The writing’s on the wall. CONTAINS SPOILERS
Writers: Chris Parker
Director: John Strickland
THE ONE WHERE Kate turns bunny boiler and Jed helps a little girl haunted by a little girl.
VERDICT Another slick, solid and spooky episode, in which, once again, the arc plot elements are arguably more interesting than the spook-of-the-week. Having said that, while the ghost-girl plot is fairly pedestrian (you keep waiting for a twist that never comes about the haunted girl’s dad), it does give director John Strickland the opportunity to produce some wonderfully spooky images and edgy unsettling sequences. The end result may be a case of style over substance, but what style!
On the other hand, the arc plot is developing with intriguing relish. Kate is now officially off-the-rails, and in bunny boiler territory. Her scheme to get rid of Sean’s wife may have been a grade A bitchstorm, but it was also an entertaining work of evil genius. Clearly her nightmares are getting the better of her. The scene with Warren proudly showing Kate old home movies of operations going on at Bedlam at its grisly height is ghoulishly brilliant, while the shot of him next to a skip (having presumably just disposed of Zoe’s body) was downright chilling in its everyday understatement.
SPECULATION Was the discovery of Zoe’s body just a coincidence? Could the “bad man” be a reference to Warren as well as Alice’s murdered? After all, in previous episodes the ghosts have always had a link between their death and something going on in the present.
JUST ME? Dunno about you, but if a little girl started to go on about an imaginary friend called Alice, suddenly acquired a doll with no eyes, and had a room full of toys with their heads cut off, my first assumption would be that I shouldn’t let her watch my Tim Burton DVDs.
IS SHE HAVING A LAUGH? So Sean’s wife is an interior designer, apparently? You wouldn’t be able to tell from her flat, unless she’s attempting a Honolulu Heights ambiance. Kate’s, “Really?” in response to his revelation could be Charlotte Salt’s best bit of acting yet in the series.
SPOOKY IMAGE OF THE WEEK Simple, but incredibly effective…
BEST LINE
Jed: “Her dad? How well do you know him?”
Molly: “Uh… a bit better than I did yesterday.”
Jed: “Hah! Right…”
Review by Dave Golder
