Mystery Road
Mystery Road is not a show
to watch and do something else at the same time. For the first two episodes of season two, I
was working on art projects. Because of
that, I didn’t catch who some people were or what was going on. Most of it I figured out with the last four
episodes, but with characters who made only a brief reappearance later on, I
didn’t know who they were. Thankfully,
there was only one or two characters this happened with. Everyone else, as I sat and watched the rest
of the season, I was able to figure out who they were and what was going on.
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Detective Jay Swan (Aaron Pedersen) has been
called to the town of Gideon. A headless
body has been found, and the local police need his help to investigate.
While looking into the headless body is what Jay has been called to town to do, his main concern is a drug runner and the hidden drug industry in town. With both cases, Jay butts heads with the local Senior Sergeant, Owen Cross (Mark Mitchinson). They get along and agree so little, Jay starts to question where Owen truly stands with what is going on in the community. Could he be part of the problem? Police Constable Fran Davis (Jada Alberts) certainly suspects he may be.
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Property of Bunya Productions and all3media international.
Fran became a police officer to help find her missing cousin Zoe. Zoe is one of many missing Indigenous women. Little has been done by the police to look for any of them. With Jay in town, Fran sees an opportunity to get some help.
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Jay grudgingly agrees to help Fran with her case. He would much rather keep his mind on the drug running, but when Fran asks for help with specific elements on the case, he agrees to do what he can. Even this little bit of help is far more than what Fran had before.
Jay is also concerned about his ex-wife, Mary (Tasma Walton). Mary is living in Gideon and has started dating a former cop named Simon (Callan Mulvey). Jay isn’t sure Simon is trustworthy, even though he keeps coming to Jay’s aid. When Jay looks into Simon’s past, he discovers none of his contacts know who Simon is, making him look even more suspicious.
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In
the Gideon community there is more conflict going on than what Jay is working
on. Archaeologist Sandra Elmquist (Sofia
Helin) is digging on Indigenous land.
She thinks she is helping the Indigenous people by discovering something
in the dig and telling the world. The
community does not see things the same way, especially Fran’s sister, Leonie
(Ngaire Pigram).
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Leonie
dislikes what Sandra is doing so much, she physically attacks Sandra to get her
to leave. But when a man, Jimmy 2 (Stan
Yarramunua), tries to intimidate Sandra, Leonie stands between them. After this, Leonie makes a deal. If Sandra will try and get the
bones of Leonie’s ancestor returned and repatriated, she will support the dig.
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This is good news for Sandra because she has found some exciting items.
One startling item was a body in a bag. At first, Sandra hides the discovery. Then her conscience gets the best of her, and
she anonymously drops it off at a local church.
Fran
sees the body and thinks it is Zoe. She
starts to investigate, but must change course when the official identification
doesn’t turn out as expected. And the
case doesn’t go in a way she expected either.
At this point, Fran starts to look at her community differently. In a way she never has before.
The
storylines of Fran, her community, and Sandra were so fascinating I kept
forgetting about Jay when he wasn’t on screen.
In fact, I kept getting startled whenever he showed up again. I had to remind myself Jay was the main
character of the series, not the others.
This
problem was probably not helped by the fact many of the scenes with Jay in the
final episodes were about tracking people down, people being put in danger, and
shootouts. It made for a very grim
storyline. Not that the others were
exactly cheery, but I did find myself more interested.
Despite
my being more interested in other storylines than Jay’s, I would like to see
another season of Mystery Road. I
like Jay and I want to see what other cases he takes on.
As
for including Mary in a third season, I’m not sure. She is one of only a few who have been in
both season one and two, but I cannot say I’m a fan of hers. Although, she did improve as the second
season went on. She became a stronger
character, so it may be interesting to see where her character goes.
Something I would absolutely love to see is a spin-off for Fran. The way the season ended, I have to wonder if that may be in the works. She is a fascinating character, and many great storylines could be created about her community. Oh, yes. A series about Fran is something I definitely want to see.
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| Image provided by Acorn TV. Property of Bunya Productions and all3media international. |
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