'The Cry' Episode 3: At last, all is revealed... and everybody hates Alastair

After two weeks of teasing, hinting, and cryptic clues we finally know what’s actually going on in The Cry.

And it’s devastating.

A few of the show’s more perceptive viewers guessed last week that something had happened to Noah before his apparent abduction. Either that or they’d cheated and read Helen FitzGerald’s 2013 novel so they could lord it over the rest of us.

Following on from last week’s final-scene twist, things rattle along at a fair old pace this week. We start with Alastair (Top of the Lake’s Ewen Leslie) coaching Joanna through their plan. He is a cold fish.

Then it’s one of those flashbacks that us The Cry fans love so much! This time, back to the crucial moment when Noah’s fate is revealed. Jenna Coleman unleashes her full dramatic range as she goes from calm to anxious to absolutely destroyed in the space of a few moments. It’s powerful stuff.

Although knowing what we now know it seems scarcely credible that either of them could have been so calm through the events of the first two episodes.

Alex, who none of us really believed was involved, was exonerated by testimony from her daughter Chloë and released.

Is it really that simple? Can your kid be your alibi?

And Alex, after giving the coppers a serious talking-to about her wrongful arrest, quietly tells Alastair that he’s the world’s best liar. All the evidence points to her being correct.

And then, in another flashback to that terrible drive through the Outback, the real reason for Noah’s death is revealed. Then there’s a flashback inside the flashback, because (as you will remember we discussed earlier) The Cry fans love a good flashback.

The world’s worst cops finally question the right suspect

Meanwhile Alastair reveals himself increasingly to be a very nasty piece of work. While he’s alone with Joanna he takes control of the situation, saying “you can’t abandon me in this.” Not, we note “I won’t abandon you.”

He’s interviewed by the police and is chillingly composed. He reacts to a reporter’s question “Alastair, did you kill your son?” coldly, if angrily, but without a flicker of guilt. He’s a monster.

And he’s working all the angles – briefing his reporter pal back in Scotland, destroying evidence, controlling Joanna’s every move.

The only real sympathy Joanna sees is from Alex, in a strange, dreamlike scene at the beach.

Alastair continues to manipulate Joanna at every turn. And the fact that he is trying so very hard to convince her that she is responsible for her son’s death suggests that perhaps he is more culpable than he’d like her to think.

And if he is, surely his come-uppance can’t be far away now.

In a TV interview, he demonstrates that he is a horribly manipulative bully as well as an accomplished liar – even to the extent of telling the make-up artist her job.

Is Joanna about to fight back?

The weirdest part of the TV interview scene is Joanna’s impassioned speech. She’s in her own way as convincing a deceiver as Alastair.

And her reaction after he gives her some flowers and Champagne suggests the beginning of a fightback. This is absolutely a turning point episode. For the characters, and for us.

Alastair tries to charm Alex after his row with Joanna. It’s not going to work though. She’s tougher than he thinks.

“It wasn’t Scotland that broke us up, Al, it was your affairs and your constant lying.” There’s a lot of backstory in that one sentence. Affairs plural, for a start.

Is Alastair ever going to stop being awful?

Alastair’s determination to continue the custody battle even as he is supposedly looking for his son is appalling. It’s almost a relief when, later in the episode, he shows some actual emotion about the death of his son.

Then he breezes into the world’s least secure police station and photographs some evidence, but Detective Peter Alexiades (Alex Dimitriades) doesn’t seem to grasp that he’s up to no good.

Meanwhile Joanna opens up to Kirsty over the phone. Luckily for Joanna, Kirsty doesn’t understand her.

It’s no great surprise that Joanna doesn’t want to watch the interview on TV, given that she’s already had to put up with some ‘body language expert’ deconstructing it online.

Have all our questions been answered?

Throughout the last third of this episode we see Joanna’s strength and determination emerge and the final shocker – that the trial we keep glimpsing is Joanna being prosecuted for Alastair’s murder – is hardly a surprise at all.

— thats him!! (@whatshisname100) October 14, 2018

So. Final episode next week. What remains to be told? Surely Joanna won’t be found innocent. While we don’t officially know that she did kill Alastair yet, she’s certainly had enough provocation.

In fact, if the tone of tonight’s #TheCry hashtag on Twitter is any barometer we’ve all had enough provocation…