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.

I'm really confused even though I've watched it all. What was the money from and where did the 2 gunmen from earlier episodes fit into it all? The black guy and his sidekick who died?

We never found out what Cal was going to tell Ruth as the crash that killed him was an accident.
Too many red herrings in the series.

Ellen stole the money when she went back to the blokes flat when she was in London. She was meant to just steal his watch I think, but then the gangsters came in to kill the bloke and she was hiding in a room where she had just found his safe and stole a load of the money.
She in turn had it stolen from her when she fell asleep on the bus with the guy from Glasgow. Bobby found out, I think from the bus driver, and stole the money back.
I think the gangsters were just a plot device for them to get hold of a lot of money.

The money was the money that Ellie stole from the drug dealer in London at the start and the precipitated the gunman etc hunting for it. Bobby Bain got the money by beating up the kid who stole it from Ellie on the bus and Bain was intending to become a drug dealer.

I think that Bobby Bain was trying to make amends to the Knox family as they had been cheated when the Bain family bought their land.

What remained very unclear

• did the London drug gang just give up on the money?
• What happened to Bobby's plans to become a drug dealer?
• Just handing over the money seemed out of character for Bobby - were we meant to think that he was so affected by the destruction of his own family?

Well, he wasn’t managing the farm terribly successfully, so he’d have wanted money to bail the family out. And to have something to give Ellen, probably. She’d blocked him - but he probably hoped their relationship might be repaired and he’d be able to help her, materially. Once she had died he didn’t have her to pass it on to, and once the family was destroyed there was no point in keeping it to maintain the farm.

Weirdly I did feel the Stella / Bobby thing worked. It was clearly scripted and acted, it was obvious that Kieran was the outsider, and it was very much Bains against the world. You can sort of see how such a situation might have arisen and been hidden.

In the cafe at the end, Tosh says that Harry hasn’t decided what to charge Bobby and Grace with. What had Grace done (apart from generally being a mean old cow)? I get that Bobby and Stella had an incestuous dalliance but they each insisted they were responsible so maybe the police were going to let that go.

Bobby giving Tom the money at the end was a nice gesture but I would have assumed the lad would immediately turn the cash in to the police.

I also never understood why both Heather and Ellen Bain were at the psychiatrist’s house on the day their son died. Surely only one of them would be there to clean on any given day? I know it appears not to matter anymore but it niggled me (though not as much as the dreadful police interview room scenes).

Yes, I thought that about Heather and Ellen too.

I'm glad it's over and I don't need any more. I also found the resolution very unlikely, did like the reverend's sweater though.

it was funny because when the police arrived lookign for ellen grace took bobby and ellen to look for her and left kieran at home, which was very odd

ellen was at the house cleaning and she called heather when the boy drowned

also the bain were an odd lot, all living at home !

There's a lot I didn't follow this time round!

Can someone remind me what Ellen had over the psychiatrist? Why was she blackmailing him? What was the truth about his child?

The psych looked like he was genuinely worried about her at night despite being blackmailed by her!

The psychiatrist was giving his wife pills off prescription which she had taken when their son died.

I liked it. Dh called the right killer before the episode began (not the incest though, he thought abuse).

we thought it was very “Vera” with everything blown up and everybody miserable at the end. No clear winner. Vera is always like that. I guess if you tear anybody’s life apart lots of unrelated secrets will be uncovered. Also I thought the discovery in September explained Ellen’s “off the rails” cults and drinking etc well.

@mehday i think the charges could be re withholding evidence re a murder inquiry. Grace saw her on the night she died but didn’t say anything. Bobby was in London with her but lied about it.

As long as they don’t go after Rory. I’ll say it again. Poor Rory.

So Ruth's father didn't have an affair with Stella Quinn.
Perhaps that's what Cal rang Ruth about before he died ?
I wish I could remember exactly what his message to her said.

