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Bound begins with Frank talking to the Rose Gilchrist through Amy’s body, now that her past life has been fully triggered, and she needs him to track down someone else who is due for triggering. But who? Well, for the purposes of TV, she writes it down on a piece of paper for him to read, but not for us to discover… yet. Ooh, these pesky TV execs!! However, what they need to do is such a great risk that, if they get rumbled, they’ll no longer be allowed to come back and live additional lives.
Jack talks to Amy on the phone, she urges him to come home so they can be together – even though he’s at home already! Anyhoo, he says he’s on his way, but first he needs to tool up… yes, nothing says “romantic reunion” than shoving a Colt 45 in your loved one’s face. Amongst her personal belongings, she has a safe, which seems easy enough to open with a nail file (very secure!), and what’s inside? One of those black books with “9” embossed on the front, the words “Qui reverti” on the spine and, inside, “In the beginning… there was Death.”
There’s another “9” book inside, but both contain writing which isn’t in English, thus which baffles Jack, but the pictures inside include one of the jointly-held building we’ve come to know about. Some coins, nail varnish and what looks like a mouthpiece for a cornet are also in there, but never mind that because there’s someone outside who clearly wants to get in and finish him off…
A trigger-happy Jack blended with a slow-turning lock, and a slow-opening door, all actioned by someone choosing not to speak at first is not going to have a happy ending… you think, but, phew! It’s Brud and Bobbi Zimmerman (Tom Butler and Karin Konoval). But not phew! since they’re in on the whole shebang too! And as mad twist follows mad twist, Jack regains control of the situation, due to them being crap at fighting, but then Amy appears to lay down the whole deal: Amy is gone, there’s only Rose in front of him, and all those random items are a symbol of her previous lives and she can be triggered back into them with their assistance and, naturally, Jack’s having a mega-difficult time getting to grips with all this.
And their unborn baby, which Amy lost in a miscarriage? Rose claims that she killed him, but that “if it makes you feel any better, Amy doesn’t know I terminated the pregnancy”. There’s also the inference that the baby wasn’t cremated after all, and that she buried his body in the back yard.
Meanwhile, Richard’s eating out in a Cantonese restaurant, purely because the waiter is a Peter Nui (Trieu Tran), who doesn’t know it yet, but he’s clearly about to be triggered. Even more intriguing is when Amy declares him as “Bix”, and he responds, “How did you find me?” Hmm.. they didn’t have this in ITV’s drama, The Beiderbecke Tapes!
Later in the episode, Madison’s parents finally turn up to the house from where she called, finding the decomposing body of the occupant who she killed. They’re beside themselves when the police turn up, but there’s no point in crying about the situation to Detective Ron Blanchard (Daryl Shuttleworth) since he knows exactly what’s going on!
Bound has some powerful moments and we finally get some revelations that would’ve seen this series better in a 6-episode format than 8, so it was more engaging than most of the previous ones, but there was a complete absence of Madison – aside from a flashback to last week’s episode – who, as I’ve said before, is played by Millie Brown and is acting everyone off the screen.
Intruders continues on Saturday on BBC2 at 10.45pm.
Score: 7/10
Director: Daniel Stamm
Producers: John Martini, Angie Stephenson and Amy Hodge
Screenplay: Glen Morgan and Kristen Cloke (based on the book “The Intruders” by Michael Marshall Smith)
Creator: Glen Morgan
Music: Bear McCreary
Cast:
Jack Whelan: John Simm
Amy Whelan: Mira Sorvino
Richard Shepherd: James Frain
Brud Zimmerman: Tom Butler
Bobbi Zimmerman: Karin Konoval
Peter Nui: Trieu Tran
Madison O’Donnell: Millie Brown
Allison O’Donnell: Sonya Salomaa
Detective Ron Blanchard: Daryl Shuttleworth
Hostess: Theresa Wong
Juvenal: Mathias Retamal
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.