Okay, so, if you did watch last night’s episode of The Missing, you’ll be as equally traumatised as me. Not just because unlike every other Wednesday night where I have a completely clear schedule, intentionally, last night I took my grandma and her partner to the theatre for their Christmas presents from me. Although I thoroughly enjoyed the play (“Paddy” at the Parr Hall theatre in Warrington) I was literally itching to get out of there and get home to watch The Missing.
At one point, I glanced down at my phone and saw I had ninety six tweets from people. Ninety six! I knew something huge had happened in the storyline and I felt sick with myself that I wasn’t there to watch it at the same time as everyone else.
It turns out I was right. Something huge had happened. The military soldier, whose name we learned was Jorn, was attacked in possibly the most unexpectedly brutal manner I’ve ever seen on a television programme that wasn’t a late night find on a low budget film channel. We don’t necessarily know that Jorn has died, but judging from the fact that he received a power drill to the head, I’d say it’s a pretty safe bet.
The person behind his early demise was none other than the seemingly cheery Scottish soldier, Adam, who had been liaising between the press and the Webster family following imposter Alice’s death. In last night’s episode, we saw him speak to Mr and Mrs Webster about a source who had informed the press that their son, Matthew, was responsible for locking imposter Alice in the shed prior to her grisly end.
Now that we know Adam is a bad egg, it poses the question: was this source really just Adam all along? And if so, what else has he fed to the press? And if he can feed things to the press undetected, can he also hide things from the military undetected? E.g. the DNA results.
More importantly, let’s discuss the reason why Jorn was killed. He had discovered a missing teenager who looked incredibly similar to the third girl pictured on the rollercoaster with both the real and the imposter Alice Webster during their years in captivity. He contacted the missing girl’s mother and had a conversation which we as the audience weren’t privy to. This resulted in Jorn arriving at Adam’s house to question him after discovering that the missing girl, Lena, was known to Adam as he was close with her family.
Adam was less than impressed when Jorn turned up unannounced on his doorstep and appeared reluctant to invite him inside. When we saw the state of his house, we realised why. Adam was packing and although he gave Jorn a cock and bull story about an early retirement, we immediately smelt a rat. And we were right. Cue an adorable little girl, of around five years old, who walks in clutching a picture she’s drawn. After a little pushing from a curious Jorn, the girl explains that the picture is of “me and mummy…in the basement”.
And that’s how Jorn ended up dead, clearly a very dangerous man’s desperate attempts to cover up the truth.
Naturally, this led to more questions. Presumably, the little girl is the child that imposter Alice referred to at the dinner table when she confirmed that she had given birth during her years in captivity. That would also tie in with the little girl saying that her and mummy had spent time in the basement. However, we don’t actually know that she is imposter Alice’s child. She could be Sophie’s child. She could be Lena’s child. She could genuinely be the child of Adam’s ex-wife, who he also keeps locked in a basement. Let’s face it. Judging from his behaviour in last night’s episode, I wouldn’t put it past him.
Also, if we cast our minds back to the beginning of the episode where we saw imposter Alice in Switzerland camping out in a deserted house, sat on a sad mattress, throwing glasses onto a wilting fire, could it be possible that Adam was hurriedly packing to go and meet her? Is the campervan his? Is he the mastermind behind this whole thing?
I think, based on imposter Alice’s wording at the dinner table where she appeared to defend her abductor, it’s more likely that she would strike up a sexual relationship with Adam than she would with Christian Hertz, the butcher. Adam’s younger, he speaks the same language as her and he’s not exactly hideous, whereas Christian is old and decrepit. (Then again, we haven’t exactly seen him on his best days, have we?)
At this point, I think it’s important to discuss the Stones. Last night, we discovered the reason for why Eve is childless and I’d like to take a moment to say HA to someone on Twitter who sneered at my suggestion that perhaps Eve was a surrogate, because he said soldiers can’t be surrogates. Two years ago, I actually researched surrogacy quite in depth for a book I was writing, and I knew there were no rules about who can and can’t do it. I didn’t see any reason for why Eve Stone couldn’t be a surrogate and with two separate references made about her sister worrying, I suspected the baby was intended for her. More than anything, it was Mrs Webster’s wording that cast doubt over whether that baby had actually ever been Eve’s.
We saw Eve give birth to a baby girl (and no, for anyone suspicious out there, this baby can’t possibly be the little girl with the picture as she was older than two years old) and gave the baby to her sister and brother in law. She wheeled herself outside for fresh air, bumped into Mr Webster and they spoke a little. It was clear that he was really struggling and just as the conversation was getting interested, Adrian Stone, Eve’s father, arrived and pointedly said “that’s enough fresh air for you” to his daughter.
An odd thing to say considering she’d just given birth in quite traumatic circumstances, then handed her baby over to another woman. A little fresh air is hardly asking for much. So immediately, our suspicions are raised and we wonder what has happened between Adrian Stone and Mr Webster to warrant this comment. At this point, I’d also like to draw your attention to the atmosphere between Eve’s sister and Adrian. Was it just me that noticed how uncomfortable she appeared to be around her father?
