Marcella Season 3
Jun. 25th, 2020 08:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rsadelleMarcella remains a fairly disturbing and violent show, but aaaah, I loved the end of season 3. You could probably watch season 3 without having watched the first two and have it make sense, although you may want to be spoiled with a few details. (See the first paragraph under the cut for the spoilers from seasons 1 and 2 that matter for season 3.)
To recap the important things from the previous seasons: Marcella was a detective who had blackouts. Rav was one of her fellow detectives. At some point, Marcella had to give a DNA sample to be on file, but, fearing that she might have been the killer during a blackout, she paid a random woman to give the DNA sample. Marcella had two children, and she had an infant daughter who died. At the end of season 2, she went to a hypnotherapist and discovered that she killed the baby. She ends up living on the street, where Frank, another detective, approaches her. He tells her that a building burned down and there was a DNA match for one of the bodies to the Marcella DNA on file, and that a dead woman would make a useful undercover officer.
Season 3 opens eighteen months later. Marcella is now undercover as Keira, investigating the Maguire crime family in Belfast. The Maguires are Katherine, the matriarch who thinks family is the most important thing and her children: Finn, who does a lot of the running things; Rory, who deals with legal and financial things; Stacey, who is pregnant; and Bobby, Stacey's husband who is way out of his league and keeps screwing things up. There is also Jack, who is an enforcer type and Finn's lover. Marcella is dating Lawrence, the Maguires' accountant. When they kill him, they tell her to stay with them. She starts sleeping with Finn (there's a great bit where she tells Jack that they aren't enemies and that they both want the same thing - a life with Finn), moves on to seducing Rory and gaining his trust, helping cover up evidence of a murder Bobby committed, and then trying to help Stacey and her newborn daughter Katie escape the family after she's the one to tell Stacey the truth about what happened to Bobby. She continues to have blackouts and what I guess would be considered psychotic breaks.
Rav shows up as the detective investigating the murder Bobby committed in London. Some other things happen, and Bobby commits another murder of someone Katherine wanted alive to use as a bargaining chip, is dumb enough to leave a witness, who Marcella tries to get to Rav, and then kills the witness too. Rory has Bobby kidnapped by former cops who record him as being willing to turn over evidence before killing him.
Anyway, here's the part I really love: at the end of the season, the Maguires have Stacey and Katie locked up in the house. Katherine has had another stroke and now she can't speak and she's paralyzed on her right side, which the doctor says may heal. Marcella has managed to destabilize the entire family, and she calls Rav to tell him where all the evidence he needs to take them down for good is. The family has found out she's still an active cop. Frank arms himself and comes onto the property. Jack shoots him; he stabs Jack. Marcella, Finn, and Rory have a standoff, pointing guns at each other, and Marcella yells for Stacey to leave. Stacey puts the baby in the car, and then comes back and shoots Rory in retaliation for him having Bobby killed. Finn follows Stacey outside and shoots her. Marcelle and Finn continue on outside, and Rav arrives. Finn shoots Rav. Marcella shoots Finn.
Marcella goes back to the house, gets the baby out of the car, and stands over Rory with a knife. She takes the baby upstairs and sets her down on Katherine's bed, just out of her reach. She opens up a laptop and takes Rory's eye out of a bloody handkerchief to use it to unlock access to the accounts. She turns the laptop around to show Katherine that she's taking their money - nearly twenty-five million pounds - and tells her it's all for Katie. Katherine just barely moves her right hand toward the baby. Marcella takes Katie and drives away.
At the very end, Marcella and Katie are in an obviously expensive airport bar. One of the waitresses brings her a phone and asks for her by a new name. When Marcella takes the phone, a male voice says, "Marcella Backland." She hangs up, finishes her drink, and takes Katie out to board what is clearly a private plane. The last thing we see is the phone ring again and then go dark.
Aaaaaahhhh! I loved it! Marcella is so unstable, so probably this is not going to go well, but, aaaaahhhh! (Nearly) everyone is dead and she took the baby and the money! I realized part of what I liked about it is that she ran the same kind of cons Leverage uses - turning the villains against each other and making them consolidate the money - but without the good humor. It felt like such a satisfying ending, and it's set up well for a fourth season where Katherine Maguire and whatever loyal minions she still has are going after Marcella.
