Special Delivery
Episode 1 of The Bay Season 2 begins with a shocking murder at a garden party. A man shows up and asks to speak to the head of the house, Stephen. When he shows up, he brandishes a gun and shoots the man once in the head and again in the chest. It’s a shocking, methodical murder, one that sees spatters of blood spray across the hallway and onto a young boy called Oliver. Elsewhere, Lisa’s demotion sees her now working as a community police officer. She’s obviously not happy, demeaning her role back at the office just as Manning walks past and hears. Woops! Even worse though, Lisa is forced to take orders from out-of-his-depth Med, who has now been promoted to Sergeant. As news of the murder breaks, police rush to the scene – with Lisa tagging along as a lowly officer now. Given her expertise in this field, she’s forced to take Med’s lead but can’t help but take charge of the situation. Old habits die hard of course, as she eventually realizes what she’s doing and steps back, letting Med take charge. The family in question includes a colourful bunch of characters, with patriarch Bill who’s recently retired at the top of the family tree. You’ve got his daughter Rose, son Mark, grandson Oliver and daughter-in-law Stella too. As the officers get the lay of the land, it turns out the Wi-Fi signal was cut and the family are en-route to a secure location for the time being. At the station, Lisa continues to interject and gives a lighter touch to Med’s blunt statements and by-the-book nature. This eventually spills over into a confrontation when Lisa suggests a child psychologist get involved for Oliver. Med doesn’t agree. While Lisa interviews Rose, Med tries his hand at interviewing Bill. The patriarch mentions their family unit, and how a girl called Grace was part of their circle but they don’t see her anymore. Apparently it’s a “long story”, one that involves her arrested in the past. As the team head back to the station, they’re briefed by Manning where Lisa is given the task of heading off to the family law firm. She’s tasked with speaking to the different staff members there. There’s obvious (and understandable) distrust from her colleagues and a snarling jab at her previous case confirms as much. Anyway, Lisa heads off alone and learns more details about the family from a new employee there called Lynn. Rose is a part time manager while Mark and Stephen were both there too. Stephen was a partner at the firm but Mark wasn’t. Just like that though, Mark shows up and tells Lisa to leave. Are these two involved in some way over what happened? On the way out, Lisa receives a call from her Mum. Apparently she used to know Stephen and Bill but beyond basic character assessments isn’t much help to the case. Meanwhile, Med continues to struggle getting through to the family. In fact, he eventually swallows his pride and asks Lisa for help in calming the woman down. As Lisa heads off to help, the camera pans out to show a parked up van and someone shady inside watching her. Radio silence from Grace couples with Med and Lisa butting heads over the “rosy” family unit Med paints. Lisa suspects there’s more going on, prompting them both to be reprimanded by Manning in his office. He reminds them there’s a dead body and a murder case to deal with. Well, the next step is the scrapyard where Med, Lisa and the others arrive to find Grace. She has no love lost about her family but does claim to have an alibi for the time in question. She was working at the scrapyard during that time – a story that Frank backs up. Although this doesn’t rule her out from being involved completely, Med and Lisa are satisfied for now and head off to dig deeper into the rest of the family. Med’s earlier ideas about the family being happy completely blows up in his face when he sees Bill lash out over meals on wheels being delivered to him. He’s not just grieving but Med believes there’s more going on under the hood. Back at the station, Lisa and Med work together and decide to make things easier for Oliver to try and help him open up. That includes packing a box full of things, including his tablet. In the garden, Lisa finds forensics interested by burned documents found in the barbeque. These may or may not be a clue. Stay tuned! To finish the episode, Lisa does gain a crucial clue. As Oliver starts drawing a two-headed bird on his tablet, he admits this matches the tattoo found on the murderer’s wrist. Now they have something to work with, Manning congratulates her and Med for a job well done. Well, these congratulations are short-lived when Lisa heads home and finds out her ex is back. Oh no!
The Episode Review
The Bay returns with a shocking murder and lots more investigative work. Given Lisa’s unprofessionalism last season, she’s lucky to still have a job and forced into taking Med’s lead on cases. Could this be the redemptive case she needs to be promoted again? Of course, old habits die hard and the friction between her and Med comes to blows multiple times across this episode which is a nice touch. It certainly adds a bit more depth to these characters, giving a sort of mini-episodic arc as they work together by the end of the 45 minutes. In terms of the murder itself, there’s a couple of theories but personally I think Grace is red herring. She obviously has no love lost for the family but clearly wasn’t at the crime scene, nor does she really have the financial capacity to pay someone off to kill Stephen. A far more likely candidate though is Mark. We’ve already heard that he and Stephen had issues at work and his telling but brief conversation with Lynn at the law firm seems to hint that they’re working together. The papers Stephen and Bill burned on the barbeque could come into play later on down the line but Bill’s retirement and Stephen being made partner seem like strong enough motives to hire someone to kill Stephen. Still, we’ll have to wait and see if that holds much truth but for now, The Bay starts off its second season quite well.
