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BROADCHURCH mon 9pm itv thread 2

428 replies

DuelingFanjo · 16/04/2013 12:03

Is it ok for me to start a new thread.

Can anyone tell me why Ellie says about Will Mellor's character:

"if you go into the bookshop in town all his books are in there"?
he is KNOWN to the police for this, plus the petty convictions, vehicle theft and conspiracy to defraud, they say in EP 4. So why is he allowed to write and sell these books?

OP posts:
ILikeToMowIt · 19/04/2013 21:02

Why?
Grin
Well: Having read that apparently we are all going to be horribly shocked when we find out who it is, I have concluded that actually the characters that would shock me most would be Alec, Beth, and Ellie. As apparently the person who did it had large hands I don't think it could have been Beth or Ellie. So it has to be Alec.

Actually, if you follow the Hardy-Jude-etc theory: Alec is the bad guy in a Hardy novel too (Tess). I think he may not know it himself though. Some of his symptoms and behaviour suggest that he might have some multiple personality disorder: blackouts headaches etc.

Alec Hardy is the one character that links Sandbrook and Broadchurch (as far as we know). He had a dream about being on the beach with a boy and a girl at a beach (Danny and the Sandbrook girl?). I think the "daughter" he called a few times, leaving a message on his phone is the Sandbrook girl.

I think it is also highly suspicious that he shows up in Broadchurch, and Danny gets killed.

Theory over.
Can't wait for Monday!

ILikeToMowIt · 19/04/2013 21:09

And having just checked the odds, I am thinking i should place a bet : 20/1 Grin

teejwood · 19/04/2013 21:12

Olivia the Jude thing first popped up as important because Jack said he was reading it on the night of the murder - the book was his only alibi. That then gives us three references to the book - Jack bringing it up, the fact that Jude comes from Wessex (and Broadchurch is set in the same area) and DI Alec HARDY. From there, it's all about interpretation - and Hardy enthusiasts please bear with me while I paraphrase and shortcut with abandon.

In the book, the protagonist, Jude, enters into a bad marriage. The woman dumps him after a couple of years so Jude moves away and eventually enters into another relationship with his cousin, who also had been unhappily married. They have two children of their own and take in another child - from Jude's first relationship (of whose existence he had not been aware). The family's situation is bleak; when landlords and employers find out the truth (they are unmarried/incestuous), they sack Jude/turf the family out of their home. The oldest child believes that the problem is that there are too many children, so he kills his younger siblings and then himself. Jude's cousin/partner is pregnant, and miscarries because of the shock and grief.

There is a sense that the oldest child was always going to be disturbed because he came from an unhappy and ill-starred union. That he would come to murder and commit suicide was inevitable.

If we take elements of that plot across to Broadchurch, you can see a child murder, a suicide (albeit the suicide we know of was not that of Danny's killer), a mother of 2 children pregnant with a third. In the counselling session with Paul, Mark talks about Beth being so full of life when they met, which is very like Sue (Jude's cousin) when they first meet, until circumstances grind them down.

So if we take the family as broadly similar, who is the cuckoo, the additional child in the mix? To me, that is Nige. He is not just Mark's junior/work colleague, he is part of the family. Involved in birthday parties for Danny, coming around often to help cook and clean. Perhaps a boy who lost his adoptive dad as well as his real dad and looking for a father figure.

To me, the plot shows Nige as the bad blood baby (now we know about his real parentage) so I would not be surprised if he is the killer - it would fit with Thomas Hardy's views on fate.

In terms of the killer, he has the opportunity - Danny is happy to meet him at all hours. He's big, with big hands. He knew where the boat was. He is not adverse to illegal activity. He has a temper. He loves the family sufficiently that he would make sure they had Danny's body to grieve rather than burning it in the boat or just dumping it at sea. He would not even dump it over a cliff - as that would leave a mangled, broken corpse. No, he cared about Danny and so I think this was a killing in a fit of rage or panic.

It just fits, especially if you take some of the themes in Jude as a clue.

DuelingFanjo · 19/04/2013 21:14

How can a book be an alibi?

OP posts:
teejwood · 19/04/2013 21:17

I was being a bit sarcastic, DF! When asked where he was on the night Jack said he was in on his own reading JTO Grin

montage · 19/04/2013 21:19

The only way Alec did it would be in an evil-twin/alternate dimmension/Broadchurch-police -station-is-a-tardis sort of way

I think Joe and Tom were just back from holidays when Danny was killed so Danny may have done something he wasn't meant to/muscled in on some illegal activity they are tied up in and that's why he got killed then. If it was them, as I am leaning towards Ollie too!

