Strike Lethal White Part 4

The finale felt rather rushed and obviously Strike (Tom Burke) would save the day and Robin (Holliday Grainger). It did feel drawn out in places and I really didn't care much for the explanations of why Chiswell was killed or even who did it.  That was apparent since we met Raf (Adam Long) and how he was the hated son.  'Put upon' and all that.  Got my suspect!  It was apparent that if Freddie was such a bastard that Raff would be one too even though he was illegitimate.  Motive schmotive money after all and the realization that Kinvara (Sophie Winkleman) would've been murdered too in the future by Raff just for the painting.  Which Robin takes a snap of in the attic of the house when they pay a visit to Kinvara at the house, she's alone and she comes out gun in hand.  Also that dumb story about having a dog loose.  No hound here!  More like a convenient excuse to have them out of the house.  It was kind of silly for Raff to move about in the room when they already know about the creaky floorboards.  But heck no.  And Robin's excuse of wanting to use the loo.  Where surprise surprise she finds photos hanging there.  I mean family snaps in the loo.  These wealthy types and their decor ha! 

She spots Raff with a pony and in horse riding attire and spots how much of a girl he looks like with longish hair too.  Thus it was him who Billy (Joseph Quinn) saw being strangled by Freddie but it was the pony that was buried cos Freddie and his pals shot it.  What a family 'ey.  As well as Kinvara's alibi bopping about all over the place on CCTV at Paddington, how obvious was she.  As well as the beggar and her giving him the key to Ebury Street.  So he could carry out the dastardly deed.  But neither one of them knowing the horse painting was a Stubbs and Robin getting Sarah (Sophie Colquhoun) to value it asking about whether she got her earring back.  The one she left in Robin's bedroom.

Robin admitting to Strike finally that she left Matt after Jimmy (Nick Blood) calls her and tells her he'll get her back.  Leading to another panic attack and she comes clean about everything.  Strike comforting her with the talk of her being a better detective than him and having no training whatsoever.  Well it's all about instinct and following clues and leads.  Also she did get to be privy to more info than him.  Strike telling her the business will pay for her therapy. Wow generous boss!  Must've raked it in with this case and sure Izzy (Christina Cole) would've paid plenty.  Just as Izzy pays for Billy's treatment/therapy at the end saying that's what the family owed him.

So Knight and Chiswell were into building torture devices and the bloody EU changed their rules.  That was probably one thrown in for topical Brexit.  That's what they made their money from, gallows.  Definitely built their gallows high! So it had nothing to do with trafficking.

Showing Geraint (Robert Pugh) photos of his daughter and what they did to her.  They had to give us an explanation of what happened and how he felt and as a father couldn't do anything to save her, but that Freddie's friends will get theirs now from the photos.  Strike having a pissy moment with Charlotte (Natasha O'Keeffee) as she's at the gallery and feigns being unwell so that he'll walk her to the restaurant and wanting him back.  He was right royally f**ked about her when he couldn't give a damn about her selfishness.  She was all about the money and jewellery and what he couldn't give her.  He didn't care about their baby or what happened to it.  He's not a baby person.  Oh watch out Robin. Guess we'll find out she's too messed up to have one either.  See all this seemed so contrived and unnecessary to me.  Did we really wanna know about her and their past since it was already mentioned before.  Except for when she asks him f he's never loved anyone like her since.  He replies "thank f*8k" he hasn't.  Meaning the way he 'loved' her he wouldn't go there again with anyone else cos she just wasn't worth the hassle! 

So Strike is pissed when he gets back to the office with a bottle of booze and Robin has a drink too with the looks passing between them.  Blooming heck that and kissing her too even if by accident.  No guesses for what crossed their minds then.  As well as Strike touching his lips afterwards.  He looked more like he was trying to wipe the lipstick ha! 

When Robin gets a text she believes is from Matt, she tells Strike she's got to go see him cos he'll threaten to tell the press about them being an item.  As if that was reason enough.  Strike then realizing that it's not from Matt but Raff on his narrow boat.  The ending, damn it, Raff saying if she tells him he's caught then he'll give himself up.  When she tells him about the CCTV and his face was seen as the beggar.  He's got nothing to lose so he wants to shoot her.  Strike having removed the bullets beforehand at the house, enters to save her.  She doesn't want a lecture on not giving suspects personal info as she did when she met Raff for drinks and ranted about Matt.

The agency lives on and Strike and Robin will meet up for curry and beer later!  As said rounded up rather quickly and no mention of bloody Jimmy and Flick and that tax driver didn't turn out to be a menace after all, darn it! 

