Broadchurch Rewatch: Season 1, Episode 8

Dear Broadchurch fans, I am rewatching the series slowly so as to find even more great details. I've decided to share some of my findings with you. I will also add a list of important facts and suspects. I have seen the series as a whole but will keep this essay as spoiler-free as possible.

If you enjoy reading this essay, feel free to stop by my r/AnalysisVault to see if you find some more of my work to your liking. Please note that this subreddit is read only and comments should be made with the original posts rather than the cross-posted ones.

Summary: (source)

After a medical, Hardy is given until the end of the day to finish his placement. Ellie pays Lucy to reveal she saw a man place a bag of clothes into a skip the night Danny died (it was later shown as a wheelie bin). Nigel is re-arrested. With Joe present, Hardy interviews Tom about his laptop, and Danny's emails with Tom and another person, which reveal that the boys had fallen out and that Danny had found another friend. Hardy asks Tom if he killed Danny, and Joe terminates the interview. Danny's smartphone is switched back on, and Hardy traces its signal to the Millers' house. Joe confesses to killing Danny and a flashback reveals that Joe had been meeting Danny secretly at the summer house to inquire about Tom. Danny, mistakenly believing Joe wanted to make the relationship sexual, threatened to tell his father; Joe panicked and accidentally killed him, before staging his death as an accident. Taking Olly's boat, he brought Danny's body and skateboard to the beach. Interviewed by Hardy, Joe explains that he had given Danny the smartphone and the £500, and that it was he who called from the summer house, intending to confess to Hardy, but he was unwilling to confess in front of Ellie, so he ran. Hardy informs Ellie, who confronts Joe in a rage before being restrained, and moves into a hotel with her children, telling Tom what happened, while Hardy tells the Latimers about Joe. At a press conference, Hardy announces the arrest of a local man, and asks the press for restraint, but Lucy tells Olly, and Karen soon comes to know. Mark confronts Joe in his cell, and Beth challenges Ellie. Ellie and Hardy discuss Joe's psychological problems; both plan to move away from the area. Coates conducts Danny's funeral and later arranges for a series of beacons to be lit along nearby beaches and cliffs in his memory.

Welcome to the destruction of DS Miller’s life. Seriously, the episode is set up and conducted in a way that takes apart DS Miller’s life piece by piece until there is very little left. This essay will focus on the ways the filmmakers help getting the message across.

Right off the bat, DS Miller bribes her sister to give her information. One of the many positive attributes DS Miller has is her integrity and she is jeopardizing it for the case.

Soon after, she reports her findings to DI Hardy and explains she doesn’t believe her son.

At minute 7, right after Joe Miller stopped DI Hardy from interviewing his son, DI Hardy casually asks first Tom, then Joe for their shoe sizes. So well done.

Starting minute 8, DI Hardy and DS Miller are at the beach, just chatting. When DS Miller gets a call about Danny’s phone being back on, DI Hardy takes the call and redirects all information to himself. I have a strong feeling that he is trying to protect her here. His expression is that of worry. He has proven to trust DS Miller in her capacity as a detective, there is no reason for him to not trust her with this. Nope, he wants to soften the blow that he fears will come. He even tells her “You’ve done good work on this, well done.” Because she has. But he is not one to offer praise easily. His worry intensifies greatly as he is approaching Danny’s phone location. Tennant (DI Hardy’s actor) is doing a great job conveying the thoughts of the detective clashing with the worries of the friend. Look at his expression as the camera pan around him. He knows what he will find. He HATES it. As he approaches the Miller house he even stops looking at the phone with the tracker on it. He definitely knows.

At minute 13 two different things come into play as DI Hardy enters the Miller garden to search for Danny’s phone: One, the Miller’s garden is completely unkempt. In episode 7, DS Miller mentions to her husband he puts things off and I stated that this indicated a lack of care on Joe’s part. The garden is another sign of this. Two, as DI Hardy approaches the shed, a heartbeat sound is added to the subtle score. The heartbeat speeds up slowly. When the camera reveals Joe Miller with the phone in his hand, there is a clashing sort of sound effect telling us that yes, that’s him alright. He even confirms it saying “I’m sick of hiding”.

In episode 2, DI Hardy said: “Anyone is capable of this murder, given the right circumstances. […] Murder gnaws at the soul. Whoever did it will reveal himself sooner or later. No killer will behave normal over time.” Looks like we’ve come full circle.

The following sequence tells us what happened that night, how and why Danny was killed and what Joe did to conceal this. Even though this information is important to wrap things up, I feel that it’s not the most important sequence in the episode or the season. In my opinion, DS Miller should take center stage in this essay. The season was not only about the murder but the fallout that it brought to Broadchurch. This is why I will not analyze it in detail but direct your attention at the score, several jump cuts when Joe gets angry and how the different elements are brought together. The stage of this episode should belong to DS Miller.

At minute 25, DI Hardy has the questionable privilege to completely pull the rug out from under DS Miller. He gives her the courtesy of privacy, something he is unlikely to do for anyone else. Back when I first saw this I was wondering about the wisdom of not recording this, because this time it is DS Miller who is interrogated. Notice how she challenges this but DI Hardy tries to impress onto her how important this is. He says: “Please, Ellie.” She is instantly alarmed and says: “Don’t call me Ellie.” I think that she starts to see the severity of the situation there. Coleman (DS Miller’s actor) does such a great job at giving us despair, grief and so much more. She is presented with this enormous news and all she does is retreat and beg that it isn’t true. This is Coleman’s stage and she takes it with an exceptional performance, raw emotion gushing out of her and yet being so reserved. The movie “The Hollow Man” has this wonderful quote: “This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper.” This is the way DS Miller’s world ends. With a whimper. I love how much of the scene is shot with DS Miller crouching in a corner, like the cornered animal she must feel, shot over DI Hardy’s shoulder while he compassionately tries to comfort her. She is in the bottom left frame, almost huddled against the vastness of the grey room, small and frightened.

