What Lies Beneath
Episode 4 of The Woods begins with reports on the news of human bones found in the lake near the summer camp. When Pawel learns about this, he heads there to speak to the forensic team. Although they do’t have a lot to go on, one thing’s for sure – the body is a female. Is this Kamila? In 1994, Lubelski gets the sniffer dogs involved and starts combing through the woods for clues. Although the dogs don’t find anything, Lubelski does find a bloodied shirt hidden in the branches. That shirt belongs to Pawel who refuses to cooperate with the inspector, partly thanks to Natalia keeping a close eye on proceedings and demanding they go down to the police station to deal with this. After Lubelski grabs photos from Dawid’s dark room, Pawel heads to the station with his Mother ready for questioning. However, they both remain tight-lipped over what happened in the woods. Lubelski has proof though – the pictures he grabbed from Dawid clearly show Pawel wearing the shirt. As he continues on, he admits to our protagonist that the blood spatter is from Monika. In 2019, Pawel receives 2 more brown envelopes, one of which holding a USB drive. When he fails to open it, given it’s password protected, he tasks his assistant Iza to decipher it. For now this is put to bed as Pawel manages to find a lead in the Klaudia case but in order to get what he wants, Pawel is forced to bend the law to his liking. Not long after, Pawel meets Laura and tells her about the human remains found in the lake, afraid it could be Kamila. In 1994, Pawel is now the main suspect in the murder. When he tells Laura as much, they agree to meet by the swimming pool where he tries to piece together what happened that night through a makeshift map made of tiles. Realizing that one of the chaperones may be responsible, he teams up with Laura and together they start to follow Wojtek. At his house, Pawel sneaks into the green-house and finds a lock-box with a lock of hair inside, immediately snapping a photo for evidence. In 2019, Pawel’s car is vandalized but he pushes this to the back of his mind when he learns the USB has been cracked. Inside is hacked camera footage of him and his wife Joanna taken from their webcam. Realizing he’s been bugged, he sets to work trying to decipher what this means but in the meantime receives definitive DNA test results – the body is definitely Artur’s and not Marek. Laura and Pawel continue to look into the case together, tracking down the boy responsible for sending Laura incriminating emails, while in 1994, Lubelski follows the clues and arrests Wojtek for the murders. Alone with his partner though, he’s not so sure he killed the kids, suspecting it’s Pawel but with little evidence to go on. It turns out he lied about Monika’s blood being on the shirt too. Meanwhile, Jork learns that Marek’s apartment has been completely scrubbed clean. Only, under UV light they see Pawel’s name smeared in blood and it immediately looks like Pawel is the main suspect here. With more twists and turns being unveiled in this crime drama, The Woods slips up with its unnecessary busy-work in the form of Klaudia’s case for Pawel to handle. To be honest, it’s nowhere near as exciting or interesting as the summer camp drama and the way it works at-odds with this mystery is a disappointing blemish in what’s otherwise a pretty good show. With Pawel now the main suspect and Wojtek certainly suspicious, despite being arrested, the series leaves things wide open for the final few episodes. Is there another twist in the tale to come?
