Broadchurch - Recap: Oh Ye, Of Little Faith

Credit: BBC America

With that said, it's dirty pool to judge this show for not doing something it never really set out to do in the first place. Sure, when the psychic arrives and tries to deliver a message to Beth (Jodie Whittaker), it feels like a joke at best, and a supernatural cheat, at worst. But once again, it's not about the specific information Steve (Will Mellor) relays to Beth -- that Danny was killed by someone he knew -- but rather how Beth reacts to it. Broadchurch is one of TV's best character studies at the moment, and even when it's offering up zany twists like a phone engineer/psychic who claims to receive messages from the spirit world, it approaches its central subject matter from a very human place. Beth is a person who has secrets to keep (primarily, her pregnancy), yet she's also being kept in the dark from her own loved ones' secrets. Nobody has any idea what Danny was up to on the night he died, nor does Beth even know about Chloe's (Charlotte Beaumont) secret boyfriend and her drug connections. Worst of all, she doesn't know that the reason Mark (Andrew Buchan) refuses to account for his whereabouts on the night of Danny's death is because he was out having an affair with the local hotelier, Becca Fisher (Simone McAullay).

Credit: BBC

In certain respects, the episode ends up becoming an exploration of faith, between Mark's unfaithful business with Becca to law enforcement's lack of faith in psychic Steve's clues. There's even a more direct addressing of the matter of faith when Reverend Coates (Arthur Darvill) offers to hold a non-denominational memorial for Danny, recognizing that Beth doesn't believe in God. These matters of faith all come to a head at the end of the episode when Beth exercises her lack of faith in Mark's innocence, despite his having been released by the police. When Beth asks him, point-blank, if he killed their son, an offended Mark storms off to meet with Becca. However, Beth has secretly followed him to the rendezvous, and although Becca breaks things off with Mark, they share one last kiss that clues Beth in on how much faith her husband has lost in their marriage.

Credit: BBC

With Mark's whereabouts verified, Hardy (David Tennant) and Ellie (Olivia Colman) are pretty much back to square one. Hardy interviews Ellie's son, Tom (Adam Wilson), about Danny. He's relatively forthcoming, admitting that Mark hit Danny once or twice, but there's a lot of evasiveness in Tom's body language, and nothing is helped by his father, Joe (Matthew Gravelle), offering up answers on Tom's behalf. Hardy doesn't seem to believe that Tom knows anything about what happened to Danny or why, but he does suggest that Tom participate in the reenactment of the crime scene, since he fits Danny's age and build. Ellie is vehemently opposed to this, going so far as to threaten to piss in a cup and throw it at Hardy if he broaches the topic again (she then, awkwardly enough, invites him to dinner). Nothing about the investigation is going their way, and things are made all the more difficult for Hardy by Karen White (Vicky McClure), the Daily Herald reporter who confronts Hardy and claims that she's making it her mission to make certain he doesn't botch up this investigation the way he did the Sanbrook case. We still aren't told exactly what happened in that case, but we do see how it affects Hardy, as the Detective Inspector meets with an old friend and confesses that he believes his assignment to Broadchurch is "penance" for having failed the family in the Sanbrook case. Though he might attempt to appear as if he doesn't care, the lack of faith exhibited by Karen seems to weigh heavily on Hardy's mind, as it drags up memories of his past mistakes. Tennant continues to do terrific work with a character who is as psychologically damaged as he is physically taxed.

Credit: BBC

Of course, just because Mark is relatively free of suspicion doesn't mean we're at a lack of suspects. While Susan Wright (Pauline Quirk) claims that she never gave Mark the keys to fix a burst pipe in the seaside hut, thereby shooting a hole in his alibi, the fact remains that she's not exactly above suspicion herself. She still possesses Danny Latimer's skateboard in her caravan, and her outward behavior seems to imply a deeper secret. Hell, it's part of why I'm so suspicious of Mark's business partner, Nige (Joe Sims), as his goofy, aloof nature suggests that there's a lot more going on with him than meets the eye. And hey, the man owns a crossbow for no discernible reason I can surmise, so that immediately ups his profile on the suspects list. I also have to keep Steve the Psychic on that list, as his tip to Hardy about Danny having been killed in a boat just might pay off: the episode ends with someone having set a boat on fire and set it adrift in a brazen attempt to conceal evidence. Is Steve really psychic? Or does he know all this because he was involved somehow? Maybe it was even a lucky guess? It's not beyond the realm of inference that 1) Danny would have been killed by someone he knew, and 2) his death would have had something to do with a boat, given that his body was found on the shore. It should be interesting to see how all these different variables in the investigation come together. Which are the red herrings, and which are the genuine clues?

Credit: BBC

While some murder mysteries invite viewers to play along at home and try to solve the crime by piecing together the many disparate clues, Broadchurch is playing a longer game than that. This series explores the damaging nature of secrecy, and what lies can do to a relationship, to a family, and to that unit's ability to get closure -- because Hardy and Ellie aren't going to get anywhere in their investigation until the town of Broadchurch starts getting honest. And for such an insular town, that's a mighty tall order.