Sky Atlantic’s Tin Star
3×02: “Commitment”
Directed by Patrick Harkins
Written by Vanessa Alexander

* For a recap & review of Season 3’s premiere, “Homecoming,” click here.
* For a recap & review of “Love’s Young Dream,” click here.
That bit of TV with Jack Worth is getting around all over the place. Many people seem to take his words as a personal threat. People are digging holes beyond the cemetery, getting guns, and generally taking notice of the fact that ole Jackie Boy has come back to Liverpool. And clearly none of the results are going to be good, for anybody, really. Nice time to hear “The Old Man’s Back Again” by Scott Walker. All the while we see Michael is carrying his old gangster tricks into legitimate business, building his latest development over a massive crack that’ll make anything above it unstable. Right on, Mike!
Angela’s going off to do her own thing while Anna and Jack hang back. At the cop shop, Catherine is testing Sara to see what she’s all about and what she thinks about Jack’s accusations. D.I. Lunt is a bit of an odd one. Hard to tell whose side she’s on ultimately. Outside the hotel, Angela gets herself a new ride, lifting the I Loaf You Bakery’s van, as well as the delivery lad’s shirt, too. Fun use of “Baby’s On Fire” by Die Antwoord here. This leaves dad and daughter on an excursion together looking for a car. She wants to steal one, but dad echoes his wife’s words: “Act normal.” They’re going to try and stay under the police radar for the time being. Plus, they have cash coming out of their ears. We discover that D.I. Lunt’s also tailing Jack and Anna.
At the Stork Hotel, Angela uses the bakery disguise to get in through the back. That’s when she runs into the man who’s her target: Sean McGrath (Steve Wall). She doesn’t really get the chance to kill him before more people show up. She goes back to the van, angry at herself. At the same time, Jack realises he’s being followed, so he pulls over—letting Lunt pass them—and drops off his daughter, telling her to meet up with Anna. Jack goes further up the street to have a chat with Lunt. They sit for coffee and whiskey. Jack soon pulls his gun and makes Lunt cuff herself to the table, giving over her gun, to allow the Worths some more time. He even takes her shoes.

Anna goes to the Stork, where McGrath acts pretty surly towards her. She isn’t great at talking yet like her mom and dad. Luckily, Angela turns up with her gun, confronting Sean. There’s a lot of history here. Sean is the man who killed her younger brother years ago. He tries making a run for it and gets shot in the leg. Angela and Anna go after him but he gets a knife and attacks Angela. The two Worth ladies manage to get Sean on the floor. Angela demands the truth about her brother’s death, and Sean doesn’t give her much. So she orders his pants and shirt off. They take him to the freezer, forcing him inside. Angela gets some truth, then she pistol whips Sean and leaves him inside the freezer with no way to get out; she also stuffs the kill list in his mouth, later to be found by Michael. This whole thing brings mother and daughter closer, as Anna realises her mum once lost a brother like she did in Canada.

What the hell is Jack up to? Painting, apparently. But what?
Elsewhere, Michael’s clearly feeling the heat after Jack’s return, and he’s taking it out on others.
The Worths decide they need to forget everything for a night. They need a night out on the town, considering Jack kind of but not really proposed to his wife officially/unofficially, or, whatever. So the three of them get done up and head out looking for fun. They start with a Bingo hall. Angela wins them a bunch of meat! What a time. Proper British night out.

“You’ll go to hell with the rest of us.”

At a bar, Anna and her parents go for drinks. She talks with a bartender who sweetly attempts to help her out with choosing something; definitely a cute connection here, but poor Anna doesn’t get a whole lot of chances to live life normally enough to date, sadly. While the Worths are partying, D.I. Lunt is at the office digging further into things. She’s trying to take Jack’s advice, treading quietly through those choppy, dangerous waters. And Michael, he’s making certain that the Worths remember he’s watching them, that he can get to them at any moment when he feels like it, carving his dead brother’s name into the family’s hotel room windowsill and snapping photos of him in their bed.

Angela and Jack figure two birds with one stone, so they go to the priest on their list. They have him conduct a marriage ceremony for them before the inevitable comes. One of the stranger, more hilarious weddings you’ve ever seen, guaranteed! Angela and Jack each do their own impromptu vows, including an occasional pointing of the gun at their priest. If Jack weren’t such a silly bastard the whole thing might be a lot darker. But such is Tin Star and its pulpy genre goodness. In the midst of it all, the priest accidentally gets shot. Perfect way to end the ceremony with a bullet through the Holy Bible. Then they dump the priest in the already dug hole, as if it were meant to be.

The honeymoon is not so happy after Jack and Angela realise someone’s been in their hotel room.
There’s an envelope left with Angela’s name on it. Inside are photos of her dead, burned brother Callum. Not only that, there are photos of all them. And if they’re not careful, they could end up like Callum. Isn’t the best time for Anna to be out around town by herself, not when Michael’s watching closely.
Wow. One of the most intense episodes of Tin Star because now the dread really feels genuine. They’re in Liverpool, and all the worst of their past is coming out, along with the worst of those left behind in Liverpool. Jack and Angela have to do some serious business soon. Or else.