Previously on Guilt:
All the main suspects for the murder of Molly Ryan were handed to us on a silver platter and as Stan, the morally ambiguous lawyer says: There’s plenty of #guilt to go around.
Like and subscribe for more quality content and murder!Grace is furious when Stan is plays one of her “stupid travel vlogs” which is an old video of Molly the Irish girl and her laughing in front of Buckingham palace. It's another popular teen murder soap trope and it becomes very disconcerting once Molly receives a text which throws Grace into a violent outburst as she pins her down and grabs the camera to shut it.
I don’t know what makes me more disappointed in our main protagonist: the charges of murder against her or the quality of her vlogs and the fact that they thought they were going to become famous because of them. Stan asks her if there are any more such surprises lurking on the internet and then urges her to stay put in her lavish hotel suite so she can stay away from the press.
Grace protests that it’s Molly’s memorial and she has to go and storms out. Grace is well… kind of insufferable. Natalie (without whom Grace would be completely and royally screwed) asks her if she knows who Molly was texting to which Grace responds that it was their stepfather, James. Of course!
After going to the sex palace, Roz’s friend is washing her sins away in their bathtub. It's a pretty snazzy flat considering they're 20 somethings and living in London. She freaked out and didn’t end up getting paid, which pissed off Roz’s boss. Roz tells her she’ll take care of it and hands her a bundle of 50£ notes. Say yes to queer representation and no to sex trafficking kids!
I'm Irish. I'm so Irish. Can you tell how Irish I am by my very strong Irish accent?We follow Grace into a dark underground warehouse that’s supposedly Molly’s old storage unit. She scavenges through her belongings until she spots an interesting old necklace. That’s when Irish bro sneaks up behind her with his crazy eyes and leather jacket and demands to know if she killed her.
I bet he’s the one behind Freeform’s #whokilledmolly hashtags. Patrick is trying to solve the murder through whatever scraps of info he can find while Grace seems more interesting in saving her own skin.
Natalie’s the only one who’s on the right track of figuring out what really happened. She visits Stan and tells him she’ll get a lawyer who’s less “ethically challenged” because he’s clearly not just protecting Grace but also her stepfather. Stan still doesn’t feel like a real character or person to me, more like another character that fills the American quota for the show.
DS Bruno, on the other hand, is still chasing the creepy older professor because he discovered that he was involved with more students than just Molly and Grace. He calls him in for questioning and tries to break a confession out of him and when that fails he takes his fingerprints and DNA sample in a very cool policey montage.
In light of what Stan said about how social media is a millennial murderer’s worst enemy, Molly meets Roz at the club (Pryzm Wednesday?) to ask her if Finch records anything at the Courtenay Club. THEY WERE ALL IN IT! It wasn't just Roz, Grace went there once as well. Molly was a regular until she quit about a month ago and the necklace Grace found somehow links her to all the sketchy business.
Don't put this on me, Grace. You're the murderer here. I'm just a lowly sex trafficker.Grace suspects that one of Molly’s old clients may have killed her and Roz tells her she thinks it's her fault for bringing strangers to their flat and that there's nothing her rich step daddy can do now to fix that.
Speaking of whom, James finally arrives at London and embraces Grace who's delighted to see him and if Grace likes him we should all definitely NOT trust hin. Her judgement is very poor. We should be listening to Natalie, who doesn’t fall for any of his lies and cover ups about where he was when Molly was getting stabbed next to her washing machine.
Grace continues to be very naive even when Natalie tells her about James's scarf that was found in Molly’s bedroom. Her argument is that if James buys them nice expensive things he has to be a nice a guy.
Finch also pays a visit to Roz in order to blackmail her about the money her friend cost him and I wonder: why has the police not been investigating Roz, who was also Molly’s flatmate and has turned out to be the dodgiest one of them all?
He gets a swipe right from me.Natalie continues her sleuthing and tracks down Derek, the American embassy guy, at a local pub. She spins the most middle-class tale ever about her imaginary husband cheating on her with his yoga instructor and he agrees to give her access to the passport records. Ok dude... you realise she's a complete stranger right? Go Natalie, the real heroine and protagonist of this show.
Luc meets Grace after being AWOL for days and the memorial takes place as a really creepy cover of Ordinary World can be heard in the background. He cries to Grace that shes's all he has and instead of dumping his sorry ass, Grace comforts him and snogs him. She thinks her family doesn’t get what she’s going through but he does. What did I say about poor judgement?
A posh reporter approaches Patrick and informs him that she knows where Professor Linley is hiding out. Meanwhile, Grace stands in front of the crowd and gives a touching teary-eyed speech about her friendship with Molly and how they’d spend time together in the park and order takeaway. I’m going to agree with the D.A that's sleeping with DS Bruno and say this was a very good stunt on Grace’s part.
Unfortunately, the reporter takes pictures of her laughing with Luc after the memorial and tweets them under the hashtag #Americanpsycho. Do you see ladies and gentlemen, do you see how she laughs? Only a sick murderer would be capable of laughter. The girl is GUILTY.
Your existence represents everything I despise about the male dominated world we live in. Stop preying on young girls that are as old as your own stepdaughter.By the second time Natalie catches him in a lie, James confesses to what he's been accused of: He confirms he had a brief affair with Molly but explicitly states that he did not see her on the night of the murder. After realising Natalie's onto him he goes to Stan and orders him to retrieve Molly’s phone before anyone sees the texts but what he doesn't know is that someone already has.
Roz is sitting in her cosy bed, holding a phone that literally has Molly written on the back with glitter (brilliant exposition) and is going through everything that was saved on it. She flicks through the dead girl's pictures until she sees one of a bunch of older men drinking champaign including James.
The police uncover that professor Leinly was involved in the death of another dead girl as Patrick breaks into his hiding place. He punches him a couple of times and accuses him of knocking Molly up and killing her. Suddenly, a woman appears and screams that he should get away from her husband while holding a rifle (?) but ends up shooting the professor instead of Patrick. We hear another gunshot in the distance ... and end scene.
Notes:
In a very blink or you'll miss it moment we see a newscast of Prince Theo with a headline about a wedding. How interesting...
Favourite shot/scene:
The inexplicable steamy sex scene between DS Bruno and Gwendolyn. The camera moves up two naked bodies and I ask myself which heterosexual couple is this? Why did we need to see what his sex life looks like?
Favourite quote:
"We want people to forge Grace even exists. That memorial is gonna be swarming with press. Last thing Grace needs are some talking heads debating whether her short skirt makes her look like a murderous slut." Stan lays down some real talk
Answers to the mystery:
Natalie's hunch about James has been confirmed while my suspicions about Grace being in love with Molly remain mostly speculative. She did say she loved her, right? And she has been showing signs of extreme jealousy. At first, I thought she was going to be revealed as the stalker who steals mementoes when she walked into that basement filled with Molly's things.
Episode Rating: 2.5/5
With not a lot of momentum, we must wait to see whether new suspects are going to be added to the pool as we cross others off our list. As Guilt continues I'm hoping it focuses more on what makes it good and enticing, eg the Courtenay Club storyline, instead of following the regular teen murder clichés.
Next on Guilt:
Next week the online backlash causes Grace to have a breakdown (come on Grace, pull yourself together) and it seems like she is announcing to the world that she will not stand for the media's slut-shaming or allegations of murder. Let me know what you think in the comments: Is the show improving? Does she have any friends at all? Where did the necklace Kaley was wearing come from? Who is the monkey stealing stalker? Should Stan have opted for the fedora? What's going to happen now that England voted Brexit?
