Broadchurch - S2E4 - Episode 4
Previously on Broadchurch, Episode 3
Ollie confronts Alex on the coincidence of him being in town the same time as Lee Ashworth. Alex tells him to piss off. Ollie is getting tired of the way Alex speaks to him and I predict trouble with that one.
Ellie’s sister is prepared to testify and she hints to Ellie that she might say she saw Joe the night Danny was killed. Ellie warns her not to fabricate. She saw someone who looked like him - nothing more.
Jocelyn is furious because Ben didn’t know about Ellie being alone in Alex’s hotel room, and they looked foolish in court. She’s fired up, and ready to fight.
Lee approaches Ellie on the street and tries to poison her against Alex. He claims Alex slept with Claire and he just wants his wife back. Ellie warns him to stay away from Claire.
None of these situations will end well!
The Prosecution
Ellie’s sister does exactly what she was warned not to do: she says it was definitely Joe she saw on the street and that if it wasn’t included in her original statement - 57 days after the murder - the police must have excluded it.
An ex-coworker of Joe’s testifies that she witnessed Joe beating up a stranger. It was so violent and scary she asked to not work with anymore. This looks like it’s news to Ellie. The prosecution rests.
Beth wants to start an organization to help young kids who are Danny’s age transition to middle school, but Reverend Paul suggests joining an organization that helps reform sex offenders instead. She looks at him like he has bumped his damn head and I don’t blame her one bit.
Sand Brook
Ellie and Claire travel to Sand Brook so he can meet with a cop who can get the case re-opened. Before they leave, he warns Claire to stay away from Lee… who’s already watching from nearby.
On the way to Sand Brook, Alex reveals Lee’s hair was found on one of the girl’s pillows and Lee claims the hair was planted to frame him, possibly by the youngest girl’s father, Ricky. Then Alex describes finding the girl’s body in the river. He almost drowned trying to pull her out. It’s heartbreaking.
Ollie approaches Lee as he works on a fence and wants a story. Lee tells Ollie to pound sand, but Ollie takes a stealth pic of Lee on his phone before he goes.
Later, Lee brings Claire some food and it’s so good she has sex with him. Well, okay then. Afterwards, they each claim they’ve not been with anyone else sine they’ve been apart.
Meanwhile, Ellie and Alex do nothing to squash their affair rumors when they end up having to share a hotel room and a bed in Sand Brook. Ellie asks if he ever slept with Claire, but he doesn’t answer. He does seem to have a memory of Claire lying in bed next to him so I’m thinking yes.
Alex meets with Piper’s (the dead girl) mother and learns Ricky was having an affair and they weren’t together the whole time the night of the murder/kidnapping. Then he and Ellie meet with his ex-wife, the officer who can re-open the case, but she won’t. That night he has dinner with his daughter and ex, and Piper’s father, Ricky Gillespie, shows up. He blames Alex for his daughter’s killer being free and warns him to stay gone the next time he leaves.
Alex wonders if Lee was telling the truth. Maybe he was wrong about Lee. Ricky not wanting his daughter’s case reopened raises all kinds of red flags. Ellie remembers she took down the number Claire was calling and tries it. It just rings and rings and we see it’s Ricky Gillespie’s office… and there’s a picture of a field of bluebells on the wall. Oh, shit.
The Defense:
Sharon and Lucy debate whether or not Joe should take the stand. They decide to do a test run with the three of them. Then they come to whether or not they’ll try to offer up an alternative killer. Sharon says it’s obvious who it will be. Cut to…
Mark taking his brand new daughter to meet Tom. He tells him they shouldn’t meet anymore and Tom loses it. He feels like Mark is abandoning him the way his parents have. This scene is so eerily similar to the final confrontation between Joe and Danny.
The Joe trial run goes badly. He just looks like lies pour out of his pores. This convinces Lucy he did kill Danny, but Sharon warns she’s never to talk that way again. He’s entitled to a proper defense.
Susan Wright returns to town, but doesn’t kick Tom out from hanging in her house. She meets with Nigel, who still wants nothing to do with her even though she claims she is dying of cancer. So, she testifies in court that she saw him carrying Danny’s body on the beach the night he died.
Damn this lady.
Overall Thoughts:
- The scene where Jocelyn explains to Beth why she took the case - Danny was her paperboy and deserves justice - was touching, but there’s so much more to this woman and I want to know all of it.
- I really hope Alex’s memory was a misdirect and that he didn’t sleep with Claire.
- So, Ollie took it upon himself to write up a story about Lee being in town and everyone sees it, including Lee and Ricky. Ollie needs to have a damn seat.
