But can it really be the vicar?

DI Hardy suspects so, spitting out the word ‘alcoholic’ like its corked wine, and trying to connect a weakness for the sauce with a greater moral weakness that may have brought Reverend Coates to kill a child. After all, the Rev has no alibi, his church has an unenviable proximity to the Latimer’s house, and he runs the mysterious ‘computer class’. Does he also enjoy piety and a pint?

In vehemently defending his reputation to Hardy, this is the first episode where Arthur Darvill has felt like a part of Broadchurch’s fabric, rather than Rory Williams masquerading as a man of the cloth. He’s trying to recover from alcoholism, but also recovering his reputation in the eyes of the Law before his soul is dissolved by gossip, just like Jack Marshall’s.

Indeed, recovery is the theme for Episode 6. As the town recovers from Jack’s suicide, the Latimer family feel they should make some attempt at recovering their lives; moving on if only so that, for a few hours, they can be something other than ‘the family of that dead boy’. Mark returns to his job, Chloe goes back to school, but Beth’s future looks less assured.

Will she end up a clone of the Sandbrook mum – a husk of a human filled only with sleeping pills and tears – or will her unborn child fill her unsteady marriage with new meaning? Will she even have a marriage by the end of this series? Mark Latimer still has a missing two hours from his alibi…

And furthering the theme of things missing and recovered, Tom Miller is at the centre of evidence hidden and revealed; attempting to dispose of something vital on a hard drive and also being given Danny’s skateboard by Susan ‘Monster’ Wright. She may wish she hadn’t given that skateboard away – and not simply because it lands her in hot water with the coppers – she’ll need something to play with if Nige crossbows her dog. We’re clinging on to the hope he was just re-enacting William Tell. In the back of his van. At night. Oh dear…

We’ll steel ourselves to see a canine corpse next week, but will Hardy even make it to then? Collapsing after chasing a mysterious hooded suspect, he may regret picking on a priest, because it looks like God’s trying to call his number, right in time for a big juicy cliffhanger.

And as the credits roll and a national cry of frustration goes up, the final recovery is left to the audience, as we need time before the penultimate episode to rethink our theories to fit the facts.

See you at the water cooler next week then.

Aired at 9pm on Monday 8 April 2013 on ITV.

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