Furthermore, during labour, Eve begs her father to distract her by telling her the story of when she was born. Adrian can’t – or won’t – regale her with this blessed event. Some might say this was the beginning stages of his dementia. I, personally, felt it was a little odd. Perhaps Adrian Stone couldn’t tell Eve about the day she was born because he wasn’t there. I’ll touch on the same question from last week: was Eve abducted by Adrian as a child?
In present day, Julien Baptiste arrives at the care home where Adrian, now suffering with dementia (allegedly) is living and he tells Eve that her father was involved in the murder of Mirza Barzani’s sister in 1991. We now know she was murdered. Last week, we were curious as to whether this girl was the third girl on the rollercoaster. Eve, naturally, is horrified and in tears, rushes off to be sick. (At this point, I said to my mum who was watching with me “She’s pregnant” “Don’t be daft, no she isn’t” – it turns out she is!) and Julien sneaks inside the care home to speak to Adrian Stone.
Personally, I got the impression that Julien was suspicious of Adrian’s dementia, or at the very least, quite dismissive of it. He humoured him good naturedly with some of the more strange questions he was asked, but overall I got the feeling that Julien smelt a rat. At one point, when discussing the events surrounding Mirza Barzani’s sister’s death in 1991, Adrian said “It was terrible, what the three of us did to that poor girl”. Julien pushed for more information but true to form, Adrian’s dementia got the better of him.
We know that Henry Reed was involved in the girl’s death. Based on the ending, I would say it’s easy to assume that Adam, the crazy Scottish soldier, was the third person that Adrian referred to. But I don’t think that’s correct. Note: Adrian said “the three of us”. Not necessarily men. We know they were out in Iraq. We know they were serving in the war. But could it be Nadia Hertz, the butcher’s wife? We know she knows Adrian Stone as we’ve seen them speaking and the atmosphere was rather frosty between them. Does she simply know his dirty little secret? Or was she involved?
The third person could also be Mr Webster himself. Again, let’s cast our minds back to the hospital scene where Adrian insisted that his daughter must go inside and end her conversation with Mr Webster. Why? Because he knows Adrian’s dirty little secret? Or, again, was he involved?
Back to 2014, Jorn and Julien attempt to contact Daniel Reed but the only person at his address is his recently made ex-girlfriend, who explains that Daniel left the day before. We know that he got in a taxi and asked to go to the airport but we don’t know if she knows this. For those of us with hawk-like eyes, we will have seen a photograph taped to the fridge of a baby. The baby was white, so it wasn’t Daniel Reed’s baby. Whose baby was it? His girlfriend’s from a previous relationship? Her niece/nephew? Or is this baby in any way linked to imposter Alice and her abductor?
Jorn and Julien discover repeat telephone calls to the same phone number on Henry Reed’s itemised phone bills. They track the owner of this phone down and we are introduced to a transgender prostitute who reluctantly tells us that on the night of Henry Reed’s “suicide”, she waited outside his house for him to arrive home. He never did. There was no car on the drive. Annoyed, and most likely freezing cold, she went into the house and found his dead body, lying in a pool of blood. Terrified, she fled. Julien points out that the following morning, Henry’s car was on the drive.
Who drove it there? It’s looking increasingly more like murder as the episodes go by, but we’ve been on to that since day one.
We didn’t get a huge look in on the Webster’s last night, other than both Matthew and Mrs Webster voting against the move back home to England, much to Mr Webster’s disappointment. However, I’m sure his disappointment paled in comparison to his reaction to the news that he was going to be a father again.
There was, however, an odd moment between Mrs Webster and Matthew, when discussing the potential move home. Mrs Webster said to Matthew, “your father took six months’ medical leave for you”. Perhaps just an odd choice of words. Maybe she meant “your father was signed off sick for six months dealing with the death of your sister which he still blames you for”. But if I know Harry and Jack Williams, and I think I do, nothing is said for the sake of it. Everything is heavy with reason. Hopefully this will be ironed out next week.
Question for next week:
When referring to “the three of us”, was Adrian Stone talking about himself and Henry Reed plus who? Mr Webster? Nadia, the butcher’s wife? Adam, the crazy Scottish soldier? Or someone else?
Who is the mother of the little girl with the picture?
Is Julien suspicious of Adrian’s dementia? If so, is he right to be?
Why couldn’t Adrian Stone be specific about Eve’s birth?
Why did Eve’s sister appear to be uncomfortable in her father’s presence?
What did Mrs Webster mean by the “six months’ medical leave” comment?
What was Adam actually packing his bags for? Was he intending to join imposter Alice?
Who was the body in the shed? Could it be Lena? After all, we saw imposter Alice burning a pair of glasses which looked similar to the ones Lena was wearing on the rollercoaster.
Is Mirza Barzani’s sister really dead?
Who is the baby pictured on the fridge? Or does the baby have any significance at all?
Who put the car on Henry Reed’s drive?
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ReplyDeleteA question re the Stone family. As we're highly suspicious of Adrian, can we be sure that he is actually the father of Eve and her sister? Is there some industrial scale kidnapping going on, across generations?
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