Know thine enemy - question
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — The Inspector Lynley Mysteries
shipperly-groom — 13 years ago(June 18, 2012 04:55 PM)
OK, I realise this is based on a real crime, and that the whole premise of the story is questioning the idea that the wife is the 'junior partner' in the crimes, and less 'culpable' because she is so psychologically cowed by her psychopath husband. Lynley's insight that it just ain't so turns out to be correct, and they wrap up the case.
But.doesn't this sort of contradict the original theory that they could flush the couple out by dividing them through the police appeal on TV? The subordinate female was supposed to have qualms about letting the girl die ('cos she's a woman, and therefore tooooo nice for such things), and wifey's misgivings were supposed to provoke the domineering hubby to some violent spousal abuse, which could be picked up through the police or hospitals. BUT, that all depended on the wife's conscience getting the better of her, and her man reacting like the typical tetchy controlling psycho in the couple.
In fact all that apparently worked like a dream - she starts looking up diabetes on the web, and he blacks her eye and splits her lip, resulting in a visit to A&E.
And then we find out the dynamic of the relationship isn't like that at all. She's not the kind to have the faintest of qualms about victims, and she's the instigator and senior controlling psycho, so vicious and twisted she in fact scares the bejabers out of him.
Fine, subvert the cliche about women being the abused victim-accomplices when it comes to this type of crime, but not after their actually being so has already provided a huge driver to the plot. Seems a bit sloppily thought out to me? -
nicky-682-764451 — 12 years ago(July 18, 2013 08:29 AM)
A lot of this episode is all about Lynley and Havers differing in the approach they should take.
They start by trying to appeal to the woman's conscience. But at that point they have nothing to go on, until the checks on the hospitals.
Once they have the woman, Havers (initially) is convinced she can help if they do the deal, the AC agrees and it's only Lynley who thinks different. He turned out to be right, BUT it's also true that the only reason they found the girl Kelly is that the woman reveals her location.
So in a way, Havers' approach was right, even though the woman turned out to be just as culpable.
I don't see that that's sloppy, just showing how the two detectives had different thoughts about how to get the info they needed. What really mattered was finding Kelly, and in that respect, Havers was right. OK so the woman only did it to save her own skin but so what?