‘Grantchester’ Recap: Season 8, Episode 2
It’s an honored TV tradition to allow a detective to investigate a crime committed by a loved one. To Grantchester’s credit, Geordie’s conflict of interest was repeatedly questioned as he worked to prove Will wasn’t driving recklessly when he fatally struck a pedestrian with his motorcycle. Geordie’s bias was also off-set by a vendetta: his boss Elliott was determined to get Will to confess and pay for his real sin (sleeping with Elliott’s fiancée).
As Season 8’s second episode began, Will ran from the scene of the accident to find a phonebooth and call for an ambulance. Geordie had no idea the vicar was involved until he arrived, lamenting to colleague Larry about a kid going too fast on his bike. “It’s a metaphor for everything that’s wrong in the world. What happened to taking things slowly, enjoying the view? Everyone’s always going too bloody fast…” he said, trailing off when he saw a silently distraught Will sitting on the ground.
Back at Geordie’s office, Detective Keating insisted Will have a drink and tried to assure him that accidents on that road are common. The victim’s name was John Mitchell. A ticket stub from his wallet revealed he had been at the Mirage Club, a roadhouse-style bar. While Will stared at the biblical sign hanging in Geordie’s office (a gift from Will’s predecessor, Sidney: “Abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good”) and phoned Mrs. C to tell her what had happened, Geordie went outside for a smoke and saw Will’s bike. The speedometer read 78 miles per hour. To quote Geordie: “Bloody hell.”
In the morgue, Will pressed Geordie for information on John. He was 30 years old — the same age as Will. The vicar was consumed with two thoughts: He hadn’t yet prayed for John. And did John have kids? But once Elliott found out about the speedometer, it was interrogation time. Will admitted he wasn’t sure how fast he was going, and that he’d had an argument with Bonnie and wasn’t fully concentrating. You could see Geordie willing him to stop speaking as Elliott leaned forward ready to pounce. John had been running, but Will couldn’t say whether the man had looked before entering the street. Will said his speedometer had been acting up recently — convenient, Elliott thought. He told Will he was going 78 mph: “Downright dangerous, wouldn’t you say, Mr. Davenport?” Will was facing a decade in prison.
In the hallway, Geordie and Elliott argued over who was making the situation personal. Elliott told Geordie that he knew what needed to be done, and Geordie delivered the news: “William Davenport, I’m arresting you for causing death by reckless driving.” Will was led to a cell.
Have you ever spent so much time worrying about something, only for something else to go horribly wrong instead? That’s Will, who’d been so consumed with self-doubt over what kind of father he’d be. Now, he’d probably give anything to be dealing with that insecurity rather than the guilt and fear of an impending murder charge. A montage captured that contrast perfectly. While Ernie typed a sweet letter asking Will if he could call him dad, Miss Scott tended to Will’s cut hand, and Geordie led John’s widow, Jackie, into the morgue to see her husband’s body.
Jackie had no idea why John was on that road. They had been at the Mirage, he’d gotten drunk, they had words, and she left him there. Even though Larry wanted to follow Elliott’s order to close the case, he accompanied Geordie back to the scene. They walked the footpath John must have taken, wondering what had caused him to be so afraid that he veered off it. Larry found a dead man slumped against a tree. Geordie’s gut told him that John had beaten this man, Milton, who’d also been at the Mirage, and ran.
The Mirage was run by two brothers, Ray and Paulie. They said fisticuffs were routine at the club — and had gotten worse since Leonard’s halfway house opened and ex-cons came in looking for a row. The swiftness of that accusation, and Ray shooting Paulie an annoyed look after the latter acknowledged Milton was a friend of theirs, seemed suspicious. They claimed Milton had gotten into a fight and they tossed him out of the club. Ray took them to see a blonde laundry worker named Dot, who reported that she’d put Milton on a bus home at like 8:30 pm and gave Ray back the Mirage’s clean tablecloths. Geordie should’ve known those details would be crucial. But after hearing from Jackie that John had gotten into a fight at the bar over who was next to order drinks, he was still convinced that John had followed Milton into the woods and settled the score. Geordie shared his theory with Will. But even if John was a murderer, that didn’t absolve Will of taking his life.
Meanwhile, Larry chased his own dead end, raiding the halfway house and dragging Leonard and all of his tenants in for questioning. Leonard stood up for the men, dubbing it harassment; Larry called Leonard a name I won’t repeat. Geordie stepped in to hear their arguments: If John was the only real suspect, shouldn’t he have had blood on him after getting into a fight? (Fair point!) Leonard said if playing a tedious game of gin rummy makes him a master criminal, then he should be taken to a cell. So Geordie led Leonard to one — Will’s. Hopefully he could find the words to comfort him.
Al Weaver, who plays Leonard, is the unsung hero of this series. In three scenes, he showed his range: That innocent charm playing cards at the halfway house, the defiant strength opposite Larry and Geordie, and an unwavering empathy for Will. “I’m here. I’m here now,” Leonard said, holding Will as he sobbed. It was enough to make me tear up, too.
