BBC Description: “When the village is engulfed by murderous spirits, Nathan and Charlotte must fight to put an end to these terrifying events.”
Credits:
Nathan Appleby: Colin Morgan
Charlotte Appleby: Charlotte Spencer
Matthew Denning: Nicholas Woodeson
Gwen Pearce: Kerrie Hayes
Gideon Langtree: Malcolm Storry
Maud Hare: Elizabeth Berrington
Harriet Denning: Tallulah Haddon
Lara: Chloe Pirrie
Smith: Harry Peacock
Lizzie Merrifield: Sarah Counsell
Simon Merrifield: Ben Fox
Mary Denning: Marianne Oldham
Writer: Peter McKenna
Producer: Eliza Mellor
Director: Sam Donovan
Victim of the episode: Everyone really as it is the ‘third act’ of the series. Nathan via Gabriel, Maud via hysteria, Harriet being used by Nathan, reverend Denning through failure to perform the exorcism successfully (and thus a loss of faith possibly?), Charlotte being emotionally shut out by her husband and in turn shutting him out harshly in return when he breaks down. The community being flooded by ghosts.
Synopsis:
It’s night-time and Charlotte is wandering the house as there’s banging coming from a room. It’s Nathan opening a crate. ‘It was meant to be a surprise’ he announces. She opens the crate with little effort in comparison to his loud attempt that brought her here. Inside is a crib for their baby. They have a moment together.
Outside and an empty swing sways in the breeze. Gwen is having it off again in the bracken and plays kiss chase but the guy lets out a hideous scream. Nathan walks out the house demanding someone show themselves. It’s a misty night filled with the screams of the damned. DUN DUN DURR
A voiceover talks of the massacre during the Civil War when the Roundheads massacred people in the town. Children run through the town with sacks on their heads around a scarecrow with a noose around its neck, crows caw, Gideon the foreman sacrifices/kills a pig. Peters mother Maud says that Gwen’s ‘bit on the side’ saw a disemboweled woman hanging from the tree. She thinks it’s an omen. It can’t be believed as ‘railway lads are townies’. Gideon doesn’t believe it himself.
Nathan and Payne walk through a work site and he asks where he saw something but Payne doesn’t want to recount it. He thinks something is wrong here and doesn’t like the place. The work for the aqueduct is stopped as they need to find new workers willing to come here. (The village is a ghost town which is probably meant as a bit of dramatic irony considering what is about to happen). Charlotte says damn them and the railway. He feels any time they make progress something happens. Nathan thinks something is going on but Charlotte is more dismissive only accepting what she sees and nothing more. She wants them to focus on the farm and the future. GET IT? SHE IS MORE AND MORE BECOMING THE LEVEL HEADED ONE NOW WHILE HE IS GIVING INTO THE ‘MAGICAL’ SIDE OF THINGS.
Gwen routes around the library and finds the dead son’s picture and the Ouija board but quickly hides it before the Applbys’ return. (They are depicting her being shifty but there is no pay off later as she seems to be set up as a red herring).
Charlotte is photoing the costumed townsfolk and children. Nathan is at the swing in the forest looking for evidence. He finds runes carved on a tree trunk. He sees the modern-day red coat woman in the distance and runs towards her but she disappears behind a tree. Charlotte sees him in the distance and he sees the woman in red in the distance crossing a field. He says he is alright when she seems concerned. Charlotte photos the masked children and villagers with only Nathan remaining unmasked. They remain still for a few seconds and then Charlotte says they’re all done.
Nathan hears a baby in the house as he ascends the stairs. He sees the red coat woman run from one room to another. When he gets into the room all he sees is the crib stood in the middle of the empty room’s floor.
Reverend’s daughter Harriet , wearing a cloak and hood, walks through the town seeing the traditional pagan like festivities around her. Nathan rides up on a horse and says he needs her help. She says she is expected at home. He insists its important and needs their attention this evening. He is very insistent.
He uses pig’s blood to draw on the wall as Harriet watches and he asks if she remembers how they did it before. He intends to hypnotise her. Does the ‘focus on the watch and let all else fade away’ routine as common for portrayals of hypnotism of that era.
Maud Hare walks out her door and hears screaming in the distance. (Did her son Peter die? I honestly forgot the end of that episode by apparently he did).
Nathan wants the now hypnotised Harriet to tell the red coat woman he has seen her and ask her what she wants. She seems to just be unconscious but suddenly, as a minor jump scare, speaks in a raspy voice saying they’re coming for you just as he was about to wake her. That is all he gets. Cryptic.
A loaded cart goes down the road as more workers leave the village.
Mrs Hare complains of it to the Foreman. The butcher’s wife is wanting through the stores and hears noises. Creaking, rats, all that. Blood drips on some dusty vases.
In the pub the foreman supports the Appleby’s but Mrs Hare says maybe the workers had the right idea as they can all see whats happening. He asks where would they go? Somewhere new where they’re not living side by side with evil.
