The Missing is back next week PART 2!

[HarryPottersMagicWand]

Thread one here

So, Sophie Giroux returned pretending to be Alice Webster. DNA results on the body in the shed confirm she is related to Sam.

Baptiste has found out about Henry Reed and the Brigadier being involved with a 9 year old girl in Iraq in 1991. Henry Reed was paying this girls brother.

There are 3 girls in the rollercoaster photo, Sophie, Alice and possibly the girl from Iraq? She has that colouring.

Henry Reed apparently committed suicide although Julien told Daniel he didn't. Whatever Daniel found out about him made him sick.

Nadia has been badly beaten and her husband is still in prison after being identified by Sophie/Alice. Matthew was made to promise to say sorry to the butcher.

Sophie is now in Switzerland. As is the newly spray painted yellow campervan that abducted Alice. Gemma and Baptiste doubt the DNA results as they are still looking for answers 2 years after she returned.

Birds keep being mentioned. Sophie and Alice both had the Web tattoo on their wrists.

No definitely don't think it's a surrogacy ring now.

I also don't think what happened in Iraq is linked to the three girl's disappearance unless Driller was the 3rd guy and also the sole kidnapper, Brig found out and Driller threatened to tell everyone about Iraq and the 9 year olds death unless he stayed quiet and helped him frame someone else for the kidnapping. Brig chose the Butcher because he's getting revenge on Aldi for something or to keep her quiet about Iraq too. She could be third person and Driller just found out somehow.

Extra points to anyone who can decipher wtf I just wrote there. It makes sense in my head.

I understand it Enid.

I didn't.

Ooh EnidButton I think that might been a likelyhood.

Hesterton, I'm not convinced they do know each other (or they are good at hiding it). I think the grooming/abuse on base was Brig and DC is separate. I will caveat this with saying I'm basing this on what happened in series 1!

I think the DNA is maybe a red herring. The army would have had Sam'a DNA as standard in case he got killed in action. There was reference to this in that episode.
Officers on a base would know each other but I don't think the press officer isn't an officer in that sense. Actually I'd have thought press officer was a civilian type job. Maybe he was a serving officer and took a demotion?
I think Sam keeps his scars to punish himself for not saving Alice (he doesn't want to accept it wasn't her).
I think the Iraqi girl is a subplot and the girl was killed by accident - the link is who knows about it and it's being used to keep people quiet.
Also not all people stay on a base long term, they get moved around.
I know that's of no help whatsoever.....

Hesterton, I'm not sure. I would assume that if you had some big secret with someone there would be at least a few 'looks'.....as I say may be totally wrong, it wouldn't be the first time!

I'm obsessing about the press officer issue now. Would a base have its own press officer? I wouldn't have thought so. I might ask my old neighbour who was based in Germany with her husband for a few years.

From what I know from family in forces some bases are huge! Drilla is a press officer so I guess easy not to know him if you've not done a press conference?

We have 3 episodes left and a massive timeframe between December 2014 and what I assume is summer ish time present day 2016 to fill.

There is bound to be relevant information in that as we've all said. But as we are also noting is that in series 1 a lot of the bad information was irrelevant to the missing case.

Series 1 kept going back to the drawing, showing the drawing and that was the focus and the relevant part.

So I'm guessing if this follows the same theme it's the bird. It's the most reoccurring theme from the original trailer to the comments from Baptiste and within the programme itself.

And the theme re the bird is freedom. We know the butcher has lost his in what we assume is innocence, Daniel fought for freedom for Iraqis, Henry Reed apparently committed suicide to free him from something, Isla greed herself by becoming who she really is, the girls were freed from the basement.
Would we maybe have some great theories if we looked at others who seem trapped?

So the butcher maybe? The girl in Varen.
What about Sam now we know Eve is pg by him? What about Brig trapped by his dementia?

I literally have no ideas myself - I was impressed at all those who called the surrogacy - but I like my theory

Also the returning girl (Alice) was locked in the shed - trapped.
Baptiste is trapped by a tumor - but it seems from the last episode he could be freed from it if he sought treatment?

