Hey Friends! I’m a big NFL fan and it’s finally pre-season! Last night there was a game and one tonight too. More tomorrow. Premiere league is about to start too (Manchester United!) and my favorite time of year is just around the corner! With all this going on, being able to watch Adam in The Responder is just the icing on the cake. Also, the news about his new project is the icing ON the icing! 😀
So, we’re back this week to BritBox’s version of episode five. I’m not sure why Britbox made all the strange cuts in the show to make 6 episodes out of five. I’m just happy to see it though! This time around, Chris is still agonizing about turning Franny’s phone in or just giving it back to him. Franny is being relentless in his pursuit of it and Chris is just wanting some peace.
You know who else is relentless? Fucking Ray. Now our fave jerk is pestering Debs about Franny. She’s trying hard not to give anything away but those ‘FS Plastering’ shirts hanging on the clothesline in the backyard is damning evidence to the contrary. She’ll give up Chris though. Chris totally can’t catch a break. Also: Ray leave everybody alone, geez!
Chris decides to give Franny his phone back, and Franny shows him the real reason he was so ferociously determined to get his phone back. Besides all the pictures of drugs inventory and all the other intel one could get on an international drug dealer (an ‘OG’ as Ray put it) there’s pictures of Franny and Debs and their son. Papa Bear Franny doesn’t want anyone getting a hold of that or messing with his family. Looks like Hodgkin discovered Franny’s biggest weakness and was trying to exploit it. Look what happened to him.
Franny’s happy to get his phone back and since Chris seems to have proven himself a viable ally, Franny gifts him a new, fancy flat and tells him to get some sleep. Finally! Franny should know why Chris needs some sleep.
Jodie is also calling on Franny for help. Ian spilled the beans on Casey’s role in Carl’s death and Jodie is LIVID. She says she’ll give anything and everything if Franny can find Casey for her. Everyone needs Franny! Franny fixes everything!
Speaking of fixing, our darling little ‘OG’ calls on Chris in his new house to ‘fix a hole’ in the kitchen. Well…there’s no hole, but Franny informs Chris there’ll be a hole in his head if he ever fails Franny. Then, Franny proceeds to make a hole under the sink that he can fix. He wanted Chris to know the expectations, and probably how well he could use a hammer.
I’ll tell you, Franny’s smile as he tells Chris ‘welcome aboard lad’ really gives me conflicted feelings. First, he looks so damn cute when he smiles, but then that is one scary little man. Anyone that’s not part of Franny’s fam is fair game. He also understands the strong motivation of protecting one’s children and uses that along with Chris’s utter exhaustion to manipulate Chris to coming all the way over to the dark side. Despite ‘just wanting a quiet life’ Franny’s not exactly pursuing it in a quiet way. He’s happy to have a ‘bizzie’ on his payroll.
I’m feeling a bit concerned for Jodie too, even though she’s not exactly an upstanding citizen either. Then again, this show isn’t about upstanding citizens, is it? I do know from getting the screencaps that the end of this episode (would have been episode 4 on BBC) should have been when poor Chris finally laid on the two-thousand-pound mattress getting some sleep, but instead, this Britbox version passes that then ends with Franny pounding the hole under the sink in Chris’s new kitchen.
The original ending had an upbeat feel to it, but this one ends on a creepy note. In case anyone underestimates Franny or thinks just because he does have a few soft places in his heart that he might not be such a bad guy is going to end up on the wrong end of his hammer.
Got only one more episode, left friends! How did this go by so fast?? The Responder is out, and The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 1 is coming out on Netflix August 19th, and Upholstergeist will be showing (rightly!) in October at the Bolton International Film Festival! Exciting things will be leading us into the holiday season! Here’s to next week!