A reckoning of sorts
Dec. 6th, 2025 08:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessOutrageous has now turned up on iPlayer…
The Better Sister - 1.8 – They’re In Their World
Justice of a sort, although there was one thing about the ending that threw me. More flashbacks than ghostly visitations (a total of one), thank goodness.
It started with Nicky telling Chloe how she came to kill Adam, and it did seem to be her haring off from Ohio to the holiday home after Ethan told her about his father shoving Chloe violently. Only Adam was there, she accused him of domestic abuse and goaded him to call the cops, but instead he turned violent on her. So, arguably it was self-defence in the moment, except she had turned up carrying a knife (and possibly a gun, I don’t remember if that was Adam’s gun or what. I admit I haven’t been all over all the details and haven’t even managed to watch this weekly.)
So, she stabbed him twice, finally downing him and ran away. Chloe sent Nicky and Ethan away for a hike so that she could strategize about how to deal with all this and act. But her day got more complicated when her fancyman Jake turned up babbling about Gentry and the FBI guy Oliviera. Bill had just sacked him. He wanted Chloe to find Adam’s hard copy of files on Gentry and get the FBI off his back. Chloe now learned that Gentry was involved in human trafficking/forced indenture to build things on the cheap.
She rooted about the closet (a room, remember) and then went to follow Katherine’s advice and make things up with Bill, bringing a gift for his husband, and what seemed like one to him i.e the files. We’d seen him have fraught calls with Gentry, and he’d also been pressured by Male Cop turning up to the office that day.
Male Cop and Female Cop had compared notes about their refreshed investigation. He was following the Gentry/FBI lead, she was going to visit Adam’s mother in Ohio and was having forensics look into Nicky’s DNA off the cigarette butt she’d ‘nicked’. Neither of them had exactly kept their boss in the loop. We’d seen Adam’s mother in Nicky’s flashback.
Nicky took Ethan somewhere Ken had told her about, so they bumped into him. Ethan had told her there was a Helen who might be coming down and got Nicky’s car to go meet her (I vaguely worried that this might affect Chloe’s plans.) Nicky ended up going to Ken’s house and bed, although all we saw was post-coital snuggling. She started talking about needing to go back to Ohio as the time came to think about the future. He admitted he’d miss her.
Chloe was all sort of competent, calling the FBI to complain anonymously (or was it ‘anonymously’?) about Oliviera. She’d arranged for the information tracker of Japanese heritage to get Nicky the files on Lady Cop’s violent past, which had been covered up. And I can get how an abused woman who’d killed her ex in self-defence might be annoyed about a law officer who also went after her son, getting to be all high and mighty representative of the law when she’d badly beaten up an innocent man because she couldn’t tell the difference between black men. Nicky took these files to Katherine, asking/telling her to disseminate the news now. Katherine threw her by telling her about the book proposal she’d been pushing with Chloe, which Chloe (from Nicky’s perspective) hadn’t bothered to share. (From the sofa, Chloe had been rather busy and distracted.)
Lady Cop heard from Adam’s mom about how Nicky had left the very day Adam had died and, most damningly, had then informed her Adam had been stabbed to death, information that Nicky had not got from the cops. She called her boss finally, but was told to read the news. Her secret violent past had come out, and she was now ‘on leave’, so the DNA trace was stopped, and Adam’s mom had refused to go further with her statement, once she realised it was incriminating Nicky (though she’d truly grieved for her son.) There was also some stuff about Lady Cop exceeding her jurisdiction. Her investigation was done.
Meanwhile, Male Cop had got some damning papers – a copy of Adam’s files, I thought, especially based on one of the flashbacks. He thought it was a whistleblower at Bill’s firm because he’d gone over there. He had co-operation from Oliviera, and a subpoena to go to Bill’s home office, where Chloe had just dropped off Adam’s files, oh, and the fatal weapon (which she’d thoroughly cleaned of any DNA evidence.)
