Loveday Writing

We then see Harrow going to Steph’s house to look for Fern, only for her not to be home, so he calls and leaves her a message. On his way out he runs into the same delivery woman we saw in episode four, this time pretending to have a package for Fern, telling Harrow she is looking for her, only for him to tell her to “get in line”.

Back at the Institute, Harrow walks into the breakroom after detecting a horrible smell, which turns out to be Fairley’s new “Zen relaxing tea”. Fairley tells Harrow and Grace he is trying rid himself of the stress and anxiety that Bramson’s findings has caused by drinking the tea. Moments later, all three of them hear the Institute’s alarm bells ring, indicating that a body is coming in.

The body is that of Myles Finney, 19, who was found in the swimming pool of Wickham Apartments and is the man shown at the opening of the episode. Nichols informs them that Myles had moderate intellectual and physical disabilities, was a foster, and despite his body being found in the pool, he could swim.

While they are prepping for the autopsy, Grace receives a call from Ben which she ignores. When Harrow asks her about it, Grace reveals that hers and Ben’s divorce papers haven’t been signed. When Grace describes Ben as a nice guy, a good surgeon and good husband, Harrow asks her what the problem in their marriage was if that was the case, however she doesn’t answer his question.

While they are conducting the autopsy, they find a bag of lollies, three small crystals or rocks, and a wallet in Myles’ clothes, but his wallet has no ID or bank cards. When Edwina asks Harrow what Myles’ disability was, he sees that Myles had the mental age of 11, but names no specific diagnosis or disability. Considering the amount of medical terminology used on the show, I’m honestly surprised by the writers’ choice not to name a specific diagnosis or disability.

During the autopsy, Harrow discovers that Myles had bloodshot eyes, swollen eyelids and chemical burns in his throat. This leads to Harrow discovering that Myles had inhaled a corrosive gas, specifically a highly-concentrated amount of chlorine gas, before he died, which lead to him drowning in acid.

Harrow and Nichols go back to Wickham Apartments and check out the pool shed with Mr. Terry Penn, Wickham Apartments’ Manager. Mr. Penn tells them that Myles cleaned the pool, mixed the chemicals and never made a mistake. While Nichols and Harrow have a look around Myles’ apartment, Nichols tells Harrow that Myles was an avid rock collector and even had his own YouTube channel dedicated to talking about each rock, which was followed by some of the complex’s residents. An officer lets Nichols know another complex resident wants to talk to him and she reveals that Mr. Penn took Myles’ bank cards and disability pension. She also tells them that Myles told Mr. Penn he planned on going to the police to report him. When Harrow and Nichols go back to speak to Mr. Penn, he flees.

Afterwards, Harrow drives back to the pier to find Mila Zoric’s men waiting for him. They take him to Mila Zoric’s apartment.  Mila tells him that James isn’t the person Harrow thinks he is and that he stole $22 million from her company. She also tells him that she failed to understand Max and hoped that working for her would enable her to reign in his extravagant behaviour, but it didn’t. She tells Harrow she doesn’t want to hurt James, she just wants the truth so she can move on. However after he leaves, her bodyguard tells her that Harrow won’t give James up and she counters that he might if he has to choose between James and Fern. As Harrow is leaving, he calls Fern again asking to call him back to talk to her about James.

We cut to Fern, Callan and James moving into the house that James showed Fern in the previous episode. Callan is also getting calls from Harrow as Fern is avoiding his calls. Fern tells Callan she is avoiding Harrow’s calls as she is worried about him being followed if he comes to see her. When Callan asks what danger James has gotten her into, Fern says there is no danger and won’t be if no-one knows they are at the new house. Callan points out to her that they don’t know James well enough to trust him, but Fern tells him to trust her. James then tells them that he applied for a credit card that was sent to Steph’s house, Fern offers to pick the card up from the mailbox as she believes no-one is looking for her. When she leaves the room, James picks up her phone and goes through her contacts.

