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The Hardest Word

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The Hardest Word begins with some disjointed images that are meant to tease or annoy you. Six months ago the Cold Case Squad investigated the murder of James Carstairs, the headmaster of an all girls school, who was found bound and naked in a car in a Hampstead Heath parking lot (car park) four years earlier. The word "sorry" was carved into his back while he was still alive. The case was going nowhere and they abandoned it. In the present day, they are called to the murder scene of Tomas Barac.

In something of a rare occurrence for the team, they find themselves in a turf war. Usually no other cops want any part of their cases. This time Detective Superintendent Peter Boyd is greeted by Detective Superintendent Andy Bulmer and Detective Sergeant Dave Marvin. Andy works in major crimes. Barac was connected to organized crime. Andy expects Tom's brother, Roman Barac, will respond to his brother's death and lead them to more major crime arrests. Boyd says Andy will work for him, at his place.

Dealing with Andy must have triggered something weird in Boyd's brain. He pauses and asks permission before barging into the room where Dr. Frankie Wharton is examining Tomas Barac's remains. Barac has been tied face down to a hotel bed. The word "sorry" has been carved into his back. It appears to be identical circumstances to James Carstairs' murder.

Back at base, Andy and his team arrive to set up shop. Boyd complains to Dr. Grace Foley, but she knows he wants to keep an eye on Andy. Boyd says the Commissioner said it was best if they all worked under one roof and Boyd wants it to be his roof. The only thing difficult to believe is that Boyd listened to some Commissioner about how to conduct an investigation.

Boyd manages to produce a smile when he meets Dr. Greta Simpson, who has come along with Andy as his profiler. Earlier Boyd thought that one was enough, but he seems to be willing to make an exception. Grace and Greta express mutual admiration for their work. Boyd expresses admiration for Greta's youth and form. Oddly enough, he expresses it to Grace. Grace then reveals that she is not really all that impressed with Greta. She thinks she is a great profiler, but Grace is not happy that Greta has used her skills to make lots of money by writing books about her cases.

Andy and Peter go to meet Roman Barac. Andy arrested Roman some years back for money laundering. Chances are good Roman will not be happy to see them. Boyd says he is flattered that this criminal seems to know him. Boyd blurts out that Roman's brother has been found strangled to death during a sexual encounter with another man. Andy stares at him in disbelief. I guess Andy does not really know his pal Peter. D.S. Dave Marvin shows up and does something suspicious, he makes a "call me" sign to kitchen worker, Graham Penn. Makes you wonder if Andy really knows his right hand man Dave.

They all return to the office and explain to their new friends that they had put the Carstairs case on hold because although they were able to collect DNA from the semen they found on Carstairs, they were unable to match it to anyone. Carstairs had been arrested for indecency with Graham Penn, who works for Barac. It was not a straight forward arrest. There was something odd about the circumstances, but the squad does not know what happened.

Boyd continues with his over the top Greta flirtation. Both teams meet in Frankie's lab for a report on Barac. The same semen was found on Carstairs, however, there were female bite marks on his body. Andy comes up with some wacky theory that doesn't fit the facts. Silly man, that's what profilers do. He leaves with Greta and Dave. Frankie expresses concern about the way they found the semen on the bodies, which prompts Boyd to ask, "How do you like your semen to be left, Frankie?"

They pull in the officers who arrested Penn with Carstairs, P.C. Gill Randall and P.C. Martin Green, to question them. Both officers behave suspiciously. Grace and Boyd watch as Spence interviews Martin and Mel interviews Gill. The PCs seem to have memorized the same story, word for word about the arrest. Boyd pulls back the wall separating the interview rooms and forces the two to come clean. It turns out there were three men in the car. Carstairs was in back with someone other than Penn. They conclude the police are trying to protect the third man because someone made the charges disappear.

Grace says that she can tell when Mel is lying because she will fiddle with her earring. Boyd asks what his tell is. Grace says she won't tell. But really, don't most people just assume Boyd is lying?

Boyd and Mel interview James Carstairs' widow. Their adult son is there and he seems to be fantasizing about young schoolgirls. Not really a good thing when you live and work at an all girls' school. He also seems to have a few other demons haunting him. Mrs. Carstairs is not shocked by her late husband's preferences, they slept in separate beds and she said they had more of an emotional relationship than a physical one.

