Thursday, October 20, 2011

Luther - Series Two, Episode Four


After helping cover up the evidence of Jenny's (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) crime at the end of the preceding episode Luther (Idris Elba) must get back to finding the twin of the killer in custody (Steven Robertson) who has attacked people in the subway and rush hour traffic. This second killer appears to have the same mental issues as his brother involving his need to act out violence in the real world as if it were a RPG by a role of the dice.

To get out of both messes Luther is forced to make some interesing choices, even for him (and that's saying something). The first is to kill two birds with one stone by hiding Toby's (David Dawson) body in the car of Baba's enforcer (Alan Williams) for the police to find. This effectively pins the murder on the former cop and gets both Luther and Jenny out from under the thumb of the gang. His ploy to smoke out the twin killer by faking his brother's escape from custody works almost as well, but ends in with the detective drenched in gasoline and playing a game of chance on a deserted street with a mass murderer holding a lighter.


The episode also ends Gray's (Nikki Amuka-Bird) suspicion into Luther's unauthorized activities when Ripley (Warren Brown) destroys any evidence of Luther's activity on Shenk's (Dermot Crowley) computer making it appear Gray made a false claim against a superior officer.

The episode ends with Luther and Jenny safe, but as we've come to expect from the show the final episode doesn't attempt to explain, rationalize, or easily dismiss the detective's troubled mental state or actions. Luther isn't a hero, not exactly, but he's doing the best job he can in a city that desperately needs his unique skills. I don't know what's next for the detective, but I'm guessing it will be anything but boring.

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