Broadchurch finale. Roll up, Roll up.

[fruitstick]

Eyes down for a full house on Monday.

Hopefully we can combine both threads.

In advance, why don't we each post ONE theory, then we can all gloat afterwards about how clever we are

I thought it made an excellent point that the community was ready to accuse the dodgy old man of being a paedophile (the one who killed himself) and also point a finger of suspicion at the vicar.

Both are common stereotypes of abusers, but the affable Dad married to a copper? Nobody saw that one, not the audience and not even his wife.

It is an excellent way of making a point that when abusers are revealed as such, it is often a shock and there isn't a "type".

I think the loose ends that weren't tied up were just that. In the finale of Ashes to Ashes, there were also loose ends, but in the end they didn't matter.

PS I definitely think Joe did it, I don't think there's another story here about a cover up or anything.

I think series 2 might be DT and OC in another town, or it might focus on the mysterious PQ or something. Loads of holes in her stories. Maybe Sandbrook will be reopened?

this is what I mean about it being implausible. It's like someone with no experience of family life, I mean REAL family life with little children/babies just plucked this story out of the air.

Where was the baby

why was Joe suddenly a complete psychopath after 15 years with Ellie and showing no signs of weird until now

It made me very cross actually after such a brilliant build up.

but the point is that Joe wasn't a psychopath. He was just pushed over the edge at that moment and tried to cover his tracks. Maybe he found in Danny a relationship which for unexplained reasons he didn't/couldn't have with his own son. I think 2nd series will be in Broadchurch but focus on other aspects of the community, maybe the holidaymakers or "outsiders" such as the vicar or hotel manager.

I assumed he normally met Danny in the evenings/after school etc - hence the running, pub etc.

Because he's been on holiday for 3 weeks, possibly Danny started to have second thoughts and Joe was desperate to see him. Hence sneaking out in the middle of the night.

Let's be honest - it's clear Joe wasn't entirely 'thinking straight' on many issues so wouldn't have bothered about leaving the baby with a drugged Ellie.

The night Joe phoned from the hut, where was the baby then?

'Maybe he found in Danny a relationship which for unexplained reasons he didn't/couldn't have with his own son.' Bit less innocent than that I think. I would expect to encounter behaviour such as Joe's in a person with some deep seated abuse issues of their own from childhood.

to get angry enough about Danny 'spoiling it' to actually kill him is verging on psychotic I think, not psychopathic, sorry being lazy in using the wrong term

fruitstick, yes, that makes sense. But would Danny, who was clearly not all that enthusiastic about their meetings (on the last night anyway), really trouble himself to go out to meet Joe at 3am?

I think Danny was a bit torn, he obviously needed something he hoped Joe could provide (safety...closeness) but also had misgivings and thought it felt wrong.

The trouble for me is that the "types (or not) of child abuser" thing has been done to death on every detective series on TV and in books since forever. It's one of the tropes of the times. And actually loads of us DID think it was Joe. I abandoned the idea after about ep 6 because it seemed so obvious, he was suddenly being shoved in our direction saying dodgy things. I didn't think it was for that reason admittedly, but then we were all working on the basis that a classy, well-written drama couldn't possibly fall back on such a lazy explanation. Any of the characters could have "unexpectedly" turned out to be child abusers to supposedly make a "point" about them.

In fact, I think it even fails to make the point about "ordinariness" it seeks to. The point that Agatha Christie (in spite of very formulaic books) understood really well is that evil is banal and proceeds from ordinary people motivated by ordinary feelings, like jealousy or protectiveness or self-defence. Somebody driven by their romantic feelings about eleven-year-olds is by our society's standards not ordinary - no matter who they're married to. Their feelings are not in plain view.

And yes, Joe DOES suddenly turn into a twitchy psycho in the last episode and it is odd. It's probably the only way the actor could really have played it, given the script and the fact that he didn't know he was supposed to be concealing this totally random attribution of feelings.

Good post MBL, I like that.

miemohrs- I agree. Danny's death was horrible and banal and his murderer was an ordinary man stuck in a moment of his own creation.

I don't believe all murderers are evil, I think they go in the wrong direction and get stuck in a moment they can't get out of. Obviously I'm not condoning murder here, but often it's the ordinary that makes it so tragic and avoidable, as was shown in Broadchurch.

Danny wasn't the only tragedy. Ellie's life was ruined, Beth and Marks' life was ruined, the newsagent killed himself...the ripples went far.

MBL, I wondered if the actor playing Joe had been told he was the murderer. I can understand them not telling the rest of the cast, but surely the person playing the murderer would have to know they were?

So is it known that the next Broadchurch will be a continuation or is that just speculation?

Sounds tedious to me tbh if it is.

There's an article in one of the broadsheets a few days ago where the writer says it is a continuation, not a new murder.

A continuation sounds a bit boring.

Thanks Thurlow. I would speculate that we haven't seen the last of PQ. She left so many questions unanswered.

Lady, he was told two weeks before they filmed so didn't know he was the murderer at the beginning!

Thanks, CEO! How do you know? Public knowledge or are you an insider?

lady - public knowledge-was all over the tv guides saying that no one knew who the murderer was and they were only told when filming last episode

Oh, I didn't realise that. Thought they told just the murderer.

How /Why did Joe suddenly become attracted to a boy after 15? years of being with Ellie ? No inkling before? She's a detective fgs!
Red herrings galore but still so many 'got' the murderer very early on.
I think the whole Broadchurch thing is massively overhyped. It was a good series but too many loose ends.
Like Mayday ( same production company) policeman's spouse is the perpetrator but this time the murderer was caught.