Although there was much to like in this episode of The Tunnel, it has begun to feel like the show is settling into a routine for some of its instalments. The Truth Terrorist makes another threat/truth, this week involving injustice within the law’s treatment of young people by setting them on fire. He communicates this to journalist Danny Hillier. Hillier acts like a bit of a dick and Detectives Roebuck and Wassermann race against time to stop TT from completing his latest statement on society and hope to catch him. There was a very good sequence this week though which brought the whole Stephen Beaumont storyline to a conclusion. It might have been The Tunnel’s equivalent of any story involving Dana Brody in Homeland (i.e. pointless) but it served up a tense showdown on a cross channel ferry for Karl and Elise. Trying to bring in Beaumont after tying him to Gemma (one half of the tunnel body), Elise and Karl tracked him to a ferry where after a stand off in the on-boat restaurant, Beaumont killed himself rather than turn himself over to the Police after he murdered his sister’s boyfriend last week. The Tunnel seemed to previously setting up Beaumont to be a potential candidate for The Truth Terrorist but in his final scenes, the show went out of its way to prove it wasn’t going to be him. Beaumont’s shambling attempt at a getaway in no way resembled that of TT’s highly organised manner. Stephen’s exit from the show was at least a better outcome than his equivalent in The Bridge though, where the character’s resolution didn’t ring true at all. Even so, having him shuffle off before Karl and Elise could properly get their hands on him felt a little disappointing. Perhaps Stephen Beaumont may still have something to offer the story in death. The Policeman kidnapped at the end of last week’s episode was here brought face to face with the brother of the boy he claimed he was manipulated to kill. This week’s moral conundrum was what would you do if you had the opportunity to kill someone who had done such harm to your family? We got lots of lines like “No one can be made to murder” as Laurent Belmont protested his sort of innocence to a boy being manipulated by TT into dousing a man in petrol and threatening to light a match. These were some really excellent scenes between Belmont and Medhi Chiffri’s brother and then father. The background music in these scenes, a just audible piano lent them a really eerie quality. Dimitri Rataud, who portrayed Belmont, gave one of the show’s most powerful moments so far when he couldn’t give Chiffri’s father a reason not to kill him. Belmont was suffering far more in life for what he’d done than he would in death. Chiffri’s father saw this and TT’s plan was foiled, for a moment at least. Fleeing the scene of his captivity, Belmont was promptly gunned down by a man wearing Police riot gear. A man we can safely assume was TT. No episode of The Tunnel would be complete without a bit of time spent with our leads, Karl and Elise, and their ongoing troublesome understanding of each other’s way. Karl is definitely on edge this week after his infidelity during episode five and the revelation that wife Laura was expecting. This part of the story does feel a little bit rushed really. Laura jumped to the, admittedly the correct, conclusion about Karl extremely quickly before kicking him out, and Karl didn’t seem all that bothered. Then again, he did just find his son in a state of undress at Elise’s apartment. The in car conversation that followed was skin crawlingly awkward. Elise was unable to comprehend why Karl was so upset about finding Adam with her and why it was any of his business what she did in her private life. She actually had a really good point. Elise had never asked what happened when Karl visited Charlotte, thought we suspect she knew. The change we’ve seen in these characters in the last couple of episodes has been a joy to watch. Karl has revealed himself to be a slippery, double standards liar while his partnership with Elise has mellowed her closed off persona somewhat. At this stage we’re verging on Elise becoming the more normal of the two. Okay, well that might be stretch but she’s certainly the more logical of the two at this point in the investigation. As The Tunnel moves into its final phase, it seems to be assembling its players and pieces for the big finish. Though at times it’s been frustratingly crowded and wouldn’t have suffered with a character trim here and there, episode six while formulaic in part, had some great moments and felt like a small but definite step forward to seeing the whole picture of this complex puzzle. Read James’ review of the previous episode, here.
