Episode #1.3 (31 Oct. 2010)

John Luther is on the trail of a satanic occult killer who kidnaps a woman but leaves her baby in the living room. Things get harder when a man accuses Luther of attacking him. Things take a grisly turn when the woman is found.

Director:

Sam Miller

Writers:

Neil Cross, Neil Cross (creator)

Stars:

Catherine Hamilton, Paul Rhys, Idris Elba

Cast

Episode cast overview:
Catherine Hamilton	...	Kirsten Ross
Paul Rhys	...	Lucien Burgess
Idris Elba	...	DCI John Luther
Saskia Reeves	...	DSU Rose Teller
Warren Brown	...	DS Justin Ripley
Paul McGann	...	Mark North
Ruth Wilson	...	Alice Morgan
Indira Varma	...	Zoe Luther
Andrew Tiernan	...	Richard Henley
Steven Mackintosh	...	DCI Ian Reed
Michael Smiley	...	Benny Silver
Dermot Crowley	...	DCI Martin Schenk
Mark Redguard	...	Policeman

Storyline

Devil-worshipping Lucien Burgess abducts young mother Kirsten Ross from her house,leaving satanic messages in blood on the walls. Rose Teller links this to the similar disappearance and murder of Grace Allen, ten years earlier,the blood being identified as Grace's. Burgess was implicated but had to be released after undercover cop Richard Henley pulverised him. Luther locates Kirsten to a boat,where her dead body is found in a freezer and takes unorthodox action to trap the killer. Mark North is attacked by a gang of girls led by Alice and assumes Luther was behind it. He makes a complaint but Alice gets him to drop it by telling him she did it to get Luther back with Zoe.As a result Zoe offers Luther an olive branch ...and a little more.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

31 October 2010 (USA)

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

59 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

Alice Morgan makes a reference to pulling the legs off a fly. The saying is pulling the wings off a fly.

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Quotes

Police Technician: [proud of his handy work] Beware of geeks bearing gifts.

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Soundtracks

"Feeling Good"
(uncredited)
Performed by Muse

User Reviews

Passes the time but isn't very realistic

The third episode of this series was fairly standard; we knew who the culprit was from the opening scene, the only mystery was whether or not Luther would find where he was hiding the kidnapped woman before he killed her. Once again Luther broke the rules to entrap the chief suspect who had been accused of an identical crime ten years previously. It is hard to imagine that a police officer would manage to stay in the force long enough to become a DCI given the methods he uses... punching a suspect in the nose to obtain a blood sample to plant at a crime scene is hardly standard procedure. While he is investigating one crime he himself is being investigated after his ex's new boyfriend is beaten up by a group of street kids and he believes Luther sent then; in fact they were sent by Alice, the suspect from episode one who continues to interfere in Luther's life.

While the plot is fairly ridiculous it passes the time well enough largely due to Idris Elba's portrayal of the unconventional eponymous hero. Paul Rhys does a reasonable job as suspect Lucien Burgess although the character is such a caricature that he is even less plausible than Luther.