Luther Season 2, Episode 4

With the identical twin on the loose, Luther tries to make a deal with the devil to get one step ahead, but the dice don’t land in his favor. As he tries to track down the next move of his suspect, he also must help Jenny dispose of Toby’s body and dodge Toby’s bludgeon man. When they realize this is really just a game for the brothers, it’s too late, and the loose one walks through London proper with a bomb strapped to his chest, and Luther will have to put himself in the line of fire if he hopes to save them.

My Thoughts:

The shaky cam chaos in the beginning is pretty fun. It almost feels like found footage, but at the same time, it’s clean enough not to fool anyone. And can I just say, Good on that guy for going after him. I know it didn’t do him any good in the end, but that’s the sort of person you should be… and if there had been more like him, he probably would have survived.

You know… I’ve never thought of driving ranges in London. I guess I just associate them with America too much. Not sure why. But that did distract me.

Luther 101: Disposing of a body – I called the trunk switcheroo rather early on. But I do like the plan there. I kind of feel like he’s taken some pointers from Alice in his handling of the situation.

I’m a little sad that Mark North is fazed out of this episode set. She could easily have gone to chill with him instead of her horrid mother. Also, Jenny’s apparently a big fan of gaudy eye makeup and atrocious sweaters…. But her hair is cute.

I’m really happy with how this season ended. I’m dying for season 3, but not staring into a black abyss waiting for the resolution of the last season. And I always appreciate that.

Luther Season 2, Episode 3

With Jenny at his flat, Luther leaves to investigate an incident in which, a roll of the dice seems to have determined the perp’s actions. As the crimes escalate, with the man entering an office building and killing/maiming dozens, Luther finds him trying to hide in plain sight. Seeming to have everything under control, Luther returns home to find Jenny’s killed Toby when he tried to rape her, and somewhere else in the city the perpetrator’s identical twin rolls the dice in a crowd.

My Thoughts:

This has to be the weirdest pre-credits scene to date for the show… It felt completely other, which was fine, because the main plot of this episode (the part not including Jenny) was extremely different from the feel of any of the other episodes so far.

I actually really love Jenny. I’d love to see her and Alice interact somehow (fingers crossed for season 3). Her snark is adorable and her mother is atrocious. I called her killing Toby – it wasn’t hard with the previous week’s previews.

Something I love about Toby – He’s proof that you don’t need to be big to be intimidating.

Luther’s posture is quite enjoyable. Hands in his pockets, hunched… like he’s self conscious. It seems entirely opposite of what it should be.

The perp is interesting. His notebook is really cool – and the intricacies of the game make me think it’s possible he could be brilliant. I do love how twitchy he gets when Luther rolls the dice in front of him.

Question for any science kiddies out there: Wouldn’t the acid erode the inside of the squirt gun?

Luther: Season 2, Episode 2

Having kidnapped Ripley, the killer tortures him, trying to find out what Luther and the police know about his final crime – a finale he’s planned intricately. Ripley manages to keep himself alive – though battered – by playing on the killer’s vanity.

Luther’s personal life crisis starts to affect his professional life when Baba, a woman who claims to own Jenny, forces him to intimidate a man in witness protection so he won’t testify against her grandson. 

Meanwhile, Schenk interrogates a master forger, who’s procured a large amount of supplies for the killer and they get wind of what he’s doing. Sadly, it’s too late for the bus of 14 primary school children, he’s already abducted.

They find the bus abandoned on the side of the road and it looks like they’ve lost again, until Ripley manages to crawl out of the sewer he was being kept in and with the help of Luther, they use the killer’s car’s GPS to figure out that he’s been to an industrial park 8 times in too short a time to be a coincidence, and with the amount of chemical he’s bought they’re not sure what he’s planning.

Luther and Ripley get to the industrial park in time to get the kids out of the van, the killer was gassing them in and because the kid he’s holding his knife to the throat of pulls off his mask, he can’t follow through with his threats, and Ripley takes him down.

Luther get’s Jenny back from Mark and takes her home to her mother, who tells him that they won’t leave, and that Jenny is her property, so she can’t go on her own, and Luther claims he’s done enough, leaving her there, though Jenny begs him not to.

Alice, broken out of the hospital (thanks to Luther, last episode) comes to see him and tries to convince him to come away with her. He tells her he can’t because he is who he is. And then he goes back and get’s Jenny.

***

I think this is the last we’ll see of Alice, at least for a while. I didn’t think I’d say this (back when we first met Alice in episode 1), but I’m going to miss her. I have a feeling they’re trying to put Jenny in as his next unlikely accomplice and I’m not sure how that will pan out if they do.

I enjoyed Mark as a sidekick, he’s a little too taciturn to show up often within the series, but I definitely like him, as an almost reluctant advocate for Luther.

There is something intriguing… and yet disappointing about the killer in these two episodes. I think it’s that his MO is absence… so I just felt let down by his grand finale. Even if he had managed to pull it off, it felt hollow, and I have a feeling that’s what they were going for, but I’m not sure how I feel about it.

Luther: Season 2, Episode 1

After last season’s finale, the cast is in a bit of shambles. Luther’s recovering from Zoe’s loss, by playing Russian Roulette before he leaves the house, Alice is in a secure hospital for killing Reed, and Ripley is dealing with the dregs of society in his demoted position. But Schenk is there to bring the team back together, well, not Alice, because she’s still a sociopath, and she’s tried to kill herself a few times.

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Back on the job, Luther and Ripley, along with the new DS Grey, are faced with a brazen murder who kills on camera, and out in broad daylight, in a grotesque mask. 

Meanwhile, Luther’s personal drama doesn’t tone itself down. A woman, whose husband Luther put away for killing a prostitute (on accident, but then he freaked out and cut up her body) comes to him for help. Her daughter, Jenny, has gotten on into dealings with a group of people who are ne’er do wells and are forcing her to do necro-porn. He more or less kidnaps Jenny just as filming has started and drops her off with Mark, who is really a great chap, considering everything that’s gone on.

In trying to find their killer, who’s name they know and who’s apartment they’ve been to, they speak to his ex-girlfriend, and when Grey and Ripley take her home, the killer kidnaps Ripley.

(And it’s a to-be-continued)

***

This review will be light as I’ll save most of my thoughts for the next episode’s post, but here are a few thoughts:

The mask reminds me quite a bit of the puppet from saw – or a Bavarian-style painting of a fairy-tale witch. 

This is the first episode of the second season and I’m really happy they brought Schenk on in a more permanent role. But this season has a completely different feel from the first. The series has always been dark, but I think this season is a much dirtier dark, whereas the first season was a rather clean dark, and I think that’s reflective of Luther’s demeanor. I like it.