Strike Lethal White Part 3

                                                          
The action came in thick and fast in this one, or maybe the dialogue rather than action.  So much in one ep, makes you wonder why they were so lax in the first two eps.  Strike (Tom Burke) arrives at Chiswell's and asks how Robin (Holliday Grainger) got in.  Telling her to search the library where Chiswell's DB was found whilst he calls the police.  Apparently Chiswell died not from the overdose of crushed sleeping pills in his drink, but being suffocated.  Main suspect being Kinvara (Sophie Winkleman) as she also left a note telling him she was leaving.  Obviously he wouldn't kill himself over this.  So Izzy (Christina Cole) asks for their help for the same reasons, but he wouldn't kill himself at all.  So where was his suicide note and why would he use plastic on himself.  In this day and age of too much plastic in use, sorry!  Izzy believes it was Kinvara who is now back at their home.  So they drive down to the house, they meet the rest of the family.  With Raff (Adam Long) calling Robin by her name now.

There's a sister, Fizzy (NB this was not The Tweenies with Fizz, ha - oh wait someone must've been obsessed with champers/wine as the blanc de blanc refers to a chardonnay as Strike later tells Robin) Izzy, Fizzy (Natalie Walter) really no originality!  Ha.  And a brother in law, Torquil (Nicholas Burns).  No love lost between each other in this family then as they all hate each other and also Kinvara.  Maybe not so much hate as loathe.  They all swear they were home or have alibis.  Kinvara taking a train from Paddington which is confirmed by the police, as are their alibis too.  Though Kinvara could have an accomplice and the family providing alibis for each other doesn't mean anything.  Strike finds out there's only one key and she has hers, the other person with a key was the Polish maid but Kinvara doesn't know her name, only that she had c's and z's in the name.  Oh wow not big on the hired help then was she.  Why didn't they ask for a description at least, colour etc even if it wouldn't have been PC in this day and age.

Apparently the bones Robin dug up belonged to a pony as Izzy tells them, that Freddie shot for target practice.  Raff is out of the will which he puts down to Kinvara and she wants everyone out since this is her home still.  Raff calling Robin 'Venetia' when she leaves.  They find Billy is out of danger but they can't see him as Jimmy (Nick Blood) has said next of kin only, he being the only relative.  Strike wants Billy protected as he's a witness in a murder case.  He also recalls Flick (Saffron Coomber) knows Polish and could've been the maid.  Cue Robin going undercover again in a magic potion shop; in disguise with a wig and heavy make up.  You wouldn't recognize her except for her pout!  Flick invites her to a party and Jimmy shows up so Robin hides her phone in the storeroom and records them.

At the party she manages to search the bathroom and find a note hidden in the sanitary product, right so there's no room to hide anything in.  Ha.  She takes a pic whilst Jimmy has a mate check her out as she calls herself Becca Cunliffe.  Being Matt's name. When they found out who she really is she's already left and called for backup.  But she didn't run fast enough.  As Jimmy et al give chase, he runs into a policecar.  They visit the hotel where Robin went for her anniversary and lo and behold, beyond dumb coincidence she's able to be at a place where Kinvara also frequented.  She was having an affair and they suspect with Jimmy so she probably poisoned the orange juice as Chiswell was a creature of habit and then got Jimmy to finish him off.

Also finding out that the message on the text with the initials CBB belong to a Christopher something or another (tell I was bored by the pieces fitting together so conveniently already) and that Aamir Malik (Danny Ashok) was sent by Winn to find info on Christopher's computer.  He doesn't want Della (Anna Cannings) to get into trouble and admits he didn't find anything but got a black eye.  Strike's convo with Della reveals she's divorcing Winn.

On top of this we have Lorelei (Natalie Gumede) telling Strike to show some respect and not be a coward by breaking up in person with her.  Robin jabs her foot on a stud earring belonging to Sarah and lo and behold - again - she finds it in the shagpile (aptly named) in the bedroom, with that thick rug makes you wonder how far up that earring was sticking, ha.  She confronts Matt who says he was breaking up with her, he's been lying and he wants her.  Yawn!  She leaves and enters a taxi with a sinister taxi driver.  Hell Sherlock season 1!!  A Study In Pink!  Cue Robin being abducted or something, of course.  Man this book didn't have to be so long!!  Robin finally growing some balls as she tells Flick earlier on and leaving Matt.  Though hopefully them being single now won't mean they run into each other's arms!  She admits to Matt if she hadn't been raped she wouldn't have been with him.  He was just there at the right time.  So using each other.  Though Matt as his last name suggests is such a Cuntliffe!  She should've found someone else for comfort.

