Attention: Here be spoilers! Don’t continue to read this post unless you are prepared to be spoiled for certain plot points.
Annika Season 2 Episode 1 recap
We begin the episode right where Season 1 left us, with Annika having broken the fourth wall and told us, the viewer, who Morgan’s father is. She steps outside the bar for some air and continues her aside to the viewers. Annika gives us a story similar to the selkie legend and of course, it’s all about concealing then revealing a child’s parentage. We struggle with her as she battles with herself over the secret she’s holding.
Michael comes out as she’s singing to us and lets her know: they are needed on a new murder case. He says his wife can take Morgan to school the next day. So helpful, that Michael.
Aside: what is up with the theme songs for these types of shows? They all seem so similar!
The case: someone has turned in a phone with a recording of a murder. The team are assembled in their gorgeous headquarters (LOVE the architecture). DC Blair Ferguson and DS Tyrone Clarke are speeding along in a car on the way and join on speakerphone. Annika and Michael identify a background noise from the recording: a buoy. She orders a dive team to all possible places (geez, how much would that cost, ya think?) and in comes The Boss DCI Diane Oban, played by the immensely talented Kate Dickie. God, she’s wonderful, isn’t she? Dickie is perfect in this smaller role. That’s fine with me! Gives her more time to make movies!
Ferguson does some truly assertive driving with Clarke on foot in pursuit of the person who handed in the phone. Cute little interactions between the two, I must say. They lose track of the girl they are following. Oh well. These things happen.
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Remember that Annika’s vehicle was, well, blown up, in the Season 1 finale. So Oban gives her the use of her own car but also expresses concern that Annika is back to work so quickly after her ordeal. But Annika, like the classic stereotype, says working and keeping busy is the best thing for her right now. Oban tells her to do an online “hot debrief” and get it out of the way so they have all bases covered. Okay, so we know something is going to happen to this car, right? Oban says the car is voice activated and jokes, in her dry humor style, that Annika can just talk to the car instead of a psychologist.
Morgan gets picked up by Michael’s wife and daughters, as Michael promised. This is their first time meeting. We have a cute moment then cut directly to Michael and Annika at the home of the girl Ferguson and Clarke had been chasing.
Michael and Annika do their usual sort-of-flirting banter. The mom answers the door and immediately says, “I don’t know where she is.” Clearly, her daughter is a handful. As they question her about where her daughter got the phone originally, the two go upstairs to her room then hear noises on the roof. Annika sighs because she is afraid of heights and really hopes the girl, Aisha, will just come inside.
Meanwhile, a diving unit headed by Ferguson and Clarke find the murder victim’s body near a pier. Ferguson locates a homeless woman who was a witness to the murder. We cut back and forth between these two and Annika trying not to freak out about going onto scaffolding that is a few stories high. There’s nowhere for Aisha to go and Annika tries her cool mom routine as the cops arrive with the siren blaring. Aisha admits she stole the phone and describes the man she pickpocketed. She’s actually pretty helpful, as we will see later.
Morgan and her friend Femi bemoan the upcoming wilderness bonding trip they and classmates will attend. As a joke, Morgan signs up her mom for a volunteer position. Ha!
Back to the case. They’ve identified the body. The pathologist, a role I’m always interested in and sad we never see in this show, says the victim was hit from behind. They find a cap they think might belong to the attacker. The witness gives a description of the person she saw hold the victim underneath the water. The team continue to try to track the phone and set up a sting with Aisha to identify the man she pickpocketed. Annika is still mulling over her big secret, trying to decide what to do, so she’s a bit more distracted than usual.
Michael has info on the victim. Seems he was an entertainment manager on a cruise line but was fired for misconduct three weeks prior. Forensics go over his apartment as Annika teases us with revealing the secret. The victim has a small fish tank and Michael frets over the fish being left to fend on its own. He feeds the fish as Annika bumbles her way through a conversation about what to do with Morgan if something should happen to her during the line of duty. Michael sniffs the fish food container and says lightly, almost to himself, that it might be weed. Is this a clue? As she turns to leave, A tells forensics that the apartment block opposite the victim’s has a doorbell camera that they should check.
She brings home the fish in a small bowl to find that Morgan has set up their old tent in the living room in preparation for the school wilderness trip. The tent has clearly seen better days as there is a big burnt area on the front. Annika crawls inside and starts a lullaby. Morgan tells her how nice Michael’s daughters are and that she might babysit them sometime. Annika tries to put her off then jolts to attention when Morgan says she’s signed her up for volunteering. Morgan gives an off-handed remark, “Who else am I gonna ask?” Hmm, who indeed.
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The next morning, Annika reminds us about the seal/selkie story and wonders how Michael will react to the news of Morgan’s parentage. Will he leave or skip out? Annika is really feeling it with worries about what would happen if she were blown up due to her dangerous job. Bottom line is that she’s concerned about Morgan’s safety if she weren’t around.
Ferguson speaks with the victim’s boss, reminding her that she fired the man and now he’s dead. Seems the pot in the fish’s food container might be a bigger issue. The victim, Dean Malone, had been picking up drugs and selling to passengers on the cruise line. Before being let go, he fingered the lifeguard as an accomplice who was also subsequently fired. Ah, another suspect possibly?
