Archive

“The Fall” recap (2.1): Why grown men shouldn’t play with dollies

Welcome to your new AfterEllen recaps of The Fall, a.k.a. How to Get Away With Staring at Gillian Anderson’s Face for an Hour…And Get Paid for It. When last we saw DS Stella Gibson she was on the phone with the very creepy Paul Spector. Our mild-mannered bereavement counselor by day and brutal murderer of women by night had called Stella on her personal mobile (pro tip: never give your digits to a serial killer) to talk about how alike they were. But she dropped a truth bomb on him about his impotence, garden-variety misogyny and pitch-perfect profile of the kind of man he actually is. Then he drove off with his family vowing to stop. But, come on, we wouldn’t have a second season if he did.

The new season opens with Stella in the hospital room of the latest victim, Annie Brawley. She is also the only victim Paul has left alive, albeit accidentally.

I say her full name because 1) It’s important to remember the names of even fictitious murder victims lest we lump them all into the dead woman in refrigerator category of plot device, and 2) The killer kills very similar looking, young, white, brunette professional women who are hard to tell apart, which makes me feel bad because of point No. 1.

Stella is interviewing Annie, who doesn’t remember much. If there’s a problem with Gillian’s British accent I can’t detect it and won’t believe you even if you try to convince me. But don’t try, because it’s ever so much more fun just to listen to her. Fun, of course, is a relative term because she is talking about a brutal assault and attempted murder.

The measured nature of Gillian Anderson‘s voice is calm, calculated. Her tone perfectly matches the pacing of the series. Slow, yet riveting.

She pushes Annie to remember details about her attacker, but not in a pushy way. Everything about Stella is matter of fact. She does what she needs to, she does what she wants to, she does what will help solve the case. And she isn’t taking any of your bullshit. But when Annie hits a roadblock with even the most basic memories of that terrible night—her brother was killed during the attack, too, after all—Stella changes course.

She stands up, walks over to Annie wordlessly and takes her braid into her hand — removing her hair tie. A confused Annie inquires, and Stella tells her, “Once upon a time, this worked for me.” She puts the elastic band around Annie’s wrist and tells her to snap it when she gets overwhelmed. Tenderness isn’t all about hugs and warm blankets, it’s also sometimes about honesty.

We’re left to the sound of the band snapping and snapping as we fade out to the credits. Yeah, she’s going to want to stock up on those in bulk at Tesco.

As reassuring as Stella is is as creepy as Paul is being. He is playing the piano in that unnerving one-note at a time staccato that screams “I like stalking and killing women as a hobby.” Maybe that’s why his wife took the kids and left him in the Scottish countryside.

He and his beard have resorted to drink in the absence of stalking and strangling women to fill his days. But he hasn’t lost that dead-eyed puppy dog stare. Take a close look, straight ladies, this is your dreamy Christian Grey.

I think what makes Paul Spector even more creeptastic is the fact that he is the father of two small children, especially his little girl Olivia whom he dotes on. It’s her on the phone (p.s. This show even manages to make a ringing iPhone ominous) asking about her “dollies” which she has left when her mom obviously packed them up and left in a hurry. Asking a serial killer of women to look for dolls of women. Yep, this show is the nightmare factory of your dreams.

Hey, speaking of nightmares, when next we see Stella she is standing in front of the darkened and under construction flat of the last victim. The neighborhood is dark and dodgy, to say the least. So naturally she walks in by herself and leaves the front door open. The new season isn’t even 15 minutes old and it’s determined to give me heart palpitations.

She wanders up the stairs in the townhouse, picking up evidence tags at random. The scene is intercut with Paul going up his stairs and finding the dollies. Yeah, they’re just naked Barbie dolls. Guess which one he singles out? If you said the brunette you’re probably as skeeved out as I am by this dude.

Paul sits at a mirror, Stella walks up to a mirror. Then Assistant Chief Constable Jim Burns silently walks up behind her and everyone drops dead from a heart attack. Stella’s “Bitch, don’t you knock?” face is on point.

An overdressed ACC Burns is in patent leather shoes and full tux and tails. Stella comments on his footwear because this is the kind of awesome show where the female character gets to comment on what the men are wearing for a change. I’d love the scene even more if Stella’s face wasn’t so precariously close to a Jackson Pollock of blood splatter.

Burns complains that it has been 10 days and the case isn’t solved yet. Slow your roll, buddy. This isn’t an episode of NCIS. Stuff doesn’t get wrapped up in a bow in 60-minutes. Plus, stop trying to hustle Gillian off screen, you monster.

She hands him an emergency funding plan she has drawn up for the policing executive (Is that a CEO of police? Explain, UK friends.). Another $1.8 million should do it according to her figures. If that’s what it takes to keep Gillian on my TV, I’m all for it.

They leave the flat to go back out onto the darkened street. Burns offers to walk Stella to her car, but she’s like, “I play Beyoncé on blast, I got this. Plus wouldn’t want to scuff up those pretty shoes of yours.”

