Beyond Good and Evil (1)

Lewis's reputation is on the line, and the attack comes from his own past. The very first case he solved as a Detective Inspector is reopened for appeal, and fresh murders are committed with the original weapon. It is the nightmare version of a career review: the work he built his name on, unravelling in public while new bodies surface to prove the old verdict wrong.

The episode puts Lewis under a kind of pressure the show rarely applies. He has to defend a decision made years ago while the new violence makes the case look worse by the day. Dr Sally Rook and Dr Hobson provide the forensic grounding, Katherine Warwick adds another perspective, and the personnel around Lewis have to decide where their loyalties lie. The investigation becomes a race to separate what he got right from what he missed.

But the episode is really about the weight of a career. Lewis built himself on that first case, and watching him defend it against his own younger self is quietly uncomfortable television. The new murders keep the pressure from ever easing.

Colin Dexter and Noel Farragher wrote it, and David Drury directed. Susan Wooldridge plays Dr Sally Rook, Priyanga Burford is Katherine Warwick, Alec Newman plays Graham Lawrie, Richie Campbell takes Douglas Wilkins, Robin Weaver plays Pamela Carson, Tom Davey is Dr Brendan Ward, Patrick Walshe McBride plays Luke Burgess, Clare Holman takes Dr Hobson and Rebecca Front appears as Ch Supt Innocent. Kevin Whately carries the weight of it.

There is something quietly cruel about the setup, a good detective being judged by his first case rather than his last. The episode understands that reputation is a house of cards, and it enjoys watching the wind rise. The old case will not stay closed, and neither, it seems, will the new one.