Entry Wounds (1)

Lewis is enjoying retirement, and the show lets him enjoy it for a whole scene before the phone rings. Hathaway, meanwhile, has been promoted to Inspector after an extended break from the force, and the new pairing is a strange reversal: the junior man now holds the rank. When Lewis is asked to team up with his old colleague again, the two men have to relearn each other's rhythms, and the episode is quietly good on that awkwardness.

The case that reunites them pulls them back into the familiar machinery of police work, and the supporting cast fills out the working world around them. Jess Tallison and Alistair Stoke feature early, while the Nooran family, Lorraine and Chris Fernsby, and DS Lizzie Maddox all stake their claims on the investigation. The episode is partly a settling-in story, watching the team find its feet again.

But the rank reversal gives the episode its quiet comedy, Hathaway suddenly senior and not quite comfortable with it, Lewis a civilian who still knows more than he lets on. The case gives the pair something to disagree about, which is how they always worked best.

Colin Dexter and Helen Jenkins wrote it, and Nicholas Renton directed. Francesca Zoutewelle plays Jess Tallison, Jonny Phillips is Alistair Stoke, Thusitha Jayasundera plays Ayesha Nooran, Michael Karim takes Nabeel Nooran, Angela Griffin plays DS Lizzie Maddox, Elizabeth Rider is Lorraine Fernsby, Michael Peavoy plays Chris Fernsby, Danielle Flett takes Kim, Robert MacPherson plays Jake and Jack Helsby appears as a Student. Kevin Whately and Laurence Fox carry the centre.

The episode works best as a reunion story, two experienced minds rediscovering why they were good together. The mystery itself is a means to that end, competently built but secondary to the business of watching the old partnership click back into place. Retirement, it turns out, was never going to stick.