BUT! Nicky learned that Ethan had extra conflicting feelings…because he had gone home after his father had been stabbed, realised things were wrong, especially when he saw the state of his father. Because he’d thought it was Chloe, he did his thing of making it look like there’d been a home invasion. But then, he heard his father, still alive, making noises, and ignored him. (Small comfort that given the timing, it wouldn’t have helped to call for medical assistance, those were probably Adam’s last sounds.) He then heard Chloe coming and scarpered. Wasn’t much Nicky could say to that without confessing her own guilt, but it did strongly imply that the damage and trauma continued.
Lady Cop had to watch Bill get arrested as a person of interest in Adam’s death and as part of ‘other investigations’ (where he was definitely guilty), watch her colleague be all cock a hoop on her phone and huff in frustration, because she knew they’d got the wrong person.
What did throw me was the shot of Jake, dead in his surfing gear on the beach. This suggested to me that Gentry had assassinated him, had possibly sent someone prowling around Chloe’s place – the noise that made her go out with the gun. Having said that, she’d also taken the gun with her when she’d gone out to fetch pine cones for decoration. Could she have shot him, her ex-lover, in cold blood, just to strengthen the case that Bill and Gentry had killed Adam? But then she’d have worked harder to hide the gun. This is all based on very little. Frankly, it would have been neater not to show it.
Nicky came home angry that Chloe hadn’t told her about the book proposition. Again, Chloe had to swear her loyalty to her family – and when she said that was Nicky and Ethan, I believed her, given all the effort she’d put in that day.
The show ended with the two sisters smoking on the beach, starting to discuss the story they’d write, watched over by their youngers selves, creepily intoning that prayer. We were left feeling that a form of justice had been done – no tears for Adam, apart from those of his mother. Bill and Lady Cop had both been unpleasant, and guilty of some of what they were being held to account for. Nicky could claim self-defence (sort of), Ethan hadn’t wanted to save his father after only what he knew Adam had done, and even if Chloe was only just acknowledging it, she and Nicky had had a screwed up childhood. But the show had forced us to take their side among mostly well-heeled second home owners. More objectively, had justice really been served? Oh, well, Banks was fun throughout.
The Better Sister - 1.8 – They’re In Their World
Justice of a sort, although there was one thing about the ending that threw me. More flashbacks than ghostly visitations (a total of one), thank goodness.
It started with Nicky telling Chloe how she came to kill Adam, and it did seem to be her haring off from Ohio to the holiday home after Ethan told her about his father shoving Chloe violently. Only Adam was there, she accused him of domestic abuse and goaded him to call the cops, but instead he turned violent on her. So, arguably it was self-defence in the moment, except she had turned up carrying a knife (and possibly a gun, I don’t remember if that was Adam’s gun or what. I admit I haven’t been all over all the details and haven’t even managed to watch this weekly.)
So, she stabbed him twice, finally downing him and ran away. Chloe sent Nicky and Ethan away for a hike so that she could strategize about how to deal with all this and act. But her day got more complicated when her fancyman Jake turned up babbling about Gentry and the FBI guy Oliviera. Bill had just sacked him. He wanted Chloe to find Adam’s hard copy of files on Gentry and get the FBI off his back. Chloe now learned that Gentry was involved in human trafficking/forced indenture to build things on the cheap.
She rooted about the closet (a room, remember) and then went to follow Katherine’s advice and make things up with Bill, bringing a gift for his husband, and what seemed like one to him i.e the files. We’d seen him have fraught calls with Gentry, and he’d also been pressured by Male Cop turning up to the office that day.
Male Cop and Female Cop had compared notes about their refreshed investigation. He was following the Gentry/FBI lead, she was going to visit Adam’s mother in Ohio and was having forensics look into Nicky’s DNA off the cigarette butt she’d ‘nicked’. Neither of them had exactly kept their boss in the loop. We’d seen Adam’s mother in Nicky’s flashback.
Nicky took Ethan somewhere Ken had told her about, so they bumped into him. Ethan had told her there was a Helen who might be coming down and got Nicky’s car to go meet her (I vaguely worried that this might affect Chloe’s plans.) Nicky ended up going to Ken’s house and bed, although all we saw was post-coital snuggling. She started talking about needing to go back to Ohio as the time came to think about the future. He admitted he’d miss her.
