She’s Back – Part 2

The second half of She's Back puts Rose's new loyalties to the test. Paula, the escort implicated in two killings, has vanished after the murder of the police officer Mace, and the police turn to Rose, their community liaison officer, to help them find her.

Rose finds her first, and instead of handing her over, takes her to Carol's house to hide. It is the instinct of the old Rose, who looked after the women on the Lane, and it sits uneasily with her new job. The episode's interest lies in that conflict: Rose is trusted by both sides, and she cannot serve both.

The case collapses in the worst way. The one person who could clear Paula is murdered. Paula, with nowhere else to go, returns to her husband, and he shoots her and then himself. It is Rose who finds the bodies.

The ending is brutal and sudden, and it suggests that Gold intends to be harsher than its predecessors in some ways, even as it becomes more conventional in others. Paula's fate is not decided by the police or the courts but by a husband whose violence the story has kept mostly out of sight. Janet Dibley plays Paula, and the guest cast includes Fiona Allen as DI Cooper, the new series' police officer, and Kern Falconer as Chief Inspector Henryson, Rose's superior.

Kay Mellor's script uses the story to establish the risk Rose has taken. Working with the police gives her influence, but it also makes her complicit in outcomes she cannot control. Her first case ends with a woman she tried to protect dead.

Carol's strand continues in the background. Her new house, the one Vinnie wants to take from her, has become a refuge, and the series begins to use Carol's wealth as a resource for the women around her rather than only as a source of trouble.

The weakness is pacing. The murder-suicide comes so abruptly that the drama has little room to explore it. IMDb users rated the episode below most of the first two series, a pattern that holds across Gold.

Judy Brooke, Suzanne Hellmich and Joanna Hole also appear, as Julie, Janie and Amanda.

The strength is that the story refuses an easy rescue. Rose's good intentions do not save Paula, and the series is honest about the limits of what one woman can do inside a system. Sheree Folkson directs.