The turf war heats up. Detective Inspector Spencer Jordan has uncovered the exciting news that Andy Bulmer and Dave Marvin knew Penn and never said anything. They think Penn might be Andy's informant and Andy was the one who convinced the Crown prosecutors not to pursue the arrest with Carstairs. Boyd plants surveillance cameras at Barac's restaurant. Andy and Dave are planning something secret of their own. They want to get a warrant to put surveillance into Barac's restaurant, but they wait too late to submit their paperwork.

The profilers get together to review the case. Greta confesses to Grace that this is her first murder case. Grace is surprised, but says no need to worry she has worked on plenty of murders, enough for both. Score one for Grace.

Greta does not respond well to Boyd's standards theatrics. After awhile Grace gets bored with it all and forces them to concentrate on the murders. Probably the first true thing Greta ever says is when Boyd says let's review what happened in Barac's hotel room and Greta says it all started when I was a little girl. Grace and Boyd thinks she is just playing around, but it's true. Two profilers - double the psychobabble. Grace starts to go all Grace about some woman acting out her sexual predilections. The three of them conclude that the bite marks means that she was silenced during a forcible sexual act when she was a child. They think two people are involved in the murders. Grace think they are working together, Greta is not sure. Really, the episode could end here.

Peter tries to exercise some of his new found anger management skills, but really to no avail. Everything about Andy and Dave makes him angry. It is different with Greta. As he reviews the case photographs on That Board Thingee, Greta asks if has any thoughts and he replies, sex. Ostensibly, he means the case. They have some convoluted conversation about sex and predators. Boyd says if he were a lion, he would be one with some moral sensitivity. Greta says that means he would stop being a lion. I think if Boyd lost his anger issues, he would stop being Boyd.

From the privacy of the women's rest room, Mel calls Boyd in to review the surveillance feed. Grace comes in but they don't fess up to what they are doing in the stall together. Poor Grace, they are just messing with her. Mel and Boyd set up shop in a car with Spence outside of the restaurant. By the way, watching this episode may turn you off from eating in a restaurant ever again; you've been warned. The team spends a lot of time trying to figure out what Graham Penn is up to, they eventually figure it out, but they need help from a couple of other people. Penn draws so much of their time because he is the only person connected to Tomas Barac as well as James Carstairs.

Andy screams at Dave. It must be because Boyd beat them to the punch in getting surveillance. They know another team has set up surveillance, but not that it is Boyd. Boyd and Mel resume watching the surveillance feed from the office.

When Boyd thinks everyone else has left for the night he searches through Andy's computer for information on Penn. Meanwhile Andy uses Boyd's computer to send him an instant message letting him know that he knows that Boyd is checking him out.

Dave Marvin gets a phone call from someone he knows to meet in a parking lot. It is the same spot where we saw clips of Boyd sitting on a swing set at the opening of the episode. Dave pulls up next to another car, license plate VK53CJZ. An unseen person gets off the swings and approaches Dave. Dave begins to say, this had better be good, when someone slashes his throat.

The next morning Andy Bullmer arrives to Dave's murder scene where the Cold Case is already investigating. There are some similarities with the other cases, but there are more differences. Spence steps into a clue when he walks through vomit on the ground. Nice. It triggers a memory for Boyd of a patch of vomit that was in the hallway in the Barac murder scene. He gets Frankie to collect and test samples from both. She could just take Spence's shoes, since I don't think he wants them anymore.

Grace goes through Dave's wallet and finds a picture of a man. She and Boyd decide he was homosexual and wonder if he was killed because he was gay. That must have been some picture.

Greta has her hands on That Board Thingee, which is really unacceptable, putting up a picture of Dave. Boyd says she must not ever have been on a team that has lost a member. People don't like looking at pictures of dead colleagues. That is all well and good, but a police officer has been murdered by an unknown assailant. It should not be business as usual. Why aren't there cops from all over the MET chomping at the bit to take over this investigation? Why is a murder from years ago and the murder of a known criminal taking precedence over the brutal slaying of a police detective?