Chloe was all sort of competent, calling the FBI to complain anonymously (or was it ‘anonymously’?) about Oliviera. She’d arranged for the information tracker of Japanese heritage to get Nicky the files on Lady Cop’s violent past, which had been covered up. And I can get how an abused woman who’d killed her ex in self-defence might be annoyed about a law officer who also went after her son, getting to be all high and mighty representative of the law when she’d badly beaten up an innocent man because she couldn’t tell the difference between black men. Nicky took these files to Katherine, asking/telling her to disseminate the news now. Katherine threw her by telling her about the book proposal she’d been pushing with Chloe, which Chloe (from Nicky’s perspective) hadn’t bothered to share. (From the sofa, Chloe had been rather busy and distracted.)
Lady Cop heard from Adam’s mom about how Nicky had left the very day Adam had died and, most damningly, had then informed her Adam had been stabbed to death, information that Nicky had not got from the cops. She called her boss finally, but was told to read the news. Her secret violent past had come out, and she was now ‘on leave’, so the DNA trace was stopped, and Adam’s mom had refused to go further with her statement, once she realised it was incriminating Nicky (though she’d truly grieved for her son.) There was also some stuff about Lady Cop exceeding her jurisdiction. Her investigation was done.
Meanwhile, Male Cop had got some damning papers – a copy of Adam’s files, I thought, especially based on one of the flashbacks. He thought it was a whistleblower at Bill’s firm because he’d gone over there. He had co-operation from Oliviera, and a subpoena to go to Bill’s home office, where Chloe had just dropped off Adam’s files, oh, and the fatal weapon (which she’d thoroughly cleaned of any DNA evidence.)
BUT! Nicky learned that Ethan had extra conflicting feelings…because he had gone home after his father had been stabbed, realised things were wrong, especially when he saw the state of his father. Because he’d thought it was Chloe, he did his thing of making it look like there’d been a home invasion. But then, he heard his father, still alive, making noises, and ignored him. (Small comfort that given the timing, it wouldn’t have helped to call for medical assistance, those were probably Adam’s last sounds.) He then heard Chloe coming and scarpered. Wasn’t much Nicky could say to that without confessing her own guilt, but it did strongly imply that the damage and trauma continued.
Lady Cop had to watch Bill get arrested as a person of interest in Adam’s death and as part of ‘other investigations’ (where he was definitely guilty), watch her colleague be all cock a hoop on her phone and huff in frustration, because she knew they’d got the wrong person.
What did throw me was the shot of Jake, dead in his surfing gear on the beach. This suggested to me that Gentry had assassinated him, had possibly sent someone prowling around Chloe’s place – the noise that made her go out with the gun. Having said that, she’d also taken the gun with her when she’d gone out to fetch pine cones for decoration. Could she have shot him, her ex-lover, in cold blood, just to strengthen the case that Bill and Gentry had killed Adam? But then she’d have worked harder to hide the gun. This is all based on very little. Frankly, it would have been neater not to show it.
Nicky came home angry that Chloe hadn’t told her about the book proposition. Again, Chloe had to swear her loyalty to her family – and when she said that was Nicky and Ethan, I believed her, given all the effort she’d put in that day.
The show ended with the two sisters smoking on the beach, starting to discuss the story they’d write, watched over by their youngers selves, creepily intoning that prayer. We were left feeling that a form of justice had been done – no tears for Adam, apart from those of his mother. Bill and Lady Cop had both been unpleasant, and guilty of some of what they were being held to account for. Nicky could claim self-defence (sort of), Ethan hadn’t wanted to save his father after only what he knew Adam had done, and even if Chloe was only just acknowledging it, she and Nicky had had a screwed up childhood. But the show had forced us to take their side among mostly well-heeled second home owners. More objectively, had justice really been served? Oh, well, Banks was fun throughout.
