Luther season 5 premiere review: New case brings chaos and Alice Morgan

It has been a long wait for new episodes of Luther but season 5 kicks off today with 4 new episodes. As much as we are excited to see Luther diving into another case that tests which side of the line he’s going to land on we are most excited about the return of Alice Morgan. Years ago the show tried to convince us that Alice was dead – which we didn’t believe because we’ve long learned in television that if we don’t see the body go into the ground then they might not be dead. Now we have been getting teases from the promos that she’s back! A lot of this may have to do with the fact that Ruth Wilson is no longer on The Affair and has time to work on Luther, but whatever the reason we are excited to see these two together again.

The new season starts with Luther already in trouble, abducted by some baddies and dragged to an abandoned club to be questioned by a man named George over the whereabouts of his missing son Alister. Because they have history (Luther previously handcuffed George to a radiator and left him) he thought Luther might be involved, but after a turn around George realizes that he’s not the person behind this.

We also have a new case and it’s a fairly creepy one (did you expect anything different?). We have a body that is covered in nails as well as a young man who accidentally stumbled across the crime and ended up with his eyes and tongue cut out. Wrong place at the wrong time.

The therapist (Dr. Lake) of a man named James comes forward to help with the case since she knows that James has long had a fetish of stabbing people with pins, nails and all sorts of pointy things. She says he’s missed a few appointments and before then she saw him covered with blood, but before she could make the call to the police he fled. This therapist is quite unnerving herself and with a few different earlier moments in the episode making us feel like she could be more involved in this then just “concerned therapist”. What this does do though is lead them to James house and secret man cave filled with all sorts of gruesome discoveries.

Luther feels that there is something very strange with the therapist and James and after a second murder happens on a bus they question Dr. Lake again, but don’t really get anywhere with her. She’s not willing to help voluntarily. Luther thinks that she will lead them to James and when James calls Dr. Lake, Luther has a lead on his phone hoping that he can get to James before he kills again. She convinces James to tell her where he is and Luther follows her to his location. When James sees all the cops that followed her he thinks she betrayed him and stabs her before fleeing.

Luther is able to get him (he doesn’t make it out alive), but the real villain is Dr. Lake who has the real killer under her care. Seems that James was just a bit of a ruse from Dr. Lake to get the cops off the scent of their very strange relationship.

Catherine (who works with Luther) is not convinced that everything is all tied up neatly and heads to Luther’s house to talk to him, but he’s not the only one on their way there. When he hears a knock at the door he opens it and it’s Alice!

Related: Check out what’s coming up on Luther season 5 episode 2

CarterMatt Verdict

This season is built on everything that makes Luther such an engrossing series. It’s dark, creepy, gritty and has a case at the center of it that makes our skin crawl. Throw in the return of Alice Morgan and this is being set up to already be one of our favorite seasons ever.

What did you think of the Luther season 5 premiere and was it worth the wait? Leave us a comment in the box below with your thoughts. (BBC One)