‘Happy Valley’ season 2 episode 1 review: Catherine returns to battle Tommy Lee Royce once more
It’s been a while since we’ve had new episodes of “Happy Valley”, but it’s back and it has a lot to offer. When we last saw Catherine it was 8 months ago when Tommy Lee Royce was being carted off to jail for his next ten lifetimes, but is that going to be the end of him? Catherine just can’t seem to shake him no matter what she does.
In the season 2 premiere we learned that Catherine and Tommy’s connection is far from over now that his mother has turned up dead a few weeks after Catherine called to threaten her to stay away from her grandson Ryan. Is Catherine involved in this? While she had nothing to do with it, it was pretty uncomfortable to watch her being questioned in connection with this murder and it really gets to her since she’s spent years showing herself to be a top notch officer of the law.
When Tommy finds out that his mother has been murdered he turns to his girlfriend Frances for comfort and she realizes that she can help reunite Tommy and his son, but with Catherine watching Ryan like a hawk, it might be harder for her to get close to Ryan then she thinks.
We also had a juicy story with John Wadsworth as he’s decided to break off a two year long affair he’s been having with a woman named Vicky who has started to tread dangerously close to exposing him to his family one too many times. She tricks John into meeting up, drugs him and takes incriminating pictures of him as a way to start blackmailing him not only into meeting with her once a month, but also to give her money.
There was a lot to like about this premiere and the one thing we had been wondering about was how they were going to bring Catherine and Tommy back together now that he’s locked up. The masterminds behind the show have found a really interesting angle to play, using Tommy’s girlfriend to get to his son and we can’t wait to see how this plays out. Our only wish was that episodes of “Happy Valley” were more then just 6 episodes long. Episode grade: A-
What did you think of the premiere of “Happy Valley”? Leave us a comment below and tell us what you think.
Photo: BBC One