This Cleddau/The One That Got Away episode 1 recap contains spoilers... Brace yourself for an intriguing slice of "Welsh Noir" in this dark six-part crime thriller set during a wild winter in Pembrokeshire.
Elen Rhys and Richard Harrington lead the cast of the Welsh-language drama with English subtitles, which tells the story of a complex murder mystery and a compelling love story.
The tale begins when DI Ffion Lloyd (Rhys) is called back from Cardiff to Pembroke Dock to investigate the murder of a young woman that bears eerie similarities to a series of killings from the town’s tortured past.
DI Lloyd and her boyfriend DS Rick Sheldon (Harrington) worked the case together, before he left her for another woman, but did they put the right man behind bars all those years ago?
Here's how the first episode went down...
Abbi's final moments
We open in the wet and windy town of Pembroke, where A&E nurse Abbi Rayner (Bethan Maclean) is about to head off to Paris with her boyfriend Darrell (Rick Yale), when she's put on edge by a text from her ex, Ryan Moss, asking for a chat. That feeling of dread isn't helped when he tells her he wants to meet in the woods!
Apart from a stranger at the seafront, the last person she spoke to before she met him was fellow nurse Helen (Rhian Blythe), who also happens to be the wife of local detective Rick Sheldon (Richard Harrington). Helen reckons Darrell is going to propose, but when she finds her colleague has gone missing, she sends Rick down to the station to find out more.
It seems Abbi's car was found in Cleddau Reach, with a fully packed suitcase in the boot. Yet as the police search the woods, they find Darrell banging on her ex's door, convinced she’s inside. "He messes with her head," he shouts. "What if he’s done something to her."
Later that evening the body of a young woman is found in the woods under some tarpaulin. There are bruises on her face and ligature marks around her neck. It’s a devastating scene and one reminiscent of the ‘Heart Knot Murders’, which rocked the Welsh community 12 years ago. Is the same murderer at large or is it a copycat?
The Heart Knot Murders
Rick's boss DCI Alan Vaughan (Ioan Hefin) calls to remind him of these chilling facts and says he’s bringing back DI Ffion Lloyd (Elen Rhys), who worked the original case with him. If it is a copycat killer, the second murder came just seven days after the first, so they’ll need to work fast.
Rick’s not happy about Ffion coming back, but that’s probably because of their personal history. It seems they were once in a relationship, only for Rick to have an affair with Helen, with whom he now has two kids. Meanwhile, Paul Harvey (Ian Puleston-Davies), who was convicted of the Heart Knot Murders over a decade ago, is still languishing in prison. But is he innocent after all?
The next morning, Rick’s blood runs cold when they find a Heart Knot bearing the initials A and R carved on a tree near where Abbi’s body was found. DCI Vaughan is deeply concerned about the effect this discovery will have upon the town.
A frosty reunion
After a very frosty reunion, Ffion and Rick start on the case and their first port-of-call is Ryan’s house, which has a very creepy aesthetic, to say the least. Pictures of hanged women, sketches of Abbi, the works...
That evening Ffion visits her parents for the first time in ages. It's clear to see her father is suffering from dementia, as he still believes his daughter and Rick are together, while Ffion’s sister Lisa (Hannah Daniel) bristles and feels overshadowed by the return of the ‘prodigal daughter’. However, Ffion is clearly shocked by how badly her father has deteriorated since she last saw him.
Meanwhile, Helen tells Rick how concerned she is at the prospect of the murderer from 12 years returning and her husband working with his former lover once again. He does his best to reassure her, but she’s not convinced.
The next day the two detectives question Darrell, looking for chinks in his story, as they believe he might have killed Abbi. But we’re not so sure about that. However, they soon have a new lead, when they discover Ryan Moss had been renting a caravan from a local farmer at Abernach Bay.
Anna Jenning's confession
They find the caravan on a lonely strip of land right by the sea and soon discover the decor is little better than the eerie vibe at his house. However they also uncover a positive pregnancy test. If Abbi was pregnant could that be the reason she was killed? Rick reckons Darrell could have killed her and Ryan and hidden Ryan’s body to make it look like he was the murderer. As they depart the caravan it’s clear someone is watching them. But who?
That evening they both head back to Rick’s house for dinner. The food is nice and the house is warm, but the atmosphere is little better than in Ryan’s dingy caravan. However while Helen is concerned about Ffion’s return, she’s also wondering if the killer is hunting nurses, like 12 years ago.
Yet dinner is cut short when a bombshell lands on DCI Vaughan’s desk. That bombshell is Anna Jennings (Eiry Thomas), the terminally ill ex-wife of Paul Harvey, who was convicted for the Heart Knot Murders. She tells them all that while Harvey admitted killing the first nurse, she was with him the night the second nurse was killed, meaning he couldn’t have murdered her. She claims she just wanted a way out, but her actions could have had fatal consequences.
Yet even more worryingly, it looks like someone is watching Rick’s house, where his wife Helen and his kids are home alone!
