The final episode of ITV’s thrilling crime drama’s second season does not disappoint, as the truth about the tragic victims of child abuse is revealed.
Revenge was finally dealt on all the perpetrators of the past evil acts by a pact made after those suffering were treated in a psychiatric unit in Ealing.
Our detective duo, DCI Cassie Stuart (Nicola Walker) and DS Sunny Khan (Sanjeev Bhaskar) thought they had reached a “dead end”, but start interviewing families of those abused. Horrible secrets are spilled, bringing tears to all concerned.
The fate of Flo, adopted daughter of Colin Osborne (Mark Bonnar) and his partner Simon (Charlie Condou) looks set to be decided by a stressed social worker. Meanwhile, the past secrets of our key suspects when they were young children are unravelled, creating harrowing scenes.
Sara Mahmoud (Badria Timimi) was abused as a “child prostitute” by the deceased David Walker. His wife, DI Tessa Nixon (Lorraine Ashbourne) turned a blind eye to save their marriage, but now feels “truly ashamed”. Their son, Jason, shows suicidal tendencies.
Marion Kelsey (Rosie Cavaliero) reveals that she was abused by her father when she was a teenager, but her mother (Wendy Craig) never believed her because “she was always making things up”. Her sister, Alise (Holly Aird) outraged that such a thing happened, questions her mother how this took place under her watch.
Cassie has travelled up to Scotland to interview Colin’s father, Harry (Bill Paterson) and discovered that there was a ‘family friend’ called Len Paxton, who may have had an ulterior motive for befriending his young son. Camping trips, evening roast dinners at the house led to Colin at the age of 9 years old being subjected to despicable acts. Revenge seems inevitable.
The pact that these three victims of crime made years ago was to kill those who subjected them to these acts. Murdering each other’s abusers created perfect alibis so that they would never get found out. They tried hard to continue their lives to the best of their ability, but the nightmares of their past always caught up with them.
The remaining two bodies were never found, but the detectives have no appetite to lock these victims up in prison when they have suffered so much. Justice has been done to the evil men who wished to gratify themselves on these children, and after meeting up with Sunny, Cassie admits that so far it is just her who knows the truth because she followed Marion to a country pub where the three meet.
Pressure has already been put on Cassie by her superiors that there was not enough money in the budget for ‘historic cases’, whilst kids on the street need help. An excellent excuse for closing the case.
This has been a compelling crime drama from start to finish with brilliant script writing by Chris Lang and excellent performances throughout from the core cast.
Nail-biting storytelling with a plot twisting and turning gives the audience a conclusion that words cannot describe.
Bring on Season 3!
Aired at 9pm on Thursday 9 February 2017 on ITV.
Buy Season 1 on DVD on Amazon here.
Reviewed by Zoé Patrick.