Racial tension began as the order of the day, when
a Church is torched, leading to widespread blame of the Jewish community. A
subsequent attack on a synagogue as well as some crafty pamphlet font
comparison work (as you do) leads H division to investigate the possibility
that both attacks were carried out by the same party. Rose (Charlene McKenna), after
the discovery that Long Susan (MyAnna Buring) can no longer financially support her, left
brothel for slightly less green pastures, which consisted largely of her drinking gin
alone in a public house. Befriended by a mysterious cult-like group, Rose finds herself
in an oddly luxuriously decorated abandoned building, with food and a roof over
her head for as long as she needs it. Only the pages of religious doctrine
littered about, as well as all the references to ‘Father’ suggest that anything
sinister is afoot – but are the cult too good to be true? Meanwhile, Bella
Drake (Gillian Saker), wife of Bennett (Jerome Flynn) mysteriously disappeared,
only to return a day later with her strange long lost Uncle, Gabriel Cain, played
be a gloriously Captain Hook-like be-bearded Paul Kaye. It’s up to Bennett and Rose to figure out what’s
going on, conveniently bringing together the (vague) threads of the storyline
in the process because, of course, they are were all connected.
In another vastly confusing episode, Paul Kaye was able to really stand out
as the sinister cult leader, creating an artificial family of followers all of
whom, naturally, adore him. He looked every inch the part (the inches, of
course, being the beard) and was wholly believable as a man capable of
manipulating not only poor innocent Bella but an entire group of people into a
deluded suicide pact at his behest. Second only to this performance was that of
Jerome Flynn, who was heart-breaking as the distraught newlywed who finds his
happiness disappearing in front of his eyes almost as quickly as it materialised
in the first place. It was just a shame that, having been so, er, shortlived, (bit of a spoiler there, I
apologise), the happiness itself, in the form of Bella, didn’t quite pack the
emotional punch it could have had she been a more established character. Again
with Ripper Street, the detective’s
wives are little more than expendable plot devices, doomed to further the
action with graceful deaths and emotional breakdowns, but never to add anything to it. In
a stunning act of self-awareness, however, Inspector Reid (Matthew Macfadyen)
seemed to begin to realise this here, giving Bennett all the time he needed to
mend his broken personal life. I couldn’t help but wish that this had been the
focus of the storyline instead, but alas no such luck, especially with the
homeless Jackson (Adam Rothenberg) drunkenly stumbling about the place like a
dodgy Jack Sparrow impersonator.
With such a potentially interesting start, we were
once again sent spinning off into a wild vortex of a tangent with this episode.
As has so often been the case with Series 2 of this show, the episode we ended
up with was completely different from the one we signed up for at the start of
the show, to the detriment of any themes established in the first quarter of the episode. Present as ever was The Scene, in which all the confusing madness is explained,
although here this served more to frustrate than inform.
I really hope it can get enough of a grip on one
single narrative thread to make the final episodes work. With the recent
announcement of the cancellation of Series 3, it would be cheering if the show
could go out with more of a confident bang than a perplexed whimper.
Jen
Follow @AssortedBuffery on Twitter
Or like our Facebook page.
Or like our Facebook page.
No comments:
Post a Comment