With Reid retreating to the periphery for the time being, Ripper Street placed the focus squarely on Bennett Drake in a compelling instalment that effectively mixes standalone police work with serialised character development.
After the events of last week’s episode, it wasn’t surprising that Reid (Matthew Macfayden) was missing for almost the entirety of ‘Ashes and Diamonds’, but it’s a storytelling choice that could have left this week’s episode feeling a little hollow and somewhat lacking due to the absence of the show’s central character.
Thankfully, Ripper Street is strong enough for Reid’s absence to make barely a blip on the continuously stellar quality of this new series, mixing in an adequate procedural case of the week with excellently written and performed serialised, emotional elements.
A great deal of ‘Ashes and Diamonds’ was focused around the murder of Edward Le Chayne (Jason Manford), a fraudulent clairvoyant with a surprising amount of enemies.
Though the most compelling elements of the episode were found elsewhere, this vaguely generic case of the week was elevated by the pleasing thread of moral ambiguity running through it. Even the sympathetic, wronged Mrs Wakefield became a vengeful murder in an appropriately cynical, sly final twist, and the seemingly innocent Juniper Kohl turned out to be a deceitful, manipulative game-player who would happily tear apart Mrs Wakefield’s life to live out her conventionally admirable dreams of becoming a musician in Paris. (In another, more conventional show, it’s easy to see a character like Juniper being a bit-player, entirely defined by these aspirations.)
It’s a shame, then, that this BBC One version (the extended Amazon cut might have rectified this) of the episode didn’t find time to truly flesh out Mr Wakefield, a hugely important character who seemed to be a generically lecherous liar in his disappointingly brief appearance.
Elsewhere, ‘Ashes and Diamonds’placed Drake as the de facto lead character here, seemingly personifying the damaging, corrupting effects of Whitechapel that were glimpsed in every part of the episode as Drake lamented the damage he believes he brings to the already cursed area of London.
Thankfully, Ripper Street avoided a slip into total nihilism as Drake’s character arc concluded this episode on a hopeful note, with Drake finally getting back together with Rose Erskine (Charlotte McKenna). It was a satisfying note to end upon here – an undercurrent of cynicism is part and parcel of what makes this show so entertaining to watch, but Ripper Street understands that it can’t just turn all of its characters into tortured anti-heroes and villains whose happiness will inevitably be completely eroded away by the corruption of Whitechapel.
The glimpses of hope, as seen in Drake’s story, are some of the most emotionally powerful moments that Ripper Street can deliver, keeping the audience emotionally invested in the idea that there’s genuine hope for some of these characters, without undercutting the idea that Whitechapel really is a deeply corrupt place where there are no true heroes or villains.
With Reid’s daughter on the run and Drake finally bringing Reid back from a remote hiding place, it seems that Ripper Street is preparing for an imminent collision between the well-meaning Susan and H Division – and if it’s anything like the train crash from Season 3’s opener, there’s sure to be a hell of a lot of collateral damage.
Aired at 9pm on Friday 14 August 2015 on BBC One.
> Order Season 3 on DVD on Amazon.
> Buy the Season 1-2 box set on Amazon.
What did you think of this week’s episode? Let us know below…