CBC’s Bellevue
Season 1, Episode 4: “Hello Little Light”
Directed by April Mullen
Written by Jane Maggs
* For a recap & review of the previous episode, “The Guy with Fire in His Eyes” – click here
* For a recap & review of the next episode, “How Do I Remember?” – click here
Annie (Anna Paquin) is setting her place up for surveillance, in light of recent events. And she’s not giving up on the case of Jesse’s death, either. Even though it’s all clearly weighing on her heavy. So many things surrounding the case, her own life, it’s a wonder she’s keeping her head above water.
She and Welland (Shawn Doyle) and the other cops go check out a house belonging to Rainmaker Jed. He’s a drug dealer, apparently. Brady (Billy MacLelland) comments that Jed is “so white” and that it’s a surprise he’s allowed to live on the reservation. Virginia replies that he’s married to a woman from the tribe, she doesn’t spend much time there. They find Jesse’s boyfriend Danny (Cameron Roberts) kicking around, he looks after the place from time to time. Inside they find fake eyelashes and size 13 platform boots. This leaves Welland and his crew wondering if he has a “sexual proclivity for young boys.” Moreover, we see that the boss man is slipping a bit in front of his detectives, he’s got his own issues going on. Still curious about what exactly he’s into, his secrets.
Virginia and Annie go to the Rattlesnake Bar, talking with Jed. He’s a sly one. They also run into Eddie (Allen Leech), his latest fling Briana (Amber Goldfarb) – sister to Detective Holt. To that Virginia replies: “Fuck him. Girl power.” LOVE THIS WOMAN! God, I hate that they’ve cancelled this already. I wanted more of her, more of the queer Native perspective through her character, among other good things about the series. Still, at this point in time in Canada we deserve more roles like this for Native actors, specifically women.
So the question is now, what’s Jed got to do with Danny, Jesse, et cetera? They’ve found a pink Eiffel Tower earring on the man’s property. Belonging to the dead boy; buried. Virginia further digs up info on his past, that he was sexually abused as a kid and has anger issues. She and Annie interrogate Jed, whether drugs were stolen by Jesse, if there was a sexual relationship, a three-way thing between the two of them and Danny. Or, was it something more forcible? Was the earring a trophy of a murderer? Rainmaker Jed lawyers up, either way. And he says that all he was trying to do was help. Hard to tell. Suspicious and eerie nonetheless.
Annie presses Welland about the mystery man’s riddles, asking if he’s found out anything more. She further wonders about the fire at his place, knowing there’s something more to it than coincidence. Oh, my. Dig the dark tension that’s always lingering, the show has impressive atmosphere. Welland does some pressing of his own, talking with Sid Oak (Raphael Grosz-Harvey), the local sex offender. He wants to know about the Riddler, if he’s heard from him since, so on. Threatens to put false charges on him if things don’t go his way.
Part of a crime-mystery show like Bellevue, this dark and dreary-type stuff is the fact that we see the grey areas of the law. Where things aren’t always black or white, which they aren’t in life. Part of the intrigue is seeing how characters cope with being on either side. Annie isn’t perfect, far from it. But she’s miles from Welland, whose character is obviously a deep, scary kind of his own sort.
Meanwhile, Annie is diving into the past of her father Clarence (Patrick Labbé), the psychiatric records and tapes of his sessions with a doctor, things she’s never heard before. It’s tough for her to hear, though necessary. It helps us come to understand her past. Also, it’s leading Annie to wonder if Neil Driver (Andreas Apergis) is her Riddler. He is, indeed.
Or, is he dissociating, and taking on the personality of the mystery man?
A man named Anthony Greene (Karl Graboshas) who works for Jed is in the interrogation chair now. Brady and Virginia ask him about Jed, using his sister as a bit of leverage. Anthony burned the white truck belonging to Rainmaker Jed. He’s officially the prime suspect in the murder.
Mayor Mansfield (Janine Theriault) has borderline psychotic tendencies, slapping herself in the face to stop a crying jag; her daughter Bethany (Emelia Hellman) sees it, though has her own issues with everyone at school texting her WHORE. And the small town itself seems at odds with Annie, who isn’t wholly sold on Jed’s guilt. She finds comfort drinking with Brady, talking about his sister and Eddie, the case; even if there’s an awkward moment before she leaves where things feel sexually charged.
But she heads out to sneak into the home of Mr Driver, seeing an almost shrine-like kitchen table with words carved into the wood, a paper with a front page concerning the death of Annie’s father, her name circled in the newspapers paragraph. And at her place later, she hears someone speaking through the surveillance system outside: “Hello, little light.” Was someone out there, or did they hack in? Becomes clearer Neil isn’t the Riddler. Poor guy thinks Annie is his daughter Sandy.
This means someone else is creeping about.
