“The night is dark and full of terrors.”
Game of Thrones
Well, this was a surprise.
You know how for my last Silent Witness post I intimated that, if the first part was a descent into chaos, the second would be an ascent into order and light? HA. NO.
The team continues, of course, to investigate this week’s string of seemingly random murders, and for at least half of it we sit there thinking we know pretty much exactly what is going on. That’s how well this thing was acted.
I don’t often say this for Murder Mysteries. Heck, I don’t often say this for any TV show. But this episode? Was really, properly good. The more I think about it, the better it gets. For once, the dynamics of the forensics team are actually less interesting than what’s going on in the “real world”, although the subplot with Luke’s childhood was a nice tie-in with the main theme. But what’s really good about this episode is the couple at its heart. I can’t even say very much about that, because spoilers, but suffice it to say that Leila Mimmack’s performance as Lana Sutherland was simply mesmerising. And if Jack Roth’s scarily intense homeless man was more stereotypically violent, I rather think this says more about our prejudices as viewers than about his personal talents.
Really, I just want to fangirl for the next week or so because THIS EPISODE WAS FANTASTIC, a sort of twisted meditation on motherhood and love and revenge. And I don’t even like Silent Witness that much. But the twist at the end? Lana’s decisions? The oh-so-slow forensics sequence that happens while a crime is being committed?
…I don’t think I have proper words for it all.
The English Student 