5.5 A Last Good Act Come now, you never thought Jackson would truly desert Reid in his hour of need now, did you? That Reid certainly didn’t was a great moment of levity in a dark episode and also a reminder of the strength of the cast. Seeing the two of them in the cells is a small yet triumphant moment, a sign that our heroes might prevail after all, even with how dire the situation seems. Of course, in these moments, it’s hard to ignore the absence of Jerome Flynn’s Drake and it gives the scene an undercurrent of melancholy. However, with Nathaniel confessing to the murders, closure will be had for the departed officer. Nathaniel’s realisation, prompted by Susan, that he must finally face up to his crimes, is a key example of the ‘last good acts’ that the title refers to. The previous two series have focused largely on the way in which Reid and his companions have been haunted by the consequences of their more reckless and violent actions. Whitechapel, as Reid observes, has a mind of its own and threw forth an opponent in Dove who embodied those consequences and used them against each of the characters in turn. However, he’s a man who believed he had ensured the same retribution would not come for him, but he reckoned against both Reid and the betrayal of Nathaniel, who is finally aware of how alike he and ‘Gustus are. Returning to the ongoing battle between Dove and Reid, their confrontation scene in the middle of the episode, in which Reid is asked to betray his colleagues, talks of order and chaos. As he says of himself, he tried to keep order and found that Whitechapel would not allow it, pulling him towards chaos at all times. The key difference is that now, Reid is embracing it and using it to his advantage, whilst Dove struggles to maintain the order he desires to control. This not only proves to be a beautiful summation of the adversaries’ different worldviews, but of Ripper Street as well. The first two, maybe three, series of the show embodied that order of which Reid spoke; Jackson, Drake, and Reid were the heroes, Susan their associate, and the murderers of Whitechapel the villains that they caught. As the series has continued, the lines between good and bad have, by necessity, blurred. Difficult decisions are taken, mistakes are made, and blood finds its way on to the hands of all involved. Susan took her turn as a villain and Reid becomes the villain in the eyes of Whitechapel. Their world has descended into chaos and it has ensured that the series has continually improved and surprised as it has gone on. It’s a clever conceit and introducing it towards the end of its run snaps everything into focus. Read Becky’s review of the previous episode, The Dreaming Dead, here. This review was first posted in October 2016.