What’s the ultimate connection between Jesse and Sandy? Could the latter’s father have killed her, then years later killed the boy? Welland doesn’t think so, and Annie’s father never believed Neil murdered his daughter. Our fearless detective finds a note on a nearby swing, about a bracelet. This leads her to call up Daisy (Madison Ferguson), about the hospital bracelet she found belonging to her grandfather. This and the watch together, the time of 12:13, adds up to more mystery.
When Neil is let out of the hospital, he finds Annie at his place. She’s asking about the references to 12:13, the time with links to his daughter’s death. We see a flashback of him yelling at her, fighting physically. His watch broke on that particular time. We find out more about someone being there with Sandy that day – Jesse’s mother, Maggie (Victoria Sanchez). Our detective goes to talk with the grieving mom, suggesting Jed may not be her son’s killer.
But the evidence stacks up against the guy. He acts as if he knew the real Jesse, as if he cared. It’s so difficult to cut through to the truth. At least, for Jed, he’s got Annie semi-rooting for him. She judges his character by him knowing Jesse and Danny were planning on running away, and that he didn’t tell anybody. This is a caring gesture, deeper than most anyone in town offered the kid.
Jed: “She was a good kid”
Annie: “Jesse referred to himself as she?”
Jed: “She did at my house”
Solid episode that builds on the case itself, in favour of leaving some of the Riddler stuff as secondary. Not that I don’t dig Annie’s personal little mystery, I do. It’s just nice to see the development in Jesse’s case, seeing more of him as a character instead of him just being a trans victim. “How Do I Remember?” is next. Hoping to see more of the Riddler story this time, as well as how Welland ties in. He’s a sneaky one, that Peter.
Now that Annie’s (Anna Paquin) found the body of Jesse Sweetland, and Virginia (Sharon Taylor) found out about the boy’s boyfriend Danny (Cameron Roberts), among other things, there’s so much going on in Bellevue. Welland (Shawn Doyle) isn’t particularly impressed that Annie has been running around investigating on her own, not telling him things. All the same she’s found some intense, very possible connections to the Sandy Driver murder. The relationship between Annie and Welland is not doing well. Still, he knows she’s good at her job, he’s just worried.
Bellevue’s been rocked with the death of Jesse. Even Dt. Brady Holt (Billy MacLellan), usually a bit of a hard man, seems to feel it. However, they’re police, and they’ve got to keep on investigating, to figure out who killed the young man. He was killed with blunt force trauma, then tossed into the water.
After Daisy gets in trouble for her little seance, Eddie (Allen Leech) is pissed with Annie. He feels she’s starting to become “obsessive” as her father started out, apparently. Did the mystery of Sandy Driver’s murder all those years ago drive him mad? It’s all certainly threatening to push his daughter over the edge in present day.
The relationship between her and Eddie isn’t good, either. They get in a fight, she runs out to a bar dancing with another man, and he goes straight for her. They’ve got a love-hate thing going on, exacerbated by the fact she’s wildly unpredictable. So is he, though. No shortage of issues between these two, from emotional to drugs and alcohol. Also doesn’t help that Annie is obsessed with her job, the past, all of it mixed in a mess together.
Something else to add into the investigation: a large quantity of MDMA, half a pound, in Jesse’s closet. Perhaps a distributor for a local drug dealer. More clues to lead them in other directions. Good, especially for the fact they can’t pin anything on Tom as of yet.
So many things to ponder. I already know that Bellevue won’t return for another season; I hope they finish on a good note at the end of this one. Pity, because I’m really into it. Lots of mystery, intrigue, so many characters with their own lives and deep secrets. Great stuff from CBC. A true shame this won’t be renewed, I guess it didn’t impact others as it did me.
At the old church, Annie Ryder (Anna Paquin) brings Peter Welland (Shawn Doyle) back to see the bleeding mural she found. She has pictures, from the one sending her riddles, and luckily because it’s gone now. As if it were never there. She also shows Welland the UR MY LIGHT message written on her back windshield.
Maggie flips out on Father Jameson (Joe Cobden) about his relationship with Jesse, so of course Annie talks with him more. Wondering if someone connected to the church conducted a “violent form of conversion therapy.” With all the religious iconography and imagery connected, it has to be somebody of faith, right?
At the church, Maggie talks to Father Jameson and tells him that she knows Jesse is “who he is.” She doesn’t need him to be fixed. She kisses Jameson, saying: “When you put on your dress, I thought it was a phase, too.” Such a STELLAR line! I love that. Because religion is a fluid as identity, if you want it to be. To those of us who don’t believe. A way for Maggie to sort of say fuck you without having to actually say those words.
This all relates back to the death of Sandy Driver, those many years ago. He fingernails were never recovered. Bringing her back to those memories, that place in the forest. Where there hangs a mailbox, taking us back to the opening scene where she sees her own mailbox at home, hanging crooked. Great imagery.
Clear now there’s a big connection between Sandy’s death and the tragic death of Jesse. But what is it? “The Man with Fire in His Eyes” is next, I’m hoping we’ll see a few more weird, exciting developments. Bellevue has got me hooked now, two episodes in.