I think Alec's symptoms are all meant to be explained by the heart arrythmia although they were presented in a strange manner (doctors on twitter were saying they couldn't work out what was wrong with him!)

If it was Alec or Ellie I would find it very unrealistic in terms of their character (I can cope with anyone else except Danny's mum) and it would sort of spoil the whole thing for me really.

OliviaMumsnet · 19/04/2013 21:19

@montage

Shall we have a whodunnit bunfight now Olivia for you to moderate, to justify your just staying on this thread?
Grin
teejwood · 19/04/2013 21:23

DT in "Secret Smile" many moons ago - he can do seriously bad/psychotic very well but I hope you're wrong this time Ilike!

montage · 19/04/2013 21:23

Alec was 50/1 a few weeks ago, when Ellie was 20/1, how did that reverse!

Have just read that as the cast didn't know who it was until just before the finale was shot, they had their own sweepstake on set. Grin

ILikeToMowIt · 19/04/2013 21:24

bun fight? how about Biscuitfight? much more mumsnet, no?
Grin

montage · 19/04/2013 21:30

<a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.ie/imgres?imgurl=1.bp.blogspot.com/-AsLbUOC6Jcw/T98QQNXv3QI/AAAAAAAAEb8/oIib_AoqvX8/s1600/tph1.jpg&imgrefurl=tennantnews.blogspot.com/2012/06/new-photos-of-david-tennant-on-set.html&h=423&w=468&sz=29&tbnid=OKrLZKkgk_jIFM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=100&zoom=1&usg=__QgATi3vpUEOFd7BfaJGb4r-qqVE=&docid=mhe57tnVcWCKTM&sa=X&ei=IqhxUYL-CZS2hAeY3IHYAw&ved=0CEgQ9QEwBA&dur=564" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">just restyle DT's hair and he immediately looks scary

He is going to be back in a new drama starting on Thursday so we won't get a chance to miss him. With Emily Watson though this time.

teejwood · 19/04/2013 21:56

Oh! The Politician's Husband. Yes, looking forward to that one, too, montage Grin

montage · 19/04/2013 22:04

You can get 14/1 odds that Danny Latimer killed himself. Is there something I'm missing here or does that make absolutely no sense whatsoever?

teejwood · 19/04/2013 22:28

If the autopsy is correct that means they're offering 14/1 on the chance that a small child was sufficiently flexible to strangle himself from the front of his neck with big fake hands and managed to deliver sufficient force to kill himself before he passed out from oxygen deprivation?
Is the bookies Paddy bloody Power by any chance?

SomewhereInTheMiddle · 19/04/2013 22:36

I love your very well thought out and literary theory teej! I didn't think it was Nige, but you've almost convinced me with that!

teejwood · 19/04/2013 22:59

thank you somewhere! It expect all of it will be shot to shit come Monday night Grin

Northumberlandlass · 19/04/2013 23:22

Everyone's theory are far more sensible than mine!

It's getting closer.....

Dum dum dum

BOF · 19/04/2013 23:38

I love that theory, teejwood. Great.

OliviaMumsnet · 19/04/2013 23:43

@Northumberlandlass

It's getting closer.....

Dum dum dum

There was someting in the paper earlier saying "only 51 hours to go if you reading this at 5.30 on Friday" Grin
OliviaMumsnet · 19/04/2013 23:44

@teejwood

Olivia the Jude thing first popped up as important because Jack said he was reading it on the night of the murder - the book was his only alibi. .....

It just fits, especially if you take some of the themes in Jude as a clue.

THANKS for this Teej.

WreckfestAtTiffanys · 20/04/2013 00:24

I like the Jude theory too, it really fits with Nige and I really don't feel the entire truth came out (with PQ) there.

Ollie is just too innocent though...

WreckfestAtTiffanys · 20/04/2013 00:24

I can't believe I'm wishing the weekend away!

MrsSalvoMontalbano · 20/04/2013 06:38

Wow Teej brilliantly argued! If that does turn out to be correct, will be mightily impressed with ITv, no so dumbed down!

MaggieMaggieMaggieMcGill · 20/04/2013 10:01

I reckon it's the sister, no idea why, I just do.

yellowhousewithareddoor · 20/04/2013 10:02

We will all be here as its on live won't we . . .