you overcompensate, miller

hardy taking a dramatic, surly drag of tea

Every shot immediately after the Not Guilty verdict is read out, in order.

The intentional choice to leave Joe’s reaction till last (the next scene is him turning to look at Ellie before leaving the dark) highlights who Broadchurch wants to focus on. The verdict “literally” affects Joe the most, but the larger psychological impact is on those who watch him go free, and know that justice was not served. shooting close-up also emphasizes their facial reactions.

(and the only one who’s really happy about it is abby, because she is indeed The Worst.)

season 3 episode 2

katie is SO LUCKY that hardy calls for miller’s attention immediately after this 

the devastation in ellie’s face tho

scenes from s03e04: top - interview w/ aaron mayworth (suspect w/ sex offender record); bottom - mayworth sneaks up on katie in her car

aaron mayworth is so slimy i barely even wanted to screencap him!!

we’ve seen many examples of people who have been wrongly indemnified as sexual predators/accomplices by jury of law or opinion, such as jack & susan wright (and in the opposite ‘direction’, joe as innocent.) aaron mayworth is a counterpoint: he’s innocent of the rape of trish winterman, and might be innocent of the crimes he went to jail for (technically never verified)...but he’s certainly a sexual predator. there are different ways men rationalize and perform sexual offenses, and this season of broadchurch presents a full range. we see mayworth sexually harass katie (after waiting until she’s alone); he disrespects her boundaries & demonstrates a warped interpretation of sex and consent - believing that she is “enjoying this” - without shame. it’s easy to envision how he could ignore the difference between consensual kinky sex and unwanted sexual assault, and how he might really believe himself not to be a rapist. but his ideas could make him just as dangerous as the man who knocks out his targets with a cricket bat.

& i want to draw attention to the quick two-line exchange where, after already being told to leave twice, mayworth asks katie “your boyfriend leave you here alone, did he?” and katie replies “i don’t have a boyfriend”. it’s a socially ingrained instinct for women to sometimes engage with male harassers in that way, even if they don’t want to, because trying to express discomfort that way might be safer than inviting aggression. though he is repeatedly and unambiguously rejected, & ultimately physically removed, men like mayworth will read into those interactions what they themselves choose to believe.

not often someone other than miller gets one over on hardy!

top picture: susan wright to maggie radcliffe, s01e04 second picture: family photo, s01e07 2-frame sequence: susan in witness box after denying making threat to maggie, s0e05 final 6 frames: susan under interrogation (abridged), s01e07

susan wright is so enigmatic (& pauline quirke wonderful at portraying her contradictions). in just one sentence susan makes arguably the most spine-chilling threat of the entire show - “i know men who would rape you” - then under interrogation gives one of the show’s most devastating monologues. (the first and only time she’ll show such vulnerability.) she loves her dog & waits years to find her son, but leaves danny’s body in the surf. how could someone whose daughters were raped, so cavalierly threaten another woman with the same? (even if she had no intention of following through.)

who knows if susan was always this surly, but seeing her beaming in that old family photo (think she’s second from the left?), i’d theorize much of her coldness is a defensive tactic, direct result of what’s happened to her. i didn’t have space for the maaany screencaps of susan essentially saying “fuck the police”, but after her husband’s suicide, the media & the law are all that's left for her to take out her anger on. see how she tells ellie in the interrogation sequence above, “You people [the police] destroyed my family” (instead of her husband). journalists, police and child services twisted her words against her, called her a bad mother and took her remaining children away, so why should she respect or call them when she finds danny’s body? she sees maggie as emblematic of all media, who never understood her pain, so has no problem threatening her by invoking the exact sort of monster her husband was. and she’ll deny her threat in court because even if maggie isn’t lying, journalists lie, and susan won’t give them the satisfaction. [[edit: also explains why when susan meets ellie again at the trial, instead of sympathizing w/ their shared experience, she throws ellie’s doubt back in her face. “you must have known - we all know”]]

