[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Crow Girl Season 1 Episode 5 “She Shoots for the King.”]
There’s only one way to describe the revelations in this episode (now streaming on Acorn TV), and Jeanette (Eve Myles) puts it best: “F**k.”
“That wasn’t in the script. So, like Jeanette, I’m a very instinctive actor, and sometimes you’ve just got to kind of say it as it is, and as long as it’s within that character’s realm, it can either be used or it doesn’t get used,” Myles tells TV Insider of that moment.
It comes after the DCI has learned that her partner, Lou (Dougray Scott), has engaged in an inappropriate sexual relationship with a victim, Ursula. As Ursula shares, Lou only got her to like and trust him because he was police, she was the victim, and he told her he was trying to solve the crime and protect her from anything else happening. She has realized now she needs protecting from him and — not knowing he’s her partner and best friend — trusts Jeanette to help her. Then, their fellow officer, Mike (Elliot Edusah), tells her that he thinks Lou is involved in an underground fighting ring involving refugee boys.
“It’s the swan effect where she’s gliding, everybody can see her on the surface absolutely in control, absolutely got the energy, pacing through it beautifully, but underneath kicking like hell for dear life in all directions. That’s that moment. And it’s not for Jeanette,” Myles explains.
“Somebody’s coming in and saying somebody in the office is having a sexual relationship with a victim, and also there’s a possibility that he’s got involvement with these refugee boys. If it had been anybody else, it would be, ‘I’m dealing with it now. I want ’em here now,’” she continues. “But because it’s her best friend, because it’s her brother, there’s a moral dilemma that she’s going through there. And it was delicious to play, actually, because it was really, really difficult. And it should feel that she’s torn, that she doesn’t know what to do. What’s right to do is kind of what she did. But I think that’s going to hurt Jeanette more than it hurt Lou more than it hurts anybody from here on in. That’s something that woman’s going to live with.”
Jeanette goes to see her boss, Verity (Victoria Hamilton), about suspecting a colleague of wrongdoing — criminal and professional, sleeping with a witness, involvement in organized crime, and perverting the cause of justice. Verity tells her that it’s a dangerous path, reporting a colleague — assuming male — and that one of her skills is navigating the field, staying still and quiet, even though sometimes she has been screaming underneath. The question is when to raise your voice. She thinks she’s turned a blind eye often enough for both of them, and now that they’re entering more of a “say what you see” era, if she can nail him, nail him. But, Verity warns Jeanette, if she misses, he’ll drag her down with him. Jeanette doesn’t want to nail him, they’ve worked together for years … but what if she does want to arrest him? Verity says to let professional standards handle it.
What did you think of the latest episode of The Crow Girl? Let us know in the comments section below.
The Crow Girl, Mondays, Acorn TV