Will told Leonard that he and Bonnie had been thinking of naming the baby John after her father. (Oof!) Leonard promised Will that Bonnie would feel nothing but compassion for him when he finally told her about the accident. The problem is, Will doesn’t think he deserves any. Leonard knew exactly how to respond to that. He asked Will what he would tell a man in his position. In short: God still loves those who take another man’s life by accident. God still loves him, very much. Will looked at Leonard with the teary, lost-but-momentarily-soothed eyes of a child.
Geordie tasked Miss Scott with finding out what had Larry behaving more like an arse than usual. She knew he was a “twerp,” but being this aggressive with Leonard wasn’t like Larry. “What is it?” she asked. “Girl trouble? Boy trouble?” (Is this the first time someone has suggested Larry might be so harsh with gay Leonard because he’s closeted even to himself?) Turns out, Larry’s mother recently died from a heart attack. She’d been proud of his job. Miss Scott assumed she’d be prouder still if he didn’t go around threatening people. In his defense, Larry had been on to something: The story about the bar fight didn’t add up. He’d found Ray’s file, and Ray was the violent one with a record that includes possession of a knife and assaulting an officer.
I’m not sure why Geordie never thought to take the widow to see Milton’s body and have her confirm he was the man her husband had fought with at the Mirage. But he did take Ray’s photo to show her now. She said he was the one who’d struck John at the bar. The fight was actually over a blonde, Dot, who Miss Scott realized was lying about putting Milton on a bus at 8:30 pm since the last one leaves at 7. Miss Scott also said she wouldn’t consider Dot clean even if she does work in a laundry. 1.) Ha! Miss Scott needs this much screen time in every episode. 2). Ding! Ding! Ding! Now Geordie’s theory was that Dot told Ray about John making a pass at her. Ray wanted to teach him a lesson, so he, Paulie, Milton, and Dot followed John down the footpath. Ray pulled a knife, but Milton tried to stop him from killing the guy, and John punched Milton in the stomach for it. Geordie now remembered that the Mirage Club wasn’t a tablecloth kind of joint; Dot had actually laundered Ray’s bloody shirt.
To stay with this story, Geordie was almost right. Eventually, he got around to interrogating Ray at the station. Ray had been behaving himself during booking instead of causing trouble as he’d done on previous arrests. He was protecting someone. That person was Paulie, who showed up to confess. He was the one who tried to stop Ray from cutting John. Then Milton teased Paulie for it, saying he was scared and couldn’t punch his own way out of a paper bag. Paulie had just wanted Milton to stop laughing at him. It was only one punch. He’d held Milton as his friend spit up blood and died.
As for Will’s fate, he, too, was ready to confess. He’d asked Miss Scott to let him see John, and as he prayed over him, John’s widow came in to the morgue. She said John had felt the need to be a dad but it never happened for them. He’d been a good man “for the most part.” She thanked Will for being with John and asked that he pray for her, too. Then Will couldn’t hold it in; he told her it was him on the bike and apologized. She slapped him hard. The self-flagellation that followed nearly allowed him to sign a false confession that Elliott wrote up himself as he pummeled the vicar’s sense of self: “Reckless. Sums you up, I think. No concern for others.” Will said he knows he caused Elliott “upset” with the affair. (OK, Elliott had the right to laugh at that word choice.) “How is it you hurt everyone around you and always come out unscathed?” he asked Will. “Reckless. That’s the perfect word.”
Geordie showed up just in time to stop Will from signing the confession. He’d gone to the vicarage to gather every record pertaining to Will’s motorcycle and saw a photo of Ernie sitting on the bike. The picture had been taken a month ago; the speedometer was stuck at 78 mph then. Geordie found a witness that said Will was going no more than 40 mph when last seen in the village. The road was dangerous, with a history of fatal accidents. Measurements showed Will had tried to break. John was running for his life and didn’t look both ways before entering the street. Now it was the actual evidence clearing Will, not just Geordie’s belief in him.
As Will waited in the bullpen before his official release, a cuffed Paulie asked him if the accidental death of Milton would haunt him. Will thought back to Leonard’s words: He insisted that God still loves Paulie. He cares for all his children, sins and all. He told him it was darkest before the dawn. Then Will went home, where Mrs. C told him everything happens for a reason. Presumably, Will told Bonnie about the accident during their phone call, though we didn’t hear his response when she asked him what was wrong. At least we know she’d already decided Sebastian would make a better baby name than John.
Ernie returned from school and gave Will the letter he’d typed asking permission to call him dad. “Does that sound all right to you?” the boy asked sheepishly. “It sounds wonderful,” Will answered. Then they tested it out.
Ernie: Dad?
Will: Yeah, son?
Ernie: I feel very lucky.
Will: So do I.
But the look on Will’s face as he hugged Ernie read differently. Do you think Will can forgive himself for the accident?
Other stray questions: How worried are you about Larry’s ominous warning to Leonard? He apologized for calling him names, but then told him not to get cocky; Geordie would be retiring soon and no one would be there to protect him. Miss Scott’s tolerance of Larry isn’t enough to make that man likable. And how excited are you to (hopefully) see dog Dickens become a papa? The gestation period for pooches is roughly two months. Could Dickens’ baby mama and Bonnie give birth at the same time? Join the congregation in the comments and share your thoughts.
Source: TVLine
