An Underwhelming Conclusion
Episode 6 of The Bay Season 2 begins with Lisa talking to the new Russian suspect in custody, Viktor Zima. After threatening to get the Russian authorities involved, he eventually opens up and admits that he was hired to kill Stephen. But who was it? A recovered (and thankfully sober) Manning leads the team and mentions Zima’s arrest. It turns out he was apparently hired by a man in the pub between the age of 20-40. This meeting took place around the middle of April too, bringing Lisa back to Bill’s house with news of what’s happening. She also has news that Madeline is going to fight for full custody of Oliver. As the team sift through the CCTV footage for Moss Side, they find a meeting take place involving Zima and Frank Mercer. With evidence starting to mount up, Manning and Lisa head off to arrest him. At the scrapyard, they also bring Grace in for questioning too. At the same time, Bill drives down various back streets, going the wrong way and crashing his car. Bill apologizes when Mark shows up and regrets not making more of an effort to stop Breakwater and what they were planning all this time. Abbie visits her grandmother and admits it’s been nice having Andy back. According to the story he’s told her, Andy has been in Stoke all this time, and asks her to give their Father a chance. Instead, she heads straight online to see if this story holds any validity. Back at the station, Grace and Frank are both interviewed separately. Frank is sketchy and refuses to disclose much to begin with, while Grace mentions that Rose was the one who spoke to Frank. When Lisa shows up, Rose admits to stealing the company money as Lisa arrests her – while Mark is taken down to the station for questioning too. It turns out Rose stole the money in dribs and drabs, knowing it was in the company accounts. This may also explain why her money went into Stephen’s account too, although we’re not actually told that. While Rose opens up, slipping on her words, Mark mentions that he knew Frank too. Given Frank paid off Zima to kill Stephen, the real question here is exactly who paid him off. Frank eventually opens up and tells Manning everything. He did all of this on his own accord but did so for Rose whom he was previously romantically linked to. She apparently had no idea what was going on. He wanted to play happy families with Rose and Oliver so did this to try and win them over. With Frank arrested, Rose and the others are free to go. Only, Rose struggles to go home and face her family after what’s happened. Instead, she decides to help the police with their investigation into Breakwater. Just as Rose leaves the station, Lisa’s Mother shows up with damning evidence about Andy and what he’s been up to. It turns out he has a 3 year old and a whole separate life. Lisa decides to sever ties with Andy but tells him to sit and tell the truth to their kids. Only, he changes his mind and walks away. Again.
The Episode Review
The Bay finishes with the case wrapped up and all the family drama coming to an underwhelming close. First up, let’s discuss the case itself. After such a shocking opening and a brilliant twist with Med’s death, The Bay slowly slips back into mediocrity and struggles to hit those same peaks again. Despite some intriguing possibilities, The Bay concludes its case with a pretty weak suspect and a disappointing, weak reason too. So Frank was the one who had Stephen killed because he wanted to leave with Rose and Oliver. Realistically though, how would that have worked? There’s nothing in Frank’s character – at least not what we saw here – to suggest someone not of a sane mind orchestrated this. What’s more disappointing though is how much emphasis was placed on Breakwater for it to lead to nothing. The entire law firm/illegal drugs operation was one big red herring and feels really poorly handled. So who killed Med? Who was driving that car? What’s happened with Breakwater? Is it all over now? The police mentioned multiple raids occurring soon so are we to assume there’s a whole syndicate operating across Morecambe/England? And what was so incriminating on these documents that they needed to be signed? Why did Bill sign off on the documents? How is his mental state? Is he deteriorating? And what’s going on with Manning? Is he going to be reprimanded by Pearson? Or is this another dead end with no answers? All these questions remain at the end of The Bay’s second season and despite some pretty strong episodes, the ending slips up when it matters most. It’s a real shame because the second season has actually been a much smoother ride than the first but the ending really lets this one down. This isn’t a bad show per-se, and the drama leading up to this moment has certainly been worth the ride, but the conclusion feels undercooked and in desperate need of more time in the oven – possibly with another episode to conclude the Breakwater saga. Whether this one is renewed for a third season remains to be seen but it’s undeniably a hit with ITV viewers so we’ll have to wait and see.