Strike : Lethal White Part 2

                                          
The police are on the scene and Strike's (Tom Burke) friend sends him a photo of the girl which could be the one who was murdered.  They need to ask Billy (Joseph Quinn).
Having visited Chiswell's (Robert Glenister) home and Strike asking to see Freddie's medal which he  says was rubbish since no one liked him, Robin (Holliday Grainger) uses the pretext of the loo once again to snoop into the same room and finds some photos from Freddie's 18th birthday party days.  One with a woman in a green dress with 'whore' written on her back.  They later find out that Rhiannon was good enough for the fencing team whereas Freddie's girlfriend wasn't.  Rhiannon in the green dress was the one in the photo and later hanged herself.  She was Winn's (Robert Pugh) daughter. 

The Core group are having a party before the building is demolished for the development and Strike finds out that Billy maybe here since Jimmy has a room there but he'll have to move him soon.  So Strike manages to get in there as they're having a party and buys a mask for £10 from one of the protesters commenting on how they think capitalism is bad, sarcastically!  He finds Billy and he tells him that's not the girl he saw.  Billy can't keep doing this anymore and finds his chance to escape when Jimmy (Nick Blood) shows up.  Pushing Strike on the stairs and causing him further injury to his leg.  He asks Lorelei (Natalie Gumed) if he can stay with her to heal.  As Robin turns up to retrieve the bugs she's planted she's caught by Winn's assistant, Malik (Danny Ashok) who threatens her when she says she's borrowing a stapler and she uses the excuse of knowing six people who can fire him.  Whilst she's at the intern office she overhears an answerphone message saying "they say they piss themselves when they die".

As Lorelei's at the office picking up his things.  Robin shows up and she tells him about the photos and thinking doctor Elspeth Curtis-Lacey (Ruth Lass) involved with the charity could have info on Winn.
Robin finds out that Winn was stealing money from the charity fund and Chiswell can use this to reverse blackmail him into stopping Winn hounding him.  So they go to the charity do and Robin picks a dress to wear and wears that green one.  The one she wore when she went undercover in the fashion store series 1 and Strike couldn't keep his eyes off her.  God good man a dress isn't everything!  Ha.  Strike getting beaten up by Jimmy and his pals when he arrives at the do.  He also gets to see his uni love, Charlotte (Natasha O'Keeffe) again who's having twins.  She wants to share a cab with him but he refuses, good for him!  As we get another flashback to him giving her the bracelet she still wears.  Robin watching them leave together.

Talking of flashbacks Strike has one to calling Robin and being told that she's gone on the honeymoon after all.  Lorelei tells Strike she loves him, leaving him with a dilemma.  Yeah break up with her.)  Talk about making this messy.  Meanwhile smarmy Matt (Kerr Logan) tries to get it on with Robin who says she's not in the mood and tears her dress.  Strike gets a call from Billy who tells him he can't live with this any longer and he finds him stabbed.  As Robin turns up at Chiswell's house for their meeting Chiswell is dead with plastic wrapped around his head.

The girl in the picture was Suki but not the dead one. So maybe she's still alive and know what's happening.  Found this series rather tedious to be honest with those whistful, lustful looks passing between them, oh why do we have to get this attraction bit in at all.  They do that with everything and spoil the show.  Can't they just work together without falling for each other.  That was one reason loathsome Matt was added, but then Lorelei too and Charlotte all in the one ep.  Ugh Strike was only looking for a good time and his 'they were good together' was a bit cruel considering she was there for him but he doesn't want her.  Which we know of course!  What's so great about Robin though I have to ask.  She's just ordinary and his colleague.

Strike: Lethal White Part 1

                                                   
The much watched series returns for a four part mystery concentrating on blackmail of a politician, the death of a girl and of course the personal battles and relationships of the two leads, Cormoran Strike (Tom Burke) and Robin Ellacott (Holliday Grainger).  Beginning with Robin getting married and yes to that loser of her boyfriend, Matt (Kerr Logan) who didn't do much of anything other than boozing and sleeping.  As well as being jealous somewhat of the time she spends at her job and her work.  Of course Strike is invited to the wedding and turned up at the reception too, though admittedly he got rather bored and doses off.  Not surprised really.  Though once again there were major pangs and deja vu relating to Sherlock and John Watson's wedding, which turned out to be more eventful than this.

As the couple dance, Strike leaves but not before she can't stop staring at him and he at her.  As he leaves she goes after him and says she'll accept his offer to return to work after he fired her last series.  As they hug, more connotations of Sherlock and of course also a little Doctor Who with Amy and Rory's wedding when Doctor Eleven walked off on his own.

