The Missing Season 1, Episode 7 Review: Return to Eden

TheMissingEp8_Tony&Emily

So far in The Missing we’ve flitted between two timelines, the original investigation into Oliver’s disappearance in 2006 and the present day one, but with ‘Return to Eden’ we are placed in 2009 when another boy goes missing in similar circumstances as Oliver. In 2009 Tony and Emily marriage is hanging by a thread and upon hearing the news they, along with Mark, head back to France to see if there could possibly be a link between the two in the hopes the may uncover more about what happened to their son. The 2009 abduction ended up being a case of parental child abduction and had no links whatsoever to Oliver but it didn’t matter, even though it kicked off the events of this episode that wasn’t its focal point.

‘Return to Eden’ explored what our characters had gone through between 2006 and 2009, like Julien’s attempts to settle into retirement after his injury, but failing as he gets involved in the 2009 investigation. He wastes no time and makes one swift phone call to Laurence which solves the case for her, the man is a brilliant detective. This shows that no matter what state he is in he will always have his detective hat on as this investigation had nothing to do with him but as Laurence says he solved it without even leaving his home. Could you imagine how agonizing the Hughes case must have been for him all these years? He is a super-cop as we can see from the way he was introduced in the first episode and from this episode as well, yet he still hasn’t found out what happened to Oliver. I’ve been starting to believe that we won’t get any resolution to the case but Julien gives me an ounce of hope, I don’t believe he will leave the investigation open any longer, he wants answers whether they are good or bad.

This episode also explores the breakdown of Tony and Emily’s marriage, it has been three years since Oliver was taken yet Tony hasn’t gone back to work regularly and constantly goes back to France whenever a weak lead appears. We see Tony on his way to becoming the person he is in the first episode of The Missing, the lost and desperate father begging for help and it tugs at your heartstrings. In earlier posts I have said that Emily seems to be replacing her previous family with her new one, attempting to forget Oliver and this episode justifies her actions, she’s had to put up with so much false hope that she wants to give up. She says it herself, the day Oliver left so did Tony, Tony is stuck in 2006 because of his guilt and all she wants to do is move on and learn how to smile again and she thinks the answer to that is to ingratiate herself into Mark’s family. I found her to be the most perplexing character up until last week, it wasn’t her I felt for it was Tony, but with ‘Return to Eden’ I was able to look at her with a lot more clarity.

TheMissingEp8_Ziane

As well as exploring the lost years of The Missing we also got to see the present day investigation progress a little after last week when Karl Sieg informs Tony, Julien and Emily that he saw a Moroccan police officer bag evidence. Super-cop Julien deduces that he was Ziane but he had never logged anything into evidence during the 2006 investigation, so they visit him to find out what it was. The audience knows Ziane passed the evidence onto Malik who never returned it, and he’s already in prison so what difference would it make for him to tell the trio this? He resists their questioning which I should have been expecting but it was still quite frustrating, he worked the case so shouldn’t he want answers like Julien too? Can’t he show any sort of compassion to the Hughes’? Apparently not. He does however offer them a deal, he will give them the information if they manage to get his son to visit him in prison. What is it with these unsavory characters using a missing child as a bargaining chip? It’s getting quite tiring now.

With the trio so close to getting a piece of evidence that could completely change the course of the investigation they agree to Ziane’s deal and go to speak to his son. He instantly refuses revealing that Ziane beat his mother to death and then left him to start a new family, that was what Malik was blackmailing him. They never reference this again which is an annoyance, how on Earth did Ziane manage to not only escape justice but become a police officer? I don’t think we’ll ever get an explanation, this will probably the major loose end of the series for me. Somehow Julien wears the boy down and he agrees to visit Ziane, but just as Ziane is about to see his son for the first time in years and give the Hughes’ the answers they’ve been waiting for he is stabbed by other inmates. This could bring it back to the Romanian crime ring that they have been investigating already, it’s likely that they could have someone in prison they could use, and it also makes the evidence much more important as whoever is responsible is willing to kill for it.

Luckily enough super-cop Julien deduces (if there is a french Sherlock please let him be played by Tchéky Karyo) that the person that Ziane gave it to would have been Malik as he was leaking him information. He then sends the underused Mark to pay him a visit and put the fear of a French prison into him, so he hands it over as a way to avoid any legal ramifications. This episode Malik has revealed to Tony that he knows that he killed Ian Garrett and he has gotten a testimonial from Vincent Bourg confirming Tony’s links to both himself and Ian and if he did an exposé there would be enough circumstantial evidence to open up an investigation into it. Mark also presses Malik about the reasoning behind him going after Tony and why he believes that Tony had something to do with it. It’s revealed that he was hacking the Hughes’ phones and heard a message from Emily to Tony which references it, showing that The Missing isn’t only taking inspiration from the Madeleine McCann case but also the Milly Dowler murder which only means could mean that they are attempting to get the audience to empathise or make them feel sickened. It’s quite exploitative, but it also makes the show quite realistic.

Mark hops off a train in France just in time to reveal the evidence before the end credits, knowing that we’d have to agonise over it for another week. He’s evil I tell you. The evidence which we have been waiting on since last week is a blood stained coin which Mark suggests they run tests on to see if they can find any forensic evidence, but Tony recognises the coin instantly, he knows who it belongs to. Cut to credits. Cut to me yearning for The Missing for another week! I’m pretty sure that the coin belonged to Alain, the man ran the hotel that the Hughes’ are staying at but I doubt it could be so simple. It would have to be bigger than one man if the Romanians are sending cleaners around to cover the abductors tracks and having people executed for it, right? Maybe Alain is involved in the gang? Maybe he was trying to help Oliver?

I can’t believe I have to wait another week for the last episode. I can’t believe next week is the last episode. I still have my doubts that we’ll get answers, like I said Julien is my main hope but everyone else has me thinking that we won’t. Emily and Tony seem to be achieving some sort of closure with Emily admitting that she was trying to run away from her past, and Tony was willing to give himself up for murder. They are no longer stuck in 2006, they have changed considerably which is what finding Oliver was supposed to do for them. The writers are giving them their closure and I have a slight feeling that they won’t be nice enough to give Oliver back to them so they can live happily ever after, they will just move on. On separate notes, Malik is a father! It makes his character even more detestable that he doesn’t have compassion for a fellow one. And Vincent’s injections aren’t working anymore? What’s going to happen? And I’m finding Mark really irksome! So much to tie up and only an hour left to do it in but the show has had more highs than lows so let’s hope they can keep it up for the finale!

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