The Kiss
Episode 4 of The Bay Season 2 begins with Lisa rushing to the scene of the crime with Manning and the others. Unfortunately their worst fears are realized. Despite paramedics doing their best, Med is declared dead. The officers are beside themselves with grief and find themselves struggling to speak to Med’s wife, Lateesha. With a young child in the background, things are certainly grim as Lisa and Manning choke back tears and tell her Med has passed away. In fact, things are grim at work too. Manning briefs the grief-stricken officers to let them know a new team from outside are going to arrive and work on investigating who was behind this hit and run. For now though, the officers are told to head home and get some rest. During the evening, police gain search warrants for the three different Breakwater properties and, lead by DS Ryan from Manchester, find out they’ve being used as hubs for illegal activities. The team are called back in the morning where DCI Pearson takes over from Manning’s morning speech and promises justice. For now, there will be two different investigations underway at the same time – one for Stephen Marshbrook and the other for Med. After the raids that very morning, it seems like Breakwater may actually be a front for a professional drug operation too. Is this why Stephen and Med were killed? Lisa is temporarily given the job of FLO but she’s under strict instructions from Manning not to push the family too hard. Under less-than-ideal circumstances, Lisa gets her old position back. When Lisa shows up at Bill’s family house, Grace suddenly shows too after all this time and hugs Oliver. Eventually she greets everyone else while Lisa watches from the doorway. She gauges all their reactions and pays specific attention to Mark and Bill who seem indifferent and slightly hostile. Anyway, back at the station Jamie is pulled back in to be interviewed. He apparently left town because he didn’t want to lose Theo. Being back in Morecambe was too much but leaving was Theo’s idea, something he simply went along with him to appease his partner. The attention then turn to how Jamie got along with Stephen. Jamie claims that he loved him but also never fully accepted Theo as part of the family. Their background and alibi definitely checks out though, leading Lisa back to square one with this case. The pendulum continues to swing. This time back toward Stella who tells Mark to keep it together because this is what they’ve been working for. DS Ryan finds the Peugeot used during the hit and run in the middle of the countryside and calls in backup. With no fingerprints or forensics to work with, the properties aren’t faring much better either. Given Med went off on his own, DCI Pearson has questions. Manning is immediately put in the firing line, as they discuss Med’s solo adventure and acting on his own impulses. Manning does his best to cover for Med but it’s clear he’s about to run into trouble too. He didn’t document Med’s investigation and ,Pearson knows he’s lying. While half the team stake out the hotel room and wait to see if Mrs Marshbrook shows, Lisa speaks to Mark who shows up at the station wanting to talk. In the interview room, Mark confirms that he burned the documents in the barbecue the night of the dinner. These documents pertained to Breakwater Developments, the company Stephen was working with. This much, of course, we already know from episodes past. Anyway, Mark thought something was up and found himself determined to confront Stephen and Bill about it. When Stephen died, Mark panicked and burned the documents. He’s speaking up now because of what happened with Med. The attention then turns to the “purely business” deal that Bill sided with Stephen over. Mark is a bit shifty at mention of this, which immediately has Manning and Lisa suspicious. Back at the station, Lisa is called in to speak with Pearson. After covering for Med and calling him a valuable member of the team, Pearson turns his attention to Manning’s leadership and whether her boss has been under a lot of stress. Of course he has but Lisa keeps a straight face and tells him that Manning never lets his work get the better of him. Pearson’s “hmm” is a thoughtful one, something that seems to hint toward trouble brewing for the officers going forward. Meanwhile, Mrs Marshbrook shows up at the hotel room as scheduled.. .and immediately finds herself taken down to the police station for questioning. Lisa quizzes Madeline about the job and it turns out she and Stephen used to have an affair. She returned in town because Oliver is actually her son. She was diagnosed with generalized anxiety which Stephen took advantage of and snatched up Oliver, refusing to let her see their child. With this new knowledge, the team reconvene at the station and go over what they’ve learned. It turns out Breakwater have an offshore account on the Isle Of Man. Now things are getting even more complicated and Manning finds himself stressed and under pressure to deliver. Lisa senses this and talks to him privately in his office. There, Manning admits that he and Helen have been having problems at home. He doesn’t want to talk about it though and claims he’s okay. Only the truth is, he very obviously isn’t. Lisa instead turns her attention to Lateesha who’s still grieving the loss of her husband. She also mentions how Med used to look up to Lisa when they were working together. After a trying day, Lisa heads home and finds Andy there, trying his best to win her over after fixing up food for the kids. He tries to act like everything is okay and there’s a surprisingly nice moment of levity as the two chuckle over roofs. In Lisa’s moment of weakness, the two begin kissing.
The Episode Review
Episode 4 of The Bay slows the pacing slightly as all our characters deal with the ramifications of what happened to Med last episode. In fact, that entire sequence of events play heavily over these 45 minutes, as both Lisa and Manning find themselves struggling with issues at home. In a way, episode 4 takes a slight pitstop and a breather from the case, drip feeding a few new bits of information while keeping Med’s death as the central issue for our characters to deal with. This actually works pretty well and adds an extra layer of tension to The Bay, allowing our characters to deliver some pretty good performances and a more sombre, poignant chapter. While the first season was much more fantastical and contrived with its depiction of police officers and breaking the law, season 2 feels like it’s got back to basics and delivered a compelling mystery and a story with genuine surprises. It’s not perfect, and the situation with Andy returning in Lisa’s life is a bit contrived, but on the whole The Bay has been a surprisingly enjoyable watch in this second season.
