While The Walking Dead is on hiatus until season 3 begins this fall I will be writing on different shows. I have chosen to write about Season 3 of BBC America's Whitechapel. The premise of the show is a team of police officers in an area of London called Whitechapel that is famous for the Jack the Ripper murders. In the first season they tracked down copycats of Jack the Ripper and other famous murders that took place in the Whitechapel neighborhood. According to the BBC America website: " The new season will find Detective Inspector Joseph Chandler, Detective Sergeant Miles and Edward Buchan spreading their investigations beyond the boundaries of East London’s Whitechapel, as they peel back layers of the East End’s most gruesome history. They have rescued a huge crime archive, a vast but chaotic collection of files and papers beneath the incident room, and Chandler is convinced that the crimes of the past hold the key to solving murders in the present."
Murder at a haberdashery
Now they didn't use the word haberdasher on the show, they used tailor instead, but because it basically means the same thing and I love to use fun words like haberdasher, I will continue to use that term. The lone female employee is sent out late at night to go get bagels for the owner and employees. When she comes back (after being followed out of the beigel shop, apparently that's how they spell bagels in the UK, by some guy who didn't like that she cut the line) she finds the place locked up like Fort Knox. She bangs on the door and shouts to be let in but no one answers. A beat cop hears the ruckus and helps her break in when they find everyone inside dead (bludgeoned by a hammer). The lights weren't working and had to be turned on using the fuse box. This crime is compared to a similar crime from 200 years ago known as the Ratcliff Highway murders.
One of the creepiest parts of this episode is the image of a man crawling on the ceiling. It was shown a few times and always reminds me of The Exorcist 3 which I was forced to keep watching by a certain sister of mine that didn't want to watch it alone. So being the nice sister that I am I stayed and watched it with her. I don't get scared easily by movie monsters and such but possessed people crawling on the ceiling or walls will always creep me out.
On to the suspects
Let's begin with the supernatural element for this episode. While interviewing the neighbors one of the cops mentions that several believe a jinn is the murderer. What is a jinn? Well, everything I know about jinns comes from the show Supernatural and wikipedia. According to wikipedia: "Jinn or genies are supernatural creatures in Arab folklore and Islamic mythology that occupy a parallel world to that of mankind. Together, jinn, humans and angels make up the three sentient creations of Allah. Like human beings, the Jinn can also be good, evil, or neutrally benevolent." Some folklore says they are made of smoke (perhaps that smoke monster on Lost was a jinn?) while others say they look like humans. This could explain the creepy crawling on the ceiling.
Daniel Wilkie - former gang leader who was sent to prison because the haberdasher testified against him in a mugging incident. He lost his gang and his territory during his stint in jail. He was friends with the shop girl that found the bodies. He says that he is glad he went to prison because it got him out of the gang life and he is now happy with a girlfriend and baby on the way. This seems to clear him of the murders, but appearances can be deceiving.
Sly Driscoll - carpenter working on renovating the haberdashery. He was dismissed as a suspect when none of his hammers were the right size or had blood on them. That doesn't mean he couldn't have more hammers at home. He made the point of saying that the owner wanted to restore the building using original tools and materials. Maybe he had a hammer from an earlier time period stashed at home?
Marcus Salter - Half-brother to the dead haberdasher, Ben Salter. He was jealous of his brother because Ben received all the attention and family money. He was seen on CCTV leaving the area of the murders and was identified by his limp and a girl who left the cab he was driving because he was acting crazy. This dude is super creepy. He admits to hating his brother and wishing he had killed him. He has a degenerative disease that makes his eyes sensitive to lights so he only goes out at night. This could be why the lights were turned off at the murder scene. He also managed to escape his locked prison cell after scaring the poor police officer that was on duty.
Murder number 2
The episode ends with a second family being murdered after the power goes out in their house. The Ratcliff murders also had a second set of murders a few days after the first. A suspect was arrested and imprisoned but he committed suicide in jail. That case was "solved" before an official police force even existed in England at the time. This time the police have forensics and cctv to help them with their investigation.
The old team is back
I really like the characters on this show. The chief officer, DI Joseph Chandler, is a handsome, English version of Monk. He is OCD, though not as bad as Monk, which means he is meticulous about the details in each case. He has become friends with the surly DS Ray Miles and they share a mutual respect. I love the character of Ed Buchan. He is this quirky writer who is obsessed with the history of murder and crime in London. They used him as a source of information for previous cases and I like that they have made him an official researcher for the police. Let's hope no harm will come to any of the officers this season.
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