Sky Atlantic’s Tin Star
Season 1, Episode 7: “Exposure”
Directed by Giles Bannier
Written by Tom Butterworth & Chris Hurford

* For a recap & review of the previous episode, “Cuckoo” – click here
* For a recap & review of the next episode, “This Be the Verse” – click here
A molotov cocktail’s been tossed onto North Stream Oil property. A fire starts. Knocking on a door inside is Jim Worth (Tim Roth). He doesn’t wait long before kicking in the door.
But wait. Not yet. Let’s head back 24 hours prior. At Randy’s (Lynda Boyd) place, strippers dancing onstage, Elizabeth Bradshaw (Christina Hendricks) meets with Jim, who’s crawling as far back into the bottle as he can manage. She says she’s looking into the accusations he made against them. She’s found out things about a town named Reverie, where there were some mysterious deaths. Jim warns her: “Your boss is a murderer and there‘s a witness out there.”
Things get uncomfortable for Jim when his daughter Anna (Abigail Lawrie) is coming up to see him at his hotel room. Because he also finds an unconscious naked woman on his floor, along with one in the bathtub, a note from Jack Devlin on the mirror to find Reginald’s buddies. He manages to keep things sensible for all of a minute and then Anna stumbles onto the scene in the bathroom. She wakes the women, helps them gather their things. What a thing for a daughter to have to do. Can’t help her perspective on men much.
In the meantime, Constable Denise Minahik (Sarah Podemski) calls Chief Worth to let him know of a crime scene on a desolate road, an SUV with a burned body inside. Obviously he knows. Simultaneously, Constable Nick McGillen (Ryan Kennedy) still has a shit opinion of his current boss. Well, he and Denise have to question Jim about being seen leaving with a man matching the corpse’s description, so, y’know, things at the station are tense.
Liz has made her way out to Reverie, heading for the First Nations police headquarters. Hoping to dig out more information, and dirt, on Louis Gagnon (Christopher Heyerdahl). She meets with the Chief of their department, he’s cryptic. Although she notices an expensive watch, wondering if there’s corruption in their neck of the woods. This gets her no further than when she started.
Angela Worth (Genevieve O’Reilly) goes in to give an alibi for her husband. She claims he was home all evening with her. They “made love” – or, sorry, they “fucked,” she corrects herself. Nick asks if he’s a violent drunk, Denise questioning her, too. They show her Roger Crouch, a.k.a Reginald; the ID she’s seen, covered in blood. Naturally, she wants the men who killed her boy dead, so she gives the alibi, wondering if her husband’s still got any control left over the situation.
Creepy to see Whitey at the grave of Pete, his half-brother, with his half-sister who’s mourning, and whose hand he’s holding. All so strange. Particularly when he says the bullet was meant for Jim. She doesn’t necessarily see that as an admission, just common sense: dad’s always the target.
Gagnon finds out Frank bought himself a viper on his way into town, among other things. He warns the London gangster that he must be careful, to not buy weapons from the wrong people, to not get caught. They’ve got work to do and the tall Frenchman wants the copper dead. If not, he’ll also wind up the same way.
On her way out of Reverie, Elizabeth keeps asking questions. She also runs into none other than supposed-to-be-missing Jaclyn Letendre (Michelle Thrush). Hmm. This alerts the Reverie First Nations PD, in turn they alert Gagnon. This is getting worrisome.
In other news, Jim’s busy trying to track down clues Jack, his second self, has left him. He finds a phone number to a private investigator on Reginald’s ID, a case number beside it. But he also has to Denise, still curious about the truth. She did find a Wild Buffalo bottle of liquor in the burned out vehicle, she knows. There’s a part of her that wants to help the Chief.
So, he takes her over to the hotel where he explains his past, as an undercover cop, a “criminal, really, licensed by the state to catch other criminals.” Two years in the game, a long time for a UC. All this only make Denise more inclined to stay on his side. Now, Jim is up at North Stream Oil, looking for information on Reginald, his trailer, so on. Gagnon stops him, piling a threat on top, too. Y’know that ain’t gonna stop our copper. It’ll only put more logs on the fire. And, will Jim be the one to show up next time? Or will Jack?
Whitey and Anna get physical. Her first time having sex; he treats her like utter shit because of it. Is he feeling guilty for having sex with his half-sister? At home, Jim and Angela are unaware, discussing what he’s doing next in the search for their boy’s killer. That’s when he makes her aware it’s most definitely linked to Mr. Devlin. This also brings about the realisation they have bring Jack out, on purpose. Because “he gets things done.”

Back to the beginning, once more.
Jim, controlled by Jack and the booze, goes to North Stream. He tosses a molotov cocktail to start a fire. In he goes, to find Reginald’s old room. There he finds a biker’s cut, which after he talks with Denise about; he wants to know about the bullet in her shoulder, if he can make a match. Following that, he heads down to Randy’s Roadhouse, where he knocks over all the biker’s hogs, causing shit. He tries getting a bit of info from Randy, though he doesn’t realise she’s in bed and in business with Frank. Randy’s worried the “debt of honour” her new man talked about might involved the Chief. This gets the London gangster on edge.
So Randy starts helping Frank, trying to throw Jim off the scent. That’s until she starts hearing more about young Petey’s death, how the boy was killed instead of him. Will she continue helping? Or will guilt swallow her whole? Because Jim, Jack, they’re too smart to let any of this go.
Another spectacular episode. Others have a different opinion – Father Gore loves every second. Tim Roth is fantastic, as are Genevieve O’Reilly and others. What a tour-de-force for Roth. Gets more intense each episode, as well.
“This Be the Verse” comes next time.