To recap the important things from the previous seasons: Marcella was a detective who had blackouts. Rav was one of her fellow detectives. At some point, Marcella had to give a DNA sample to be on file, but, fearing that she might have been the killer during a blackout, she paid a random woman to give the DNA sample. Marcella had two children, and she had an infant daughter who died. At the end of season 2, she went to a hypnotherapist and discovered that she killed the baby. She ends up living on the street, where Frank, another detective, approaches her. He tells her that a building burned down and there was a DNA match for one of the bodies to the Marcella DNA on file, and that a dead woman would make a useful undercover officer.
Season 3 opens eighteen months later. Marcella is now undercover as Keira, investigating the Maguire crime family in Belfast. The Maguires are Katherine, the matriarch who thinks family is the most important thing and her children: Finn, who does a lot of the running things; Rory, who deals with legal and financial things; Stacey, who is pregnant; and Bobby, Stacey's husband who is way out of his league and keeps screwing things up. There is also Jack, who is an enforcer type and Finn's lover. Marcella is dating Lawrence, the Maguires' accountant. When they kill him, they tell her to stay with them. She starts sleeping with Finn (there's a great bit where she tells Jack that they aren't enemies and that they both want the same thing - a life with Finn), moves on to seducing Rory and gaining his trust, helping cover up evidence of a murder Bobby committed, and then trying to help Stacey and her newborn daughter Katie escape the family after she's the one to tell Stacey the truth about what happened to Bobby. She continues to have blackouts and what I guess would be considered psychotic breaks.
Rav shows up as the detective investigating the murder Bobby committed in London. Some other things happen, and Bobby commits another murder of someone Katherine wanted alive to use as a bargaining chip, is dumb enough to leave a witness, who Marcella tries to get to Rav, and then kills the witness too. Rory has Bobby kidnapped by former cops who record him as being willing to turn over evidence before killing him.
Anyway, here's the part I really love: at the end of the season, the Maguires have Stacey and Katie locked up in the house. Katherine has had another stroke and now she can't speak and she's paralyzed on her right side, which the doctor says may heal. Marcella has managed to destabilize the entire family, and she calls Rav to tell him where all the evidence he needs to take them down for good is. The family has found out she's still an active cop. Frank arms himself and comes onto the property. Jack shoots him; he stabs Jack. Marcella, Finn, and Rory have a standoff, pointing guns at each other, and Marcella yells for Stacey to leave. Stacey puts the baby in the car, and then comes back and shoots Rory in retaliation for him having Bobby killed. Finn follows Stacey outside and shoots her. Marcelle and Finn continue on outside, and Rav arrives. Finn shoots Rav. Marcella shoots Finn.
Marcella goes back to the house, gets the baby out of the car, and stands over Rory with a knife. She takes the baby upstairs and sets her down on Katherine's bed, just out of her reach. She opens up a laptop and takes Rory's eye out of a bloody handkerchief to use it to unlock access to the accounts. She turns the laptop around to show Katherine that she's taking their money - nearly twenty-five million pounds - and tells her it's all for Katie. Katherine just barely moves her right hand toward the baby. Marcella takes Katie and drives away.
At the very end, Marcella and Katie are in an obviously expensive airport bar. One of the waitresses brings her a phone and asks for her by a new name. When Marcella takes the phone, a male voice says, "Marcella Backland." She hangs up, finishes her drink, and takes Katie out to board what is clearly a private plane. The last thing we see is the phone ring again and then go dark.
Aaaaaahhhh! I loved it! Marcella is so unstable, so probably this is not going to go well, but, aaaaahhhh! (Nearly) everyone is dead and she took the baby and the money! I realized part of what I liked about it is that she ran the same kind of cons Leverage uses - turning the villains against each other and making them consolidate the money - but without the good humor. It felt like such a satisfying ending, and it's set up well for a fourth season where Katherine Maguire and whatever loyal minions she still has are going after Marcella.