Shetland season 9 sees Ashley Jensen return as DI Ruth Calder as she is once again thrown into a dark and distressing case that she fights to solve with her colleague and friend Tosh (Alison O’Donnell). This season sees the pair drawn into a deeply personal investigation for Tosh when her friend, Annie Bett is murdered and soon the pair are drawn into a web of lies and deception.
Here is everything that happened in Shetland season 9 episode episode 5...
The penultimate episode opens with a flashback of a young Annie meeting Professor Rossi in a pub where she tells him she is still thinking about his offer to join him as an analyst, she is reluctant and he tells her this is her chance to do something that matters. She says she wouldn't know where to start, but he says she already has and the encryption exercise that he sent her the month before wasn't a trial but her work actually helped them catch a man who was planning to bomb a number of government buildings and thanks to her they have found the suspect. As they are talking, undercover police raid the pub and arrest the man in question right in front of them.
The episode then returns to the present day and Noah wakes up after wetting the bed. He tries to hide it from his dad, but Ian catches him and tells him not to worry and they will wash the sheets.
At Rossi's hotel, Tosh and Calder search his room and find he has been doing his own investigation into Annie's murder. Calder points out that becasue he is ex-security services he is probably already one step ahead of them becasue of the contacts and skills he has. No one has seen Rossi since yesterday but we then see him in town with the gun bag and stealing a van.
Calder and Tosh head to the airport to collect Rob Harding, Calder's ex who has come to help them look into Rossi. He tells them Rossi set up a bespoke intelligence team and in 2013 Annie was working for him when a sting operation went wrong and that's how she got shot. An insider investigation decided Annie was to blame for the operation going wrong and losing their suspect, who had the codename Brutus. This resulted in her being discharged from the service, leaving Rossi lost without her. Rob tells them that if Rossi finds Annie's killer they could be dealing with another body.
The episode then flashes back to 2013 when Annie and Rossi are organising the sting that Rob has just told Calder and Tosh about. Rossi tells her she should be there when the sting happens, she tells him that she isn't trained or authorised to be there, but he insists.
In the present day, we see Rossi watching a target in the van he stole.
While Ian and Noah get ready for a memorial at the church for Annie, Noah tells his dad that he wet the bed becasue of the reoccurring dream he keeps having.
At the station, Billy tells Tosh and Calder about Rossi stealing the van as Cora turns up and says she has just got an email from someone at the ballistics lab who says the bullet that killed Bergen matches one from a separate case in Manchester last year. It is likely that both bullets are from the same gun and the shooter still hasn't been identified. Calder asks Sandy to do some digging into their new information.
Calder tells Tosh that she thinks this Brutus who shot Annie in 2013 could be Stefan Jackobson becasue he was on the watchlist that Rossi showed her and becasue worked for the Swedish governmant. Tosh confirms these suspicions further by telling Calder that Tara had told her that Annie was at the hospital the same night that Bergen took Astrid in and that Annie got spooked when she saw the Jackobsons - could this be becasue she knew him?
At the Jackobson house, Stefan is shouting at his lawyers when he discovers that he can't leave the island becasue of his bail conditions, but he has bigger things to worry about, becasue Rossi attacks him in his house and he has a gun. Calder and Ruth race to the Jackobson house as Sandy calls to confirm their suspicions that Stefan was posted to the Swedish embassy in London at the same time Annie Bett was shot. They arrive at the house and Astrid races outside asking for help, and they find Stefan on the floor asking for them to find Karin, as Rossi has kidnapped her.
While Tosh races to find Karin, Cadler tells Stefan about Rossi being MI5 and him being there at the same time he was at the embassy. Stefan says he worked for the trade and finance delegation - nothing to do with Rossi, and that the only interesting thing was meeting Karin. Calder is shocked Karin worked at the embassy and the penny drops that Karin was Brutus!
Rossi has Karin in the back of the van and takes her to a secluded beach - but Tosh and Calder aren't far behind and find Rossi holding Karin at gunpoint on the sand. She tells him he has it wrong and she didn't kill Annie, but he doesn't believe her. However, as Tosh and Calder run towards them and tell Rossi to put the gun down, Karin overpowers him and soon he's the one at gunpoint. Tosh gets the gun from Karin and no one is hurt.
At the church, everyone arrives for the memorial and Annie's friends make a comment to Donny about the fact Tosh isn't there. Meanwhile, at the station, Rossi is in a cell while Karin is being interviewed. Sandy says there is currently nothing to link Karin to Annie during the time she was working in London so Calder says she will put another call in with Rob.
As Calder and Tosh question Rossi, we see a flashback that shows Annie and Rossi on their operation to catch Brutus. But Rossi, who was addicted to drugs at the time, was desperate for his next hit and broke protocol by getting out of the car to take drugs in secret... but at the same time, Brutus came out of the flats where they were meeting and shot Annie, all while Rossi was hiding behind some bins. In the present day, Rossi admits he framed Annie for the operation failing because he didn't want his bosses to find out about his addiction, and she took the blame and never said a word. He also tells them that Karin is lying and knows exactly who he is and who Annie was.
At the station Calder and Tosh question Karin, who remains adamant that she has never met Annie, let alone killed her, and that she isn't the agent that shot her in London in 2013, either. Calder thinks she is lying, but Sandy says that Karin was online the night Annie and Bergen were killed and the IP address proves that she was at home all night. However, Calder still thinks she is hiding something and warns Karin that Rob is looking into her time at MI5 and that if she has anything to hide, he will find it.
Lisa, who is staying with Alan at the church while Angus gets back on his feet, grills him about whether God makes people bad, but he says no, that is our choice. However, Lisa disagrees and says sometimes things happen that leave people with no choice.
Tosh asks Calder for relationship advice and Calder tells her to cut Donny some slack - when Tosh gets home she talks to Donny and they make up.
Noah wakes from another bad dream and lashes out at Ian... Ian calls Calder to talk to Noah and she asks him about the reoccurring dream. He says in his dream a big lizard is chasing him and Annie through the old house and when it catches him, the lizard eats him. Later, Calder tells Ian about Annie's past as a spy and he is shocked.
Meanwhile, Sandy calls Tosh to say Cora was right, the Manchester shooting is linked and the prime suspect at the time was a man called Kyle Frost, who was known for assault and drug supply. He sends Tosh a picture and she recognises him from the mission and asks him to get a unit together and meet her there. After a chase they find Kyle and arrest him... but as they question him, Sandy works out that Kyle knows Lisa Friel. As the episode ends, we see Lisa in church, praying in front of a cross. What is she hiding?
Shetland season 9 airs at 9pm on Wednesdays on BBC One. It will also arrive on BBC iPlayer each week after the episode has aired on BBC One.
