Doctor Foster (Series 2, Episode 5 Review)

One near attempt at murder, two attempts at suicide (one of those assisted), a kidnap and a child running away. That’s an impressive CV of a finale which will likely disappoint many for the sole reason that everybody gets out alive. As far as we know. Those gearing up for a fatal battle royale between Gemma and Simon were ignoring the heart of what made series two tick. Tom was the epicentre of the storm and by running off, the adverse weather has moved direction.

Simon wasn’t run over which is just as well because Gemma’s, let’s say, pyrrhic victory would have been for nothing. If there is a next series it’d be based in the courtroom and no one wants that. With incredibly fast feet Simon dons Gemma’s stalking capabilities from three episodes back by showing up at the hotel, the house and then a restaurant where his estranged wife and son are eating.  The language is violent and contradictory. There is talk of stabbings and choking one moment and reconciliation the next. Simon’s grovelling is desperate and Bertie Carvel uses it to perfection. You never quite know how much of it is genuine regret or how much is still the mind games of a man who can’t stop lying.

As for the mind, it can do funny things. We get lots of flashbacks to supposed happier times between the Fosters though it’s not stated if this was while he was seeing Kate. The purpose of this is not quite clear. Is it to set up a potential reunion in a severe case of better the devil you know? Is it better to live with the lies than be without them?

In a masterfully shot scene, Simon plays with the traffic but as mother, father and son stand by the road it’s a lottery as to who will get out alive. Gemma wrestles with him by the road and for one moment it looks like Tom wants to run in front of a car to stop all the nonsense. You wouldn’t blame the kid. An agreement is reached, which is potentially the first time that can be said about these two. Gemma agrees to leave drugs in the hotel room for her nemesis to end his life. More impending dread of courtroom scenes flash before us as Gemma’s fingerprints would have been all over the offending stuff AND she left a note of instructions. Talk about leaving a trace.

While trying to kill off her ex-husband there’s a fantastically awkward breakfast where Tom, never one to mince his words says “we’re all just sitting here feeling like shit”. The poor waitress perseveres and at the very least deserved a tip for her troubles. Tears over bacon aside, Simon’s split personality is still in action as truths come out. We get the big reveal of what exactly he told Tom to turn him against his mother. In fact, it’s not a big reveal at all. After all the hype it’s simply mentioned in passing and is an example of how the show balances the epic and the mundane well.

It subverts how you expect everything to play out. The different levels are part of what makes Doctor Foster tick. One moment Gemma is saving Simon from the traffic, next she’s assisting in his suicide and then ultimately talking him out of the suicide she agreed to lend a hand in. It’s bluff after bluff and this shit just got real. The running agenda in this series has been the consequences of actions and the fallout is finally upon us. As a lesson learnt it’s the ultimate act of cruelty writer Mike Bartlett has dished out.

There is a truce of sorts but the great tragedy is that it comes literally minutes too late. As Mr and Mrs Foster leave things on fairly amicable terms (both alive and not swearing at each other) Tom is roaming free having done a runner from the car park. Again, there’s the dread he’s thrown himself onto the road as if taking inspiration from his dad but it’s another false alarm. He leaves a phone message about living his own life: “You’ll never see me again” he promises, “I hate myself”. Words uttered not long before by Simon. Like father like son. Narrating the closing seconds, Gemma states “whatever fight you thought was important now looks so naive” as weeks and months go by without any trace of her son. She even breaks the fourth wall and talks directly to the camera which is disconcerting at the least and takes the viewer out of what is a deeply emotional moment. You don’t need to worry about Suranne Jones seeing you eat Pot Noodle while sat in your pants.

It is both a satisfactory end to Doctor Foster and a hint to what’s next. Should there be another series there would need to be a good twist on the standard missing child programmes we’ve had so much of lately. If any show is capable of breathing fresh and somewhat bizarre life into old topics then it’s this one. 9/10

Doctor’s notes:

• At no stage must the two of them get back together romantically. If there is a future for Doctor Foster then there can’t be a future with them as a couple. An uneasy alliance would work though.
• Sian wasn’t a bad sort in the end though it’s always difficult to trust overly smiley people.
• James. Poor James. The glutton for punishment got dumped and should probably count his blessings
• Is Tom at Anna’s new home? Or at least in touch with Anna?
• Will Tom come back to Parminster in two years time with a wife and kid and set about on a vengeful mission to oust his mother from town? If so, does that mean Parminster is stuck in a never ending time loop of insanity? It would explain a lot.

