“Episode #1.5” is episode five of season one of Hard Sun.
In the previous episode Renko had approached Mari, the wife of the dead policeman, Butler, the woman that Hicks is sleeping with, and stated that she, too, didn’t believe that Hicks killed his friend. Instead, she thinks the widow did. Hicks himself had dug into Renko’s past and found out about the rape that she denied that resulted in her son, Daniel, and told the woman from MI5 that he believed that Renko would have given the Hard Sun data to the man, a teacher, who was accused of raping her – because he owed Renko. Big time. The MI5 woman had also left a file with Daniel. Who then left the hospital (really, considering he’s supposed to be somewhere secure, they don’t keep much of a watch on him).
The episode opens with a man covered in reflective strips jogging through the streets at night. The man gets home, but there’s someone waiting in the house for him. The person attacks the man with an ice pick and, as the man is lying on the ground, removes his hood. The attacker is Daniel – the man he attacked is his presumed father, the man who raped Renko.
DCS Bell is speaking to Renko about the disappearance of Daniel, who has been gone a week. Daniel was the leverage Bell had against Renko, and Bell is wondering if Renko is really trying to find her son, and whether she encouraged Daniel to slice himself up in “Episode #1.3” so that he would get taken to a hospital, an easier place to escape from than a secure unit (even though in the secure unit Daniel seemed free to get onto the roof). Renko wants to know why Bell is after Hicks, because she says they both know that Hicks didn’t kill Butler. Bell says that the word has come from above, it’s nothing to do with him. In the middle of the meeting, one of the DSs comes in with details of a murder – Noah Underhill. Daniel’s father. This affects Renko quite strongly, but she has to hide it.
At the crime scene, Underhill has been disfigured with an ice pick. When Hicks sees a picture of the victim, he recognises him – and the name, when it’s given. Then the MI5 woman calls Hicks at the scene. Her people were not able to find the flash drive with the Hard Sun data. So she wants it found. So, both Renko and Hicks are at a crime scene where they both know who the victim is, and probably why he died, but they can’t divulge this – even to each other.
MI5 woman is still claiming that Renko is after Hicks. The crime scene isn’t missing anything important, bar the victim’s powered-down phone, so robbery looks out. The mutilation and the victim’s job do suggest another motive. Which is partly an accurate one as it happens. Once Daniel turns on the phone, he will be traceable. When Daniel does turn it on, Renko and Hicks are watching as he is found on CCTV – and both recognise the flash drive Daniel is also examining. Keeping the matter secret from each other is probably not going to work. So Renko makes an excuse and leaves to find her son herself, before the police do. And the potential for conflict between Renko and Hicks becomes a lot less potential. Choices will need to be made.
The mysterious MI5 woman reveals why she is trying so desperately to keep Hard Sun a secret, given that it is a secret that will eventually come out, no matter what she does. You can’t hide the end of the world.