Broadchurch - S2E5 - Episode 5
Previously on Broadchurch, episode 4
Alec & Ellie
Ellie has an awkward, painful meeting with her son, Tom. He doesn’t believe his dad is guilty, clearly blames Ellie, and doesn’t want to live with her.
Alec and Ellie interview a bridesmaid at the wedding the Gillepsies attended the night their daughter was taken. She denies sleeping with Ricky, the father, even though he tried.
They then confront Claire over the different story she told Ellie about Lee drugging her. She is defensive, but insists this time she is telling the truth. In the spirit of transparency - finally - she admits she had sex with Lee while they were gone. Ellie looks disgusted and it’s hilarious.
Ricky shows up on Alec’s doorstep, willing to talk about the case and where he was that night. Lee watches from a distance with that creepy look on his face. He remembers being in the woods with the girls, shushing at one of them, when Ricky grabs hm, laughing. What the fuck?
As Ricky talks about his daughter Pippa, he remembers watching Claire braiding Pippa’s hair. I feel like there’s some serious swingers shit going on. He gets offended when Ellie asks if he fancied his niece, Lisa, but says he didn’t. After he’s gone, Alec and Ellie go through the possible suspects: Lee, Claire, Ricky, Kate (the mom), and a stalker who lived on their estate. Ellie has decided she’s going to solve this case even though Alec warns her it will take a lot out of her. I’m torn between wanting her to solve it so we can know who did it, and wanting her to listen to him because this case has already turned him into a hot-ass mess. Ellie has enough to worry about. Then again, maybe it’s what she needs to get her mind off of Joe’s case.
After having an attack of sorts, Alec goes to see Jocelyn and asks her to draw up his will, which she does. In an odd display of confidence, she admits that she worked so hard she blew her one chance at the person she was meant to be with. Maggie, perhaps?
After staying up all night to work on the case, Ellie tells Alec they should consider Lisa, whose body was never found, a suspect. Alec gets a call from Lee. Ricky has found where he lives. Alec rushes over and has to pull Ricky off of Lee. When Alec asks Lee if he ever used the date rape drug, he says yes, and he got it from Ricky. I told you! Swingers! Alec asks Lee point blank if he slept with Kate, Ricky’s wife, and he says no, but a flash memory says otherwise.
A tie to an agriculture company near the Gillespie’s house leads Alec and Ellie to the company’s warehouse - where they find a slaughterhouse and a giant furnace for burning dead animals. Now they think maybe, just maybe, Lisa is dead.
The Latimers
Beth has agreed to work with a group of reformed sex offenders, but when she tries to tell Mark about it, it doesn’t want to hear it. He wants to concentrate on the new baby they have. Beth insists they can do both, but Mark refuses.
Beth takes one step into the church, to meet with these sex offenders, and runs right back out. Why the hell did Paul think this was a good idea?
The Case
Susan Wright stands by her story that she saw her son Nigel with Danny’s body on the beach. Jocelyn lays into her and brings up her threatening Maggie with rape. She denies it all and comes off as a lying liar who lies. Later, Sharon lays into Lucy for letting her put Susan on the stand and Ellie confronts Susan about her lies. Susan says Ellie is just like her: She knew what her husband was doing and turned a blind eye.
Sharon and Lucy approach Reverend Paul about testifying for Joe Miller, and he says no. Sharon lays a guilt trip on him, saying he’s abandoning one of his flock. If that works on him, I swear… Later, Paul tells Becca about his visits with Joe, which felt like the right thing to do at the time, but now he feels it was a mistake. Becca selfishly says she feels like Paul has made her a part of it. Girl, bye.
Nigel takes the stand and Sharon flips his words. “I’m not saying you killed Danny, but I am saying you put his body on the beach.” During his testimony, Sharon gets a note and rushes to the prison. Her son was beaten, but he won’t tell her what happened. He accuses her of not being there for him. She’s always said she would make things alright for him, but she’s not getting him out of jail. What the hell did this kid do?
Shit gets real between Jocelyn and Sharon and we learn a bit more about their history and why Sharon’s son is in jail: Sharon shoves a photo of her beaten son in Jocelyn’s face and blames her for the situation he’s in. She should have taken his case. Jocelyn counters that a man died because of her son - even though he says he was just trying to help a friend - and she didn’t take his case because she didn’t like Sharon enough. Sharon would have blamed her if she loss the case because that’s what Sharon does: blame everyone else for her failures. Sharon vows to deliver a defeat to Jocelyn in the Miller case.
Ellie is shocked to learn that Tom is going to testify for his father.
Overall Thoughts:
- Is Lisa still alive? I want to say yes because that would be a kind of cool twist, but I don’t know. What was going on between the Gillespies and the Ashworths? I bet they were swingers. Maybe the girls saw something they shouldn’t have? Maybe they tried to get Lisa into their shenanigans and she threatened to tell. Maybe they drugged her and it went badly.
- I definitely want to know more about Sharon’s son and what he did to get incarcerated. I did love Jocelyn’s reply for not taking his case. “I didn’t like you enough.” Lawd Jesus. That was so good.
- This rehabilitating sex offenders storyline is not working for me. I can’t believe that Beth would consider it for even a moment and Mark is going to go all the way the hell off when he finds out.