Greta says that she was due to meet Dave that night, but she never found out exactly why. She also tells Boyd that Penn was a police informant. She's chock full of confessions. I wonder why. Frankie found female DNA all over the Dave Marvin murder scene and she needs Greta's DNA to exclude her from the investigation.

Boyd wants to investigate Dave, Andy insists there is nothing to know. It turns out that Dave was investigating a cold case of his own. A man named Shaunnessy was found dead and the case was dropped when it was ruled that it was an accidental death from autoerotic asphyxiation. Dave was the only one who thought there was more to it. He ordered up copies of the file case to review to see if there were connections between that death and these recent murders. Andy Bullmer thinks it is similar, but not close enough.

Dave and Greta bring in the Carstairses. They make the widow cry. Good. She deserves that and worse. They think the Carstairses hired someone to kill James. It is really the last straw for Boyd. He locks Andy into the interview room and they have a shouting match. The Commissioner just wanted them to work under the same roof, he obviously was not specific enough with the terms. Greta is shocked by Boyd's behavior and calls him a child. He responds by saying he is worse, he is a child with a badge. Does Boyd have a badge? I thought they only carried those paper warrant cards.

Mel served the Carstairs tea and Boyd tells Mel to get a DNA sample from Raymond Carstairs' tea cup. Boyd, Spence and Mel take their portable surveillance and follow Penn. Penn goes to an outdoor parking lot and meets with his contact. Boyd jumps into an 18 wheeler and blocks the van where Penn's contact was in. Spence chases Penn on foot, but he escapes. Boyd grabs the guy out of the van as he is pulling his pants up Inside the van is a naked young girl.

The man in the van was Neil Wilcox. We have seen him a few times earlier. He met up with Penn at the restaurant and we also saw him in front of his home with his kids. He tells Boyd she was just a street kid and that he has two of his own. Boyd responds by punching a couple of times Wilcox and then says to Mel, he fell off the chair. Grace thinks this is another example of Boyd's anger management issues. I think it was one of the few times Boyd behaved appropriately.

Based on the new information about Penn supplying street kids to men for sex, they conclude that the third person with Carstairs was a young boy. A rent boy provided by Penn. Spence says they must ask if Dave was a child abuser because his killing was similar to the others. Grace says it is more likely that Dave was killed because of what he knew. Mel says the video shows Penn was at the restaurant when Dave was killed.

Later the gang gathers together to review what they don't know about the case. Boyd puts up a small black and white photograph of a little boy playing in a kiddie pool or paddling pool. Spence and Greta say it's disgusting. Grace says it is only a naked little boy playing. Boyd says they are only bothered by it because it is surrounded by the gross images up on the board. Boyd whispers so that only Greta can hear that it is a picture of him. She gets up and runs from the room. Boyd explains to the others what he said, no one thinks it is funny. Boyd follows Greta to apologize. It does not go well. He ends up saying that she can be annoying. They have this discussion about perceptions and assumptions and goodness knows what. Greta says Boyd was cute as a child and wonders what happened. Boyd asks if she was born with brown eyes or if they were blue and turned brown. Weird. Weirder still is when he says she must have been a Daddy's girl. This makes Greta angry. Boyd apologizes and she kisses him on the cheek.

Did you know that Boyd has 20 people working for him? Really, he said it. 20. I guess the people we never see are the ones doing work while Grace asks Mel if she thinks Boyd fancies Greta.

Frankie has more information on the Shaunessy case, Dave Marvin's cold case. She hopes to be able to collect DNA. They are still trying to figure out whether the case is related to the other murders.

Raymond Carstairs is back. Boyd says the case is about sex and children. Raymond says his father was an extremely complicated man. He says he was a motivator and a child molester. Boyd says they are looking for someone like Raymond who has been abused, intelligent with a desire to avenge. Raymond admits to being abused, but says he has no interest in revenge. He says all his anger is directed towards his mother. Raymond has a lot of issues. He tries to explain them to Boyd. He likes talking to Boyd because Boyd isn't a psychologist, whom he says are sometimes more screwed up than their patients. Boyd isn't there to help him get better. Boyd does offer a shocking bit of wisdom when he says, humans exert moral reason over animal instinct. Raymond says the killer is still grieving and full of self loathing. He says the person is sorry, as in pathetic.

