A murder mystery, dark secrets, and complicated pasts are perfect ingredients for a storyline with a neat resolution and satisfactory answers at the end. However, the story subverts these by concluding with a messy ending because the focus of the narrative is the complexities of trauma and coping mechanisms. The story involves two almost similar murder cases that are separated by time but connected through the protagonist Adam. The plot focuses on the murder of a young girl Katy Devlin with the specifics resembling the disappearance of Adam’s two friends twenty years prior. He is the only one to be found covered in blood and traumatized to the point of no recollection of the events that transpired. Now an adult with a new identity as Rob Ryan to detach himself from the past he is now a detective with the Murder Squad. This is the first instance that demonstrates the link that he still has with his past despite trying to detach himself from it. The new case further hits home when it starts to unbury the emotions and memories of his ordeal.
The anxieties and fears of his past resurface with each progress he and his partner Cassie make in the current murder investigation. Thus, it sees him spiral into emotional instability that affects his work and day to day leading to poor decisions and actions. Psychologically, he fools himself into thinking he will resolve the two with ease due to their connection through him. However, it turns out while he is the connection he is also the anomaly in both the cases. His unsolved case in his past raises questions about him if he was indeed a traumatized victim in that ordeal or the perpetrator of the crimes. Considering the current murder Cassie implicates Rosalind, a minor, as the culprit in the murder of her sister. Rob’s shortcomings in the past whether intentional or unintentional resonates in the present as it also allows Rosalind to walk free of her crimes.
For that reason, rather than the storyline being a typical murder investigation with a satisfactory ending it is an exploration of trauma and its implications. There are no new answers to Rob’s past and how he happens to be the only survivor and it is left to speculations. In the present, the answers to the murder crime are found but due to technicalities and a careless mistake in the investigation, the perpetrator walks free. Moreover, Rob ruins his friendship and potential romance with his partner Cassie, loses his job as a detective and does not retrieve his repressed memories. Thus, illustrates the self-sabotaging nature of Rob’s traumatized mind and the implications of coping mechanisms and mental health.
