Scott and Bailey: If you've got to go, go down fighting
Spoilers!
Another rampaging cop thriller from the pen of Sally Wainwright, another shocking finale and another smudging of the lines between good and bad.
Rachel is the target of the killers - none of us believe for a second that kids were responsible for the identifying star on her wall - and Janet is the target of an obnoxious journo, who, if he can’t get her to talk about being a heroine, will attack her with the Taisie story instead.
Lots of door slamming drama ensues, as the stresses of pregnancy, unhelpful bosses and hormonal teenagers begin to impinge on the restroom chats.
It’s an hysterical Alison who calls Rachel home and confronts her with a bat …
“What are you going to do, challenge him to a game of rounders?”
We need to call the police, says Alison. They’re here, points out Rachel.
“Not you, the proper police!”
Well, thanks a bunch, sis.
We’re into the last fifteen minutes and the music has suddenly become more urgent and Rachel is on her own and she turns her back on a doorway and - oh, there he is! He’s got her. Yes, don’tcha know it - the one they let the novice question (badly) so they had to release him - a slightly longer build up would’ve been appreciated! Jeez … *breathes deeply*
I’m off the sofa and have my nose stuck to the telly almost (because we’ve entered that twilight world of TV where the action is in the dark and I guess it’s not really the pregnant Suranne who’s giving as good as she gets there) and we interchange with Janet gradually rattling Steve and unravelling his story …
… while Rachel escapes further into Victoria station’s subterraneum, finding a glass bottle as her salvation as Craig Widnes catches up with her …
“You can’t stop this!”
“I can stop you …”
Can she, will she - stab him in the jugular with a broken bottle? We’ll never know, because the Transport Police have made it there in double quick time - a lot quicker than it took her colleague to answer the bloody phone.
This whole smudging business though. One dimensional villainous characters have all but disappeared and rightly so. They have to have complexity - blockbuster novels have known this for years; your heroes aren’t perfect and your villains have redeeming factors. Even Richard Roper would trip an old lady’s mugger. Probably have him killed later, but the old lady would be properly taken care of.
I’ve only noticed it seeping over into TV since the range of channels and shows has grown, and film isn’t the automatic ambition for the best actors. Every production has had to become more creative as viewers demand ever increasing intricacies of plot and character.
And our TV cops are behaving in a way that our old style mavericks of Regan and Hunt would be proud of: interpreting the rules to ensure justice prevails. I’m looking at you, Janet Scott.
A nicely wrapped up ending let us know that while we may not get to see them back in action again (it’s been confirmed that Series 5 was the last *sniffs*), Scott and Bailey will continue to keep their fictional public safe.
Apparently, some fans were left a bit confused at the ending. I’m just wondering - were they perhaps on their phones instead of watching properly? I’ll just leave that there …
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