Something has happened in the 2 years that has made Gemma and Baptiste doubt the DNA results. Gemma seemed to accept them when Eve told her at the hospital saying "so it really was her" and breaking down. What changed her mind was seeing the real Alice sitting next to fake Alice on the rollercoaster.
Why did her captors let her out for the appendix op instead of leaving her to die? Because she and drilla have formed a relationship and she is the mother of his child.
I agree about the drawing being significant in The Missing 1, I think the equivalent in this series is the cobweb tattoo.
I also agree about the solution to the last series being quite simple in the end, but we couldn't see the wood for the trees. Questions I'm pondering are:
Sophie was the first child to be abducted - in France - not someone obviously known to people on the army base. She appears to be the girl Drilla has formed a relationship with. Alice and Lena were known to him. Why were they subsequently abducted - Alice almost immediately and Lena some years later?
Reed, Stone and a third person ( Drilla or Sam or Aldi - someone who was in Iraq) are linked by the death of a child in Iraq - how does that relate to the subsequent abductions. In Stone's turtle threat he and another person are the birds holding the twig on to which Sophie/Alice is clinging.
I think the surrogacy is a bit of a red herring (though I wouldn't have thought a woman with no children of her own who is working as an army officer would be an obvious choice for a surrogate) - I think it is a subplot which added a bit of intrigue to our speculation, but ultimately has nothing to do with the missing girls.

Excuse the indulgence of replying to my own post, but after pondering my own questions in the shower I started wondering if the drill (an unusual choice of weapon for a man who didn't appear to be doing any DIY) was a clue. Sophie's father works in DIY store France - obviously that's a bit of stretch, but it got me thinking. Julian initially believed Sophie's father was involved - that's why her mother committed suicide. I'm trying to connect the two abducted local German girls with the girl abducted in Paris and taken to Germany. What if the local girls were abducted because they found out somehow about the abduction of Sophie? Maybe Julien was right all along and Sophie's dad was involved at the start - otherwise we need to something to link the German army base with Paris.

The camper van seems to be the only link between the kidnappings of Alice and Sophie. Could it be a total coincidence that the same vehicle was used?

I think Julien needs to go back to the original investigation - Sophie was abducted in a different country and brought to Germany, near the army base. The other girls were abducted close to home and kept with her - why? No one was even looking for the second girl. I don't understand how the abduction happened or how Reed and Stone are linked to Drilla, but I think the Sophie/Alice return can be explained like this: Sophie has formed relationship with her captor and has a child with him. She wants to stay with him. She has appendicitis so he lets her out to get treatment. She pretends to to be Alice - otherwise she would have to go back to France, but also she wants people to think Sophie is dead so she can stay with her captor. She goes back to the family as Alice - tells them Sophie is very weak, nearly dead and frames the butcher - the body switch takes place in the shed fire and she almost gets away with it. Except for Julien's persistence - Alice's mum sees the rollercoaster pictures and realises that the girl who came back was not Alice - -and also that there is a third girl with them. She is now in Switzerland waiting for Drilla to join her with their daughter. He is on the point of retiring with Reed dead and Stone losing his mind (can't work out their precise involvement) and the butcher in prison for the abductions the coast is nearly clear for his escape - until the German policeman turns up asking about the other missing girl and Sophie's daughter makes her appearance.

Sorry, back again - I wonder if the link between Reed and Stone and the adbduction is what happened in Iraq. Drilla knows what happened and is keeping quiet about it - when Reed and Stone find out about the abductions he threatens to reveal what happened in Iraq. "I don't know how you can live with yourself" is a reference to what happened in Iraq maybe? So they are covering up for each other's crimes. Maybe Reed showed kindness to Sophie and that's why she goes back and puts flowers on his grave.

I'm overthinking this.

Just had what I thought was a pretty good thought.

What if Sophie & Alice were never together, it was just assumed so because the girl mention "Sophie Giroux" in the ambualnce.

But of course there's Sophie knowing alot about Alice-plus the fact that she is in Germany-in the town that Alice disappeared from!!

Oh, that & the Brig seeming to know her as Sophie!

Need to stop trying to work it out!

Again i am just musing here, but if drilla et al are into young girls and are happy to enslave them and rape them they wouldnt stop would they. Ok reed and brig are out of the picture, but drilla isnt suddenly going to settle down with a grown woman. Reed was into transwomen (or a transwoman) so he doesn't fit the profile at all. I know its unlikely but could the real culprit be someone very high up, someone untouchable and drilla killed the cop to protect the surviving girls.

I think we need to know more about Sophie's dad, he may be the link

I think the reason the investigation was so crap was that it was being investigated (in part) by those who wanted to cover it up. That's why they didn't want Julien around asking relevant questions and it is why the German policeman (nothing to do with the army) palled up with him. Once Alice was dead - proved by DNA in shed fire - there was no one banging the drum to find Sophie (trying to remember now how the DIY store conversation went) and no one was looking for the third girl. With the butcher in prison the case was solved - they just thought he was being awkward not telling them where Sophie was. Actually when you come to think of it the odd thing is that Sophie's dad wasn't knocking the door down to find out what had happened to her which makes me iBeen jmore suspicious of him.

That should say even more suspicious.