Sky Atlantic’s Tin Star
3×03: “Love’s Young Dream”
Directed by Stewart Svaasand
Written by Alexander Stewart

* For a recap & review of “Commitment,” click here.
* For a recap & review of “Collateral,” click here.
Anna’s off on her own walking the beach while she’s also being watched by Michael. That’s when Angela turns up, sending Michael off into the shadows. He’s got his gun ready to shot but doesn’t, and right then Jack shows up, driving like a sixteen-year-old kid. So Michael instead shoots a random man walking his dog, proving himself a true psychopath if we didn’t realise it before. The Worths escape unharmed; for now.
Jump to Anna and Angela tied up in some dank basement, trying their hardest to get free. It’s actually them being “fake kidnapped” by Jack. Like a training drill. Later, they talk about Anna’s little date with the bartender she met on their wild family night out. The parents are only concerned for her well-being, more so due to the fact they’re being hunted through Liverpool. A bit of a hilarious parenting, really, given that Anna’s been doing crazy shit with them since all was fully revealed back in Canada.

We see Jack go back to see Mary, asking around about his list. She knows about some kids making drug and cash drops nearby on James Street. Apparently it’s one of Michael’s places, again proving that Mr. Ryan has been doing a lot more than legitimate business these days. Crafty Jack makes his way over and into the building with little fuss, following a girl who’s evidently headed up to the same spot. Side note: Tim Roth is ABSOLUTELY FUCKING BRILLIANT in this role, and it’s brief bits like in the elevator that show how great he is at bringing small moments to life. Across town, Mary’s being booked on suspicion of possession of firearms and ammunition.
At the cop shop, Catherine receives a visit from Joe Clarke from the Border Force. He’s flipping his lid, obviously increasingly concerned about Jack’s presence in town. He’s yelling and making a scene of himself. He doesn’t want to “take responsibility” for his role in everything re: Jack, and Catherine is doing what she can to keep him calm. I wouldn’t trust her if I was Joe, you can see it in her eyes. After that she goes to put the screw to Mary, doing what she can to break the woman. That doesn’t work, yet there’s no telling what Catherine’s plans are for Mary. While this is going on, Jack continues burrowing into Michael’s business, using the girl from the elevator as a way to the cash/drug drop apartment. He gets inside but finds no one. Just an empty place for the drops. Another great needle drop here: “Primitive” by The Cramps. Jack waits a while until Georgia Simmons turns up. She restrains Jack and they reminisce a little before she prepares to beat him using a stocking filled with bars of soap. Nasty torture.

Angela’s elsewhere on another part of their mission. She’s at the racetrack. She gets a call from Mary, who’s being forced by Catherine at gunpoint; she hangs up, leaving Mary at Catherine’s mercy. Things are getting extremely tense. Out on the town, Anna and Jesse are having their date. Such sharp juxtaposition in comparison to where her dad is sitting, and Catherine’s nerves clearly whittling away to nothing as she and Michael’s relationship starts to fray at the seams. After Jack’s beating is over he’s pressed for information, and taunted by Georgia, then he’s beaten mercilessly a little more until he goes unconscious. Georgia and the girl, Kayden, think Jack may be dead. They toss him in the bathtub with ice. While Georgia’s on a call being told to murder Jack, Kayden realises he’s still alive. Then Jack gets the jump on Georgia, breaking her neck.

Anna soon discovers she’s being followed on her date, so she tries to slip out of a pub unnoticed. She runs into a girl named Sam in the bathroom, who advises that “every girl needs an exit strategy.” Perfect words at an opportune time, even if Sam doesn’t know she’s giving Anna advice about fleeing gun-wielding gangsters. All the same, Anna ends up going back to Jesse’s place with him to keep evading her tail; there, she sees Jesse is Catherine’s son. At the racetrack, Angela has her eye on Joe while Michael has his eye on her. Shit. She goes to place a bunch of money on a “bad horse.” While doing that she interrogates the money man about his relationship with Joe and cleaning money, potentially setting up a meeting. She goes to the VIP lounge and talks her way past security. Michael has already gotten there before Angela can get there, and he’s cut Joe’s throat. When she arrives she sees that Joe’s already been murdered. She manages to escape Michael, thankfully. Not really the greatest time for Jack to turn up in the middle of it all, swaggering through VIP.
And then it may just be a great time, because Angela lands in Michael’s lap.

“People like us, we don’t get to retire.”

This was a tense, exciting episode. Love the suspense!
Genevieve O’Reilly and Abigail Lawrie deserve as much credit as Tim Roth, especially in Season 3 but throughout the entire series. They’re both stunning in their own rights. The three together make a wonderful trio that’ll be sad to see go now that the series is over at the end of this run of episodes. What a show.