Previous recaps: Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4
SPOILERS follow for Episode 5 of Broadchurch Series 2:
Ellie Miller
Ellie gets to see Tom for the first time since Series 2 started, but he still doesn’t want anything to do with her. His dad’s “Not Guilty” plea has clearly confused the hell out of him, and by the end of the episode he’s offering himself to the defence council as a sacrifice character witness.
Susan Wright reverses her Series 1 comments to Ellie – this time saying that she knew at the time what her husband (and now her son) was doing, and insisting that Ellie did too. “We all know. We all turn a blind eye.” Scary stuff.
Alec Hardy
...is not in a good way. Off he stumbles to Jocelyn’s place to have a will drawn up. Once there, he crowbars personal information out of her in an attempt to make “conversation”. So we discover that Jocelyn never married because she missed her opportunity to be with the person she loved.
Sandbrook
Ellie sinks her teeth into Hardy’s Sandbrook case as a way of distracting herself from her other woes, spending all night in Hardy’s bachelor pad (that’s gonna bite ya...) going through the case files and pinning up photos and notes on the wall.
She and Hardy interview the bridesmaid whom Cate Gillespie now claims her husband Ricky hooked up with at the time of the murder (i.e., instead of Cate and Ricky being each other’s alibi). The bridesmaid, however, says she rejected his advances.
Ellie gets a chance to pointlessly interview Ricky when he arrives in Broadchurch in order to beat up Lee Ashworth, and we get a few annoying flashbacks from Ashworth’s point of view indicating that he’s lying to Hardy.
Claire also revises her story of that night, and confirms to Hardy what she told Ellie in Episode 3 regarding Lee drugging her. Lee, meanwhile, points the finger back at Ricky Gillespie as the source of the drug.
Laurel Ellie and Hardy investigate “Thorp Agriservices” after finding a vehicle check form with Ashworth’s name written on the back. The deserted premises contain meat hooks, a furnace, and a terrible smell.
Knight vs. Bishop
This episode Jocelyn gets to take Susan Wright apart following Susan’s shocking (to the courtroom gallery, at least) claim last episode that she was certain it was Nige she saw unloading a body on the beach on the night of Danny’s death. Jocelyn should know a thing or two about eye sight (suffering in court as she does after Ben fails to read all the necessary documents onto audio) but here she runs a clever ring around the fact that Susan believes she has good vision and therefore has never had an eye test... ergo, how can she possibly know how good her vision really is and exactly what distance she can see clearly, and at night? Two steps, and sideways.
From there it is a simple matter to shred Susan’s reliability as a witness: Why didn’t she call an ambulance? Why didn’t she call the police? Why did she stand there smoking four cigarettes? Why did she take Danny’s skateboard? Why did she threaten Maggie Radcliffe?
Naturally Sharon Bishop is furious, particularly with Abby...
But, interestingly, Sharon gets a friendly “Chin up” from Jocelyn, along with a light for her cigarette.
Which leaves us completely floored when, later in the episode, these two have their confrontation regarding Jocelyn’s refusal to defend Sharon’s son and Jocelyn’s response is brutal. Jocelyn would rather blurt out that she didn’t like Sharon enough to take the case than admit to anyone (including Ben) that her eye sight is failing. She attacks Sharon as a single mother, which hits home, and hard, because Sharon’s son has recently been beaten up in jail. She also points out that Sharon has the habit of blaming others when something goes wrong – which feels accurate given the earlier scene of Sharon chewing out Abby for the failure with Susan. Daggers are now drawn between our QCs. (And the shocked glances exchanged by Ben and Abby make this scene priceless.)
Sharon, meanwhile, makes another diagonal move by manipulating Rev. Paul (who seems terribly insecure and naive at this point) regarding being called as a character witness for Joe. He turns to Becca Fisher to confess his guilty feelings regarding his attempt to “save” Joe by visiting him in prison, putting a serious strain on whatever their relationship is.
And Mark has a chat with Jocelyn on the beach and convinces her she can put him on the stand.
Reader, this is probably about where I gave up. I watched the remaining three episodes of Broadchurch with considerable less interest, and I can't be bothered to analyse them. It's a mess. The Knight and Bishop chess match I was so excited about? Fizzled out. The actors all did their best with the material, but it became more and more steeped in stupid. Broadchurch Series 3 was even worse; it took me a long time to get around to watching it, and by the time I did I barely could. This really was just below-average writing that was lucky enough to be elevated with a stellar cast who all acted their socks off despite the woeful material, together with some good direction and videography, and a haunting theme song.