A bunch of ruffiians— hooligans? I’m not sure the proper British slang for shady looking dudes—walk up to Stella as she approaches her car. They make a crude joke about the detective Stella had a one-night stand with earlier who was later shot dead on the street. It’s clearly an intimidation tactic, but have they ever rolled up on the wrong lady.

Because DSI Gibson is a woman not to be fucked with on every level. She turns the intimidation tables by faking a move on the lead lunkhead, and they part like the red sea of street thugs. I need that moment in gif form. Make it so, Internet.

Stella returns to her hotel with a large package in tow. It’s her police uniform. Oh, lesbians, this is gonna be good. But first, here’s an image to fuel your night terrors for the next century.

OK, good, now you deserve the palate cleanser of DSI Gibson in full uniform.

News has leaked out that Stella and the deceased local detective had a fling. And since the only possible source for said leak would have been the police themselves, since she informed the investigation of their brief hookup, you have to think it’s all about that sexism—which is much less sexy than that bass.

Stella has taken note, hence the uniform which she purposely wore to make herself “as unfeminine as possible.” As Burns notes, it hasn’t worked.

Back in Belfast, Paul’s wife Sally Ann runs into their teenage babysitter at a coffee shop. It’s the same teenage babysitter Paul told his wife he was having an affair with to cover for the fact that he was really a serial killer. So it’s a little lie to hide the big lie.

She confronts her. Babysitter Katie tells her her hubby is actually a terrible person. So then Sally Ann calls Paul to confront him. He is too busy making a proper breakfast fry-up of what appears to be eggs, sausage, bacon, mushrooms and kidneys. Any time a killer eats organs, Hannibal Lecter opens a new bottle of chianti.

Stella is dealing with another kind of bodily part — assholes who have printed tabloid stories about her and other “bent” cops. I know they’re using it here in the “criminal, corrupt” sense. But wouldn’t it be more fun if they meant it in the totally not straight way? We can dream, fueled by Gillian’s mischievous tweets.

The following scene doesn’t do anything to dissuade us of the delicious idea either. We catch our first glimpse of Niamh McGrady in the new season as out cutie lesbian PC Dani Ferrington. She finds Stella in the loo changing out of her police uniform and back into civvies.

Dani lingers and asks Stella if perhaps she could go back into uniform instead of assisting on the investigation. Stella gives her a look that says, girl, sisters have to help sisters in this man-dominated business. Take your chances and run with them, lady. But she tells Dani she can’t spare her.

She follows up by asking why Dani wants out. And Dani says she wonders why she picked her in the first place and worries it was because she was struggling with what happened. But Gillian says she doesn’t go around rescuing patrol cops and to value herself more, dammit.

Then Stella tells us her reasons were “totally selfish” and she wanted someone by her side she could trust. Also, Dani totally pinged her gaydar. Still she says she’ll think about letting her return to the street.

At least, I think that’s what happened. Gillian was slowly taking off her shirt through that entire scene. I might have been distracted.

Back in the office, Stella is now talking with the sister of one of the victims, Sarah Kay. She talks about how she gets pissed off that people always ask her how her dad is doing first, as if her own feelings are inferior to that of a grieving father. And then she talks about how the relentless media coverage won’t let her heal, and how they always play pictures of the second victim, Alice Monroe, first. The most current paper even got Sarah’s age wrong.

Stella does her best to not necessarily comfort, but explain. Alice Monroe has a bigger family, and a fund was set up in her honor. The sister says she worries not just for Sarah, but for all the victims who have lost their individual identities. Stella tells her flatly, “Not for me.” And you believe her, fully.

Stella then gets some bad news, Rose Stagg has “cried off” of her interview with her citing work pressure. I had to look up “cried off” as I’ve never heard it used before to mean “backed out.” This is the extra effort I go through as a Yank trying to recap a British show.

Rose Stagg — if you remember which I didn’t so I had to look it up as well, but at least it didn’t have anything to do with a language barrier this time — was a medical student friend of case pathologist Dr. Tanya Reed Smith. And Dr. Reed Smith is played by one Archie Panjabi. Reed Smith mentioned her to Stella over a glass of whisky and light flirting in the first season.

Anyway, back to Rose, she told her about a date who strangled her back in the day and it raised alarm bells for the present-day case. Stella calls her up saying, “I really need to see you today.” Somehow Rose continues to resist saying she has too much work, but promises to come tomorrow. Oh, sweetie, you know tomorrow never comes for people who talk about it on crime shows.

Stella briefs the team on the developments. The biggest take-away from the meeting for me is that Stella has changed her personal cell number. Whew.

Meanwhile, Paul has packed and is leaving Scotland to return to Belfast. He is now on a train headed back when he starts to chat up an attractive blond woman who sat down across form him. She has a newspaper with her that includes a composite sketch of the man Rose Stagg said strangled her.