Grace is using the computer again. This time she tells Boyd she is looking for semen. Grace asks if he knew you could get that stuff on the internet. Boyd says he has his own. Fortunately, that is all that he says. Grace is stumbling on a clue they really should have considered much earlier. The semen did not have to be a fresh contribution. Grace says she'll leave the specifics to her imagination. Boyd says he's there. Grace says she is glad she's not.

Mel and Spence cannot find Penn, but the killer finds him easily enough. Someone comes up behind Penn in his flat, and slits his throat. Later we see that the word "sorry" has been carved onto his back. The camera pans out and we see Andy Bullmer sitting there. Has Andy killed his informant? No. In his last moments, I wonder if Penn realized he would have been better off if Spence had caught up with him.

Greta starts freaking out when she sees that old man who has been popping up in random scenes throughout the episode. It is William Laurence and he has come to see Boyd about an urgent matter. He arrives because the final credits are going to roll soon and this episode still does not make any sense.

Frankie says she found a handprint next to the vomit stain in the hotel. It was left by a fellow named William Laurence. Boyd then decides to see the guy. Laurence proceeds to confess to killing Shaunnesy, James Carstairs and Graham Penn, but not Dave Marvin. He does not mention that he was at the Dave Marvin scene that following morning.

You might think that it is cheating to introduce the killer in a whodunit in the final act. Technically, they have alerted us to Laurence's existence by showing him at random times sitting in his car or walking around. Sure, that was all the information we had about him, but I guess they are pinning their hopes on us wondering who this guy was and what he had to do with the story. If you are satisfied with that kind of behavior from writers, well then, you probably don't want to let me know about it. It is a good thing Laurence confessed to everything because they had nothing linking this guy to the crime scenes, only that he put his hand on a wall near where some woman threw up in a hotel corridor.

Greta watches from the observation room. Laurence says that he killed those men because they were like him. He wants his daughter to know what he has done. He tells Boyd that when his daughter 10 she wanted to be 12 and asked her father when would she be 12. He says that on her 12th birthday, he abused her. Tears stream down Greta's face as she listens. Then she runs and hides.

Frankie tells Grace that Greta's DNA was found at the Shaunessy murder even though she did not work on the case. Boyd hears this and now knows for sure. When Laurence says that he needs to see his daughter, Boyd says he needs to see Greta. Laurence had not mentioned her name before.

It turns out that Greta would tie up the men, have sex with them and leave them tied up. Her father would come along afterwards and kill them, at least that's how it worked with Barac. Thank goodness Barac was connected to organized crime. Barac's murder brought in Andy Bulmer, Andy brought in Greta Simpson, Greta brought in William Laurence.

There's still the little mystery of who killed D.S. Dave Marvin. Greta says she was going to tell him everything, but when she arrived at the parking lot, Dave was dead. The only thing that makes Dave Marvin different from everyone else was the Shaunnesy case. Dave was homosexual, but not a sexual predator or a child molester. He believed that Shaunnesy was murdered. At some point, Greta was going to be linked, through her DNA, to the Shaunessy case. Remember, she had never worked a murder, so she should not been near the Shaunnesy case. If she was telling Boyd the truth that she was going to confess everything to Dave, then why not confess everything once she discovered that he had been murdered? Dave knew his killer, it was the same person who called him to arrange a meeting. Greta freely admits she arranged to meet Dave. What are the odds that two different people wanted to meet him in that parking lot? If Greta did kill Dave then why did Boyd imagine her giving him the two thumbs us sign. Greta cannot be alright if she murdered a cop who was just doing his job. In her defense, the killer had begun to carve the letter S on Dave's back but could not do more. Frankie speculated that he had been disturbed which would fit with Greta arriving on the scene. Then how come Greta did not report seeing another car? Penn had an alibi courtesy of Mel's cameras. Roman Barac didn't seem to want the cops dead, only the person who killed his brother.

Discuss these loose ends as well as everything else about The Hardest Word in ThatBoardThingee Forum. Jump in with your own ideas about who killed Dave or whether Boyd is more or less Boyd when he is not angry or whether Grace's jealousy is a good thing.