3.33
The first episode of The Devil’s Hour begins with a convicted killer called Gideon questioning a woman, who sports a black eye and a cut lip. This is Lucy Chambers, and he tells her he knows she’s feeling dethatched like her life isn’t her own. “You wake every night from a painful dream you never had.” He says, and with that, a smattering of different shots which seem incredibly important end with the sound of a gunshot as Lucy Chambers sits up in bed, breathing heavily. The time is 3:33am. ..
Lucy’s son Isaac suddenly shows up in the kitchen while she’s there, wide-eyed and repeating what she’s saying.
According to Dr. Bennett, Isaac’s way of dealing with the separation of Lucy and her husband is by going on walks around the neighborhood. He has been seeing someone called “Meredith” but she’s not the first as there have been several others he’s been seeing too, including a guy called Alejandro. Isaac says that he isn’t supposed to be here and that he wants to leave. Lucy sees things that aren’t quite there - like a vase of flowers suddenly shifting.
Lucy’s job sees her working with families that have a history of abuse. She again experiences flashes of memories, this time with a child.
Ravi Dhillon is called to a gnarly crime scene. The victim is Harold Slade, who was stabbed 3 times. No weapon has been found yet, but he was discovered around 4am. ..
Ravi dusts the room down for prints and checks out the victim. It seems he’s not particularly extraordinary, and he’s actually well liked in the community. The door was unlocked and he snuck in. Ravi heads out to the balcony, looks out and says “Weird time for fireworks.” He’s been doing this job for a while and it seems he has a fear of the dead. Given his condition, his partner Nick comments how it’s a strange career choice to take.
Lucy has another nightmare in which she wakes up and her partner, Mike, is there. He mentions her talking in her sleep, including mentioning fireworks. This seems important and could well be connected to Ravi in some way. As for Isaac, he gets in trouble at school for urinating on a kid called Alfie’s bag. Apparently Isaac forgot where the toilet was but this seems more like revenge to be honest.
Isaac shows up in Lucy’s room that night, watching her sleep. When she wakes up, Lucy tells him to go to bed but he takes an age to close his eyes. “Who’s that man?” He says eventually, unnerving Lucy further as she spins around and sees… nothing. ..
Ravi heads to a neighbour, Gerald Bell, who claims that he saw a red Nissan Vanette outside for several weeks. It’s a rare model and could be a crucial clue in this case. Ravi immediately tracks down every Vanette in the county and they find what appears to be the one in question, down the M3. ..
Lucy returns to Dr Bennett and admits that she wakes up almost every night at 3.33am on the dot. She’s had this her whole life and even admits to “misremembering” things. She doesn’t divulge much further, but Bennett can tell that she’s afraid.
3:33 a.m. is apparently the devil’s hour, which makes this case all the more unsettling. On the way back home, Lucy does her best to try and get Isaac to emote but it takes a bout of sarcasm to get a half-smile out of him. She takes her eyes off the road for a second, and a small child almost gets run over. That child happens to be called Meredith. The same Meredith that Isaac appears to be seeing. ..
After the tragedy, there are some scenes between Lucy and her mother Sylvia. She is erratic, going through a number of different personalities and calling Lucy by the name of Ellen (because she likes the name). Another time she actually recognizes Lucy but claims that she’s cold. Lucy promises her mum that everything will be okay and embraces her. ..
Ravi and Nick come across an abandoned Nissan in town. It turns out that the driver had this car parked up so he could record Slade’s routine. The keys to a hotel in town are still inside the car, and while the killer may not be there, someone must have taken their booking and therefore make it easier to track him down.
Ravi and Miss Jones enter the Brightside Lodge. It turns out that the lot renter, who is known to speak with an accent and have grey hair, has paid for a year’s stay. However, they find that the front door of the lodge is locked. They are able to get a key from one of the guests, but find that it is already locked from the inside. They decide to leave and go back to their car.
Nick’s heart races as he realizes what this could mean. Could the killer be targeting his family?
We then jump ahead to an unspecified time as flashing blue lights outside depict a really clever timeline shift. It turns out Ravi and Nick’s investigation is occurring just behind Lucy’s reality, and the episode ends with a body being taken out of Chloe’s house. Lucy is, of course, working as Chloe’s caseworker and we’ve seen scenes of her and Shane, her seemingly abusive partner, earlier in the episode.
Ravi and Nick are questioning Gideon about a missing girl, Lucy Chambers. Gideon insists he knows nothing about her, but the boys are not convinced. They want to know where she is, and whether or not he knows anything about her whereabouts. Gideon is hesitant to answer, but eventually agrees to tell them everything he knows.
The Episode Review
The Devil’s Hour is a brilliantly written and suspenseful thriller that takes the best elements of horror movies such as Shining Girls, Sharp Objects and Tabula Rasa, and combines them into one deliciously twisted and dark thriller.
This first episode of the new series is gripping and sets the tone perfectly for what’s to come. Peter Capaldi is a star and Benjamin Chivers and Jessica Raine are both excellent in their roles. ..
