a mistress but had a child with her, even after years of begging him for one of her own.
I think there’s a good chance that there’s more to this situation than meets the eye, but for now it was nice to see how Karl’s consideration towards her back in the first episode has borne fruit. It seems likely her decision to donate the twenty-seven million to charity (covering for the other business magnates in the process) was partly inspired by her talk with him.
Having found out that Delplanque was once a soldier that murdered/attempted to murder a man and his young son by throwing them out of a helicopter puts another spin on what TT is up to. As Karl says, it’s “an exquisite moral conundrum”. God, I love those things.
There are also quite a few funny bits: Elise asking “how are your testicles?” and awkwardly stating: “get well soon.”
Angel didn’t get much to do this time around (again), but I loved her scene with Elise outside the hospital room. Elise is so concerned that Karl’s wife understands her duty was to help Delplanque, though I don’t think Laura even fully realized what she was talking about. And her reaction to Karl’s “everything’s still in full working order” was beautifully played: funny yet poignant at the same time.
No sign of Stephen or the immigrant woman/son this time around, but for the first time I’m actively impatient for the next episode.
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