The fourth episode of Criminal Record introduced a lot of characters, which is a testament to the fact that this is a complicated series. A lot of players are involved, and even though Lenker and Hegarty are the only ones whom we see at the forefront of the situation, there are a lot of hidden parties that are coming out of the woodwork. Errol Mathis’ case is turning out to be a pretty complex one, as Lenker gets closer to finding the unidentified caller who set this rigmarole in motion. Hegarty’s blind spot is revealed as his relationship with Patrick Burrowes becomes a little clearer. The series has a tendency to bring up extremely nuanced details to create suspense, but it may be becoming too much of a convenient technique to magically get out of a cul-de-sac.
Spoilers Ahead
How Did Hegarty Use Isaac’s Case To Bolster His Image?
Hegarty was thinking that he had Lenker under control, but she wasn’t going to stop until she found out what Hegarty’s stake in the Errol Mathis case really was. There was some malpractice there, that was for certain, and Lenker was closing in on finding out who the others involved were. Tony, Hegarty’s old pal, was now in the hospital, but he was keeping tabs on her, while Kim didn’t understand why Hegarty let Lenker have the limelight by making her sit at the press conference for Isaac’s case. Hegarty was light years ahead of those two, as he had plans to get Lenker buried in the rubble of the case. By letting Lenker have the spotlight, he had put her in harm’s way, as the gangs now knew her face. Jason Reeve, the alleged shooter in Isaac’s case, had been caught in the previous episode, and Hegarty didn’t miss a chance to put Lenker’s judgment into question regarding the case. Jason had confessed to the crime, and Hegarty asked Lenker about her opinion on the confession, to which she could only say that it was convincing. Hegarty later brought up some convincing arguments that said otherwise. Hegarty was able to make himself look like someone who didn’t have a racist bone in his body. Jason was a person of color, and it was Hegarty, not Lenker, who was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. An eyewitness turned up who claimed that the shooter was a white male. Later, Hegarty got a Turkish man named Amit Ceker arrested, who turned out to be the real shooter. Hegarty might have thought that Lenker was put in her place, but the Turkish angle to Isaac’s case reminded her of Mustafa, who was Errol’s alibi and was said to have gone back to Turkey.
How Did Lenker Find Errol’s Alibi?
This is the part of the episode that hinged on a silly spelling mistake, which could have been planned for all we know. Lenker was on the team that was on the lookout for a Turkish man before Hegarty found him, and she got hold of Hasad, who was happy that Lenker spelled his name with a single’s’. Turkish names tend to have unusual spellings, and that idea led Lenker to believe that Sonya and the others had not looked for the Mustafa that was Errol’s alibi. She searched the internet and found a certain Mostapha, who claimed that he was the man Errol was talking about. Errol had claimed that he was at Mostapha’s barbershop at the time of the murder, but because Mostapha had identified the wrong man out of the many that were shown to him, Errol didn’t get the benefit of the alibi. Lenker couldn’t believe that Mostapha had not gone back to change his statement. He said that the men in the photos all ‘looked the same’ to him, but that he wasn’t a racist. He stated it as a matter of fact, but Errol’s life was hanging in the balance. Lenker wanted him to go back to the detectives, but she too knew that an alibi turning up to correct his mistake 12 years later wasn’t going to do Errol any good. Mostapha was too afraid to go back to the detectives that were handling the case because of their far-right associations. Lenker’s pursuit had reached its end, but thankfully there was still hope: Carla, the Hayes Lane caller, was finally found.
Why Did Carla Call Lenker?
Hegarty wasn’t aware (and neither were we)of the fact that his daughter Lisa was dating Patrick. Hegarty’s association with Patrick could get him into trouble, and he knew it, and yet there he was, helping Patrick out whenever he got into trouble. Besides Patrick, there was Carla; that was another crucial link that Hegarty had to find and sever if he wanted Lenker to stop her relentless pursuit. Sonya and Lenker had put up flyers asking anyone to come forward if they identified the Hayes Lane caller. A woman did come forward and identify her as Carla, who used to work at a Portuguese refugee home as a cleaner but left the job after she got a boyfriend. Lenker couldn’t find Carla’s whereabouts, and soon she realized that Hegarty might know that she was getting close, as her life became a living hell. Firstly, her car was set ablaze by the gangs. Hegarty consoled Lenker, giving her security, but Lenker wasn’t having any of it. She found it threatening that her car was tracked. Nobody in her department was fully on board with the idea that Hegarty used trackers on everyone’s cars and pulled favors from the gangs to silence an officer. It was too huge an accusation, and Roy Chambers, Lenker’s superior, was having none of it. To make matters worse, Chloe accused her of bullying, as she had given her the classified pathology report for Maria De Souza’s case on Lenker’s ‘request’. The subtext there was that Lenker was ‘light-skinned’ and therefore put on the news, while Chloe, a dark-skinned girl, was reduced to giving confidential reports to her.
Lenker, on the verge of a nervous breakdown, had a call from one of the refugee homes, telling her about a male officer who was asking about Carla. Lenker was worried that Hegarty might be onto Carla, but it was Tony who was getting the information through Latisha. Latisha worked for Doris, and as Doris had been told about Carla, she knew that Lenker had made something of a breakthrough in that case. Latisha had been arrested eight years ago and was his ‘inside man’, leaking Doris’ activities and plans to Tony. She had done this in exchange for an apartment, but Lenker wanted her to quit working for Doris as soon as possible. Lenker was astounded to see the level to which Hegarty and his men had gone to put Errol in prison. She went toe-to-toe with Hegarty, telling him about the covert op Tony had been running on Doris. Hegarty was rattled, but he warned Lenker that she was playing with fire and she could save herself if she backed off. As for excusing Tony’s behavior, Hegarty tried to convince Lenker that Tony had multiple sclerosis and he had nothing better to do than follow up on the old case from the hospital. Lenker was up against a system that was heavily in Hegarty’s favor. Carla called Lenker and told her to stop investigating Errol’s case any further as she was up against someone who was ‘protected’. He had gotten away with something similar before, and he could do it again. Before Lenker could get Carla to reveal her location, she hung up. The episode raised a lot of questions as to who exactly was Carla’s boyfriend and whether he was the one Hegarty and others were trying to protect. There was a mystery man following Hegarty all through the episode, clicking his photographs as if he were a private investigator. He might be working for somebody or just on his own, but he might have some answers, which can be revealed in the next episode.
