“Others have tried to wear the white hat. And all have failed."
This is a frustrating episode- a well-crafted, well-acted hour of telly that examines, rather successfully, the ethics of police taking bribes and allowing Kray-like big men to hold sway over a community in return for an orderly neighbourhood. And yet there's one big, fatal flaw that stops me from saying this is the best episode so far and, indeed, leaves a rather nasty taste in the mouth.
The use of Sam's mother- in both time zones- and the peek into his childhood is a very nice touch here. Again, the weirdness, and the mystery of what's going on, is kept in the background and mainly part of an involuntary LSD trip. The Test Card Girl only gets a brief appearance. And I love the '70s pop culture nods, with Marc Bolan and a very '70s club.
There's some nice character development, as Sam and Annie are established as platonic while Gene begins to develop a little more respect for Sam as the reason for bringing down Stephen Warren; the "I thought you's never ask" conversation is well done, almost working as sleight of hand to hide the suddenness of Gene's conversion. Sam's essential white knight nature is established, a kind of Mancunian Philip Marlowe who always acts with integrity in a bad world, even if he needs loads of alcohol to do it.
It's all very neatly plotted, with the situation being established, the honey trap, the murder of Joni, and the resolution, all focused on Sam's ethical beliefs. The script does a good job of allowing Gene to be just complicit enough but decent enough to redeem himself; the bit of his backstoty we hear is a very nice touch, even if the stream of homophobic epithets he uses to describe Warren, even if meant to contrast then and now, probably wouldn't fly in 2020 as easily as in 2006. The whole episode is admirably done. Except for one thing.
Joni rapes Sam.
At no point does the script (or perormances) accept that this is what happens, yet she literally drugs him and has sex with him after he's explicitly told her he doesn't consent. The fact that she's a woman and he's a man are irrelevant. It's rape, so it's uncomfortable to see it played for laughs, or Annie blaming him. Of course, this all takes place in a wider context of deep misogyny, and Joni probably has little choice here, indirectly being sexually abused by Warren. But she rapes him, and there's nothing feminist whatsoever in acting as though any person can't rape any other person.
The way the script completely fails to acknowledge that Sam has been raped leaves a very nasty scar on what would otherwise have been an excellent episode. It's a shame.
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