When Fern arrives at Steph’s house later that evening, she finds Nichols there waiting for her as she apparently texted him. She asks him whether James being her half-brother is true, while James breaks into Nichols’ car and uploads something onto Nichols’ laptop. When Fern gets home she berates James for texting Nichols from her phone. He tells her he did it to try and get his phone back from police headquarters (however this doesn’t seem to be true). Fern scolds him for using her again. When Callan hears their argument, he comforts Fern telling her she’s cutting him too much slack.

The next day Harrow meets Nichols at another crime scene, where Nichols tells him about his chat with Fern. The crime scene is the house of Leonard Thompson, a school teacher, dead for approximately 24 to 36 hours, suspended from his job after a physical altercation with a male student. When Harrow takes a look at Thompson’s body, he finds that he has the same chemical burns as Myles. Nichols finds a World War One artillery shell that’s been cracked open on the floor in another room of the house, and tells Harrow that the detonators in Thompson’s other collectible war bombs have been removed. When Harrow asks one of Mr Thompson’s colleagues about the altercation, he discovers that the student he had the altercation with, Alex Bryant, lives in the Wickham Apartment complex. Harrow goes back to the complex and speaks with Alex, but he has an alibi for the night of Thompson’s death.

When Harrow gets back to the Institute, Fairley is eating his “Zen relaxing tea” and tells Harrow that they taste like “forest lollies”, which prompts Harrow to realise that Myles had to get the lollies that were on his body from somewhere. Harrow goes to a shop near the complex and views the surveillance footage, finding that Alex’s younger brother, Cooper, was with Myles the day he died.

Harrow goes back to the complex to talk to Cooper and finds him sitting under a tree in the garden. Cooper tells him that he wanted to trash Thompson’s house and convinced Myles to go with him. When they got to the house they got distracted by Thompson’s weapons collection and Myles picked up the shell. When Thompson walked in and caught them, Myles dropped the shell and it cracked open. Thompson tried to save Myles’ life by getting him out of the house. Cooper brought Myles back to the complex and took him to the pool to cool him down, but he died by the side of the pool. Cooper didn’t know what to do and pushed him into the pool.

Harrow tells Cooper he has to tell the police what happened, but Cooper says he doesn’t want to go to jail, showing Harrow that he is holding a grenade in his hand and has already pulled the pin. Harrow manages to get the grenade from him and throw it a few metres away, going off after a short delay.

When Harrow returns to the Institute, Nichols informs him that Mr. Penn has been found and charged with embezzlement and resisting arrest, while Cooper will be charged for the breaking & entering and interfering with a corpse, but is hoping the Children’s Court will go easy on him. Before Myles’ body leaves to be cremated, Edwina combed his hair and Harrow puts the rocks found on him back in shirt pocket.

Meanwhile, Fairley has decided to give everyone in the office a box of his “Zen relaxing tea”, Harrow included, only for Harrow to inform him that it contains magic mushrooms. This causes Fairley to run off and try to retrieve the boxes, one of them for Renae, who has found it. Ben has also brought his solicitor fiancée, Sage, to get Grace to sign the divorce papers, which she doesn’t seem too happy about.

The episode ends with Harrow having followed Callan back to the new house so he can talk with James. Harrow confronts James and calls him out on stealing money from Mila Zoric but James counters by telling him Max stole the money, which is why he needed the false passport. Harrow also calls him out on using Fern and putting her danger, and tells him the findings of Bramson’s autopsy.

The final moments of the episode show James remotely accessing Nichols’ laptop via the webcam. While Nichols notices his computer playing up, another colleague of his comes into his office, and he closes the screen. His colleague plays a recording of the first phone call Harrow made to Fern when he was looking for her earlier in the episode.

Overall this was a solid episode however there were some weaknesses in the writing.

The case of the week was an interesting one with a likeable victim and World War One weapons playing a part. Like last week, this case wasn’t a murder, however it wasn’t manslaughter rather a freak accident. I felt that the writers dropped the ball by not specifying what disabilities Myles lived with, rather provided a vague reference to his supposed mental age. According to Olivia Sharpe, from Options Theatre Company, Benjamin Peel, the actor who portrayed Myles and an ensemble member of the Options Theatre Company, is autistic and has cerebral palsy. Sharpe also stated on Twitter that Myles’ disability wasn’t specific and was written around “whatever disability, or in this case double disabilities, the actor had.” Considering this, I feel that the writers could have written a better line of dialogue to describe Myles’ disability other than by simply stating “he had the mental age of 11.”