Stella and Bobby had sex once but Stella was having more sex with Kieran. Statistically the chances are that Ellen was Kieran’s. I know the dna said Bobby was Ellen’s father but it was the least likely result.
I find it odd that even on an emotional day, Bobby would tell Ellen he was her father.
Overall it wasn’t as good as previous series but I’ll no doubt watch more.
Will Ruth stay on Shetland?

I went back and rewatched it.

When Bobby and Cal were getting drunk together, they were asking each other about girls that they’d slept with.

Then Cal says: “What about Stella?” Bobbly tries to look unfazed as he says: “What about her?” and adds that she’s a “One-man woman”. Cal says: “That’s not what I heard”. Bobby’s face changes as he says: “What did you hear?” Cal then says: “I heard there was a wee bit of scandal, before Kieran… Someone that should have known better…”

Although he does then add a line to show he’s talking about Ruth’s dad, Bobby has obviously been completely freaked out about this line of questioning. His entire demeanour changes and he tells him to leave, and stands there glowering at him as he does so.

Cal then calls Ruth on the way home and says: “Hey, it’s me. Just been up to see Bobby Bain. Definitely something going on there. Call me back”.

(That was for @LadyEloise1 )

Ach. Along with finding it all a bit underwhelming I still can't get over Tosh's atrocious acting, despite honestly trying really hard. Her 'surprised' look (one of three expressions she has) is like something out of Acorn Antiques. It's so very bad. It makes me wonder if she has a policy of not watching her own work or something.

It really prevented me from believing in any of it. At the end when she said 'DI MacIntosh' and we were all supposed to cheer, I just though 'well maybe let's not be hasty lassie'...

I've just gone back and watched the first episode. Sandy in uniform, Tosh with braces and a hangover, billy without a beard... it's nice to see how far they've all come, feels about right for the time that's passed. Also loads more Shetland accents in the first series, but I guess they ran out of Island actors pretty quick.

I enjoyed it a lot, suspected Kieran of killing Ellen early on, ("it's always the quiet ones") but had no idea why. A bit hard to believe Bobby and Stella doing the deed once, during grief - I hate the stock phrase "it just happened" as a cop out and Ellen was the result.
And dubious acting by some too, Tosh and Sandy especially.
Liked the background to Ellen's story and the red herrings - Rosemary and the sheep, Peter, Tom. Though I thought the London crime guy would still be after the stolen money.
AJ did a great job I think. Plus the scenery is still the star.

Thank you so much, that explains a lot 💐 @TwoDrifters2

@LadyEloise1 Watching it back, knowing what we know now, it was a fairly excruciating conversation!

I can see in the cold light of day that some of the plot line might seem a bit far fetched, but while watching it I was totally convinced. I thought some of the acting really good, and quite enjoyed various Bains being taken in to custody. Although grandma Bains had become a bit of a charicature matriarch! Thought the young boy was really good. And had wondered why Kieran's character was so low key, and constantly being excluded and dreamed up all sorts of reasons but never the one that was the ending.

However, I thought the final scenes were unecessary, all a bit insipid but presumably part of introducing why Ruth would end up deciding to stay on in Shetland.

I imagine she will just walk into the police station one day and say to Tosh as you wont ever get promoted because you are putting family first I may as well take the job. And they will all be too intimidated and just sort of shrug and it will be a done deal!

One thing I did notice is that in all the scenes in the police station its a bit like the Maire Celeteste with only Billy endlessly available to make tea and do shit jobs.

But when there is a raid suddenly there are lots of police cars and dozens of police who could never have got there if based on the mainland, so must be isolated off in some police warehouse!

As someone who never was a complete Shetland fan I found this okay and will be interested to see series 9, assuming there is one. Presumably they are looking at audience feedback as to whether to make another one.

For all we know Ruth will return to London, Tosh will still not have done her stint at another police force and someone totally new will be parachuted in.

I didn’t see it coming re Kieran.

Even if I had, I’d never have gone for that reason.

I have enjoyed this one as much as the others - even though it ended in misery for most.

Gaun yersel Ashley.