9.11.2013

Television: Broadchurch, Episode 1.6

First off, congrats to Broadchurch on winning the TV Choice Award. It certainly deserves the recognition.

Tonight's episode saw a number of interesting moments. For one, Tom lashes out and tells Chloe that he wasn't Danny's best friend, that he in fact hated Danny and is glad Danny is dead. Wow.

Truthfully, Tom was central to many developments over the course of the show. He asked Reverend Paul whether information that has been deleted from a computer is gone forever, and when Paul told him there were recovery programs that could restore the information, Tom was later found trying to destroy a notebook computer. (Why he chose to do this outside where people—like Reverend Paul—might easily encounter him is yet another unanswered question in what has become a long line.)

Also, Tom went for a walk on the beach where he encountered Susan Wright and her dog once more. And when Susan asked Tom if he wanted to visit her mobile home and feed the dog treats, he agreed. I'll give him partial credit for showing some hesitation, but he still fails for going with a woman he hardly knows. And then Susan gave Tom Danny's skateboard. (She did this after finding out Tom's mother was on the murder investigatory team, so one has to wonder what she was thinking.) Tom promptly took the skateboard home, quite pleased with his prize, which led to a police visit to Susan's caravan . . . But she wasn't there.

Instead, she was at the newspaper office. Because Maggie had left a note on Susan's door. Seems she'd done some digging (or rather, had friends who knew where to dig) and found fertile soil in Susan's past. From the newspaper office, Susan was taken into custody. Alas, she refused to say anything because her dog was missing.

See, the dog had been left tied up outside the newspaper office. But Nigel saw him there and took him. Appeared to shoot him (with a crossbow?) . . . But in clips for next week we saw the dog alive and well, so that's all right at least. I was prepared to be very upset.

In other bits and pieces:

  • Alec left a really sad voicemail on his daughter's phone.
  • Beth met with the mother whose daughter was murdered at Sandbrook.
  • Chloe's boyfriend Dean built her a "happy room" so she could go somewhere to be happy without feeling guilty about it.
  • Mark took Beth and Chloe to the arcade—this was actually quite touching, as it showed a family redefining itself after losing one of its members.
  • Oh, and Alec suffered a heart attack (or something very like) at the end of the episode while he and Ellie were in pursuit of someone.

Only two more episodes! How ever will they wrap this up?! Also . . . What will they do next season? I mean, Broadchurch only has so many residents. You can't start killing them all off. Will it be a tourist who gets it next time? Or will they move away from murder altogether? Curious to find out . . .

An aside: About Danny's mobile phone—it's missing, but seems to me they could at least have checked with the phone company about (a) its location and/or (b) what numbers Danny had dialed (or had dialed him) and/or any texts sent or received? Did they do that? Did I miss it?

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