Payback continued on ITV this week with episode 2, and Peter Mullan‘s chilling portrayal of crime boss Cal Morris continues to give us the chills.
Morven Christie is typically watchable as Lexie, who radiates pure fear at her terrifying predicament. Meanwhile, Cal and his associate Malky (Stephen Mackintosh) are brilliantly sinister in their respective roles.
Oh, and add some Julie Graham sprinkles as Cal’s moll wife, and we’ve got ourselves a truly unmissable cast.
After episode 1 of the ITV crime thriller, some ED! readers complained the series started off with bad sound, and a “boring” and “confusing” plot.
But we agree with those who called it “fantastic”, “brilliant”, and “bingeworthy”. It might be a slow burner for some, but we’re desperate to know what happened to Cal’s dosh…
Here’s all the questions we desperately need answering after watching episode 2 of Payback on ITV.
***Warning: spoilers from Payback episode 2 ahead***
Questions we have after watching Payback episode 2 on ITV1 – was Jared stealing from Cal?
In episode 2 of Payback on ITV, Lexie was left feeling increasingly isolated and alone. Deceived by her husband – we think! – Lexie was left with no choice but to agree to help crime boss Cal Morris track his lost money.
At the end of Payback episode 1, Lexie discovered that her late husband had arranged copies of fake passports for the whole family. Which implies he had robbed Cal, and was planning to take the family to the US to start a new life under new identities.
Of course, he was murdered before that happened. And we still don’t know who killed him, although we have to suspect it was one of Cal’s rivals. In the second instalment of Payback (Wednesday, October 11, 2023), we discovered that Jared stole MILLIONS from Cal ‘you don’t say no to me’ Morris.
So he either had a death wish, or there was something else going on… Was he being forced to filter money? And if so, by who?
Who is the third party who has all the money?
In the latest episode of Payback on ITV, we learnt that Jared had arranged for a third party to withdraw Cal’s money in cash from one foreign account, and then deposit it in another. But, for security reasons, he didn’t share the details of the second account with Malky or Cal.
So who was the third party? We feel in our guts that Malky is somehow involved in this. Or if not, it’s definitely an inside job. Malky is shifty as hell, and we only have his word for the fact that Jared didn’t share this info… Malky (Steven Mackintosh) has shark eyes, and that’s all the evidence we need to distrust him right now!
We also learnt that Jared pilfered £28million from Cal using doctored paperwork, and a complex system of accounts. So where is all the cash? And did Jared steal it for himself, or was he being blackmailed to do it for someone else?
As for Jared being the mastermind, it’s possible… This is an ITV thriller after all, so he could even come back from the dead at any point. But we’re struggling to believe a man who kept valuable information on a scrap of paper in his jacket pocket is capable of robbing a gangster.
Payback episode 2 on ITV: Is Lexie as innocent as she seems?
We’ve noticed a couple of red flags about Lexie, played convincingly by Morven Christie. She seems to have no friends or family to turn to. Which is pretty rare, we reckon.
She also seems to be a TERRIBLE judge of character. At the moment, everything points at her husband being a wrong ‘un. Even if he was working under duress, he still lied to her for years and she didn’t notice. She also hired the world’s mardiest au pair. We rest our case, Your Honour.
Although we have a feeling Lexie will skip into the sunset with all the money at the end, we’re still not sure how much she knew. She acts like she knew nothing at all. So if it turns out she did, we’ll feel cheated. It will be like Bobby in the shower all over again…
The money just doesn’t add up…
So if Jared was sitting on a potential £28million, why was he acting so skint? He’d stopped paying his daughter’s private school fees, and had emptied out Lexie’s savings account. These are not the actions of a man with a wad of cash.
It doesn’t make sense. Poor Lexie was left without any money for fish fingers!
Payback episode 2 on ITV: Will Lexie be forced to start working for the police?
In the closing seconds of Payback episode 2, DCI Adam Guthrie (Happy Valley‘s Derek Riddell) had enough evidence to approach Lexie. Frankly, the mum-of-two is in deep do-do up to her neck. The cops saw her receiving a lump of cash from Cal, which immediately implicated her in his dirty work. But what choice did she have, when she desperately needed fish fingers?
The police probably have enough to arrest her as an accessory, but it’s more likely they’ll use her as an informant. Which is pretty bloody dangerous when you’re dealing with the head of one of Edinburgh’s main crime families…
Will Lexie be able to play both sides? Or will her head end up on a stick? Cal gives us serious Tony Soprano vibes, so we’re sure he can think of an inventive way to get rid of Lexie if he finds out she’s working with the cops!
Payback episode 3 airs on Wednesday, October 18, 2023 at 9pm on ITV1. All episodes are currently available to watch on ITVX.
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