‘Happy Valley’ season 2 episode 6 review: John’s consequences, Catherine and Frances face off
With the real killer dead on “Happy Valley”, is John going to be the one to eat all of the murders now or will the police be able to still connect the dots to Daryl? We also have the confrontation between Catherine and Frances coming up in this episode that we have been waiting for all season long and are dying to know what’s going to come of it. We can’t believe that we are at the season 2 finale of “Happy Valley” already and are wishing away the months until we can get more episodes.
Well it took no time at all for Catherine to march herself over to Ryan’s school to confront the principal about Frances. The principal tries to smooth things out saying that Frances is a lovely woman, but Catherine isn’t having any of it (since the DIU is still investigating Tommy Lee Royce’s visitor list) and asks for someone else to work with Ryan from now on. When the visitor’s list comes in, it confirms that Frances is on the list, but she’s under a fake identity – one stolen from her dead sister. Frances is arrested on fraud charges and is later let out on bail, so Catherine goes over to her house to talk. This conversation went exactly how you would think it would go, with Catherine saying what a monster Tommy is (later revealing that Tommy is engaged to 3 other women besides her) and Frances defending him until she realizes she just can’t, but it was mesmerizing to watch these two characters interacting.
Word gets back to the precinct that Daryl was the real killer of those women, and John is temporarily relieved that they have another fall guy, but his good mood changes when he’s told that before Daryl died he told his mom that Vicky was not one of his kills. Daryl also confessed that he wouldn’t have killed the last woman if people hadn’t thought that he killed Vicky when he didn’t. After investigating Daryl’s home they confirm that he’s killed all of the women, except Vicky, which leads to a nationwide man hunt for Vicky’s killer.
After a plea from the police on TV to come forward with any information about Vicky the night she died, Neil decides to tell Catherine what happened to him. She brings the information to John saying that this same blackmailing situation could’ve been going on and that’s why Vicky may have been murdered, but she notices that John seems disinterested with the information. Ann tells Catherine that before Vicky turned up dead she knew he was having an affair and that he was asking her how to come up with 1000 pounds. Add to that, some witnesses are starting to come forward – a man that saw him at the bar with Vicky and the front desk at the hotel where Vicky took the photos. And if all of that wasn’t enough, we also have the man that was having an affair with John’s wife coming forward saying that he and John’s wife checked their diaries and found that the night Vicky went missing was a night that John was out doing police work. When confronted, John runs out of the police station, gets in his car and flees. The chase ends with John standing on top a bridge and when nothing Catherine says helps him, John jumps.
Even though Tommy’s original plan didn’t work, seeing his smile when he got that letter from Ryan at the end of the episode sent a chill down our spine and set things up perfectly for next season. As much as we loved season 1 of “Happy Valley”, season 2 was stronger for us and we found that we care more deeply for all of the characters then we did the first time around. It will be a bit of a wait until next season, but we will be back to cover it, so stay tuned. Episode grade: A
What did you think of the “Happy Valley” season 2 finale? Leave us a comment below and tell us what you would like to see happen next season.
Photo: BBC One