Welcome back to Deadloch! In Episode 7 of Deadloch Season 1, the mysteries surrounding the floating bodies in the lake take a darker turn, leading Dlucie and Radcliffe to round the women up. However, with the men uprising and the commissioner taking over, they can feel the case floating away from them as they finally land on an unlikely suspect that is closer to everything than anyone else.
Deadloch (Season 1), Episode 7 Recap:
The floating bodies that we saw in the previous episode make the entry point of the new one. Six dead bodies of men are found in the lake, and the investigation takes a darker turn. Dulcie, still reeling from her fight with Cath, is consoled by Radcliffe, but she quickly diverts the attention to whether the six bodies are the work of the serial killer who is at large. They try to get James’s professional opinion about the bodies, but his masculine, asshole-like personality really gets them riled up. Much like before, he steals Abby’s theories and connects the dots between Jimmy’s crucifix and the missing mast of the Loch-Nessie.
He also concludes that the six murders have occurred within the last 48 hours, which makes Abby, Dulcie, and Radcliffe question his deduction. Together, they decide to seek a second opinion and call Kate, whom we had heard of before. Kate gives them a better explanation, saying that it’s possible that these bodies were kept in a state of deep freeze and could possibly be as old as five years. Abby speculates that it’s possible the bodies were somehow submerged deep down in the lake, making them susceptible to freezing without needing a freezer. Dulcie then deduces that the serial killer is just getting ready for an even bigger next round, assuming this to be a teaser of what’s to come.
Seeing how the death of six more men is a severe threat to the Deadloch town, Dulcie organizes a press conference and tells everyone to be extremely cautious. Phil Mcgungus intervenes and says that men don’t need to be cautious, trying to divert the narrative by expressing his hatred for women as the central problem. Meanwhile, Radcliffe interrogates Mayor Aleyna and comes to the conclusion that the murders have become swifter ever since the festival started and asks her to shut it down.
Abby identifies one of the corpses as Geoff Haddick, who was supposedly killed while reversing his vehicle off the cliff. This development makes Dulcie speculate that the disappearance of Geoff Haddick happened when she was with Skye in London, and it’s not possible for her to be the killer. Meanwhile, the young guys from the footie club are seen bullying Skye’s son, Tom O’Dawyer, in order to jeopardize Tammy’s place on the team. Everyone around town is scared, and we can see most of them leaving.
Back at the station, Dulcie realizes that the other bodies, except one, were all missing men who were unreported, giving them a possible new suspect with a new motive in hand. However, when Abby comes up with the identification of the final dead body, it turns out to be that of Daniel Tate, providing some kind of enlightenment to Dulcie, who knows of his sexual harassment allegations.
Next, we see Tom confessing what the boys have asked him to do in front of Tammy, which makes her mad. This part of Deadloch’s narrative offers us a glimpse of the casual sexism and racism that happens in small towns, even between friends. On further brainstorming, Dulcie and Radcliffe realize that all the bodies discovered at the lake were of men who were somehow involved in either sexual assault or were abusive to their women.
Consequently, Abby makes a point that one of the killers in 1920 used the technique of poisoning abusive people and helping fellow women out. They connect the dots and realize that their serial killer is somehow similar to this incident in that the women of the town who are suspects of the murder have somehow collaborated with each other to bring bad men to justice.
The suspicion first falls on Aleyna, who is also a doctor. Upon checking Aleyna’s alibi, they come to the conclusion that something was shady about it. She claimed to be working in Glenvalleyglen, but upon rechecking, they discovered that her alibi was false. Upon reaching the hospital, they realize that Aleyna treated someone privately on the night of Sam O’Dawyer’s murder.
Meanwhile, Dulcie crosschecks the pubic hair found in Sam O’Dawyer’s mouth with Kate and rules out Skye’s direct involvement. However, Kate informs her that Skye’s DNA, which inadvertently connects to Sam, matches with one of the DNA samples that was gathered during the mass DNA testing. This leads Dulcie to understand that Sam fathered another child in the town that they don’t know about.
Radcliffe and Dulcie then interrogate Vic, who was the one Aleyna treated for injuries on the night of Sam’s death. Vic confesses that she was the one who killed Sam because he has been abusive towards her for years, which led her she go to the cabin and knock him over into the lake. However, since she does not mention strangulation and the tongues, the two of them realize that it wasn’t Vic who killed him.
They then interrogate Aleyna, who helped Vic with the injuries sustained due to her fight with Sam. Dulcie and Radcliffe do not understand how Vic could walk all the way to Aleyna’s house after being so severy wounded. However, working around the discussion, they get to know that Margaret and Sharelle were also aware and present when Aleyna was operating on Vic’s injuries.
