'Bloodlands' Episode 1 Recap
Welcome to the first of four episode recaps for the new Acorn TV thriller, Bloodlands. We’re promised a twisty cat-and-mouse game that also ponders moral questions about the balance between justice for past crimes and protecting peace in the present. The first episode has quite a lot of exposition, but by the end, things begin to speed up so I advise patience with this one.
We first meet DCI Tom Brannick (James Nesbitt) driving through Belfast with Irish rock band Inhaler playing on the radio. He’s attending his daughter Izzy’s (Lola Petticrew) birthday celebration. The doting father presents his only child with the gift of an owl pendant – one of a pair. Tom says his wife used to claim it helped her see in the dark. He wants Izzy to have his.
The next morning, Tom’s called to a suspected crime scene- a car with no number plates has been found in Strangford Lough. Turns out the car belongs to Pat Keenan (Peter Ballance) a current crime associate and a former IRA man. The police have received an anonymous call from his kidnapper invoking the loyalist paramilitary name, Major White. The forensics team find no trace of Pat, however, taped to his wing mirror is a postcard with a picture of a famous H & W shipbuilding crane nicknamed Goliath. Tom immediately gets the reference but declines to share it with his team for the present.
Instead, he asks his old friend, DCS Jackie Twomey (Lorcan Cranitch), to meet him. Jackie also knows about Goliath, but when Tom suggests they reopen the old case, the superintendent is more than a little hesitant. He strongly advises finding Pat Keenan and letting the past go, for the sake of keeping the peace.
DCI Brannick and his junior, DS Niamh McGovern (Charlene McKenna) go to talk to Pat’s wife, Clare (Kathy Kiera Clark) at the premises of their haulage company. She hasn’t seen Pat since yesterday morning and is very prickly with the police. Tom’s sneaky search of Pat’s office only makes matters worse, and the officers are unceremoniously shown the door. Clare Keenan picks up the phone as soon as the detectives have gone.
Brannick did discover a few entries on the calendar in Pat’s office so he and McGovern trace the missing man’s steps to the hospital where he had an appointment a day earlier. Keenan’s illicit sex life and vision complaints only serve to blur the motive for his kidnapping. Could Pat’s disappearance possibly be related to his personal life, and not his political past?
Upon their return to the station, Tom and Niamh witness two young men throwing petrol bombs at a patrol car. Rushing to rescue an officer from the flames, Brannick already realizes that Clare Keenan’s distrust of the police is behind this attack.
With increased urgency, the team is updated on the case and given their assignments. But Niamh is tired of being kept in the dark about the significance of the postcard. She threatens to quit the investigation unless Tom tells her what it all means. It turns out Goliath is the code name for a mysterious assassin dating back over twenty years ago. His victims have connections on both sides of the Troubles. Remember that exposition I mentioned? Well, here it comes...
