"Trial & Retribution X - Sins of the Father": Plot

Beautiful, intelligent, driven young girl Emily Harrogate (Carey Mulligan) is found dead at the bottom of her parents' home's cellar, after suffering a massive head wound. Her parents, John Harrogate (Greg Wise), and his wife Diedre (Nadia Cameron-Blakey), project a "perfect family" facade, but in reality, they're on the precipice of divorce.

John is seeing another woman, and Diedre has devolved into a obsessive-compulsive, constantly cleaning and rearranging items in the house. Their son, James (Max Benitz), argues frequently with her, but he and the rest of the family apparently have an air-tight alibi for the evening when she was killed: they were having a family dinner at Diedre's mother's (Claire Bloom) house.

Meanwhile, personal problems ravage Mike's equilibrium as he discovers his son Richard (Benedict Smith) has severe mental problems, landing him in jail from a sadistic, cruel act that shocks Mike. Who killed Emily? Was it a family member? Or was it nearby neighbor, Michael Summerby (Andrew-Lee Potts), a troubled youngster with no father, a grasping, clinging mother, Ellen (Rachel Davies), and a past with Emily?"

"Trial & Retribution X - Sins of the Father": Review (Spoilers Alert)

"Another gripping entry in the Trial & Retribution series, Sins of the Father is not only a twisty, convoluted, complex mystery (I certainly didn't see the ending coming), but it's amplified and given more depth by La Plante's subtext involving the sometimes treacherous dynamics of parenting.

Looking at the mystery angle first, director Andy Hay keeps the proceedings moving at a good clip, employing frequent flashbacks to orient (and ultimately disorient) the viewer, further obscuring the crime as we realize just how fraught with danger some of these parent/child relationships are.

I was particularly impressed with the way La Plante wove three parent/child relationships into the mystery, with all of them amplifying her central (and depressing) theme: damage is done to a child whether a parent ignores them, loves them, or smothers them.

James' father John wants to protect him no matter what he suspects or is told about his son's involvement with his sister's death (which is par for the course for the lying, secretive John, who carries on an affair). Mike, who sees psychopaths every day in his line of work, is mortified when he realizes his son Richard may indeed be mentally ill; he blames himself for not being there for the boy (he left the family in a nasty divorce), and so does Richard. Now, it appears Richard may even be suffering from schizophrenia, as he recounts delight in killing neighborhood cats, and watching a dog strangle itself on its lead.

And potential witness Michael turns to threats and intimidation against his clinging mother, who begs him to stay with her, but whom thoughtlessly turns him into the police, to enjoy the drama of being a part of the investigation. It's a pretty bleak view of parenting, burnished by the dark, brooding murder mystery angle that winds up tragically ironic: there was no murder, and yet an innocent boy goes to jail.



One of the better Trial & Retribution episodes I've seen."


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