The Tunnel: S02E05

I suppose after last week things were bound to be a little less exciting, but now that we're halfway through the season (only eight episodes this time) I'm surprised that we're not inching a little closer to getting things wrapped up.

I'm also nursing a few flu symptoms, so this'll be a bit shorter than usual. 

So ends Rosa, and I'll admit I'm a bit disappointed. She was much more compelling than Robert Fournier, and yet her motivations remained murky right to the end. Did she really team up with a terrorist just to spite her father? As Elise says, she's being boastful and trying to impress him right to the end, even as he tells her: "this might be the only chance you have to be heard."

After taking a chuck out of Karl's arm (yeesh!) she at least starts divulging some information: that Fournier was responsible for the plane crash, that something called Cobra is involved, and that he's coming to get her father. Then she flat-lines, desperately trying to convince herself she's not afraid and that what she did was worth it.

She was an intriguing, rage-inducing, sad, and somewhat wasted character – though I've finally realized where I've seen the actress before: she was one of the First Order officers in Star Wars: TFA.

***

Interrogations with some of Rosa's hostages reveal that one of the terrorists had a cellphone, one that the police subsequently find down the toilet. After getting it dried out and releasing reports that one of the gunmen have escaped, they wait for it to ring – and so it does, though Fournier quickly realizes it's being traced.

Elise and Karl end up with a ten mile radius area to search for him in – and what do you know, they end up on just the right dock! This was a bit of a stretch (and I'm not entirely sure why that woman decided to investigate a strange boat all by herself) but they find Fournier just before he dives into the water and makes his escape.

It's all a bit contrived, but Karl ends up pulling the dead woman out of the water while Elise freezes, grappling with flashbacks to her sister's drowning. It's consistent with last season, when a similar thing happened as soon as she was near the water.

And just when I was happy to see Fournier wet, cold, and without any shelter (meaning he's either close to capture or about to finally get his own hands dirty and pull off a stunt that justifies his existence as this season's Big Bad) – he makes a phone call and is taken to a beautiful mansion. Sigh.

Are we meant to recognize the guy who stands up to greet him?

***

Finally, the best part of this episode was Angel Coulby's subplot. With the Twitter trolls dying down and a job interview going well, I knew that something terrible was on the horizon – specially to do with her new work colleague. At first I thought she was another terrorist who would take off with the twins, but instead she reveals herself not only as the sender of the strange mail (the newspaper clipping about the undercover cop that fathered children) but a past acquaintance of Karl.

According to her, Karl (or David as she knew him) is the father of her son, who got her pregnant and then disappeared in the middle of the night. Her only proof is an old photograph of him that Stephen Dillane must have dug out of storage, but Laura believes her.

I don't really blame her after the crap he's pulled in the past, and it gives Angel Coulby a fantastic chance to blow up at him. (Can you imagine Guinevere being allowed to demonstrate this level of fury? It just wouldn't happen. I'm so glad we're three years out from the end of Merlin!) Personally I'm not entirely sure what's going on – it could be that the woman is for real, or it could be she's got some other kind of grudge against Karl and/or Laura for undisclosed reasons.

Three episodes left to find out!

Miscellaneous Observations:

We get an update on Julie and she's doing okay, so that's nice.

"I didn't like the music very much, but we had sex in the car on the way home." Snert.

Eryka reaches out to Elise with a gift, and Elise eventually decides to reciprocate. It's nice to see a female/female friendship (or something more?) evolving, but at the same time I miss the centrality of Karl/Elise's platonic friendship. That's pretty rare dynamic too, and there hasn't been much of it this season.

The plot thickens with Vanessa Hamilton. Apparently she signed for the house that Fournier was staying in, and though I expect her bride business will have nothing to do with him whatsoever, she's clearly got some connection to Inspector Bowden – at least judging from his reluctance for Karl to question her.

Ages ago these BTS photographs emerged of Angel, so it was nice to finally get some context for them – though I can't remember the picnic table actually being on the beach. Weird.