Waking The Dead : What Happened and Why in
False Flag

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Red, blue or green, which one would you cut? Sometimes it is not always obvious which connections in your life you should sever. It is particularly difficult when connections are disguised to appear as friend when they are really foe. Sometimes foes are in reality friends. Sometimes friends strive to be such protective friends that they might as well be foes. That pretty much sums up this episode.

Detective Superintendent Peter Boyd's superiors in the Home Office are interested in some of his team's recent activities. They mention in particular something about not having a search warrant six months ago. Hey, I mentioned that they didn't have a search warrant in Breaking Glass I wonder if that's what they mean. No matter, they seem to get bored with the entire plot device mid way through. We get a Sir Martin who appears out of nowhere and an Assistant Commissioner Dyson. Whatever happened to Christie? You would think he would be the go between with the Home Office. At least they say now that the Cold Case Squad is expensive to maintain so perhaps we now have a clue as to whether Boyd's appointment was a promotion or a punishment (she says amidst a paragraph haranguing the lack of continuity across the episodes).

Some rather naughty individual or individuals planted a bomb under former Home Secretary Richard Hackworth's car. The bomb did not explode but sitting in the driver's seat is a 20 year old corpse. Construction workers discovered the car and driver and called in the Cold Case Squad. Detective constable Mel Silver does her thing and complains that it is not a cold case just an uninvestigated case. Boyd tells her it is their case. I think I got past the whole is this a cold case thingee or not a while ago, well not really but I want a more compelling discussion at this stage then Mel being surly and Boyd being gruff. Fortunately, we learn much later that this case has been steered their way by someone high up who wanted them to investigate. What that means when at the same time someone high up is calling Boyd's sanity into question is anyone's guess.

Frankie explains why she redefines the boundaries of forensics everyday. She says she can disable the unexploded bomb beneath the car because she took a course. She might as well have said that she stayed in a Holiday Inn Express. Thank goodness Frankie is really likeable. Frankie's bomb disarmament effort is a success but it is unclear whether the bomb ever was ever a working bomb.

The good folks over at Scotland Yard ask Grace to do a psychological report on Boyd. She believes that Assistant Commissioner Dyson is trying to set Boyd up. Either Grace concludes that Boyd is nuts or her report will be discounted as collusion between the two. Grace opts to collude but Boyd wants no part of the process.

In arrives Dr. Chris Reed, a forensic pathologist. Dr. Reed has an interesting way of dropping pop culture references. He starts by saying something about Deep Space Nine engine room and being very much like Nikita. I guess they had one but Deep Space Nine is a space station and they didn't have an engine room in the way that a star ship such as the Enterprise would have. The Nikita bunch were very very pretty and they did not move about as much as they assumed various poses in succession. Dr. Reed is cute but he needs to pay a little more attention while watching television.

The body in Richard Hackworth's car is a male in his early 20's. Dr. Reed finds a nick in the spine that could possibly come from a bullet. The angle suggests that the bullet went straight through the heart. Frankie found phone books in the trunk of the car and then conjectures that the killer had a briefcase filled with the books. The killer put the case in the back seat to absorb the bullet. This guy was a thinking killer who planned how the bullet would travel through and out of the body, making certain it would not ricochet in any inconvenient fashion. In case, you are not following, this was not any ordinary street thug or a crime of opportunity.

Mel is upset that Boyd did not tell her Duncan Sanderson's car blew up around the same time Hackworth's car went missing. Really, if Boyd started telling Mel everything she does not but should know, there just would be no end to the lessons. Sanderson was a prominent conservative member of Parliament. It was assumed that Irish terrorists were behind his assassination.

Gerald Patrick Doyle rented the garage where the car was found. Doyle, who has a double first from Oxford, was reported missing in 1980. Superimposing a photo of Doyle over a photo of the skeleton shows that it could be Doyle. Boyd is reluctant to conclude that even though Gerry was found shot to death while sitting in a car with a bomb attached beneath it, that he could be involved with terrorism.

The teams tracks down the Doyle family, father Joseph and mother Maraid. Gerald became politically active in school, at the same time he became more interested in his mother's Northern Irish Catholic background. His English Protestant father said that should not worry about what went on in Ireland. The Doyles moved three years after Gerry disappeared but they seem to have transported Gerry's room from the old house fully intact. In his room they find a book with photographs of Duncan Sanderson cut out. More and more it looks as if Gerry's visit to Ireland drew him in with a terrorist group.

Grace gets a hold of Gerald's diaries. No worries, they aren't personal diaries, he seems to have written them in the hopes that someone else would read them. Grace notes that the high quality of the diaries, in that there were no crossings out or mistakes suggests that the person is either a perfectionist or that they are fake.

Frankie does some analysis on the pages and discovers that even though the diaries cover a span of time, only two inks are used. The inks are black and red. Frankie fixates on the red and discovers that Gerry is using the Visionaire code. He uses the keyword "Doyle" Frankie is a codebreaker? Which course was that?

