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“Scott and Bailey” recap (3.1): Lady detectives, plus lesbians

Scott and Bailey is a British crime drama that just started its third season, and we should all start paying attention to it for a few reasons. For a start, it’s the most female-driven cop show I’ve ever seen, ever. (Although I’ve never actually seen Cagney & Lacey – don’t throw tomatoes at me!) It stars Lesley Sharp as Janet Scott and Suranne Jones as Rachel Bailey, both DCs (detective constables) in a fictional Manchester police unit, along with their no-nonsense boss, Gill Murray, played by Amelia Bullmore. It’s written by the fantastic Sally Wainwright (Last Tango in Halifax), and most importantly, this third series includes a recurring role played by the unstoppable Nicola Walker, recently seen as Justine in Heading Out and Gillian in Last Tango in Halifax. And while Scott and Bailey are a dream for lesbian shippers in themselves, Walker’s character here is finally – finally! – a lesbian.

Of course, she happens to be a deeply disturbed, deeply sad lesbian who’s arrested on suspicion of killing her own mother, so, don’t get ready for any hot sex scenes between her and her partner or anything. (Although her partner DOES have rad hair!) But Walker’s performance in the first episode alone is absolutely phenomenal, and the writing and excellence of the show overall deserve our love. So! For the episodes Walker appears in in this series – it appears there will be five – I’ll offer up recaps focusing on her storyline, while also throwing in the best moments of Janet Scott and Rachel Bailey’s clear undying love for each other.

We begin this third season with a bang, as we watch Gill finishing some shopping at Costco and having a pleasant phone conversation with someone, la de da, when suddenly as she’s driving away, someone throws a belt over her throat and wields a knife to her face, while a voice in the backseat says, “Shut up, bitch.” And after watching this scene now several times, that voice sounds suspiciously like Nicola Walker’s. DUN DUN DUN.

We see nothing else as the screen then flashes: EIGHT MONTHS EARLIER.

In this eight months earlier world, we’re introduced to one of the mysteries of this new season, and it’s a gruesome one. Here’s the basic story: an elderly woman is found in her creepy old house with her severed head at the bottom of the stairs and the rest of her body laying at the top. Meanwhile, her bedridden husband has been laying in their bedroom for days. Janet and Rachel and Gill eventually deduce that the woman died of head trauma after being hit with a blunt object, and after laying at the top of the stairs for a while, there was no one to feed their dog and so the doggie eventually bit right through her neck and EW EW EW this was gross just hearing about while watching the show but is even grosser to have to describe in words ew ew ewwwww. You Brits really don’t hold back with this shit.

There’s no sign of a break in at the house, so they focus on the husband, who’s recovering at a hospital, while seeking out the couple’s mysterious children. This is where Rachel is led to Helen, one of their daughters, played by Walker. Rachel and One of the Assorted Dude DCs Who Are Not Really Important approach Walker at the store counter where she works, where, greeting them as customers, she is first full of smiles.

This quickly changes when she discovers they’re cops; they sit in a backroom where Rachel shares the news of Helen’s mother’s death. To which Helen quietly replies, “Right.” As you say when you find out your mother died. She goes on to say that she hasn’t seen her mother, or stepped inside of that house, for over 30 years. The only sister she still spoke with killed herself last year, and she can offer up no further information on the two other siblings Rachel is pressing for information for. After continually insisting she can be of no help, she eventually excuses herself.

From the first moment on screen, Helen’s body language emanates an almost palpable sense of pain and discomfort. Her responses are strained; she seems short of breath; she’s nervous and tense but more in a frightened-of-my-own-past type of way than a suspicious one, along with a healthy dose of shock. And her eyes, while guarded, are absolutely piercing.

Yet while Helen appears more traumatized than guilty, the bedridden husband is becoming more and more alert at the hospital and reveals that he heard people in the house that night, and identified the voices as being those of Helen and her dead sister. So, that’s weird. But enough to arrest Helen on suspicion of murder.

When the crew shows up at Helen’s house the next morning, we get a first view of her partner, who answers the door.

She appears utterly confused as the police storm past her upstairs, to where Helen is currently lying fully clothed on the bed in this really alert, chipper state after a clearly rockin’ evening!

After Rachel lets her know the charge and her rights, Helen slurs, “Up your ass, bitch.”

At the police station, Helen has become much more somber, back to her nervous, tense, deeply upset state. She apologizes for swearing at Rachel and explains she got so pissed last night because of the memories that the interview at the store brought back up, memories she’s been running away from all her life. She then excruciatingly dances around the sexual abuse she and her siblings suffered from at the hands of both of her parents, and then retraces where she was the night of her mother’s death. She recounts a boring evening of her girlfriend making dinner and going to sleep. Which is quickly refuted when they find footage of her in fact being out in their car that night. And now Helen becomes increasingly upset.

The next morning after a night in jail, Helen finally comes out with what she didn’t want to admit: she was out that night picking up a girl she sometimes picks up at a place where you can pick up girls. She always pays her well, she says. Like I said, this isn’t exactly a happy show.

All of these scenes had me unconsciously holding my breath. Helen’s agony is so intensely drawn out on Nicola Walker’s face, her shifty eyes, her trembling chin. They were also stretched out to a brilliant, almost painful pitch, in a way that I believe more impatient American shows never dare to try. Perhaps the most chilling crying I’ve ever seen on TV.

But in more fun lesbian subtext times, Janet’s lesbianism is implied twice in this episode: First, when she returns home after a long day, her mother Dorothy is there taking care of things with a casserole in the oven. When Janet tells her in gratitude that she’s perfect, Dorothy chides, “You need a wife.” Janet replies, “I need something.” A wife! A wife is what you need, Janet! Listen to your mum!

Then in a much more unfortunate way, the creepy husband of the beheaded woman asks Janet during one of his multiple interviews if she’s a lesbian, because lady cops usually are. Oh, creepy husband. She replies only with her steely blue eyed gaze.

We also learn that Rachel is now married to Sean, a bloke she had been dating for a short period of time last season, but not surprisingly, the role of the dutiful married wife isn’t really settling with her that well. She asks Janet at one point if she can stay the night at her place. She says that being with him every night is boring (you don’t say?) and that she’s been spending a few nights on the couch (oh really). Janet assures her that it takes time to get used to being married; Rachel says, “It’s not that.” And when Janet then assures her that Sean really does love her, Rachel says she knows, but that nothing runs that deep with Sean. So what you’re saying is you’re really not feeling being married to a guy and you want to sleep over at Janet’s instead. It’s okay, Rachel! We feel ya, girl! After a beat, Janet then asks, “Do you really want to sleep at ours?” Rachel, who has also just received a distracting phone call from her alcoholic mother, sighs and says no before walking away. And you can bet that Janet stares at her as she goes. And if Sally Wainwright didn’t write this scene with a ship in her heart, I’ll be damned.

The episode ends with them finding much more incriminating evidence against the bedridden husband, who might not actually be so bedridden after all, than against Helen, and arrest him instead. But being that Helen shows up for at least four more episodes this season, clearly her story isn’t over.

Scott and Bailey runs in the UK on Wednesdays at 9:00 on ITV. This week’s episode will not include Helen, as it instead goes back and explains more about what happened at the end of last season, when one of Rachel’s ex-boyfriends was killed – by her brother. No big deal! But I’ll be back after that.

I also have to give a shout out to AE reader Paula, who not only told me all about this show but has helped me out with an impressive list of British police terms.

Do you watch Scott and Bailey? What do you make of Helen?

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