Shetland season 8

[laplage]

Anyone else looking forward to the new season starting on Wednesday? It will seem a bit strange without Perez but looks to be a good cast and storyline so far as we know.

For fans of Shetland the place, here are the webcams

No cake fridges - or are they too naughty and corrupting to be filmed?!

Perhaps I mean Bobby..? I’m so confused!

Late to this last episode comments and got side tracked by web cams.

If part of the plotting is to show how Ruth becomes Tosh and Sandy's boss aren't they both going to think she is really rude and abnoxious. Poor Sandy didn't have a chance keeping her are arm's length when technically she has been "sacked" by Tosh!

I thought this episode was better than last week's, but as someone who can never remembers faces let alone names I feel sort of at home that so many are now sharing that experience.

I rely on hairstyles, or lack of them, but these aren't always different enough.

Have just looked at the list of characters and cast, and it seems to be huge, no wonder it is confusing. https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/shetland-cast-characters-bbc/

Anyone up for doing a family tree and other connections!

And not because i guessed this part of the plot but so glad Farida has been able to talk honestly about what happened. I still dont understand why, even after being to shocked etc., they didn't then decide we cant go on like this and go to the police.

Or is it that Azir (hope i have got the names right) does have something else to hide. Drugs?

Also think that the suggestion that Ruth isn't her father's daughter seems possible and could explain family tensions. Although her brother is a total pain.

I thought Tosh speaking with the Bain cleaning lady, Heather on the street was odd. Surely she had reason to bring her to the station ?
Also why were Azir and Farida interviewed without solicitors ?

Surely she had reason to bring her to the station ?

Yes that was odd, but so much of this episode didn't seem to be about proper policing but individuals doing what was their personal priorities.

Oops, I meant Stella is Bobby’s sister (not Ellen - she’d be his niece).

Heather Bain is niece to Grace Bain, so is cousin to Stella and Bobby.

I’ve just caught up and like others was wondering at the speed with which they got those bank records onto a mobile phone!

I'm stuck on this too. And, if Ellen had been in London for many months (or did someone say a year?), why did he only just go down and argue with her so recently?
What did Bobby say when he and Cal had their evening session together that made Cal ring Ruth and say something was going on? And will Bobby be revealed to have tampered with Cal's brakes because of it?
I'm not sure who in the Bain family is lying/covering up about Ellen.
Possibly she saw her little brother – none of the police have thought to talk to him – but presumably he didn't kill her.
I don't think her dad knew that she'd come back to the house, and I'm not sure her mum saw her either; she seems to be genuinely in the dark. The matriarch? She might give an order to kill Ellen, but she couldn't do it herself, surely? And what would be her motive?
Only leaves Uncle Bobby. Who HAS been going round looking shifty as all get-out for the whole series so far. Was his motive drugs money? Is he involved in the London drugs thing that Ellen's robbery victim in London was involved in?
And is that the end of the minister's wife's storyline? Or might she still be involved? (I can't remember how they wrapped it up.)

He is. I’d forgotten how many times he has done remarkably dopey things until a recent rewatch — that he leaked photos of Lizzy Kilmuir’s body to the press to stir up public dissent to Donna Killick’s return.

I also want Rhona back — the two fiscals since she left are just wallpaper. I liked her grumpy, eye-rolling conversations with Jimmy. And she wore nice shirts.

@MarkWithaC

What did Bobby say when he and Cal had their evening session together that made Cal ring Ruth and say something was going on?

i think Cal found it suspicious how Bobby started getting angry when asked questions about Heather being involved with Ruth’s dad.

Was Heather involved with Ruth’s dad?
I'm still confused.

No, Ruth’s dad’s longterm affair partner said he was also carrying on with Stella.

Oh sorry, I got the names wrong 😂

yes, I meant Stella (Ellen’s mum)

Oh, OK. But would Cal call Ruth and say 'something's going on' if he was talking about that? That affair was way in the past.

Cal and Ruth had discussed the situation about her dad and Stella, Cal was doing some digging with Bobby to see what he knew. When Bobby got angry, it would seem like he was hiding something, hence Cal's call to Ruth.

Gutted about Cal, I love Jamie Sives, he's got the loveliest soft voice

In fairness, in RL, you would almost certainly either tell the person's answerphone immediately, or at least give them some indication of what you knew, if this key thing you had just found out was so crucial (and you were also slightly pissed/pilled), but this is the land of TV drama, where you always say 'I've found out something really important!' and get killed immediately.

In the spirit of 'I'm confused about some characters in Season 8' sharing, I will admit that until Ruth and Sandy arrived at Cal's house the morning after his death, I didn't know what relation the candle-making man in the wheelchair (James?) was to Cal. I think at one point I thought he was his father, despite not looking anywhere near old enough, or just a housemate, and I think at one point I did consider he might be his boyfriend...?

But then I've been rewatching old seasons, and Shetland's casting people do make some odd choices sometimes.

In season 7, about the murder of the lawyer Alex Galbraith, there's a subplot about Alex Galbraith having been paying for years the care home fees of a (supposedly) missing girl's elderly father, but the elderly father in question looks in spry good health, and not particularly old at all, compared to the woman who is cast as the same-aged best friend of his daughter, now presumably late 30s or early 40s... (And there was never any resolution to the mystery, which I remember discussing on here, of the 100% male-looking 'nun', in full wimple and habit, who let in Perez when he visited the retreat centre.)

It's not just you, @KitchenAngst ! At the start of this season, I certainly thought James was Cal's b/f for a couple of eps!

well, I'm really enjoying it. I like that there's loads to keep up with, I'm terrible for getting distracted while watching tv but this holds my attention. I like the dynamic between ruth and tosh, they make it believable that tosh is in charge but ruth more experienced (i guess that's true of the actors too). I loved Cal and am sad about what happened to him, he was very useful for us to 'meet' young teen ruth. I think ruth's dad will turn out to be worse than so far said out loud. i like that we spent a couple of episodes with tosh at work before donny and their daughter were brought into it, and that she seems to have a relatively stable homelife (although some pointed comments about donny's mum friends) compared to most tv detectives.
they've explained why tosh can't be DI on Shetland, if she's promoted she has to work elsewhere first. I'm curious to know if Ruth will stay after this series - I think it could work equally well either way.

and i love ruth's clothes!

Yes, is that true that she'd have to go and work elsewhere before she could be DI in Shetland? I don't know if I buy that.

The matriarch? She might give an order to kill Ellen, but she couldn't do it herself, surely? And what would be her motive?

Aha! She might well want rid of her grand daughter if she knew or suspected she was the result of incest. But it’s a stretch, I know …

I don't understand how anyone can be interviewed in the police station without a solicitor present.
Can someone explain please ?

I don't think it is that uncommon in Scotland.

I am prepared for an expert to tell me I'm wrong but I think I read somewhere that until 2010 there was no automatic right to have a lawyer present until a suspect had been detained and interviewed for 6 hours. But that this changed following a ECHR ruling. But suspects can still waive having a lawyer present or can obtain telephone advice from a lawyer before interview.

Thank you @ Lunde

I’ve been rewatching all of the old series on iPlayer while ill. Had forgotten all of the story lines so enjoying them. I think the current series is missing some of the Jimmy and family, Duncan, Rhonda relationship dynamics