Inside The Box
Episode 2 of Good Morning Veronica begins with Janete, blindfolded and afraid as her husband drives up into the woods. The young girl pleads for her life while Janete is led underground to a bunker and locked with a box over her head. She scrapes her fingernails nervously (seemingly a clue leading back to Marta?) and is forced to listen as Claudio abuses the young girl. Back at the police station, Veronica is pushed for answers after her stint on TV. Just then, a woman named Tania arrives and reveals she too was abused on Ideal Love. She’s even got the blistered lip for proof. Her abuser’s name was Felipo and as Anita and the Chief question her, Veronica takes notes while being forced to bite her tongue. The detectives are pretty insensitive with their direct questions but Veronica picks up on what the girl is saying. Veronica immediately believes this may be a serial predator. As work spills over to her personal life, Veronica watches her kids swimming and is forced to deal with a sibling rivalry. At the same time, she starts to look into Ideal Love. This brings her and Tania before a computer to try and do a composite sketch for Felipo. On the back of this, Veronica speaks in private to the woman but her methods are much more personal. She gains the woman’s trust and she reveals a picture Felipo took of her. This picture seems to match that of Marta’s and could lead to the same person being involved. The picture is clearly meant to intimidate the victim but Anita takes control of the case and leads her team. With her grudge with Veronica continuing, she gives the woman a mountain of paperwork to get through instead. Thankfully, Nelson is there and he decides to help Veronica, searching the dark web for clues. Back home, Janete is mortified over what she’s witnessed. Claudio brings her breakfast in bed though and encourages her, telling the woman that everything is okay. Only, it’s very clearly anything but. Prata brings back a toxicology report that seems to hint that the sedative used has traces of acid- hence the blistered lip. Just then, Nelson rings through and confirms that the culprit may well be a guy called Lucca who brags about his victims on the dark web. With an IP address traced to a gym, Veronica heads up and finds a whole box of photos. Brandishing her gun, she confronts this gym owner but it turns out he has an alibi for the time periods in question. He’s not the guy. When Claudio leaves, Janette seizes her opportunity to look through photos on her phone. Importantly, she also makes a bold decision and rings through to Veronica. Nelson answers and asks for her number but she realizes this could cause Claudio to find out and she hangs up. Veronica meanwhile is officially added to the case, much to the Captain’s disdain. She’s not happy with Veronica’s hesitation and takes offense to her methods. When Anita brings up her Father, she loses control. As we soon see, her Father is a sensitive subject given he was originally accused of being a dirty cop. The pressure of that caused a serious family tragedy – namely her Mother and Father dying. This brings the earlier incident last episode with the suicide into perspective. Nelson comforts her on the roof and hands over the details for Janette. When she rings through, Janete answers in a frazzled state and tells her not to call before hanging up. This is enough for her to scout out the area while Janete does her best to brush off this call as a telemarketer. Inside, Veronica finds out the man is an armed officer. Her investigation is interrupted though by Claudio showing up with Janete. When her phone rings, his demeanor immediately changes and he finds her hidden stash of money and phone. With the sim card in hand, he forces her to swallow it while Veronica sneaks out and narrowly avoids this man. In the morning, Veronica arrives at the house while Claudio is out and asks Janete for her story.
The Episode Review
Good Morning Veronica returns with another powerful episode, this time showing the scope of abuse and the shocking psychological destruction it can do to its victims. Janette is forced to watch as her husband abuses this girl and that only plays into his control over her. Thankfully Janete’s bravery is rewarded through Veronica at the end and we can only hope she seeks refuge and gets the help she needs from her abuser. So far the show has done an excellent job mixing this with a more intimate look at Veronica’s past and what’s going on with her. Learning about her family set-up really helps to give her some strong characterization and a genuine stake in this case. Let’s just hope it’s not too late for her to stop this cycle of abuse.
