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Things are only getting more complicated for Ellie and Alec, and for the viewer too, as Broadchurch passes the halfway point.
We’re no further forward with the trial of Joe Miller. Yes, Susan was abysmal in the dock and gave the prosecution some much needed points, but with Joe’s son Tom about to enter the dock, the power play between Jocelyn Knight and Sharon Bishop is only going to continue. It’ll continue until either players checkmate the other, and as drawn out and seemingly frustrating as it all is, I am simply loving the dynamic between Knight and Bishop. Their chemistry is dynamite.
I said this a few weeks back, but Jocelyn’s admission to Alec this week only affirmed my earlier belief. Jocelyn was once in love but didn’t act on it. I think her unrequited love is Sharon Bishop herself. There is so much more to their relationship that is only just beginning to come to light.
It was a weird week for the residents of Broadchurch. Beth’s charity in Danny’s name resulted in her fleeing the church when she realised how sick the prospect was. Some of those reformed sex offenders looked like Joe, so it’s unsurprising that she fled.
Mark, meanwhile, is investing all of his time in his new daughter Lizzie, whilst Becca resurfaces for the briefest of moments, and Chris Chibnall actually remembers how brilliant Maggie is. Shame she’s done nothing else for the rest of the series, though, isn’t it?
Paul, too, is looking shady this week. He doesn’t want to give evidence, which I entirely accept, but his visiting Joe is going to come back and bite him in the arse. I just hope the Millers believe him when he says Joe was repentant, because we all know that Mark and Paul don’t really get on. I predict a fight.
Speaking of Mark, Sharon’s decision to portray him as the killer, with Nige putting the body on the beach, is just twisted. Though I have a feeling this may be the culmination of the case – how else can Broadchurch continue for a third year? Because when Tom takes to the stand, you just know he’s going to ‘accidentally’ let slip that he has been meeting Mark in private…
Onto Sandbrook now. If you thought the Broadchurch trial was confusing, try and piece this one together. From starting with only Lee as a suspect, we now have Claire (and her three versions of one night), Ricky Gillespie (and his creepy hide-and-seek game with the murdered girls and Lee himself, along with seemingly providing Lee with rohypnol to drug his girlfriend – you know, as you do…) and Cate (whose alcoholism and affair with Lee is making her story shaky). It truly could be any and all of these characters at this moment.
But Ellie has a theory. What if Lisa accidentally killed Pippa and then fled to France, where Lee was waiting to meet her? An interesting theory, sure, if it wasn’t for that grisly furnace at the episode’s close, with its mound of ash.
I have two points to raise about this. Firstly, surely the furnace is the final resting place for Lisa? Because the Sandbrook case CANNOT be that simple. Lisa definitely was murdered by her family and/or friends. That’s a given, right?
And secondly – if you had killed someone and burned their body, why the hell would you leave a mound of their ashes for the police to find?! Bloody amateurs. Any killer worth their salt would know to remove the ash (maybe throw it out to sea? Just a suggestion, considering the agricultural place was RIGHT next to the Channel) and scrub that furnace until it was glistening. Even Joe knew to clean the hut he killed Danny in.
But then here’s the clincher: Lee cannot be the killer. We’re led to believe that he drugged his girlfriend, killed the girls, and then scrubbed his house clean because he fancied a spring clean. But why would he clean the house and not the furnace? It just doesn’t ring true for me.
Personally, with a knowledge of Chibnall’s prior writing, I think there is no way Lee is the killer. It’s going to be somebody we’d never expect. And that leads me once more to say that Alec is the killer.
I’ll leave this week’s review on that note. Digest it, and you’ll realise it’s the truth. That would be the biggest shock to ever grace Broadchurch.