Charlotte calls for Gwen. She sees the drawing on the wall. It was done in pig’s blood. ‘Nothing good comes from inviting the dead back into your life’ she says.
Denning and his wife are in the living room. Harriet comes back home. Harriet explains Mr Appleby her tardiness but doesn’t explain the details.
Charlotte scolds her husband for involving the girl. He says about seeing the red coat woman and how if she saw what he saw she would believe. he describes how the woman has pictures which move as if alive and knows the names of Peter Hare and others.
Denning shouts about involving his daughter in these matters and says to not involve her in their misadventures. In the distance they see a fire has been set alight. They go to explore. The Denning says not to bother as itll burn out by the time they get their. So Nathan resolves to go look in the morning.
We see him stood under the charred tree the next morning as Denning arrives ‘to satisfy his own curiosity’. Theres not signs of a burning but Nathan is certain. Denning is annoyed by Nathan saying ‘I believe in God and man and very little in between’. They haven’t found the remains – yet.
Charlotte processes her photos. She notes in the background of one a boy holding a wooden toy boat who wasnt there before. Gwen distracts her regarding food being ready. She seems dismayed as if her husband perhaps has a point.
Nathan explains about the red coat woman ghost to Denning who is irritated by Nathan. He is sure she is orchestrating it all. He thinks it will escalate unless they do an exorcism. Denning refutes it saying exorcisms are only for the most extraordinary cases. He refuses. Nathan is insistent.
Walking down a path with a horse and cart Charlotte asks Gwen if she believes in ghosts. Gwen says she’s not certain she believes in ghosts but there is ‘more than just man and beast’. They talk of spirits lingering.
Mrs Hare, working the fields reveals she has marks around her neck she is covering. Foreman hears the screaming voices. The workers run towards Charlotte calling out about soldiers and spirits and such. Through the mists she sees Roundhead soldiers on horseback rush past the. No one is sure whats going on. Mrs Hare runs off. It’s all Hallow’s Eve. She recounts that this is when the Roundheads committed the massacre then calls on everyone to run away as far as they can.
Nathan asks the pig blood drawing to tell him what it wants. As he goes to empty the bucket he sees the red coat woman run up and tell him to stop. The blood spills across the floor.
Denning talks to his wife in the church and Harriet enters. He is a skeptic regarding the occult but he doesn’t know what to make of this. Someone bangs on the doors so he goes to look but when he opens it no one is to be seen. Harriet feels something choking her as she claws at her throat. When her parents come back they see her levitating as if being hung. They run beneath her to support her. The wife keeps shouting she is choking. Her father runs for baptismal water and ‘in the father, and the holy ghost’ exorcises her. She descends and her tells them to go wait at home as he has to go do something.
At Nathan’s house he agrees to do the exorcism. Charlotte rushes in and speaks of the events in the woods. Nathan seems overjoyed everyone is seeing what he has been seeing. The workers are outside. He tells them to go home as Reverend Denning will perform a ceremony to get rid of this darkness.
Charlotte asks Denning if he believes this is all the work of ghosts and the dead. He says he knows he has “… seen terrible and unexplainable things and whatever hand is behind them must be stopped.”
She asks if he can banish only the evil spirits and not the benign. ‘I have no room for such distinctions. All that is present must be cast out’. Charlotte recalls the boy. ‘it is imperative if Shepscoy is to have any peace’.
People run down the road and crowd into the pub.
Denning does the holy rites at the Appleby house – its depicted like a major moment. Gwen also watches. Candles flutter out. Doors close by themselves. Shadows scuttle by. Nathan believes its working. Then the gramophone with Gabriel’s voice starts up. Denning says to ignore it. It’s not his son; the devil takes on many forms. Nathan cannot resist but to listen. The voice mentions playing with his boat. The wet boat boy was their dead son… of course as he drowned. Charlotte shows Nathan the photo. HEnce why she asked about benign spirits being also cast out. Nathan is angry she knew but didn’t show him the photo, NAthan goes to stop Denning. Denning says the boy’s soul is with God and chastises him trying to stop the exorcism. Nathan forces him out of the house. He goes as far as telling Denning he will take his gun to him if he doesn’t leave. Resigned Denning leaves.
Mrs Hare leaves her house under cover of night.
Charlotte hears the banging outside return and scolds her husband that Gabriel is dead. ‘He is still my son’ Nathan replies while looking at photos of him.
The people in the pub’s basement are scared.
Denning hears screams and sees blood dripping into a puddle. Mrs Hare runs through the forest. Denning calls out to no avail. Mrs Hare falls over and sees her hand covered in blood. She turns and sees a hung man. Elsewhere Denning sees the same above him. Terrified Mrs Hare runs into a fork in a tree and presumably breaks her own neck with the force. Dennings screams out seeing the trail lined with hanging bodies. We cut back to Mrs Hare and somehow she laughed herself onto the fork in the tree and is unable to work herself free from it as she is suspended off the ground. She soon succumbs and dies. Denning, holding up his lamp, sees the path no longer has the bodies.
