Things We Do For Love

Adam Armitage is an estate agent running from a mistake. He shoved a homeless man in some sort of scuffle, and only later discovers the man died. The pursuit of Armitage gives the episode its case, but it is not what the episode is about. The real story is Rachel, who tells Janet she spent the night with a stranger and bitterly regrets marrying Sean.

The confession opens a door to the recent past. When Dominic killed Nick, Rachel was implicated in the fallout, and although she was cleared she had to face a tribunal. Gill spoke up for her then. Rachel was low, Sean was kind, and marrying him felt like the sensible thing. And the wedding itself was no joy for either woman: Rachel's estranged mother Sharon turned up and got embarrassingly drunk at the reception, and Adrian took the opportunity to suggest to Janet that her marriage was done.

The Armitage inquiry ticks along behind all this, with the usual squad doing the usual things. Rachel's honesty with Janet is the heart of it, though. The investigation into Armitage continues alongside it all, an ordinary case carrying an extraordinary amount of background noise. The confession just sits between them, unglossed, and neither of them knows what to do with it.

Sally Wainwright, Diane Taylor and Suranne Jones wrote it, Morag Fullarton directed. Lesley Sharp's Janet and Suranne Jones's Rachel carry it, with Amelia Bullmore's Gill, Ralph Ineson's Sullivan, Ben Batt's Kevin Lumb and the familiar faces of David Prosho, Tony Mooney and Delroy Brown in support, and Nichola Dixon as Mrs Armitage.

It is an episode about the bargains women make when they are tired, and the price of the ones that do not hold. Armitage's crime is clear-cut. Rachel's is the messier one, and the show knows which is harder to solve. There is no tidy lesson. There rarely is in this show.