Anyway, she uncovers a phone number and address which belongs to Alice Taylor-Garrett. Mel and Boyd go to see her. Laurence Llewelyn-Boyd gives the exterior a once over and announces that the place could use some paint. What must he think of the stacks of books running up her staircase? They bring her to the office and show her a picture of Gerald Doyle, Alice denies knowing him. They tell her they believe he knew her. Boyd uses the past tense, Alice catches on and asks if he is dead. Alice's non-responsiveness starts to grate on Boyd's nerves and he employs the yelling at the suspect tactic. Grace, who is listening from the observation room does not like it but it does seem to produce results. Alice starts saying things about if he was a terrorist then he deserves to be dead and who cares what happened to him. She expands it to "them." Saying, they are all dead, they have been judged, that's an end to it. She even says something about a politician being blown up. It is very odd. If it were me, I would want to ask her more questions but since she is free to leave at any time she gets up and goes home.

Boyd tells Grace they are meeting for drinks but really they are meeting with Timothy Cooper. Cooper is a former army intelligence officer. He says Sanderson was going to take over in Northern Ireland and not only would he have a major effect there, the repercussions would be felt in England as well. Cooper is kind enough to provide us with a working definition of the episode title, false flag. False flag is when one country operates under the guise of another. If Dr. Reed met Cooper the X-Files references would be flying left and right.

Cooper continues by explaining that whoever was involved was operating outside of normal channels. He had a cover story but he bought himself additional protection by adding his own layer of cover. Grace says something Gracelike and Cooper realizes in an instant that she's a psychologist. He says he used to be crazy, he's not anymore. Boyd can relate.

As a parting gift, Cooper gives them some photographs and documents of other murders. Boyd's not paranoid but he believes his car is bugged. He sends Grace home and calls in Frankie. She agrees there's something in there, she just does not want to have to be the one to dismantle his car to get it out. It is too well integrated into the car. Again, if you are not paying attention, this is a high level bugging.

Remember in season one when Boyd had a bad back? Apparently, whatever Annie Keel did to him should be patented. Channeling Laurence again, Boyd does a major remodeling job on the office. His shirt cuffs even flop around a bit around his wrists, not ruffled and he isn't wearing chintz but.... Boyd tells them that all strategy will be discussed in the empty office.

Alice doesn't live here anymore. Alice doesn't live anywhere anymore. She decked herself out in makeup, spritzed on perfume, donned a lovely white outfit and tossed a noose around her neck. There really are a lot of hangings and strangulations in Waking the Dead. Frankie, Boyd and Grace go to speak with her again, and discover the body.

While at the scene, Assistant Commissioner Dyson shows up. She gives Boyd grief about him not informing the anti-terrorists group about his case. Alas, just as she is warming up there is a a power shift. Director General of the Security Services Charles Stewart arrives, moments later Dyson learns she has been released from the case. Stewart swoops in and gives off creepy vibes. He either is involved in the case in some corrupt way or he sucks blood out of the neck of young damsels in the night, more than likely both.

Stewart says that he wants to help. Boyd says that Sanderson's killers could very well be politicians and that would be embarrassing. Of course, Boyd had the pleasure of arresting the Permanent Secretary of the Home Office, Sir James Beatty as well as his wife Lady Alice Beatty. He has also arrested a close friend of the Commissioner. He has even arrested one of his own close friends and fellow detectives. Apparently, Boyd is not worried about his own embarrassment yet he is ineffective in scaring off Stewart.

Alice has a little surprise for them. Earlier they made a big deal of her not being married but it turns out that she married a Andrew Collins in 1979. Andrew Edward Collins is a stolen name. He may also have been stealing or at least abusing Alice's name. He could quickly establish the illusion that he had lived in one place for many years if he used the name, A. Taylor-Garrett. Instant credibility. A good thing for people who steal their identities off of children's gravestones. Hold the phone. Alice Taylor-Garrett married a guy named Collins? Does this make her initials ATGC? Essentially Alice is the walking embodiment of the building blocks of all DNA. No wonder she was a recluse, that's a heavy burden to bear.

Spence announces despondently that his promotion has been knocked back, this is odd because who knew Spence had been promoted. Spence is not in this episode. My guess is that in the thirty minutes lost in the Atlantic on the way to America must be all Spence.

Dr. Reed returns to do a post-mortem on Alice and concludes that she was a virgin. They try to figure out what was going on in the marriage to Andrew Collins. It was obviously a sham marriage. They do not seem to consider that maybe Alice initiated the marriage to cover for sharing hair brushes.

Doyle is an informer. On the surface he seemed to have rejected his father's teachings to fight for his Irish Catholic roots. It may have been that he infiltrated a terrorist group. He recorded the information in his diaries in code to pass along. The next big question is for whom was Gerry Doyle working.

Joe Doyle arrives to tell the story of his brother-in-law. He was believed to be murdered by terrorists in retaliation for his wife marrying an English serviceman. Andrew may have been inspired to take action after his uncle's murder. Joe says that when Gerald returned from university he worked for a man named Andrew Collins. It is possible that it is the same man who almost does not appear as the groom in Alice Taylor-Garrett's wedding photographs.

