The Scorpion and the Tortoise (Season 4, Episode 2)
Premise: When a dismembered body turns up in unaddressed parcels at a mail centre, Bateman and Darcy pursue a fired construction worker who torments his old boss without quite breaking the law.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 4, Episode 2
- Starring
- DS John Darcy (Luke Kirby), DS Frankie Bateman (Kathleen Munroe), Insp. Vivienne Holness (Karen Robinson), DCA Theo Forrester (K.C. Collins), Dr. Lucy Da Silva (Nicola Correia-Damude)
- Director
- Chloé Robichaud
- Writers
- Sam Godfrey
Summary
The Case
“The Scorpion and the Tortoise” begins at a Capstone Buildings site on Jarvis, where Malik Chambers, a labourer and prankster, falls two storeys when his safety line fails to hold. A month later, workers at a mail sorting centre find unaddressed, unstamped parcels holding 27 pieces of one man’s body. Dr. Da Silva finds he was shot six times with a 9mm gun and cut apart after death with a reciprocating saw; burn scars cover a removed tattoo. A fingerprint identifies Malik, 27, a former gang member, and his new truck’s GPS leads to a street across from the Glendower Boys’ headquarters.
A Guns and Gangs raid gives the detectives leverage over the gang’s leader, Andre Miller, who says Malik came on Sunday, the day he vanished, to buy an untraceable Glock, then left on foot without his truck. The detectives conclude his intended target killed him. Capstone bought Malik the truck after an insurance ruling blamed him for his fall. Head ironworker Clint Vetro denies unclipping Malik’s harness and says Sean Carson, who also worked the platform, was fired days later over vodka in his water bottle. At his late father’s house, Sean tells of Malik locking a co-worker in a portable toilet, and Bateman notes he repeats the words he said over Malik after the fall. Sean lets the detectives take the reciprocating saw from his workshop.
The saw was sterilized, but Forrester says that is no basis for a search warrant, and Sean walks out. Bateman’s father, consulted on Sean’s abusive childhood, sees only fury and a taste for watching people suffer. Detective Strauss explains a harassment complaint: Capstone’s boss, Nate Zechner, had Sean framed with the vodka after Malik accused him, and Sean answered with rifle videos, a mailed photo of Nate’s daughter, Alice, and the death of Nate’s dog. Nate now refuses help and has hired Sean. After Sean hints at buried secrets, cadaver dogs find Malik’s head in the ravine behind Nate’s home, though Nate was in Montreal when Malik died.
The Interrogation
With Sean parked outside Nate’s house, the detectives realize Capstone gave Malik an $80,000 truck four days before he went after Sean. They confront Nate as he prepares to send Alice to his sister in Oakville. It emerges that Sean holds Malik’s burner phone, with messages that could incriminate Nate. Promised round-the-clock protection for Alice, Nate admits he hired Malik to kill Sean because police could not stop the harassment, knowing he faces a conspiracy to commit murder charge.
The ending
Spoiler: Sean is arrested for Malik’s murder and, as he is led away, shouts and laughs at Nate for turning on him. The episode closes with the detectives wondering what hunting monsters makes of them.
Suspects’ fates: Sean Carson, arrested; Nate Zechner, other or unclear.
Why it stands out
- Bateman now introduces Darcy as her partner, so his secondment from Guns and Gangs, set up in the premiere for a single case, carries on into the season.
- Bateman’s father appears, consulted as a professional on the killer’s psychology, and invites her to a Sunday schnitzel dinner with her daughter, Rowan.