 

 

Doctor Foster (Series 2, Episode 4 Review)

In Doctor Foster, even when expecting the unexpected you can still be confounded to a point where dizziness takes over. That applies more than ever in a penultimate episode crammed with paranoia. In a change of tact to its standard structure we see the same morning from two different perspectives and at last Jodie Comer is given the chance to shine as Kate. She rightfully gets a chance to be the headline act.

Kate opens a hand delivered letter containing the tie Simon left after the  and it injects more doubts on top of the ones that were clearly already there. It’s a game changer to be allowed a look into the window of a relationship we’ve only ever seen glimpses of through Gemma’s eyes. Kate is led on a which hunt through the plants of Carly, Sian and Anna, the latter leaving loads of notes around the Doctor’s property with the address of her hotel on them. It’s a convoluted plot to ambush Kate that backfires on the surface but the seeds have still been sown.

In a scene that brilliantly echoes Gemma’s first confrontation with Simon about the affair back in series one, Kate challenges him with fire in her heart: “Work out the consequence of lying and the consequences of telling the truth”. Simon’s silence is longer and more painful than before and the tension palpable as another lie is expected to froth from his lips. Instead he tells the truth and his pathetic squirming sets toes curling “Seconds into it I started thinking of you, your body’s better, the things you can do with it.. you smell better, you’re kinder. I get much more pleasure from you in every way. Starting sex with her was driven by lust, yes but finishing it was politeness”. It brings a weird moment of hilarity but still can’t cut the tension. Once a pathological liar always a pathological liar.

Kate returns to the hotel and is lectured on her husband’s obsession with the ex-wife. From dress sense, wedding vows and.. er.. food” Gemma wins her over by saying “His taste is me”. It may be tenuous to some but it’s perfectly understandable that she is won over by this. It serves to amplify Kates’s earlier “I’m here!” as her husband looked through her and talked only of his former lover. Never could it have been predicted that the women in Simon’s life would end up as an uneasy alliance. While all these new revelations are true let’s not forget that Gemma is also obsessed. People in glass houses and all that.

What of poor Tom? The story that grounds everything in reality. Captive in a hotel room and sobbing in a touching moment as mum washes his hair. He is still a kid and the most damaged out of everyone. What Simon said about his mother is still a mystery and is one of two key points the whole series is hanging on. The second is Simon’s grand declaration that he’ll only leave in a coffin. Someone might leave in a wooden box but it could be anyone.

Simon’s life, like the man himself is an entire lie. He has no money in the house, the business isn’t his, even his satchel isn’t his own. The clothes he stood in would have been stripped off were it not for public decency.  Chris Parks is literally every viewer as he rages “It was made very clear to you from the beginning that all this, this whole life is my daughters and you get to live in it while she’s happy. The moment she’s not it snaps back” then happily exclaiming “and here it is FUCKING SNAPPING! HAPPY DAY!” It’s punch the air satisfying. Mr nasty has lost his house, business, wife and child and only two of those were his anyway. As Gemma rolls up to survey the wreckage there’s an incredibly powerful contrast. Simon kicks and punches her car but she sits there stony faced. Almost numb. Her victory tasting somewhat bitter. For a moment there it almost looked like she was softening. That is until she speeds the car at him. Normal service resumed. Kind of.

As drama goes it can’t get more riveting than this. Doctor Foster is a kitchen sink drama with cinematic ambition. It’s a pulse quickening, mouth opening extravaganza of madness. So mouth opening you too could inelegantly shove pasta in your gob IF you could take your eyes off the screen that is. Like last week this felt like a series finale so it’s a guarantee the stakes will be raised even further than all that’s gone before. Murder? Suicide? A happy ending? Nah, Just joking about the last one. 10/10

Doctor’s notes

• it was obvious Kate wanted out the moment see stared with contempt at Simon wolfing down pasta.
• A vibrator in someone’s drawer isn’t a sign of a bad sex life. Just saying
• Even Simon looked embarrassed as he said “love you” down the phone. And he was alone.
• Whatever the removal company is called we need to know because those guys are damn good at their jobs.
• Did Simon put the GPS on Gemma’s phone?
• Why would Gemma run over the man she has just claimed “victory” over? All that she’s worked for would be over in an instant.