‘Bloodlands’ Recap: ‘Episode 2’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Two of ‘Bloodlands’.
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We are taught from an extremely early age, that the truth is something noble and wonderful and that we should spend a great deal of our lives expressing it and searching for it. But as we grow older and head out into the world, we come to learn that the truth is not always what we were taught it would be. Because sometimes, the truth involves having our feelings hurt or our lives upended when we come to learn it and we also come to discover that sometimes… the truth about a particular situation is dark and dreary and downright unsettling. Leaving us to wonder exactly why we didn’t learn the truth about the truth when we were young, so that we were prepared for the harm it can cause and well… the convoluted nature of the truth is relevant to our discussion today, simply because DCI Tom Brannick struggled with it as well during this week’s episode of Bloodlands.

Because his search for it in this particular tale, brought about a lot of strife, thanks to the fact that the truth about well… everything from the past twenty years is sorted and ugly and unpleasant to say the least. So much in fact, that it drove Tom to a stunning breaking point in this particular tale and really, all of his hardships in regard to the truth… started with his efforts to figure out exactly who kidnapped Pat Keenan. Because Mister Keenan was unwilling to help the police in the slightest, and to complicate the investigation further, he appeared to know his kidnapper and well… that led Tom to quickly understand that there was the potential that this was nothing more than a giant ruse. One designed to get re-open the case about the Goliath assassinations, an act that was seemingly orchestrated by the most innocent of individuals… Adam Corry.

For shortly after it was revealed to Adam that his brother was one of the three individuals buried in a shallow grave on that lonesome island, Tom came to discover that Adam was quietly working the Goliath angle. For there were clues all over his home that spoke to the fact that he was eager to uncover the true identity of his brother’s killer and well… rather than continue to waste his time on a dead-end case with Keenan, he opted instead to turn his attention to Corry. Simply because working Adam's forced involvement in the case, might finally reveal Goliath's true identity and bring about some justice, and help Tom get some closure and some truth in regard to his wife. Because it turns out that the body wearing the pendant in the grave… was Adam’s brother and that means that Emma gave it to him and might have been having an affair and that hard truth, along with the revelation that Tom’s boss might be Goliath, brought about a shocking ending for certain.

For Adam’s only request in his rough conversations with Tom, was to see the final resting place of his brother, so he could properly pay his respects after mourning his loss for decades on end. An act that Tom was willing to grant in the hopes of uncovering more truth, specifically… who Adam was talking to about Goliath and why. But Adam didn’t hold up his end of the bargain, and instead demanded to know if by chance DCI Brannick was so actively chasing names… because he was in fact Goliath and eager to cover his tracks. A shocking accusation that Tom… might have backed up by doing the impossible. For in the closing moments of this tale, a rattled and angry and outright broken Brannick, pointed his gun at Adam’s head and pulled the trigger. Leaving all of us to wonder if Adam was right and our hero is in fact, quite the villain or if he is simply a man that is compromised and unable to handle the pressure that is accompanying a case, that will also offer up some painful truths about his relationship with his beloved wife.

Which are questions of course, that we will have to wait to discover and while we wait for more uncomfortable truth to bubble to the surface, we can revel in one stunning tale. One that really did hammer home how our quest for facts and authentic knowledge can be a harrowing journey at times, the kind that really does uncover some ugly realities we don’t want to face, and it is just a shame that poor Tom had to be the one to deal with the weight of everything we learned here. Because Goliath or not, the pressure that came with certainty has driven him to an incredibly dark place, one from which he may never recover, and it will truly be interesting to see where that shocking moment takes us in the weeks to come. Since now Tom has to clean up after himself and still try to forge ahead and the power of this tale and all of its potential consequences is going to make the wait for next week’s episode a difficult one for certain. As we wait to uncover more of the ugly truth surrounding a case that is as messy as they come. Until next time.

‘Bloodlands’ is available to stream on AcornTV, right now.

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