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“Scott and Bailey” recap (3.4): Secrets in the Cellar

For those of you just tuning in, Scott & Bailey is a British police drama full of women kicking ass and taking charge, currently in its third season. I’m specifically covering the storyline this season of a troubled lesbian played by Nicola Walker whose mother has been murdered, although the entire show really deserves our attention. For one thing, not only are all the lead characters women, but EVERY SINGLE episode has been written by women (mainly Sally Wainwright), and in this most recent season thus far, every episode has also been directed by women. Now that deserves a huzzah.

For those of you in the US who may have never heard of this show, luckily for you, PBS has also started airing the first season on Friday nights at 9. (Double check your local listings.) You can watch all the episodes they’ve aired so far for free on their website. Just watch the title sequence, and you may be hooked.

Since Nicola Walker‘s character didn’t appear in the last two episodes, here’s a quick recap of what we’ve missed since last time:

In the second episode, we get to see the continuation of the storyline that dominated the end of last season, the murder of Rachel’s ex-boyfriend by her brother. It is overall a bummer of a time for Rachel, as she 1) agonizes over turning her brother in, 2) then gets arrested herself on suspicion of connection with the murder, and 3) also decides to get married when all this is happening, which is perhaps not the best decision. But man, does everyone look cute at her wedding! Except for, perhaps, her drunken mother.

This episode also includes Gill Murray defending Rachel to the police board in a both passionate and effective speech that helps dismiss charges against her. It also made me wonder if Gill Murray is in love with Rachel, or if Gill Murray is simply in love with everyone. On a related note, I am in love with Gill Murray.

The third episode returned to a classic episodic mystery, this one a murder of a rich man in his kitchen while he was still in his bathrobe. Rachel and Janet also spend a bit of time in their favorite alley complaining about the men in their lives, the new husband and the ex-husband respectively, and then they wonder why they don’t just move in together and cuddle every day and every night. Okay, so they don’t actually say the last bit, but you can pretty much insinuate what they’re really thinking.

The fourth episode begins with Nicola Walker’s character, Helen, finally showing her face once again, this time somewhat creepily at Janet’s doorstop. This interrupts a game of Monopoly Janet had been playing with her mother and her two daughters, which is unfortunate because I was really enjoying hearing what all the properties in British Monopoly are called. But instead of finding out whether Janet will snag Trafalgar Square or not, we just get to discover that Helen helped her father bury her older brother’s body in the floor of her cellar when she was 13.

It apparently went down like this: her brother, Michael, and her dad had apparently gotten into a fight when her dad hit Michael’s head into the wall a bit too hard. Whoopsie! When Helen saw what was happening, Dad forced her to help bury him, saying that if she ever told anyone, she’d be subject to the same fate.

She says that over the years she’s half convinced herself it never happened, but is now wanting to find out if her memories are actually true. And indeed, when the police return to the house, they find human remains in the basement, and not just of one body, but of two. Because of the increasing WTF factor of the case, they bring in Detective Superintendent Julie Dobson, played by Pippa Haywood, who we met last season.

Since they need more information, and since Helen has technically admitted to being an accomplice to a crime, Rachel and Janet then show up at her home to arrest her and bring her in for questioning. It’s clear at this point that Rachel and Janet are on Helen’s side, and they assure her it’s just procedural, but Helen and her partner with the delicious hair are obviously not too pleased about it.

This of course leads to another harrowing and ridiculously well acted interrogation session of Helen crying and breaking all of our hearts.

They continue to excavate the basement of her old home, where they end up finding SEVEN bodies in total, all of young men. Good grief. (AE reader Paula believes this whole storyline might be based off of the Cromwell Murders, the famous sexual assaults and killings of at least 13 young women by Fred and Rose West in the 1970s.) While Gill is skeptical about Helen’s innocence at first, they decide that she is not a suspect but a witness, and work to get the charges against her dismissed. That is, as long as she cooperates and tells them all she knows about the sick, sad world she used to live in, which sounds real fun and not at all traumatizing.

At the house, DSI Julie Dobson calls her higher up, who shockingly happens to be another badass woman, to give her the latest developments, and herein lies the funniest scene in this whole episode. After she gets off the phone, Julie Dobson bemoans to Gill how this woman makes her feel all wibbly wobbly on the inside:

Julie: Look at me. I’m shaking. I’m sweating. An hour in a cellar with four putrefied corpses and I’m cool as a cucumber. Thirty seconds on the phone to Karen Zalinski and I’m a nervous wreck. Look at me, what’s going on?

Gill: You’re ridiculous.

Julie: Oh, sod off. Is it just me? Does she not have this effect on everyone?

Gill: It’s just you.

Oh, Julie. We’ve all been there, my friend.

They pull good ol’ dad Joe out of the slammer (where he’s currently held on suspicion of killing his wife), but interviewing him is difficult, as his mind seems severely addled and it’s impossible to discern when he’s lying or when he just genuinely doesn’t remember jack. He appears distraught to find out that Michael has been buried in his very own cellar for 30 years, and ends up blaming it on everyone else – his wife Eustace, or Helen, who he calls “a lying little bitch, always was” – except for one of his other missing daughters, Sheila, who he becomes weepy about, saying she wasn’t “nasty” like the others.

It’s also revealed that someone’s been leaking information to the press, which has Julie Dobson in a tizzy. Not only do they have Helen’s name, but it’s also revealed in the paper that she’s visited female prostitutes, all information no one should know except for detectives on the case.

Gill says she can’t imagine anyone in her office sneaking info. My own personal theory as of now is that it’s Julie herself. She’s been complaining about the media just a little too loudly this episode, while everyone else seems to simply roll their eyes about it and keep on with their job. In any case, it all sucks for Helen pretty hard. It’s a good thing she hasn’t had a lot to deal with in her life!

Further interviews with people who knew Helen’s family in the past reveal even more macabre details: an old boyfriend of one of Helen’s sisters who said that they lived in squalor and that the daughters were obsessed with sex in an unhealthy way because of their parents; a homeless man who was taken in once by Joe in the ’70s and sexually tortured over a series of days in the cellar. He also says that the girls joined in on it. He was lucky enough to get away, and reported the whole escapade to the police at the time, who did nothing about it because they thought he was crazy. Which makes Janet feel pretty awesome about her field.

And so after a long day that at least quadrupled the WTF factor of this whole thing, Janet then returns home to find, once again, Helen, sitting at her kitchen table waiting for her. Her partner read about the prostitutes in the paper and kicked her out. That is indeed a tough one, Helen. She’s also had a bit to drink, and in turn seems bitter and incredulous, and then simply sad, and small.

Janet says that she can’t be there, that it’s inappropriate, and calls Rachel to assist her in getting Helen to a B&B somewhere. Well, first she calls Rachel’s flat, and her husband says she isn’t there, so then she calls her mobile. Rachel says, why are you calling late? I’m in bed! And Janet says, wait, your husband just said you weren’t.

This is because “bed” for Rachel means a sleeping bag on the floor of the office. Her marriage is clearly going real swell!

Next week’s episode promises even more details and twists of this case. What are your thoughts on it all?

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