If ever an ad was needed to discourage phone use while driving, it’s the end of the last streak Bloody land this. Not because poor DC William Bird was actually driving his car, but because he was momentarily distracted by a lovelorn Issy, who didn’t realize that Tom Branick had set up his secret one-man surveillance operation after he caught his fighter and Olivia , who were digging up Foyle’s death, his wife’s grave for gold bars and well… it was a case of goodbye, goodbye, Little Bird.
kudos to Jimmy Nesbitt and Chris Whalley (Birdy) for bringing such emotion to the moments leading up to Birdy’s bloody demise. Branick does look completely devastated that he’s going to have to kill his DC – and while this series was clearly leading to a sad ending for the impatient young cop – it was a twist to see Olivia pull the trigger instead of Branick. With the episode ending on this heartwarming note, here are five topics for fans to talk about as the series nears its finale:
What’s Branick’s next move?
Poor Birdie died and Olivia used Branick’s gun to pull the trigger. She got the gold and fled the scene, and the corrupt, grim-faced cop quickly ran out of options. We know that the formidable Yank Ryan Savage (Jonjo O’Neill), whose Boston crime family originally stole the state’s gold for the IRA, wants the gold back. It’s likely that Olivia will try to flee the country with the £43m bounty… Will Branick try to escape too? It is a bet that he will try to divert the investigation from himself, not knowing that his colleague Niamh McGovern is becoming more and more suspicious.
Bloodlands S2,4, Olivia Foyle (VICTORIA SMURFIGHT), HTM Television, Peter Marley
BBC/HTM Television
What happened to Emma Branick?
Branik’s missing wife is mentioned here and there throughout the series. Fans will recall that in the first series, Emma, who was working as a military intelligence agent, was believed to have been kidnapped and potentially killed by Goliath (aka her husband). With the candid conversations Branica’s daughter Issey has had with the counselor and even her father in this series, it seems like this is set up for the missing woman’s possible return. Emma finds out her husband is Goliath and decides to go off the grid?
Will Birdie’s evidence about Branik be found?
It was a fatal mistake for Birdie to not trust McGovern when he had the opportunity to show that Branick was behind the fire at the Dardis property. One of the last things Birdie did before he decided to track down Branick was to take a screenshot of Branick throwing a gasoline bomb into Robert Dardis’ barn. However, it is on his personal laptop and can go undetected, letting Branick off the hook. Maybe McGovern or Issy click on that desktop folder?
Who is the FBI informant working on this side of the Atlantic?
In episode three, we learn from the Assistant Director of the FBI that the feds had an informant in Northern Ireland during the Goliath assassination in the republican movement. The informant – now “lost” by their handlers – was described as male. But alas, those are all the details we have… Could this person have information to expose Branick?
What will Ryan Savage do next?
A true psychopath with an air of unpredictability, O’Neill’s Ryan Savage has come from Boston to reclaim the gold bars. So far, only Olivia knows he’s here, and Branick doesn’t notice yet. This is likely to change, and while Savage operates as a lone wolf, he clearly has access to resources; when he gets here, Savage gets a rental car with a nice little extra – a gun. How far will he go to get back the gold bars – including those found by the police?
