‘Luther’ Recap: ‘Season 5, Episode 2’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

The sense of discovery is something that I absolutely adore when I’m starting a new television series. Because when you first dive into a new universe, you know nothing of it, or the people that inhabit it, and being able to get to know the characters and learn more about what their world entails is just a genuine delight and really, that’s where I’m at when it comes to BBC America’s Luther right now. For now I get to immerse myself in the gritty world that DCI John Luther inhabits, and fill my mind with knowledge about his life and the people that he’s surrounded himself with and well, thank heavens that the series is smart enough to know that I’m not the only one diving into this angry new world right now, since the next episode of the series took the time to fill in some important blanks.
​
Because I hadn’t a clue who was on John’s doorstep in the closing minutes of the season five premiere, but thankfully, ‘Episode 2’, took the time to give everyone a crash course on Alice, and the impact she’s had on John’s life and well, what we came to uncover really wasn’t all that great. Because we quickly came to learn…she’s the one who kidnapped George’s son, thus making her responsible for all the problems John’s been dealing with when it comes to ol’ Georgie. As to why she did that exactly, well it relates to an old grudge from a couple of years ago, wherein the wily gangster found a way to botch a diamond deal for her, ruining her chances at financial security in the process and she would not rest until she was made whole again. But despite making it known to George that she was in possession of his flesh and blood, the old gangster refused to pay up, and she’s the one, he clipped with a shotgun in last week’s tale, and her injuries are what brought her to Luther’s doorstep.

Yet what happened after their reunion is what I found to be supremely fascinating since her time with John made it evident that they are now on two different paths. She wants out of the regular world and away from everything that matters, and George’s money will help make that happen. Whereas John still needs the world and all the good and the bad that comes with it and unfortunately for John, it’s obvious he still loves Alice and cares for her, and emotions cloud and confuse us in situations such as these and that complication was reinforced when John tried to end this peacefully since both George and Alice believe their path is the only way to make things right. Now poor John is stuck in the middle of it, and that will only make his days ten times more difficult since George wants DCI Luther to offer his ex on a platter in order to save Benny’s life and of course, Alice is going full bore on her revenge plot since she put down George’s son without giving it a second thought.

However, while all of that was impressive and fascinating in its own right, there is still a murder case to deal with in this story, and we learned a lot about Vivian’s serial killer of a husband, Jeremy, who as it turns out is a talented heart surgeon and well, it would seem this pairing have quite the unhealthy relationship. Wherein Vivian believes she can defeat his murderous urges and Jeremy, well he just loves to kill. In fact, he nearly wiped out a patient on the operating table just to enjoy the thrill of taking a life in front of an audience, and despite his reassurances to Vivian, he is addicted to killing and he won’t be stopping anytime soon and while that’s chilling in its own right, what makes this worse is that Jeremy is quite brilliant in general, and he knows how to play the game that Luther and Halladay are throwing his way and that will make him supremely hard to corner and catch, and let’s be honest, right now, a mistake is precisely what Luther needs to bring Jeremy in and I’m just not sure that’s going to happen in the slightest when playing it safe is basically a family motto for the Lake family…

So, if that seems like a lot to unpack, you’d be right. Because this episode really did jam in a ton of plotlines and well, that made for one magnificent tale. For all of these plotlines allowed for the story to move at a breakneck pace, and it also added a sense of urgency to everything that happened here since you never quite knew if Luther was going to be safe from George’s thugs, or whether or not Jeremy was going to just give into his bloodlust and do something supremely twisted to put on a show and well, all of those elements are precisely why I loved this particular episode. It was simply a tour de force, one that took us on one hell of a ride and dang it, I’m hooked. I have to know how Luther is going to get out of this mess, and whether or not his career will survive after this, since others now know about Alice, which means I’m already in mental agony, because I am hungry for more and sadly, all I can do at this point is count down the minutes until next Sunday’s episode. Until then. 

---