focusing on these enemies also allows her to push further from the spectre of her husband, and the personal guilt of not knowing or doing anything to stop him. (something ellie will also encounter - the show isn’t subtle about that parallel.) not many people would first describe a child’s corpse as “beautiful”, “peaceful”, but susan is used to distancing from death; what affects her most is how danny looks, because she’s haunted by what she didn’t see. (also remember, susan found out much later & never saw her daughter’s body.) in interrogation, susan says her older daughter “got herself killed” by standing up to the father; of course susan’s not actually blaming her daughter, but she can’t bring herself to vocalize the depths of her own failure. she creates tiny bits of emotional distance by referring to her children as if they hold no relation to her: the daughters are “the oldest” and “the young one”; “her sister was having none of it” and “wanted to protect her little baby sister”; later social services takes “the baby”. only when susan is brought to tears does she abandon these separations (here’s the whole quote): “When I was...looking at that boy’s body, I kept wondering if my girl looked that peaceful after he killed her.” wanting danny’s body, left untouched, to be evidence her daughter might have died without pain. 

but then again, pauline quirke instantly injects anger into her tears with that haunting “i don’t think she did”. 

**left column is s01e05, right is s02e08. i had to finagle the lines a little bit to meet the image limits.

watch these parallel speeches between Beth/Paul and Miller/Hardy (Miller is reacting to the ‘not guilty’ verdict). both Beth and Hardy make reference to anger as a sustaining force, yet they use it differently: Hardy is using fury to motivate his work, while Beth is using fury to survive - and just barely. a Hardy model of never-ending rage isn’t exactly sustainable, but used sparingly & intentionally it gives the detectives increased determination to catch the next killer. meanwhile, Beth clings to her rage because she doesn’t know how to move on. for Hardy and Miller, anger is propellant; for Beth, it’s stalling her in grief.

key to these approaches is that Hardy has accepted he can’t change the verdict or the murder committed, while Beth is still furious at her powerlessness. they’re facing totally different directions, with Beth railing against her past and Hardy resolutely pushing forwards (though with no thought of the emotional toil on the body). so it makes sense that Paul, whose primary focus is spiritual wellbeing, is trying to coax Beth down from her anger; while Hardy, whose primary focus is justice, wants Miller to "stoke” her anger even higher.

tl;dr: beth should probably see a bereavement counselor; hardy should probably take a spa day

the broadchurch slug is one of the more obvious visual metaphors for finally catching and “stomping out” danny’s murderer, an intruder to their home. imo it’s even more effective as an illustration of how ellie’s feelings change between this first scene (left column) and second (right column). the muted, matter-of-fact way she kills the slug reflects how removing the “monster/invader” from play hasn’t healed the damage he’s caused - there’s no catharsis here, but a disillusionment and disgust causing her to kill what is ultimately a pretty pathetic threat.

also, that slug sure lingered about didn’t he. R.I.P.

season 3 miller is full on ‘dear abby’ to alec’s personal & professional problems, and it’s glorious. 

ellie helps him deal with daisy & claire’s tantrums both - a parallel - with claire, his roles as father and lover are purposely collapsed together (even though he wasn’t actually in a relationship with claire, their intimacy & creeping codependency is highly implied through much of the season; meanwhile, claire acts very childlike most of the time). 

it’s notable that while hardy usually has no problem being brusque and demanding, unconcerned with people’s feelings, in these situations it’s been miller who has to convince him to take a tough hand. (both instances have to do with hardy’s feelings of guilt.) it’s one way of showing how their personalities have grown more similar over the show, but also a confirmation that miller's experience as a mother & in navigating human relationships makes her more effective in addressing claire’s petulance. the additional steel ellie has gained from alec has made her a stronger detective, but her interpersonal skills make him stronger as well. while hardy started season one as the more obvious figure of competence, broadchurch is always clear that he is less effective without a balancing figure.

lastly, as ellie confronts her son’s bad behavior, she has constantly questioned whether or not she has been a good mother - moments like these demonstrate that her disciplinarian side is harsh but fair.

hardy refusing food

haven’t we all wanted to say this at many points throughout the series

hardy shooting ellie a side eye as she rifles through her things for food/drink = some of my favorite scenes