But she gets up. At minute 28 she heads for Joe Miller and she is resolved. My partner said they saw her attack coming. I didn’t. Coleman is giving us her all again, raw, unfiltered rage this time, given freely and unrestrictedly. I cannot imagine what it takes for an actor to go there, do this, and then go about their day. I can imagine that this is draining to the max because you can see her summoning up some primal rage in herself to explode it onto Matthew Gravelle (Joe Miller’s actor) like that. And then coming out of that rage, which must be quite an effort as well. No, DS Miller is not small and frightened anymore.

One of the reasons Broadchurch as a series works so well is because it dares show us the ugly side, the one most crime shows omit. The fallout, the effects on the characters, the damage. I am not talking about the murder itself but what the murder does with those who are associated with it. American shows especially revel in the violence of the murder itself but the characters who are related to it cry a little and then they’re gone. Not here. No. Danny's murder is as un-bloody as they come. But the fallout is a battlefield.

At minute 30 we are treated to the third scene in which a public (sort of) forum reacts to a woman who was confronted with terrible trauma. First we saw Beth Latimer at the grocery store in episode 2, then Chloe Latimer at school in episode 6 and finally DS Miller at the precinct and her house in episode 8. The police officers are by and large the most compassionate about it, staring but also feeling for her.

At minute 33 DI Hardy continues to protect DS Miller, making a compassionate speech to her colleagues and doing his best to get through to them she is innocent. I think he is doing a great job and is one of the few who actually get how this feels. Neither Chloe nor Beth had this type of support. Sure, Dean Thomas offered Chloe a safe space but actually speaking up, nameing the behaviors that are unaccepteable and actively shielding her from the stares? That's good support.

At minute 42, DS Miller and Beth Latimer meet. “How could you not know?” Is thrown at DS Miller, who has now lost an important part of her support system. Only her money-grabbing sister, her journalist nephew and DI Hardy (of all people) seem to remain. She seeks out DI Hardy in hopes of answers and I love that he refuses to give her any. Because he can’t. Of all the people in Broadchurch, I think he is and has been her truest friend because he took such great strides to protect her but never coddled her or lied to her.

I HATE that DS Miller didn’t get to go to Danny’s funeral or participate in the bonfire ritual. I LOVE that DI Hardy is there for her in this dire time.

In the end, I would like to point out the parallel stories of Susan Wright and DS Miller. Both were victimized by selfish husbands who played a very convincing road. Retrospectively I wonder whether Wright had a hunch that DS Miller would soon face the same predicament she had. And I also wonder whether DI Hardy was aware of Wright's statements and actively worked against the problems Wright faced.

Easter Eggs and other observations:

At minute 4, Nigel Carter calls his mother in hopes of lessening the blow she might get from hearing the many suspicions he is under. This call greatly resembles Jack Marshal’s words towards the Latimers as he brought them Danny’s phone.

DI Hardy’s phone is so cute. <3 Am I really this old to not only remember having one just like it but feel a certain fondness?

Over the course of the episode, and especially in the beginning, they LOVE showing us the various suspects whenever there is a threshold to be passed, as if to remind us who could be the murderer. It adds suspension as we contemplate which one it might be. Interestingly, none of the suspects shown are Joe Miller.

Joe Miller says to Danny Latimer: “I know that tonight is the last time but we’re not doing anything wrong.” I know that Danny wasn’t violated but from the sound of things, it wasn’t far off, especially considering that the cause of Danny’s death was his threat to tell. Joe paints a picture of everything being destroyed if Danny does and claim “it will be on you”. I stated before that Susan Wright was using grooming language on Tom, but she was harmless in comparison to Joe Miller.

At minute 16 we see Danny and Joe at the top of the cliff, shot from below the cliff. It is quite obvious that this is a compounded shot with the cliff and the actors shot separately. These types of shots are relatively easy to fake and I wonder whether it was deliberate to make the shot less convincing so the viewers don’t worry about the actors.

I would like to comment Oskar McNamara (Danny Latimer’s actor) on his performance. Though short, he did really, really well.

At minute 37, we see a poster at the side of the church. “Love thy neighbor as you love thyself”. Its corners are peeling off.

Karen White has learnt something after all. She approaches DS Miller at minute 42 and warns her not to talk to anyone. Shame someone had to die for her to understand the dangers of her profession. I think this is why DI Hardy invited her to Broadchurch, to make sure the lesson sinks in.

The Broadchurch Echo will publish this article: “DANNY LOCAL MAN CHARGED”.

Every lead-out of the previous episodes was accompanied by the song “So close” by Olafur Amads, which features contemplative singing. Only this episode is instead lead out by somber piano music.

As the town of Broadchurch says goodbye to Danny Latimer, I would like to say a friendly goodbye to you, kind readers. I may or may not return with more essays for your reading pleasure but those of you who stuck with me to the end of this, thank you.