At work with a new receptionist who really didn't want to be there and wasn't so good at what she does either.  Neither was the guy he hired out to help him who botched up following a person of interest in one of Strike's current cases.  So he fires him too.  As Robin returns to work, a man, Billy Knight (Joseph Quinn) turns up and hides out in the office, a potential client who can no longer keep his childhood secret a secret.  He tells of witnessing the death of a girl on the hill with a painted horse.  He was six and he saw the killer placing her on the eye of the chalk horse and strangling her until she pissed herself.  He won't give his details but Strike convinces to write down his address, until the receptionist walks in and scares him off as he tears the paper from the pad.  Robin filming the incident on her phone the entire time.

Strike uses the tried and tested method of pencil rubbing over the remaining page and finds a possible address.  Arriving at Billy's flat he breaks in and finds a run down place with leaflets advertizing CORE and a time and date of a meeting.  An anarchist housing group protesting against a new development.  Strike goes to the pub as Robin has other plans and ingratiates himself into the group asking about Billy.  One of the women says the speaker is Billy's brother, Jimmy (Nick Blood).  They don't know where he is.  Jimmy takes his brother to a 'safehouse' and gives him a knife and chopping board to film him cutting himself and is obviously going to use this for blackmailing purposes.

As Strike leaves the pub he is watched.  Arriving at the office he is stopped by a man in a car, the politician Jasper Chiswell (Robert Glensiter) who wants to hire him as he's being blackmailed.  He wants to get something on his blackmailer.  This leads Strike to get Robin to go undercover at the Houses of Parliament, plant some bugs in the offices,    especially of Geraint Winn (Robert Pugh) a smarmy MP who is involved in a charity.  Whilst Robin acts as an intern who is Chiswell's goddaughter.  Not a very robust perfect family, as Strike knew his eldest son, Freddie who died and he had to investigate his death.  He was hated by his men.  The younger son, Raff (Adam Long) killed a woman whilst high and got a light sentence obviously.  Chisel also doesn't get on with his second wife, Kinvara (Sophie Winkleman).  His daughter, Izzy (Christina Cole) is in on the operation.  But small world that she knew him at uni along with his ex, Charlotte.  As well as Investigating Freddie's death in the army!

Having to wear brown contacts which are scoffed at by hubs, he prefers Robin as is since she's far better looking and in held in high regard.  Again he doesn't do much of anything! As we get flashbacks to the wedding and the honeymoon on the beach, again her job is mentioned and she's happiest whilst working.  Yeah we don't need to wonder why.  She and Strike manage to find out the house which has a barn and inside is a map of the dell where Billy said the body was buried.  Venturing out Robin manages to dig up the bones wrapped in a pink blanket and are chased back to the barn by dogs.  (Look the Hounds of the Baskervilles - ha.)  As she makes a run to the Land Rover they manage to escape.

Though she didn't get the message when she realized Matt had deleted Strike's messages from her phone and that was the moment she should've walked away.  Obviously that wasn't going to happen.  Ha, Strike asking for mustard and potatoes at lunch with Chiswell he never got, reminded me of his meal every night whilst performing in Rosmersholm.  Potatoes galore and eggs, pickled herring!

Apparently Robin tells Matt she can't do this and wants to go back as it's over but he's poisoned with the cut he got whilst swimming which ruins her chances.  Wouldn't put it past him doing this deliberately but he gets her to promise she'll stay with him.

So a year later she does exactly this and returns to work and her PTSD in all from last season as she was attacked by the Strangler.  It's no surprise she reacts with shock when Billy is there and when she storms out from the Parliamentary office when she sees Raff there.   Strike has taken up with Lorelei (Natalie Gumede) adding more drama to the no-starter of a relationship.  Sexual tension is high and even Lorelei notices this  As with Robin's comment of "she bakes" when they ring ehr  cake for the housewarming party.

The eye of the Horse of Uffington - thought a good in yer face to their prospective relationships/partners ha.  Billy and Jimmy's father worked with Chiswell adding more to the lot.  Were they both involved in the girl's murder and why.  Funnily Strike doesn't know what Chiswell and their dad were exporting - be it human trafficking by chance, drugs??

This one appears to be dragged out into a 4 parter whereas the others in the series were parts each but there were added bits in here that weren't really necessary and just used as fillers.  We get to see the wedding/honeymoon and the aftermath in flashes and learn Robin is suffering from panic attacks and is having therapy.  (Again a Watson moment.)  Also speaking about Strike.  But she doesn't want to leave Matt even though shes miserable.  Good to see Tom return to this as this was filmed around last September shortly after his West End stint in Rosmersholm.