It was less of a courtroom drama and less about the lawyers neither of whom we less care about - despite the best/worst intentions of writer Chris Chibnall. Joe Miller's case will never be about which of the combative QCs wins for the audience.
The fourth episode of the second series predictably gave us more questions than answers about the killing of Danny Latimer and 9-year-old Pippa Gillespie in Sandbrook.
The cast of season two of Broadchurch
Here are the Top 20 burning questions about Broadchurch.
1. Is one of the symptoms of DI Hardy's illness that David Tennant goes bug-eyed with panic, gabbles his lines, and generally loses his mind? It's no wonder he didn't successfully solve Sandbrook. Judging by his amateur sleuth work into the case, Lee Ashworth is already looking like a better detective than 'Kiss Me' Hardy.
2. When, for example, is DI Hardy going to do something about the mysterious/menacing bluebell sent to Claire Ashworth which he's known about for weeks but still hasn't looked into or sent for forensics?
3. When is Hardy going to look at the incriminating evidence against Pippa Gillespie's father Ricky? Doesn't DI Hardy watch thrillers like Broadchurch and thereby realise that actors like Shaun Dooley are too well known to have such a small role, meaning Ricky must be more involved?
4. Who sent Claire the pressed bluebell if it wasn't Lee? Was it Ricky Gillespie, who has a picture of a bluebell wood hanging his office? Or the missing teenage babysitter Lisa Newberry who surely won't remain missing for long?
5. Surely Lee Ashworth wouldn't have voluntarily returned to England and spent so long compiling evidence about Sandbrook if he was the killer? Or will he end up solving the case and reveal himself as the culprit?
6. If Lee was not involved, does it mean Claire killed Pippa Gillespie - possibly because Pippa was a witness to Claire murdering 19 year-old Lisa in a jealous rage over Lee? When Claire told Ellie Miller she had woken up in the middle of the night Pippa was murdered next door to find that Lee was not in bed but downstairs frantically cleaning the kitchen, isn't it more likely she was lying - to implicate Lee? Or are they both innocent and Lee is just really house-proud?
7. Claire also claimed she had slept so heavily that evening because Lee had doped her. What is the significance of Claire and Ellie Miller both being unable to provide their partners with an alibi for the murders they were accused of? (Ellie had taken a sleeping pill and Claire said Lee had drugged her with Rohypnol.)
8. If Claire was telling the truth about Lee slipping her a sleeping pill and wiping down the kitchen, why did she agree to DI Hardy's plan for her to meet up with Lee - under his supervision? Especially as Hardy's idea of supervision was waiting outside? Would she have let him unbutton her blouse (Lee that is, not DI Hardy)? If she thought Lee was the killer, would she have slept with him, concluding their initial session of sweaty sex by asking: 'Will you tie me up this time?' In TV thrillers, this is a sure sign Claire is Unhinged - either enough to have killed Pippa or be turned on by the idea that Lee did. Either way, she seems to have forgotten that when the second series began she was supposedly living in fear of him
9. Last week DI Hardy agreed with Ellie Miller that Claire's story was unconvincing and revealed she was under observation as much as a suspect as a witness. When are they actually going to do something about this?
10. Given that DI Hardy acknowledged Claire was a suspect and still believes Lee was the killer, what on earth possessed Hardy to abandon Claire for a day (and night) so he could go off to Sandbrook, selfishly taking Ellie with him. Claire or Lee could easily have struck again or absconded - separately or together. "Don't go near him," Hardy urged Claire. "He isn't good for you. Lock all the doors." Yeah, that'll work. Even as Hardy spoke, Lee was looking on (from behind a tree) and watched him go. Shortly afterwards Claire was asking Lee to tie him up. Great work detective inspector...
11. What was Lee's secret ingredient in the dish he left outside Claire's door - prompting her to take one mouthful before letting him in and snogging his face off?
12. When DI Hardy told Pippa Gillespie's mother that Lee Ashworth (the man they both suspected of killing her daughter) was back in the country and boasted "I'm keeping him under observation", did it not occur to him that he really wasn't?
13. Is it true that DI Alec Hardy slept with Claire and is "obsessed with her" as Lee Ashworth told Ellie Miller? Did the way Hardy continually dodged Ellie's questions about answering when Ellie asked him suggest he did, and he is?
14. Is Ellie Miller growing ever nearer to sleeping with DI Hardy? The fact she has gone from being outraged by the accusation from Joe Miller's lawyer that they already were to spending the night in the same bed as him within one week suggests she is. "I'll sleep under the covers, you sleep on top," she chirped when the hotel messed up their booking for two rooms. As Ellie said herself: "a bit weird."
15. Why did teenager Tom Miller react so badly to Mark Latimer telling him they couldn't meet up any more for clandestine games of FIFA - tearfully, like a wounded lover? "So that's it then, you're just going to leave me - like my Dad?" he wailed. Does "like Dad" indicate that, like Tom's dad, Mark is a paedophile? After all, Mark used exactly the same explanation as Joe Miller had given to Danny about why their meeting for "hugs" had to be a secret: "People will start getting the wrong idea."
16. What is it about actress Tanya Franks that means she is always cast as The Disastrous Sister - first Tanya Branning's sister Rainie in EastEnders and now Ellie Miller's sibling Lucy?
17. Was the Reverend Paul Coates' suggestion to Beth Latimer that the charity in honour of her son Danny should be devoted to helping rehabilitate sex offenders, the least tactful idea anyone has ever had?
18. Is there something sinister about the Reverend's continual desire to help paedophiles, like Joe Miller?
19. Is he still seeing the hot hotel owner as their snog at the start of the series suggested?
20. Will anything good ever happen to Olivia Colman?
Got more questions? Or some possible theories? Join the conversation on our Facebook page or have your say below.
- Daily Mail