Paul grabs it without asking and asks without hesitation, “Do you think that looks like me?” This is a man who is acutely aware how non-threatening and even attractive he looks to the uninformed female bystander. He even colors in a beard to the sketch’s clean-shaven face and asks if she thinks it’s, “Safe for me to go back to Belfast?” Really, lady, not even a tiny tingle in the old Spidey senses?

But, alas, while she agrees it does look like him, she couldn’t possibly believe the man sitting across from her is the reason she dyed her brown hair blond out of fear. Plus he is carrying Barbie dolls in his bag, so clearly, he is trustworthy. So trustworthy she tells him what part of town she lives in, that she lives alone and shows him her identification with, presumably, her full address written on it. This is why they tell you to never talk to strangers.

Now off the train, Paul heads to an Internet café for some light stalking. Though he decides against the dye job and instead looks up Rose. He only has her maiden name, but through the unforgiving power of the series of tubes he finds her lickity split. Never before has Googling been so chilling.

Stella, still in the debriefing meeting, launches into one of the first of what I hope will be a series of authoritative speeches with long lingering close-ups on her face this season. She tells the team she does not think the killer has stopped, that he cannot stop, and that they must stop him.

Unfortunately the glorious shots of Gillian’s face are interspersed with the absolutely petrifying images of Paul standing in the rain stalking whoever his next victim appears to be.

Stella says: “In order to do the terrible things that he does, the killer dehumanizes his victims. Let’s do the opposite. Let’s keep them alive. For us, for their families, friends, work colleagues, for the public. Let’s keep them alive until this man is caught.”

That, friends, is the exact opposite of women in refrigerators. I wish we could bask in the glow of this feminist moment, but Paul is busy frightening us all to death. He sees someone leave through the windows — does no one in the UK have curtains? — and then slowly opens the side door — ditto for locking doors. We’re fully expecting this to be Rose’s place. But, psych out, it’s Kate the babysitter’s house.

He confronts her about telling his wife about his horribleness. But Katie is a precocious girl and has him all figured out. Why would he lie about having an affair? Why would he keep a lock of hair in his desk? Why did he come home in the middle of the night after one of the murders with a cut on his face? Girl, you’re right, but is it the best idea ever to taunt the serial killer? Paul tells her to “grow up” and she kiss bites his lip in return because, I don’t know, puberty?

Paul returns to his home and checks the mail. He finds a letter from the Alice Monroe Memorial Fund inquiring about bereavement services. They ask if he’ll offer his services to Annie Brawley, the woman he tried to kill. Yes, friends, I’m pretty sure that’s the very definition of ironic. He calls immediately to accept.

While home Paul collects some souvenirs — the locks of hair he has taken. And he packs up what looks to be his kill kit. This is so bad, you guys. Also bad, it looks like Dani got her wish and is back in uniform as a patrol cop. Boo. Do not like. I mean, she looks cute, but will we be seeing less of her now? Where is the dislike button when you need it?

Paul checks into a motel and gets his kill gear together. His daughter is back home and finds a letter he has left by pixie post on her nightstand. He tells her she must have missed her dollies in her suitcase all along. And also to tell no one about his letter. So she slips it through the attic crawlspace door in her ceiling, where her caring father also keeps his murder supplies. This show is so quietly disturbing.

In the first bit of good news all episode, Dr. Reed Smith pulls up with her motorcycle and black leathers to where Stella is supervising the search of the water for the murder weapon. She asks her about the brief affair with Olson and whether the scratch marks on his back were from her.

Stella offers her fingernails for inspection, which is practically the definition of lesbian foreplay. I mean, it’s like they’re paying homage to Go Fish or something. Never mind the truth, the girl is out there. Remember when I was looking for a dislike button before? Like, so much like.

In the second bit of good news, police divers finally find the murder weapon from Annie’s attack. Stella has to promise them they’d find more money somehow so they’d continue, but still, you can’t argue with results.

But that’s the last of the good news because the rest of the episode was purely petrifying. How a show with such a deliberately solemn pace can be so gut-knottingly scary is beyond me. The camera pans through another house, from someone walking through it’s perspective. We see Rose Stagg, in bed, tossing and turning. Someone approaches. Just kidding, it’s her young daughter who needs to go to the bathroom. She tells her to ask her dad, who is sleeping on the couch.

Whew, everyone’s safe, right? Haha, wrong show. The little girl runs into Paul coming up the stairs, who tells her to not wake mommy. He takes her to the bathroom, and says he is a friend of her mommy. He also teachers her the Peter Piper tongue twister. And then takes the little girl back to her room by the hand.

Then he crawls in bed with Rose and wakes her with his hand over her mouth. He tells her she has to come with him to “talk” or he’ll hurt her beautiful family. He releases her after she promises not to scream and she turns and realizes it’s…him.

Damn, this season is going to be so good/utterly terrifying.

Lesbian Apparel and Accessories Gay All Day sweatshirt -- AE exclusive

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button