The Velveteen Rabbit
Episode 2 of The Devil’s Hour starts with Chloe starting to be swayed by Shane’s poundings on her front door. She hangs up on Lucy, deciding not to take her advice, and open the door to let Shane in. Only… he’s not on the porch. He’s actually been impaled and killed by someone. It was Shane’s body not Tilly’s taken out that night, which is what Lucy saw. Gideon gleefully retorts that he was in the crowd that night, and watched all of this unfold, shocked that he reunited with her after all this time. As Gideon continues, he makes Lucy promise to lie and claim she doesn’t believe him; if she doesn’t, everyone at the station is going to think she’s crazy. The story picks up a week after Shane Fisher’s death. Mike admits he’s worried about Lucy and the line of work she’s involved in. “I love you,” Mike says. “I know.” Lucy replies. Oof. It turns out Isaac is the elephant in the room here and Mike has tried to get him to open up and show some emotion but it’s not working. Isaac actually happens to be at the door, and he replies emotionlessly that there’s someone in the garden. When Lucy has a look, she notices the back gate is unlocked. Meanwhile, Ravi continues to spearhead the murder case. He’s found boxes of evidence from the Bridgeside Lodges and they need to find out who this man is and why he wants Lucy Chambers. The name “Hobson” is also scrawled on the wall, which happens to be the name of Jonah Taylor’s teddy bear. Ravi tries to find who Lucy Chambers is, following several different leads, including the red Nissan and anyone called Lucy Chambers. Well, one woman confirms that the car appears to have been moving around a lot, popping up in different locations. Then it disappeared one day. Ravi realizes that the killer has been using this as a way of scouting out as many different “Lucy Chambers” as possible and whittling them down to the one they’re after. The scenes that follow are great from a character perspective, as we learn that Ravi is generous (he gives £10 to a homeless man and doesn’t think twice about it) and he’s attentive with his work, wanting to take everything seriously. Anyway, Isaac is brought back to Dr Bennett’s office to discuss emotions and, in particular, his lack thereof. When asked what makes Lucy sad, Isaac heartbreakingly replies “me”. As for Isaac, he continues to experience strange visions, repeating what Lucy is saying and seemingly spying a man moving around the room. Apparently it’s a different man to the one from the garden, and he’s just watching them. Lucy is understandably freaked out, especially when Isaac claims he’s right next to her. And when Lucy leaves the room, a dark figure seems to be standing in the corner. 3.33 rolls round again and of course, Lucy is up and unable to sleep. She heads downstairs and into the dining room, examining the wall Isaac was so fixated on. She knocks, immediately bringing her next door with a bottle of wine to welcome the new neighbours. The thing is, they don’t drink. It’s a bit awkward and doubly so when Lucy starts to see Debbie’s face as burned and stretched out. She also finds Meredith has a toy that happens to fit the exact topper that Isaac has been constantly buying all this time. She’s incredulous and can barely believe it. Naturally, we cut back to Gideon and Lucy again, with the former telling her she can never think that she’s crazy and to trust the validity of the story she’s telling, as she’s completely sane. Gideon goes on and promises that he’s sane too. The real Lucy Chambers – or at least the one we believe the case revolves around – is called into school after a particularly nasty incident in the playground. The Year 6 boys encouraged Isaac to slap himself in the face and Lucy is not happy. She points out that something is broken inside her son and she has no idea how to fix him. Meanwhile, Ravi continues to close in on Lucy Chambers which is perhaps just as well, given she returns home and finds the door wide open. It turns out it’s just Mike. He let himself in, as he has something to say to her. He’s been seeing someone and she wants to make it official, which will break off what they have going on. On the subject of confessions, Lucy drops a clanger. She confesses she thinks of someone else when they have sex and it’s no one in particular…but just not Mike. Outside, Mike admits that he came in through the front door, not the back door. Uh oh. Lucy immediately runs inside, just as Ravi realizes that the killer was never after Lucy…he was after Isaac. Isaac is gone from the house and it appears Gideon has taken him…but why? To what end?
The Episode Review
The Devil’s Hour bows out its second episode with a great hour of drama, one that manages to tighten the screw and really show Lucy’s world starting to become unhinged. The acting across the board has been great and the entire series has a really solid hook and premise to it, harking back to other thrillers in this field but continuing to carve a unique slice of the pie for itself. The series has a really nice tone to it and the sudden flickers, teasing toward a more sinister truth being obscured from us, is a nice touch. Sure, it can be a little slow at times but even as a slow burn, this is certainly enthralling.