When Sam is questioned after these revelations, she tells her that her mother, Vic, called her when she got to know that Sam was at the cabin with one of his girls, and in anger, Vic shouted that she would kill him in front of Jimmy. This revelation tells us why Sam has been paying Jimmy to keep his mouth shut. She also says that they kept their mouth shut about Vic hitting him over the head because Margaret, Sharelle, and Aleynaa knew that she was just defending herself, and his missing from action only made them seal to their knowings.
Who did Sam O’Dwayer impregnate?
On further deduction, Dulcie and Radcliffe come to the realization that it was Vanessa Latham who had a brief affair with Sam when she was just 15 years old. They come to this conclusion because Venessa’s pet name is Nessie (Dulcie heard Phil McGangus call her by that name), and since Sam’s boat was called Loch Nessie, they bring Vanessa in. They try to make Vanessa understand that her affair with Sam actually can be denoted as Statutory Rape, and what was between them was mere grooming done by a 40-year-old man to a minor.
This is when Dulcie tells Vanessa that they know Dolph (Vanessa’s son) is actually not Trent Latham’s but Sam O’Dwyer’s. However, every woman, including Vanessa, says that they are not the ones who killed Sam.
Under Cath’s threat, who is currently serving as the lawyer for these women, Dulcie is forced to release all the women, which leads to a mob of armed men led by Phil McGangus charging against their decision in front of the station.
They claim to take matters into their own hands and save the men from the killer woman at large. However, before they can take any drastic steps, a truck driven by someone no one can see drives past the mob at full speed, almost crushing Phil to death.
Dulcie and Radcliffe get into a chase with the green truck, which stops somewhere outside the Deadloch woods with no signs of the driver to be found anywhere.
Back at Deadloch Lake, Sven, and Abby discover that there is also a car inside, which leads Abby to deduce that all the bodies that recently came up to the surface were inside that car, as all of them had seatbelt marks on their bodies.
Deadloch (Season 1) Episode 7 Ending, Explained:
What do Phil and the men of the town do?
When Dulcie and Radcliffe arrive back at the station, they are met with a very angry Aleyna who tells them that Phil has organized an all-men’s meeting, and all of them have appointed him as the caretaker mayor. Phil has brought in a bus that will take all the men out of the town for safekeeping, and they are arranging to move out right away.
Before leaving, Phil calls Dulcie out for being useless and tells her that he has placed a call so that the killer will be apprehended soon. When they get back to the station, they see that Commissioner Hastings and his team have taken over, and they just want to somehow pin the killings on one of the women and be rid of the case. Dulcie and Radcliffe try to reason with him, but Hastings goes out and raids all the women’s houses.
What does Hasting discover?
Hastings raids the houses of the women and discovers a box containing all the cut-out tongues. Each tongue is associated and tagged under a woman’s name that was closer to the man who is found dead. Upon making this discovery, he arrests all the women and brings them to the station.
Who is William Carrathus, and why is he the new suspect?
Just when Hastings rubs Dulcie and Radcliffe’s faces with the new discovery of the tongues in all the women’s freezers, Dulcie realizes that it wasn’t the women who did it. In fact, the murders were not committed by a woman in the first place. She realizes this because it finally dawns on her that the killer is presenting the tongues to all the women they have killed. Since female killers don’t kill for notoriety, they come to the conclusion that this killer wishes to receive credit and recognition, which makes them believe that the killer is, in fact, male.
Just then, Abby comes in with what she found in the car at the lake. It is one of Vic’s shoes, which she lost on the day of Sam’s death. The missing link of Vic walking all the way to Aleyna’s home after being assaulted becomes clearer as Dulcie realizes that the killer drove Vic to Aleyna and then went back and killed Sam.
The license plate on the car tells them that the car found in the lake belonged to William Carrathus, Margaret Carrathus’ brother. Is William the new suspect? Most definitely.
However, Episode 7 of Deadloch Season 1 doesn’t end there. We also see a sequence where the young men on the bus – Tom, Dolph, and Callum – stand up against Hunter, who is again trying to bully Tom. We can see Dolph and Callum briefly touching each other’s fingers as a loving gesture.
Now, from the way I see it, the problem Deadloch is trying to investigate is that of bad men being allowed to be bad while the more sensitive ones never stand up. A wild theory, considering the clear queer underpinnings, is that William is, in fact, Margaret after transitioning into a woman and living under the guise of her identity.
With only one more episode left to go, Deadloch has managed to keep things interesting as the case tosses from one end to another. Will they be able to nail the ending and bring all of its floating themes together? Let’s wait to find out.
