This scene reassured me about one of the possible issues I’ve seen for the drama. The first couple of episodes stopped the action frequently to highlight a micro-expression and explain what it meant. To my surprise, the writers gave us the whole gamut of expressions right off the bat. I thought they’d string out what we learned about reading faces, because once we know what to look for, stopping the action to frame and explain expressions will get very old very fast. From this episode, it seems the writers have another plan — they’re going to expect that we now know what to look for and keep the action going. In neither scene involving Lorraine Burch giving herself away by shaking her head did anyone specifically highlight she was doing this. The camera shows us as it shows Lightman and we have to keep up with him as he makes his deductions. I like this very much — I have to pay attention, but the show has prepared me to that. I’m not sure whether new viewers will feel frustrated at following the logic of a conversation, but it sure works for the dedicated folks.
Back to the A story, Hughes turns up another suspect — a registered pedophile working as a nurse at a free clinic. Now regarding Lightman and Foster as valuable allies, the detective asks Lightman to interview the man. Lightman soon exposes that the man saw Samantha — but not because he took her. The guy has been chemically castrating himself to stop his sexual urges. He’s only been treating Samantha for her burns once a week for a couple of months, letting the police know they can wait for her outside the clinic. Here I have to say that as much as I loved this story, I found the idea that Samantha had a burn bad enough to need treatment at a clinic for two months but which her dad was completely unaware of, very far-fetched. She’d have been in a lot of pain, and in the long term, she’d have a scar. Did Lorraine not realise that she’d have to explain that the next time the family went swimming? I was willing to suspend disbelief because the incident fit into the themes of family secrets, broken communication and good mothering, but I wish the injury had been something that could more believably have been hidden.
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