Timothy Cooper has a mysterious visitor. Well he is mysterious to us, not so much to Tim. Timothy calls him Dougie. Apparently, they go back a long way. Cooper accuses Dougie of killing the men whom he believed were responsible for assassinating Sanderson, one of whom was recently found in a garage. He means Gerry Doyle. Cooper tells Doug that he was set up by high level politicians looking to protect their own backs. Cooper knows that something else was going on. Cooper says that Boyd will figure out what happened. Doug says they were right to never trust him.

Sanderson had a lot of political enemies. It is plausible that those enemies used an undercover terrorist cell. Boyd meets with Stewart and Sir Martin. We learn that some of the weapons in shipments to Northern Ireland had been rendered harmless. Someone may have believed that the bomb they were constructing would be a dummy. Speaking in hypotheticals designed to confuse, it turns out that Gerry may have been told that the bomb he was building to use on Home Secretary Richard Hackworth had a doctored detonator which would never cause the bomb to explode. His intelligence bosses had told him the same thing about the bomb he used on Sanderson. The Sanderson bomb was very much live which made Sanderson very much dead. Doyle, who had a double first from Oxford, was not about to be double fooled. He made certain that the hands of the clock on the makeshift timer never made contact with the surface and hence the bomb would never detonate.

Boyd believes Andrew Collins was the person who worked with Gerry and who told him that the bombs were meant to be fakes. Collins was also the one to kill Gerry. Collins expected that the bomb Gerry planted beneath Hackworth's car would explode and destroy evidence of Gerry's murder. We know that Cooper's friend Dougie killed Gerry and thus it seems that Dougie and Collins are one and the same.

Okay, even though you know what is going to happen to Cooper as soon as he enters his car, that doesn't mean it wasn't a fun stunt to see. Waking the Dead is a pretty quiet show, not much stuff blowing up. This was different. Sir Martin senses that things are getting dangerous and assigns armed police protection for the police.

Emma Gray, nee Sanderson is Duncan Sanderson's daughter and Alice Taylor-Garrett's next door neighbor. The Sanderson's have lived in the property for most of Emma's life. Laurence Llewelyn-Boyd begins tapping on Sanderson's study wall and asks when it was last redecorated. Boyd has more than changing rooms on his mind, still, he does need a friend to help wreck a room in the house next door.

Over at Alice's, Frankie finds another brick in the wall. Behind the loose brick is a probe mike that someone was using to bug Duncan Sanderson's home study. It seems Collins married Alice for her wall. He left her wall intact but removed a brick from the wall between the Sanderson's and Alice's to insert his microphone.

Frankie says walls have ears, and Spence says so do cars. Boyd lets his security detail finish a cigarette outside the car and has what can only be a one sided conversation meant to be overheard.

Mel comes up with the idea that Collins met Alice by outbidding her for some antiques. She plucks it out of the air but of course it is right. They are able not only to track Collins but Boyd spots a piece of artwork which Collins purchased that seals the case. Again, no worries for the audience because there is absolutely no way we could ever follow along. Boyd says he has has seen the white horse statue before. It is sitting on Sir Martin's desk. Boyd saw it when Sir Martin gave him the QPM award in that office in 1995. We saw it in that scene at the beginning with Dyson. Martin even rested his arm on it. The horse was given to Martin by the then Head of G Branch in Security Services. Yes, none other than the guy who could give mortuary attendants the willies, current Director of Security Services Stewart. Fortunately, right before meeting with Martin, Boyd met with Stewart. He lied and said Emma was an eyewitness and has information about the remote monitoring of her father's office. He says that Emma can identify the man who did it.

Emma says that her father thought that there were unreliable people in the intelligence community. He discussed it during late night meetings in his office at home. The same meetings Collins was monitoring. Emma of course cannot identify Collins.

In what seems to be an unnecessarily dangerous sting operation, Collins, the government contract agent formerly known as Prince, takes the bait that Emma is an eyewitness. He breaks into her house to set a bomb. Mel has dressed in Emma's bed clothes. We know it is Mel because no one else walks like she does. Collins/Prince believes he is making a great sacrifice for his country. He is willing to take that sacrifice one step further and tries to detonate his bomb, killing them all. Fortunately, Frankie is able to disarm the bomb. If you find yourself wondering why they did not have a real bomb squad person standing by then your head must hurt a lot all the time.

Stewart is present in another room. Boyd says he would be in his rights to arrest him for attempted murder. Stewart claims that Sanderson was planning a military takeover. Stewart is another friend England could do without. Much to Mel's outspoken chagrin, Boyd does not arrest him but suggests strongly that he should retire. Such restraint makes me wonder whether as part of his psychological profile Grace doped him up. Whatever did she write about him in that report to Scotland Yard? Oh my head.

Grace and Boyd pay a final visit to the Doyle's who are holding a wake for their son. They are able to tell them that Gerry was a hero and not a terrorist. Yet another nice little father son ending.