Another weakness in the writing included Grace’s feelings towards Ben and their divorce. Ever since Grace has made her debut in Season 2, she has been a love interest for Harrow, however this subplot seems to have fizzled out since the start of this season. While it seemed in the third episode when they were packing up the house that she was over him and their marriage breakdown, there have been hints in this episode that this may not be the case, especially when Harrow himself asked her about the marriage. Only time will tell if Grace and Ben will end up together as there has been no major progression of a romance between Grace and Harrow.

The biggest weakness I felt in the writing in this episode was the progression or lack thereof in the James story arc. I mentioned in my review of last week’s episode that I hoped for faster progression of the James story arc now that we have reached the halfway point of the season and in all honesty, by the end of this episode, I still feel that the progression is too slow. While I’m aware that slow burn story arcs are meant to take their sweet time unfolding, in this episode the only progression was the reveal that James apparently stole $22 million from Mila Zoric’s company. However this progression wasn’t really progression as James told Harrow that Max stole the money and that’s why he needed the false passport. While this progression establishes motives for both Mila and James to murder Max, it’s not clear who is lying.

On a smaller note, I thoroughly enjoyed the Fairley subplot involving his “Zen relaxing tea”. While the outcome was ultimately predictable, it was still fun to watch as it was entertaining, consistent with Fairley’s character, and well written. While Fairley has always provided some form of comic relief throughout the show’s run, he has usually done so with subtlety, whereas in this episode the writers chose to make him the comic relief in a more overt fashion.

While there were weaknesses in the writing of this episode, the performances of Peel, Finn Little (Cooper Bryant) and Gilshenan were point.

Stray Observations:

Episode title translation: Ne Puero Gladium – Don’t Give a Sword to a Boy

-The note that Fairley left on the box of tea he gave Renae read as follows: “Drink me down and lose that frown! J Lyle.”

-Fairley got boxes of his “Zen relaxing tea” for everyone in the office, which includes Trish in Accounts. I don’t know why, but the fact he mentioned this unseen and unheard of character specifically, made me laugh.

-Renae made a brief appearance at the end of the episode, but had no dialogue.

-Fairley’s tearaway flyer for his yoga-meditation class read: “Loosen Up With Lyle”. Apparently his class is every morning at sunrise.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “What is that horrible smell? You know dermatologists recommend showering at least once a day!” (Harrow to Fairley after walking into the Institute’s breakroom and smelling Fairley’s Zen relaxing tea)
• “Did he cop a Kendo stick to the head again?” (Harrow to Grace on Fairley)
• “I was uptight, overbearing and completely freaked out. So you are looking at the new me. Stress and anxiety will be a thing of the past as I seek to touch myself. Internally.” “I can recommend a good proctologist.” (Fairley-Harrow)
• “Do you have the litmus strip?” “I remember these from chemistry in school.” “Then you’ll remember what colour the strip will change to once dripped in acid.” “I didn’t actually listen in those classes.” “It’ll turn red…my chemistry teacher was really hot.” (Harrow-Edwina-Harrow-Edwina-Grace)
• “I thought I recognised the smell.” “Invigorating isn’t it?” “Not the adjective I’d use.” (Harrow-Fairley-Harrow on Fairley’s Zen relaxing tea)
• “I’m spreading the word!” “That you finally lost it?” (Fairley-Harrow on Fairley offering to run a yoga class for the Institute staff)
• “So what about it Harrow? Are you ready to get on all fours and loosen up with Lyle?” (Fairley to Harrow about his yoga class)
• “You’re eating it now…it does nothing for your breath.” (Harrow to Fairley on Fairley eating the Zen relaxing tea lollies)
• “Six cups a day will change your life.” “And your wardrobe.” (Fairley-Harrow on Fairley giving Harrow a box of his Zen relaxing tea)
• “Oh my God, I’ve been eating magic mushrooms?” “And importing Class-A drugs into the country.” (Fairley-Harrow on the discovery that Fairley’s Zen relaxing tea contains magic mushrooms)