The Missing BBC1- thread 3

[EauLittleRougeofBethlehem]

Thread 1

Thread 2

Spoilers thread

Now, about that scarf.....

Vistaverde I agree. Someone who has had to clear up blood for a criminal gang ... 'Greeted' by a guy in a balaclava. Presumably knows what they are capable of.. Decides to leave a drawing? He talks about 'the boy' so knows it could be evidence. Doesn't add up. But if it was drawn by someone else to 'prove' he was there, they must have been disappointed it took so long to find.
I'm still iffy about the video too. But like you, I have no solution. Or I have ideas on everything but they fail because of something else!

Oh btw limited not only do I remember Charlie's Angels but I was appalled at the Shelley Hack casting debacle.

Rejoining thread. Haven't had time to post in last few days.

Agree the picture is planted. I find it hard to believe a small child who is scared and trapped in a basement would draw a smiley faced picture of his dad to pass the time. Thisbdtruck me the minute we saw that drawing. And then the way Carl seig mentioned it was weird, which confirms for me it is a plant...

Has anyone got any thought on the new scenes in the trailer for tonight (or is that spoiler thread question?)

V. Excited too!

The drawing did seem too convenient to be true, along with Sieg's assertion that he left it - what, out of the goodness of his heart? A man who cleans up murder scenes for a living and extorts money from desperate parents? I don't think so.

But then if it was planted, how did whoever put it there know for sure Tony would find it? Seeing the scarf pic on Facebook, tracing the family, finding the right charity shop etc all seems unlikely.

Anyway, seeing the drawing didn't do much beyond reopen the investigation. They didn't quiz the owners of the house or dig it up of anything.

I think the female cooper may be significant.

If it is Baptiste then who wants to join me in hunting down the Williams brothers?

I think that the only person who could have planted the picture in the basement is Sieg. He had a yellow cloth in his cleaning box too.

The Caid could have been involved in some other criminal activity, using Mme Clos' house as a safe house.

I did find a person wearing the same shoes as man on basement stairs (won't say who) but cannot fit that person to any of my pet theories. It is possible it's just a common shoe (black espadrille type with thin white sole).

I have two more theories:

Firstly, could Ollie have wandered off from the bar and had an accident (fallen into pool & bashed his head?), Vincent tried to rescue him but couldn't save him, but then panicked that it would look like he had killed him so called in Ian, Alain and the cleaning man. Ollie's body was taken to that house to hide it. Years later, Silvie feels guilty about Tony and how he's still searching but cannot just come clean as she will be ostrisised by the towns people, so she leaves a trail for Tony & Baptiste to follow so they can discover the truth somehow.

Second random thought- someone upthread reminded me that Georges niece (Alain and Silve's daughter) lives in the town. So I started thinking who it could be - Laurence?? Maybe she was very interested at first and trying to solve it, but then actually did and because it was her parents and uncle, she is now trying to cover it up?

Wondering why police didn't search house in first place. House to house enquiries, empty house, have a look to see if boy is there (like checking locked sheds for lost cats). Not sure about the drawing - it was a miracle Tony went to the house in the first place all those years later and the person who eventually led him there was Sylvie by posting the pic of the boy in the scarf. The men at the garage would have known about the drawing. But chances of scarf being traced and woman in house remembering where it had come from were pretty slim all those years later.

For the sweepstake though;

I think that it is lots of people together. A whole town conspiracy involving Ian, Alain, George, Vincent, the gang, the police, the cleaning man and Silvie. I think George is the ringleader (the Boss of the Town/ Caid de Cite).

The scene with Vincent at the doctors in present day seems significant for clues, the isolated shot of Vincent's feet dangling like a child's and the photo on the wall of a large sun (son) in the woods.

Could Vincent be Ian & Mary Garrett's son ?

It can't be a lain now if the clue is so obvious?
I hope that now we 'ave ze grand clue, we will be taken through it all tonight with more whodunits thrown into the mix.