Foreman announces to the people ‘they’re gone’. Denning meanwhile breaks down into sobs.
The next morning people g through the forest looking for Maud Hare finding her shawl and such along the way. He found her suspended body in the tree.
Nathan is writing in his journal saying he feels his sons ghost all around him. Charlotte with the workers calls out and says they found Maud’s body. THey thought he was going to get rid of this. He tells I decided not to proceed with the ceremony’. Why the foreman asks. ‘I had good reasons. Very important ones.’ He hears Gabriel’s voice singing from the house. He runs back inside and demand ‘give back my son’. Charlotte rushes in after him shouting ‘you do realise none of them will work for us again?’ but he is too preoccupied. He shows her the photo which she tries to grab and rip up while shouting ‘I just want him to leave us alone’. but Nathan unintentionally strikes her while trying to get the photo back. She of course is shocked, she draws back and there’s blood on her lip. It’s probably not ironic that this episode she has had a red blouse on and he seems to be wearing what would be modern clothing. He reaches to her but she shouts ‘No!’ and runs away. We see the pig blood drawing and Gwen approaching the bloody rag she affixes to the tree in episode one which by now is dirty.
Charlotte takes out a negative of her husband in a field. it’s the photo she took at the start of episode one. Next we see Gwen is in a coat and hat in the kitchen. Has she seen Nathan. Gwen says no and advises she and the baby leave for their own safety. She even offers to go with them so she isn’t alone. Charlotte says she can’t leave her husband. Gwen says she wont abandon her. This would be a nice scene if it wasn’t for the fact they seem to be hinting Gwen is out-of-place here and probably a witch and thus involved in the events. (Spoiler: They kind of abandon all this hinting and she is a benign, if over subserviant, red herring figure).
We cut to a scene of Nathan playing with the toy boat by the lake sending it out onto the water. The water ripples and the episode ends.
Review:
A penultimate episode and all that you would expect it to entail. It was Denning’s big moment to be honest and if they had filmed it a bit differently or had more intense music it would have improved the scene. I’m not sure if they perhaps made Nathan a bit too… not unlikable but definitely not amicable… a character right from the start so when we see this unravelling of him it isn’t as big a shock. I mean that is also an issue of ‘boxset’ releasing this show. I am watching the last two episodes on a separate day as it felt like this was going to be the real meat of the series with everything leading up to it but honestly right now I feel like with some good editing you could knock this series down to 2 maybe 3 hours by omitting the mining boys of episode two and cutting down the other episodes.
Gabriel, though it is never stated explicitly, is Nathan’s son from a previous relationship – in fact I was even go as far as to assume marriage. At some point I feel a scene wa omitted indicating these facts but the series likes to tease it. If this was the case I would think that from the very start Charlotte, although clearly enamoured with her husband, would have behaved slightly differently when arriving to this town and all its reminders of his son. It seems she is aware of Gabriel’s history but she never refers to him as Nathan’s son – that is to say that of the pairing of the Applebys on Nathan has a connection to the boy.
This dancing around a few facts seems a vain attempt at maintaining a mystery which need not exist. If anything the revelation she is not his first wife would give the audience more questions to answer but it honestly feels like they are stringing it out as if they already knew they would have a second season commissioned even before filming began. It’s pointless and the efforts to hide it end up deterring much-needed time for developing the narrative they are telling right now. Either make it an outright mystery resolved in the final episode or don’t waste the audiences time acting as if we need to piece together minor plot points. Again this series seems to feel smarter than it is and wants to impress that upon an audeince it seems to be speaking down to.
Charlotte’s character development is very pessimistic in tone. I have to wonder if there was a member of staff supervising the continuity of the series as we have a scene early on where Charlotte notes the dark side of Nathan’s personality and vows to be there for him to keep it from consuming him but when that time comes she confides in Gwen who I keep feeling is being kept in the background to be the cause of distrust and such now she has Charlotte’s confidence but this never comes to fruition. She just seems to be a poorly implemented red herring in a show that hasn’t developed her that way save for her being a hedge witch (thus representing the ‘dark’ faith opposition to the ‘light’ version of reverend Denning and both in contrast to the logical science views represented by the Appleby couple.
Again the writers are showing a very pessimistic view of their character’s humanity towards each other under the guise of a Victorian ghost story series. What they did with Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes wherein they created a sort of hyperstylised version of the 1970s and 1980s eras of policing on television respectively doesn’t carry over here. You can see the influences to those series but here it seems they have taken a very broad concept, Victorian ghost stories, and done little to educate themselves about how to deconstruct it as they did with their previous works. Instead we get very heavyhanded commentary which often feels misguided or ill-informed.
What was a rather lack lustre, narratively ponderous, series becomes offensive in its depiction of mental health through symbolism of being haunting by the past.
Rambling At The Bridge Head 