2x03 Episode 3

[7.6/10] We once again have a divide in this show, where everything involving the trial is complete B.S. and most of what’s outside of it is pretty darn good. So let’s get the bad stuff out of the way.

Both Joceyn and Sharon are terrible, terrible lawyers and terrible, terrible people. Jocelyn is incompetent, gets unreasonably snippy with her subordinate for not doing audio recordings on the schedule she’d like, and is stiffing the nursing home her mother(?) lives in. I get that she’s sick or losing her eyesight, but that just makes it reckless for her to be driving. Plus, she hasn’t done anything to prep Ellie for cross-examination, and doesn’t object or intercede to the cockamamie conspiracy theory the defense attorney has cooked up.

And Sharon can burn in hell. I get that she’s upset that her son went to prison under (presumably) specious evidence and is resentful of Jocelyn for not stepping in to take the case. But getting back at Jocelyn by helping a pedophile child murderer go free is unconscionable. As I said in the last write-up, there’s a line between zealous advocacy and amoral shit-throwing, and Sharon is well into the latter. It’s hard to imagine any court would allow such blatant, baseless insinuations about affairs and conspiracies and all the other crap Sharon tries to get stick, almost as hard as it is to imagine that any prosecutor would let it fly without vigorously challenging it. This is T.V. law at its worst, and it’s really frustrating to watch.

But if you can compartmentalize that, the rest of the episode is great! Sure, the episode doesn’t come up with a satisfying explanation for how Lee and Claire absconded from the Millers’ house without anyone seeing them. But I like that the Sandbrook case just got more complicated, that Claire knows more than she’s saying, and that it’s a much more open investigation than last season led us to believe. This too is a retcon, but I buy Hardy trying to protect Claire while thinking she might be a suspect, and I buy him wanting to have Ellie evaluate the situation on her own because he needed someone to be objective about his suspicions.

I didn’t think we’d have a mystery this season. Frankly, turning Sandbrook into a genuine whodunnit rather than a cold case is totally cheating. But I’m too glad to be back on the mystery train with Hardy and Miller to care.

More to the point, I love this episode as a showcase for Ellie (and Olivia Colman). For one thing, her helping Beth to deliver her baby, even though Beth is being incredibly harsh with her, is such a great demonstration of Ellie’s character. She does the right thing, the decent thing, even when she’ll get no thanks or credit for it. It’s so heartening to watch her help Beth through this because it’s the right thing to do, and then be told off once again once the deed is done. I feel for Beth. I really do. But it’s hard to do anything but wince at her cruelty to Ellie.

Still, the parade of horribles isn’t over for Ellie. She goes out with Claire to try to feel her out for more information, and ends up having a one night stand with a pick-up from the bar. (Albeit not before nabbing some info about communications with Lee from Claire’s phone while in the ‘loo.) I love how this episode explores what it’s like to still yearn for a life that Ellie now knows was a lie. She hates Joe, but she longs for the feeling of being in a loving family and a good life that disappeared into thin air. Her sitting there while some drunk idiot pumps away on top of her, until she utters “Tell me you love me” is an unbearable sad moment.

I appreciate Broadchurch taking this time to acknowledge Ellie’s pain, and not just in a broad “This would be hard” sort of way. It’s more specific than that, mourning that sense of being loved, bundled up in the complicated feelings of where that love emanated from. Colman nails the performance as always, as the previously bright and unflappable detective has been hollowed out by the unimaginable not just arriving on her doorstep, but having lived in her home the whole time.

Her time on the stand is the icing on the cake. Don’t get me wrong, Sharon’s line of questioning remains utter bullshit, both from a legal standpoint and from a “no judge would ever allow things to go down like this, you dumb T.V. show!” standpoint. But there’s still an emotional quotient that comes from Sharon jabbing her finger directly into Ellie’s open wound, and you feel for poor D.S. Miller, even if Broadchurch cheats to get there.

On the whole, now that we’re three episodes in, it’s pretty easy to separate the show into three major categories: the legal side, which is utter crap; the personal side, which is extraordinary; and the Sandbrook mystery side, which is a little cheap, but compelling enough to make weight. I can only hope that the show will find a better balance of these elements over the rest of the season.