Can't believe it's tonight. If it wasn't for the prospect of leaping on this thread at 2 seconds past 10, I'd be tempted to savour the anticipation till my day off on Friday :-)

I will have withdrawal symptoms after.
and I'm sorry but unless David Tennant starts limping and speaking french with subtitles then broadchurch just won't do it for me.

Btw can someone tell me the name of the recent thriller series with Sarah Lancashire, mum recommended it but can't remember what it was called.
Might be able to wean myself on that.

For the sweepstake I'm looking at everyone it could be: Ian, Vincent, cleaning man, Romanian gang, Alain with or without Sylvie, Tony and Emily (on basis that parents are always no 1 suspects when a child goes missing), evil journalist (to give himself a great story which he could spend the rest of his career reporting on which is what he appears to have done) - who have I forgotten? - and thinking it won't be any of them. Least likely candidates (and who appeared in first episode - because apparently it all stems from that) are Baptiste, his wife, the bees, Mark's son James and Emily's mum so it will probably be one of them (though I've no idea why!)

LillianGish- the Bees abducted Ollie and stung him to death at their hive in a master honey plan drawn up by the queen bee! :D

I thought that the bees didn't appear on the scene until after the Ollie case.

Other than that, like it!

We've solved it! They posted him back to Baptiste's hives in a box - that's why no one found any trace of him.

I have said this before (pages ago!) but will repeat myself:

I can't be (at least I hope not!) the Romanian gang/ Karl Seig by themselves, but they are definitely involved (Karl Seig doing the cleaning).

Therefore...

There MUST be something linking them to One of the Other Characters.

WHAT??

And

WHO??!

Taking up bee keeping was a cunning plan by Baptiste to cover up his crime.

Themes in strong prominence in the series:

Bees
Water
Missing Children
Drinking
The grey area between bad and good

@flibberty- it's Happy Valley, so watchable. V strong female characters, pacy sometimes OTT script. Highly recommend and much prefer to the Missing which i am now watching purely to the sunk costs of lost hours watching already. Have to know what happens!

Funny, yes, I concur. I think the bees will be significant. And that bridge, as someone has said, seems to feature heavily.

Another recurring image is pictures of faces (the missing children poster, obviously, but I was struck by the many and large portraits in Monique's flat too).

For the sweepstake I'm going to go for Georges Deloix.

Purely because there must be a link between the Caid de Cite and the slightly more 'normal' side of life. If it was all random, why would Sieg be instructed to clean up and check for clues etc? On the other hand, I can't see that it was planned either unless Tony arranged to get that phone call at that exact time knowing that his car wouldn't re-start. But then the remaining search for all those years doesn't hold up.

So a link between the two is Georges. He has influence. Was friends with Ian - Ian was Godfather to his children. We haven't been told that he & Alain are related but we all presume they are. He says he hates the C de C but may still have connections.

I think all the other characters have parts to play and those loose ends will hopefully be tied up. I think Julien will also receive some sad news and Vincent will end his own life. Malik & Ziane will have history in Morocco. Ollie was kept at the hotel at some point.

I might change my mind this afternoon. ;) # ihaventgotaclue
I just hope & pray it's worth the wait! -9.14 and counting!

Baptiste was called in from Paris, and was involved in operations against Caid there.

Was he sent to CdeB because of his work against Caid, or was that chance?

I doubt Georges is running a pan-European, apparently Paris based, Romanian staffed criminal gang.

Now, he's funded by a property developer - I don't know what the rules for funding those in public office are in France. It is possible that he is simply a mildly corrupt public official who is lining his own pocket from little kick backs. He probably knew something about Ian's child abuse, but that does not necessarily mean he was involved.

But that scenario doesn't explain why a gang such as Caid has chosen CdeB as one of their bases. For Sieg was local and regularly retained by them, which suggests that they did have a consistent level of activity in the area.