In Greek mythology, Cronus (father of thunder god Zeus, brother of pastry god Cronut) castrated his father with a sickle and cast his testicles into the sea. In episode five of Hard Sun, young Daniel took an ice-pick to the winkle of his father Noah Underhill – rapist, night-time jogger and, judging by his running gear, extra from 1982’s Tron. We don’t know whether Daniel had any plans for his dad’s testicles, but I wouldn’t put it past him. The child, as Hicks put it with characteristic sensitivity, is mad. He’s all that behind the kind of arresting face (Jojo Macari’s) that, if you thought you couldn’t be seen, you’d stare at on the bus just to find out how it all fits together. Daniel’s contradictions are Hard Sun’s contradictions. Like his character, this show is exaggerated and unanchored in reality, legging it from one high-intensity action scene to the next without much sense of an overall plan. It has a welcome eye both for unusual detail (the bug-eyed alien murder hoodie, the ice-pick…) and for the sort of diverting dialogue we’re not used to seeing in a pulp thriller. As eventful as ever (Renko got tasered. Hicks got dumped), episode five at least benefitted from the focus of the search for Daniel, and from the zit-popping relief of Renko and Hicks finally coming clean with each other. Praise be. No more lies, and no more car journeys spent giving each other suspicious side-eye as if tracking the source of a fart. After a tense phone call in which hostilities came to a head (“I will end you”/ “That’s big words, Charlie.”), the team is back together and everything is now out in the open. Renko knows Hicks was working with MI5. Hicks knows where Renko hid the flash drive. She knows he knows Daniel is Noah’s murderer. He knows she knows about his affair with Mari Butler. And finally, she knows—and we know—that he did indeed kill Alex Butler. Read Louisa’s review of the previous episode here.
