WRITER: Robert Murphy DIRECTOR: Paul Walker
CAST: David Morrissey (Danny Brogan), Lucy Cohu (Evelyn Brogan), Felicity Jones (Zoë Brogan), Harry Treadaway (Mark Brogan), Ralph Brown (Bernard Wintersgill), Nina Sosanya (Samantha Campbell), Melanie Hill (Brenda Ogilvie), Ella Smith (Jezebel Ogilvie), Tristan Gemmill (Dr David York), Don Gilet (Freddie Marcuse), Scot Williams (Tom Tyrell), Emma Davies (Abigail York) & Tom Hardy (Jack Donnelly)
Danny attempts to decipher the truth about Cape Wrath, Samantha visits her father, and the romantic triangle between Dr York, Abigail and Evelyn takes a disturbing turn...A far better show once claimed "the truth is out there". In the sixth episode of Cape Wrath, the truth is finally revealed about the mysterious town of Meadowlands. Unfortunately, it's sort of what you expected, with a few elements that don't really make much sense thrown in for good measure.
Last week, Danny (David Morrissey, struggling gamely), was told of "Cape Wrath" by creepy Ormond, who was framed for Jack Donnelly's murder. Danny spends this episode trying to figure out the meaning of those two words, by asking weird Freddie (Don Gilet). Unfortunately, instead of just shrugging it off, Freddie can't resist playing mindgames to drive the plot forward.
Anyway, it doesn't really matter what Danny's doing, because us lucky viewers are given answers by Samantha (Nina Sosanya), who visits her college professor father in London. [SPOILERS AHEAD] It transpires that Samantha's dad is dying of a brain tumour, but has spent his life researching memory, primarily through "Una" (a young girl found locked in a box for the first four years of her life). "Cape Wrath" is a codeword for an experiment going on in Meadowlands, headed by Samantha, using her dad's theories into memory manipulation. The residents are all on witness protection so fear will keep them all contained. [SPOILERS END]
We're asked to care about Samantha's terminally ill father, despite only having met him 20 minutes, so his eventual fate just doesn't carry any emotional weight. Likewise, Nina Sosanya's appearances in the show have been fleeting and two-dimensional, so the explosion in her relevance and revealing of a backstory seems quite forced. Still, on the positive side, we finally got away from Meadowlands and were given some answers, no matter how humdrum they turned out to be.
Elsewhere, Mark Brogan (Harry Treadaway) continues living every teenager's nightmare by bedding middle-aged neighbour Brenda Ogilvie (Melanie Hill), inbetween speaking in that hushed, childish voice of his. I swear it's perfectly attuned to cause murderous thoughts in whoever hears him.
As Zoë Brogan, Felicity Jones seems like a talented actress who will hopefully go on to greater things, but she's directionless here. After last week's teen-detective outing, she loses her pluck thanks to Tom (Scot Williams) growing concerned about Wintersgill (Ralph Brown)... so she returns the stolen files she spent all last week trying to get! So much for that then.
The interminable love triangle between Dr David York (Tristan Gemmill), Evelyn Brogan (Lucy Cohu) and Abigail York (Emma Davies) trundles on. The actors all try their best, but the interest just isn't there. The York's marriage was flimsy and ready to implode way before Evelyn arrived on the scene, and Evelyn's relationship with Danny has always seemed quite strong. Dr York's just a silly distraction for her. Oh, I just don't care about any of those characters, basically -- particularly now Lucy Cohu's pursed lip stares have become almost as irritating as her screen son's voice.
There are only two more episodes left, so maybe something extraordinary will happen. Or, more likely, it will all just end with a whimper. Cape Wrath is just so desperate to be mysterious and weird, it fails at every turn. Nothing really makes sense, or just isn't explained...
In Episode 6, Danny is attacked by a house fly; but there's no explanation, so I'll assume it was an hallucination inflicted on him by Meadowlands staff . Quite how they achieved this effect is anyone's guess, but atleast it gave the director an excuse to make us laugh with some ridiculous fly POV shots!
There was plenty of promise with Cape Wrath during its first two episodes, but most of the goodwill has been flushed away now. It's just silly and intellectually shallow, with obvious weird-out tactics and laughable artistic decisions. I always chuckle at how the town's sinister "policeman" Wintersgill likes to sit alone in his office with a green light shining through venetian blinds, creating emerald pools of light everywhere.
Ooh, creepy! Isn't it? Anyone?