While questioning the boss, Ferguson steps out after Annika and lets her know she’s pregnant. Annika expresses worry about Ferguson continuing her job as is but Blair’s level-headed about what she can and cannot do in her “condition.”
Moving on to the loosely organized sting, we find Aisha with Clarke and Michael at the train station hoping to catch a glimpse of the man she pickpocketed. While they wait, Clarke tells Michael he’s going for a promotion to Inspector and transferring to another unit. Dang. I was hoping we’d keep Ukweli Roach for a while. Just when you get used to an actor on a series…
Aisha sees the mark, Rihan Harijan, and there’s a big chase on foot. Why do people try to run away? Annika tells him cheekily that they’ve recovered his phone. Back at headquarters, Michael questions whether Aisha is telling the truth because Harijan seems an unlikely murderer. He muses that Annika might trust the teen Aisha because she’s a mom to a teen herself. Hmm…we get closer and closer to a reveal, maybe?
Ferguson says the doorbell cam has shown that Dean left his building and was followed by someone wearing a cap like the one they found at the scene. Good instincts, Annika! They theorize it’s Dean’s former accomplice, the lifeguard from Red Line Cruises. But comparing the info they have, Annika notes that the homeless woman’s photofit of the man she saw holding Dean under the water does not look like the lifeguard nor Harijan, whose phone contained the video of the murder. Annika, in her leadership capacity, posits it’s still worth it to speak to the lifeguard and leaves with Michael to speak with Harijan.
By the way, I love a good info board in a procedural show. This show is fancy and uses a digital one!
Michael and Annika question Harijan with his lawyer about the video on the phone. Harijan insists he doesn’t know the victim nor is this phone indeed his. Harijan claims he was at the cinema with his sister but admits he dodged his train fare so that explains why he ran from the cops. Hmmm, do we believe this, viewers? Michael proves he’s lying. Annika says, “So why don’t you tell us why you really ran?”
Cut to Clarke congratulating Ferguson before they question the lifeguard and again, she must counter everyone’s initial feelings that she has to cut back on her job because she’s pregnant. Meanwhile, M and A banter/argue about whether to release Harijan. A turns to us and continues her seal story and hey, hey that leads her to an insight that perhaps the video is some kind of proof of death.
Ferguson and Clarke show the murder video and a pic of the cap to the lifeguard, questioning him about the last time he saw Dean alive. He claims he left Dean at a taxi stand, drunk after bar hopping.
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Michael informs Annika that Morgan is hanging with his daughters at his house, cooking together and getting along. The two question Harijan’s sister about the cinema but she had no idea about the murder and lets slip some unflattering and incriminating personality traits about her brother. She’s the kind of person who just talks too much and eventually says something useful.
Ferguson and Clarke unearth cab stand footage that shows Dean and Harijan getting into a physical argument. They see a cabby help Dean into his vehicle. And behold, the driver matches the photofit given by the witness. Remember her? They all deduce this was a hit ordered by Harijan and carried out by the cab driver. Immediately and coincidentally, they get a message on the cloned phone: where’s my payment?
Back to questioning Harijan. Clarke and a smug and adorable Ferguson show him their evidence and lay out their case. He’s caught, guys. His lawyer tries to shush him as Harijan confesses and agrees to help them catch the cabby, who committed the murder.
As Annika shows boss Oban the plan to confront the cab driver using Harijan as bait, Oban reminds her that she’s yet to complete the hot debrief. Her boss can totally tell Annika is stressed and distracted by something. Maybe the debrief can help? Annika realizes that her fretting over telling Michael the truth about being Morgan’s dad appears on the outside to be her traumatized about the kidnapping and car explosion in Season 1’s finale.
Another cut to Harijan, wearing an earpiece so he can communicate with the police, sitting on a bench with a bag of money. Does this really happen? You can tell even before the cabby shows up that things will go south because Harijan screws it up. As Michael and Clarke sit in the bushes, they talk briefly about how Annika will take the news that Clarke is seeking a transfer.
Rihan Harijan clearly has no idea how to play it cool. Jaden arrives. Harijan proceeds to put the cabby ill at ease and on alert. Jaden runs when he hears the feedback in the earpiece, shoots a flare gun, but is quickly apprehended. Harijan tries to run off with the bag of money but knocks himself out when hitting his head on a beam of an abandoned building.
Michael talks with Annika about Ferguson’s pregnancy then she babbles about the seal story, trying to get to the secret. The endless banter just completely ruins the moment. The two see that Ingrid, his wife, has set up a tent in the back garden and all the girls are hanging out. Annika rushes Morgan to leave in her distracted manner. Oban’s car won’t open and she faces the camera, finishing the story. We see that Annika is also worried that Morgan will like Michael, his wife, and his daughters more and that she might want to leave Annika. Ok, that is where all the fretting is coming from! Annika doesn’t want to lose her daughter. We get to the truth finally.
End of Season 2 Episode 1, folks. Michael still doesn’t know. Morgan doesn’t know. Annika is still putting off that conversation. Do you think they will push this til the season finale? Check out our recaps as they are posted and find out! This show is starting to feel less like Dark Thriller/Crime and more Cozy Mystery. What do you think?