Director: Hettie Macdonald
Writer: Simon Donald
Starring: Richard Dormer, Stanley Tucci, Sofie Grabol, Michael Gambon, Christopher Eccleston, Jessica Raine, Nicholas Pinnock
**CONTAINS SPOILERS**
Review: It’s a huge week in Fortitude as they reveal a whole host about characters and on directing duties is Hettie MacDonald, you’ll know her work best from Doctor Who’s ‘Blink’ and The Tunnel, who’s great at bringing an early close-up encounter with Liam and an unexpected flashback as we finally see what happened when the young lad randomly jumped out the window and earned some severe frostbite.
It’s curious that we’ve forgotten how story-telling and editing can be manipulated and that everything we thought we saw, might not be exactly true. Yes, Frank and Elena got it on while Jules wandered Fortitude and yes, Liam did go for a walk…but what truly happened?
In the flashback, Charlie is revealed to have a cocaine thing and was possibly preparing for some kind of visit, he’s also watching a bit of Jimmy Stewart in HARVEY (1950) and (interestingly) that film now has a wonderful relevance to the unknown nature of events. When Liam appears outside his window, he carries the boy inside and starts to ask what’s wrong. Liam is in a trance, this much is clear, and as he tries to warm him up Liam smashes Charlie on the back of the head with a heavy chopping board and knocks him out. The kid did it! However, there’s something else at play because although Charlie is out cold, an unidentified outside force definitely moves Charlie on the floor and he seems to see something before he’s (allegedly) hacked to death.
After this moment, we flip back to Frank coming home and finding Liam covered in blood. His mumps have gone down but Frank’s guilt is paramount. What’s happened, why he wasn’t there, and beyond his feet there’s no link to anything else because no-one knows there’s been a murder yet.
We then flash back to ‘now’ and the discovery of a nail inside the dead body with forensics , and the consequential realisation of who killed him. The only way to get more information will be to wake Liam up, they do this and he reveals things only the killer could have known. It was certainly Jules and Frank’s son who killed Professor Charlie Stoddart.
Back out to Ronnie and his daughter, he’s still losing the plot and she’s getting resentful. For a moment I thought she was going to kill him as well and then all we’d have is kids slaughting people and everyone suspecting the adults. It would be an intriguing twist but it doesn’t happen here as she decides to help him and turn the bike on, so they can get home.
This episode also sees Henry (Gambon) become a little more of a comfort to Jules and in general. He’s always cared and ever since he thinks he shot Billy Pettigrew in the head, he’s been a mess, possibly more of a muddle before he turned to the vodka but this week he appears to be a little more focused and understands more about what is going on, which is an interesting kink in events. We also meet the man who stuffs animals and may, or may not, be a Shaman with access to mysterious powers or at least ones that Henry believes in. Who is he really?
We’ve already learned of Elena and Sherriff Dan’s connection but now she’s a bit unhappy that Dan beat Frank in the shower and wants him to stay away from her. He’s obviously obsessed with her but we’re not sure if it’s a protective way or something more sexual but either way, she’s not pleased.
Sheriff Dan and DC Morton then share life stories, including an emotive chat reveal about Lockerbie from the latter, and Dan tells Morton what really happened with Pettigrew but at the conclusion of his story… Dan calls his bluff. I’m not underestimating Fortitude when I say there’s a lot going on again but if we’ve learned something new this week, there’s definitely something in the water.
[usr=5] Fortitude is on Sky Atlantic. Check their website for screening times, catch-up by heading here and follow our dedicated blog.
