The Fall (TV series)

[Eddard Stark is online]

it's been awhile since I saw it, but I enjoyed it for the most part. I need to download the episode/s in the new season. I thought it was a much better depiction of a serial killer than say, Dexter, for instance. I can't even remember how season 1 ends. Can someone remind me?

Paul Spector asked his wife to lie for him to the police, to give him an alibi for the night when he tried (and failed) to kill his latest victim. (He ended up killing her brother, then leaving her tied on the bed before running.) So at the end of series 1, Stella gets a call from the hospital to tell her that this latest victim (Annie Brawley) has woken up.

Meanwhile Sally Ann Spector confronted her husband, demanding to know why she had to lie to the police for him. He 'confessed' to having an affair with their underage babysitter Katie. She tells him that she's pregnant again, and they drive away to Scotland to try and work things out. Before leaving, Paul visits Katie at her home and tells her she has to stay away from him for the time being, as he's so crazy about her he can't trust himself. Obviously that's not true, but it's to keep Sally Ann and Katie from speaking to each other.

Just before the family left for Scotland Paul rang the incident room asking to speak to Stella. He tells her he's done with the killing and she'll never catch him now. She says he won't be able to stop himself and she will catch him. The final scene is the one where Stella receives the call informing her that Annie Brawley has regained consciousness.

I hope that makes sense!

[red snow]

I'm liking these British cop dramas a lot. Much better than most the stuff we're getting in the US these days, where the cop dramas are mostly soap operas, having little to do with any actual crime, and the police procedurals are dying a slow, silly death. I'm excited about the return of The Fall, but I was a little disappointed about the decision to drag the same storyline into season two.

On the bright side they seem to have abandoned the b plot about police corruption which never really came together for me.

Was there no "Previously on The Fall..." at the beginning? Well I rewatched Series 1 on iPlayer, so I'm all up to date. All I could remember before rewatching though was that the family drove off to Scotland at the end.

There was but it was broad strokes.

[Eddard Stark is online]

On the bright side they seem to have abandoned the b plot about police corruption which never really came together for me.

There was but it was broad strokes.

Well aren't you lucky then that I just did a synopsis for someone else just now? ;)

Yeah, I have to say I could never quite get my head around the various police corruption subplots. But I never really cared, it's all about Spector vs. Gibson innit.

[Eddard Stark is online]

Just watched episode 3 now! Anyone else?

It's getting super weird... Agh, they need to catch him now! And Katie is really playing with fire, isn't she?

Have to say as well, the actress playing Katie is so good, I think she really plays the silly flirtatious teen perfectly. All those (kinda ridiculous) coy smiles, it's so embarrassing to watch.

[red snow]

They are really going in a dark direction with Katy - it's like she's playing him and not the other way around.

Some more interesting developments with Gibson and now that Spector has read her diary he feels like he has power over her.

I'm guessing they haven't picked him up because they need more evidence to hang him out to dry? He shouldn't be that hard to find now they know he's their prime suspect.

I think this half of the series (I'm counting the show as a series with a long gap) is going in some interesting places. I really like how the score plays into the show as well. I'm not a fan of the dream sequences though as I think what makes the show work is the fact it plays things pretty straight. As long as you assume a psychotic teen babysitter just happens to work for the city's serial killer.

[Eddard Stark is online]

'Series 1, part 2' makes way more sense than 'series 2'!

I think Katie thinks she's playing him, but of course he's playing her. What is she doing all of this for? Is she so desperate to have a romantic relationship with the guy that she thinks doing this stuff for him will make him fall for her? Or maybe it's that + thrill-seeking. Surely his overpowering her and tying her to that bed in the last episode should have taught her that she's out of her depth.

I expect the reason for not calling him in for further questioning is that they just haven't got enough evidence to charge him. All they have is a partial print on some scissors found in the canal and CCTV footage of him in the botanical gardens at the same time as one of his victims. Presumably if they were to question him it would give away the only advantage they have - that he doesn't know they're on to him.

[Eddard Stark is online]

Ooh I just remembered The Fall is on Thursdays, there must be a new episode up on iPlayer by now. Yes! I'm gonna go watch it now...

[Eddard Stark is online]

Just watched episode 4, what do people think?? I can't believe what Katie's doing! I got the impression towards the end of the episode maybe she actually does believe Paul is the killer, but is so in love with him she's willing to protect him. I'm dreading what Paul's gonna ask her to do now. Bloody hell, they've really upped the creepiness factor in this series, haven't they?

Also - I rewatched episode 3 last night - Did anyone else find the scene with the pathologist and Stella unlikely / implausible? -->

Stella taking Reed Smith back to her hotel room for sex and at the last minute Reed changing her mind. Like surely you would know

before that happened whether you liked someone that way or not. It came across to me that Reed had never considered Stella in that way until propositioned by her. I thought it was really unlikely. If you're not attracted to someone, why would you nearly go back to their room with them only to say "I can't do this, I grew up in Croydon!"??

