TV Recap
The Fall series 2, episode 2 recap: Spector's secret is exposed
By Jo Berry
Season 2, episode 2 | Aired Thursday, Nov 20 2014 at 21:00 GMT on
Episode two of The Fall and it's time for a dream sequence - we know it's a dream as Stella is wafting around in a floor length silk nightie – a dry-clean only, creases-like-tissue garment women only wear in movies.
After she imagines shooting a man who turns out to be her one-night stand from series one, Stella wakes up in her office, clearly stressed about her pursuit of a serial killer. She's not half as stressed as poor Rose Stagg, though, who is being forced by Paul to write a note to her husband and kids before he abducts her from her house.
Jamie Dornan's menacing performance as Paul Spector and Valene Kane's convincingly petrified one as Rose make the next scenes gut-twistingly tense – Paul drives through Belfast with Rose rigid by his side, begging for her life by trying to convince him that she has never once imagined he could be the strangler.
There's a real sense of impending doom for poor old Rose as she denies she went to the police and Paul drives her to a remote building outside the city and drags her inside. It's truly horrible to watch as she struggles and sobs to break free.
Rose's husband Tom finds her note, blissfully unaware there's any danger. Alas, just as the tension becomes unbearable, director Alan Cubitt gets a little heavy-handed with the hints of evidence to come - Tom spots Rose's dental retainer on the kitchen table (is that where she would usually leave it?), Paul drives away from the building where he dragged Rose and the camera lingers on his tyre tracks – gosh, could these later become clues?
Stella's more concerned with the clue she actually has – the shears found in the river in the last episode – and whether they are the ones used by the strangler, while Paul, meanwhile, is hiding evidence – Rose's car – in a convenient garage.
Finding her phone inside, he hears a message from Stella reminding Rose they are due to meet – just as Stella learns that Rose hasn't turned up at work or made it to their appointment. Not really looking good for Rose now, is it?
And it's all Stella and the police's fault. As Stella questions Rose's husband, she realises the photo-fit Rose provided – and the fact the police told the media it was a drawing of how the suspect would have looked nine years before – will have led him straight to her. Oops.
It's at this halfway mark in the episode that Cubitt throws a few odd plot twists at us. The previously careful Paul offers himself as a bereavement counsellor to Annie, his one surviving victim – why? Does he want to see if she can recognise him? Does he get his kicks hearing about his own attack?
Just as we're pondering this, he's running off because babysitter Katie has picked up his daughter from school and gone off with her. Erm, why? Paul finds them at the park, and instead of shouting at Katie he gives her the key to his seedy hotel room so she can meet him there. As you do.
To be honest, neither of the women in Paul's life seems to be thinking very clearly. Paul's wife tells him he was cold and distant when they were together trying to save their marriage in Scotland – and, bloody hell, he also held her down on the floor, which is surely a Big Clue to his true nature – while Katie is relaxing on his hotel bed despite knowing he may have a darker side.
Part of me wants to scream at her to run away – she'd be better off even if she runs into the creepy hotel manager lurking in the hallway – while another part of me thinks that if she stays at least she'll learn why he's the wrong man to have a schoolgirl crush on.
But she soon finds out herself when Spector pins her down, almost strangles her and then – hinting at the sex she seems to be hoping for – ties her up with her tights and school tie and then leaves her there to untie herself. Ha! Silly girl.
While this isn't as gripping as last week's episode, it's the last 10 minutes here that make up for the questionable middle and leave you counting the hours to the next instalment.
Just as an almost hysterical Stella and her team finally realise Paul Spector is their suspect thanks to DNA evidence on the shears, and that they had previously had him in for questioning and let him go, the man himself calls Stella for a chat.
She then asks him the question we have all been wanting the answer to all episode: "What have you done with Rose?" After hearing some muffled noises from his car boot as he drives off, I have a funny feeling we don't want to know…
Thoughts...
- In case we're not convinced Paul is a bit sick and twisted, Cubitt adds some heavy-handed clues this week – while Spector downloads something unseen he's filmed on a camcorder, we see he has a Dante's Inferno illustration of a man strangling another man as his laptop screensaver and the book itself is on his bedside table. What's next? Will he wear an 'I'm A Bad Guy' t-shirt in episode three?
- With his expert binding-to-the-bed of Katie here, and, we would expect, a bit more tying up in that movie based on a steamy bestseller that he has coming up, surely Jamie Dornan deserves to be awarded a rope skills badge from the Scouts?
