Scapegoat

A Jewish home is vandalised, and Maggie Forbes is handed a case that is about far more than criminal damage. A place of sanctuary has been violated, and the investigation has to reckon with what that means for the family who live there and for the community around them. The target was chosen for what it is as much as for who lives behind the door, and Maggie knows that before she even reaches it. The question of who did it matters less than the question of why that home was chosen.

The Hersh family sit at the centre of it, with Annie, Jackie and Rick Sloan caught up in the fallout. The enquiry moves carefully, because the wrong question can do as much damage as the wrong answer. Maggie and the team interview and examine, slowly piecing together who did this and why, while the episode keeps its nerve and refuses to turn the subject into melodrama. There's a wariness to every interview, the sense of a community closing ranks while it works out who can be trusted. It's a quiet, steady hour, and all the more uncomfortable for it.

Roger Marshall and Terence Feely wrote it, John Reardon directed. Jill Gascoine anchors it as Maggie Forbes, with William Marlowe's Russell, Brian Gwaspari's Bob Croft and Paul Moriarty's Jake Barratt on the investigating team. James Ottaway plays George Taylor, Harry Towb is Martin Hersh, Gillian Raine plays Sylvia Hersh, Leslee Udwin is Annie, Kim Clifford plays Jackie and Gary Holton is Rick Sloan.

The vandalism is the crime, but the title points at something bigger: a scapegoat is someone you blame to keep the truth away from the door. But the episode keeps its eyes open and treats the Hersh family as people rather than exhibits. That's the right tool for a case like this, and it's quietly uncomfortable to watch.