I guess they're trying to show (yet again) how cool and detached Stella is, but that scene, I didn't buy it at all.

[Commodore]

episode 5 was excellent

finale is on Wed. the 17th

Having Gibson not interact with Spector, and Spector remain silent, is a nice touch. Usually these shows go for the hammy interrogation scene.

[Eddard Stark is online]

Have you already seen episode 5? How did you wangle that? I think it's probably airing right about now here in the UK, but I watch on iPlayer so I'll probably watch sometime tomorrow.

[Eddard Stark is online]

Episode 5 was awesome!! Definitely the best episode so far. It was also great to finally see some actual emotion from Stella this time. The ceaseless cold-and-detached-at-all-times had started to grate on me slightly.

I'm kinda disappointed that we'll never know now what 'revenge' Spector had planned for Katie to deliver to her school friend for being (in Katie's mind) better than her.

And another one

I feel bad for Sally-Anne that she never went back to the police and told them the truth about her husband and ended up getting arrested instead. As a TV viewer it seems so obvious that she should never have lied, or gone straight back to the police and come clean, but I guess if you were really her in that situation with two small kids to take care of it must have been an impossible decision to make.

Can't wait for the finale now. And doubly cool that it'll be aired a day earlier than normal. :thumbsup:

[red snow]

I keep wondering what Spector's ace in the sleeve is - otherwise it seems like he's done for. Maybe he is and the finale is the end of the show. Still. I'd suspect some kind of final victory from Spector too. Maybe he'll just publish stella's journal?

[-Ghost-]

I've really been loving this second season, things are getting really good. I have no idea what Paul is thinking. Its like he knew this all was coming but never took the video off his phone. Hes got something planned.

Does anyone have any idea if this coming episode is the end of the show? I'm really hoping it isnt.

[red snow]

I've really been loving this second season, things are getting really good. I have no idea what Paul is thinking. Its like he knew this all was coming but never took the video off his phone. Hes got something planned.

Does anyone have any idea if this coming episode is the end of the show? I'm really hoping it isnt.

no word on a season 3 but I like that because it keeps us on our toes. If it isn't resolved then I'm we get a "The fall ill return in 2015" during the credits,

I'm wondering if he's going to spin it that he is into S&M and the woman was in on the game? Who knows, she maybe did make that bargain with him. I don't think there's been any confirmation she's dead. The babysitter has clearly done something to set things up but I have no idea what. It's nice when shows aren't transparent.

I think the show has made it clear they don't have any strong evidence - other than that phone implicating him directly.

[john]

They have his fingerprints on a murder weapon. I don't see how he's getting out of that one at least.

Why did Gibson want Merlin to be the arresting officer for the Rose Stagg thing? I see how the female constable that arrested him for the Joe Bawley murder looks like his victims, so that might have thrown him (although it didn't seem to) but I don't get what Gibson thinks is special about Merlin (DS Anderson I think?) that would affect Spector.

[-Ghost-]

I dont know if its just me, but when they showed the video it kinda looked like he edited it. He has to have a good reason for keeping it on his phone.

[red snow]

They have his fingerprints on a murder weapon. I don't see how he's getting out of that one at least.

Why did Gibson want Merlin to be the arresting officer for the Rose Stagg thing? I see how the female constable that arrested him for the Joe Bawley murder looks like his victims, so that might have thrown him (although it didn't seem to) but I don't get what Gibson thinks is special about Merlin (DS Anderson I think?) that would affect Spector.

I can't remember the fingerprint bit - that could be tricky unless his plan is to implicate the police in framing him?

Stella's plan is simply that Merlin fits Spectors "type" and she's hoping that will cause him to slip up.

I agree that the video was certainly edited. Maybe for his own perverse pleasure and/or to give him some form of deniability. If that tape is several different cuts then forensics should be able to ascertain that as being the case.

Or it could just be that he's finally being caught out but it would be quite disappointing if that was the case.

[-Ghost-]

If I remember correctly, they got a partial print off the scissors.

[john]

Yeah, they have his prints on scissors flung in to a lake while the police were pursuing the suspect fleeing from the Brawley house. Also has Joe Brawley's blood on the other end. That also links him to the stranglings since he left Annie Brawley tied up at the murder scene, in the manner of the previous victims. And she now remembers him as having checked her out at the bar shortly before the night he broke in. He's fucked, basically.

How do you mean Merlin is his type? I thought all his fantasies were focused on women.

[red snow]

Oops. I thought you meant the dark haired female cop who stella got to put her hair dowm!

If you mean the young guy i think that's mainly because she sees him as a bit of man meat she can use. That and she doesn't want to give spector the satisfactiom of face time with her. To be honset i doubt they'd let her after he broke into her apartment and stole her stuff.