Episode two of The Fall and it's time for a dream sequence - we know it's a dream as Stella is wafting around in a floor length silk nightie – a dry-clean only, creases-like-tissue garment women only wear in movies.
After she imagines shooting a man who turns out to be her one-night stand from series one, Stella wakes up in her office, clearly stressed about her pursuit of a serial killer. She's not half as stressed as poor Rose Stagg, though, who is being forced by Paul to write a note to her husband and kids before he abducts her from her house.
Jamie Dornan's menacing performance as Paul Spector and Valene Kane's convincingly petrified one as Rose make the next scenes gut-twistingly tense – Paul drives through Belfast with Rose rigid by his side, begging for her life by trying to convince him that she has never once imagined he could be the strangler.
© BBC / The Fall 2 Limited/Helen Sloan
There's a real sense of impending doom for poor old Rose as she denies she went to the police and Paul drives her to a remote building outside the city and drags her inside. It's truly horrible to watch as she struggles and sobs to break free.
Rose's husband Tom finds her note, blissfully unaware there's any danger. Alas, just as the tension becomes unbearable, director Alan Cubitt gets a little heavy-handed with the hints of evidence to come - Tom spots Rose's dental retainer on the kitchen table (is that where she would usually leave it?), Paul drives away from the building where he dragged Rose and the camera lingers on his tyre tracks – gosh, could these later become clues?
Stella's more concerned with the clue she actually has – the shears found in the river in the last episode – and whether they are the ones used by the strangler, while Paul, meanwhile, is hiding evidence – Rose's car – in a convenient garage.
© BBC / The Fall 2 Limited/Helen Sloan
Finding her phone inside, he hears a message from Stella reminding Rose they are due to meet – just as Stella learns that Rose hasn't turned up at work or made it to their appointment. Not really looking good for Rose now, is it?
And it's all Stella and the police's fault. As Stella questions Rose's husband, she realises the photo-fit Rose provided – and the fact the police told the media it was a drawing of how the suspect would have looked nine years before – will have led him straight to her. Oops.
It's at this halfway mark in the episode that Cubitt throws a few odd plot twists at us. The previously careful Paul offers himself as a bereavement counsellor to Annie, his one surviving victim – why? Does he want to see if she can recognise him? Does he get his kicks hearing about his own attack?
© BBC / The Fall 2 Limited/Helen Sloan
Just as we're pondering this, he's running off because babysitter Katie has picked up his daughter from school and gone off with her. Erm, why? Paul finds them at the park, and instead of shouting at Katie he gives her the key to his seedy hotel room so she can meet him there. As you do.
To be honest, neither of the women in Paul's life seems to be thinking very clearly. Paul's wife tells him he was cold and distant when they were together trying to save their marriage in Scotland – and, bloody hell, he also held her down on the floor, which is surely a Big Clue to his true nature – while Katie is relaxing on his hotel bed despite knowing he may have a darker side.
Part of me wants to scream at her to run away – she'd be better off even if she runs into the creepy hotel manager lurking in the hallway – while another part of me thinks that if she stays at least she'll learn why he's the wrong man to have a schoolgirl crush on.
But she soon finds out herself when Spector pins her down, almost strangles her and then – hinting at the sex she seems to be hoping for – ties her up with her tights and school tie and then leaves her there to untie herself. Ha! Silly girl.
© BBC / The Fall 2 Limited/Helen Sloan
While this isn't as gripping as last week's episode, it's the last 10 minutes here that make up for the questionable middle and leave you counting the hours to the next instalment.
Just as an almost hysterical Stella and her team finally realise Paul Spector is their suspect thanks to DNA evidence on the shears, and that they had previously had him in for questioning and let him go, the man himself calls Stella for a chat.
She then asks him the question we have all been wanting the answer to all episode: "What have you done with Rose?" After hearing some muffled noises from his car boot as he drives off, I have a funny feeling we don't want to know…
Thoughts...
© BBC / The Fall 2 Limited/Helen Sloan
- In case we're not convinced Paul is a bit sick and twisted, Cubitt adds some heavy-handed clues this week – while Spector downloads something unseen he's filmed on a camcorder, we see he has a Dante's Inferno illustration of a man strangling another man as his laptop screensaver and the book itself is on his bedside table. What's next? Will he wear an 'I'm A Bad Guy' t-shirt in episode three?
- With his expert binding-to-the-bed of Katie here, and, we would expect, a bit more tying up in that movie based on a steamy bestseller that he has coming up, surely Jamie Dornan deserves to be awarded a rope skills badge from the Scouts?
