We cut to our other main character, Sergeant June Lenker, as she's headed into work. Her boss asks her to review what happened on that call. We learn that the caller had been threatened by her boyfriend with a knife, and she's in fear of her life. Jasmine, the police call handler, dispatches a unit to the caller's location. The caller then says the boyfriend had previously killed an ex-girlfriend, and that another man is wrongfully serving 24 years in Whitecross prison. The call ends when we hear a banging sound on the other end of the line, and the caller flees before the police can arrive.
June pulls street cam footage and sees that kids had startled the caller, which made her leave the phone booth and head off on foot. We observe her oddly removing her hood as she crosses the street, then putting it back up when she gets to the other side. This doesn't really make sense to me and leads me to believe that she was signaling something to someone off-screen. At one point, you can actually see her looking off-screen as well, and I think this is going to become an important detail later on.
Next, we see June pulling inmate records for everyone at Whitecross in search of the man the caller was referencing on her call. She lands on a guy named Errol Mathis, who was arrested by Hegarty. When June's boss hears this, he says she should just email him the details and move on. June ignores this directive and instead meets with Daniel in person. She recounts everything from the call and tells him about the wrongful conviction allegation of Errol Mathis for the murder of Adelaide Burrowes in 2012.
In response, Daniel says, "Ah, Errol, poor man's OJ," which definitely rubs June the wrong way. The two of them go back and forth, with Daniel saying this was likely just a crazed fangirl of Errol, much like many of the others who had written to him in prison after the case made him a household name. That or the boyfriend really did say these things, but he's just making it all up to scare her or try to take credit for the kill.
June counters Daniel's claims, saying Errol's confession was later retracted, and that his team seems to think they could have the charges dropped. Daniel says the reason Errol got 24 years in the first place is because the victim's 6-year-old boy, which was not Errol's son, overheard everything Mathis did through the wall in the next room. Daniel finishes the conversation, saying that ultimately this whole thing just sounds like a prank, but if she finds the caller, send her over. Then, just as she's walking out, Daniel says, "Next time, do as you're told and send an email."
After she leaves, we see Hegarty remembering details of the crime, and a flashback shows Errol kicking open the little boy's bedroom door. We then cut to Daniel later that night making a phone call to an unknown man, telling him what happened and that there's nothing to worry about. But if he receives a call from a young woman asking questions, just give her the "cover your back," which means just deny any accusations she may bring up. Also during this phone call, he is going somewhere sketchy. He appears to enter some kind of guarded underground club or something, leading me to believe he's definitely up to something.
Next, we see June in her home recounting everything to her partner and accusing Hegarty of being racist. The following day, June returns to the office, and after being unable to log into her computer, her boss calls her in and informs her that she's been randomly selected to have her conduct vetted by the Professional Standards Department. June sees this as a threat from Daniel, and instead of backing down, she meets with a solicitor named Sonya, which, for anyone else who may not know, a solicitor in the UK is basically what we would call a lawyer here in the states. Sonya has been hired by Errol's mother, Doris, to fight for his release. We learn there were bite marks found on the victim, and Sonya had them tested after the trial by an independent expert, which found that they weren't a match with Errol Mathis, raising confusion around his confession. June also asks what happened with the son, and Sonya says they aren't in contact. June asks if Sonya knew Hegarty, and she said he was the leader of a crew that called themselves the 62s, which she didn't know the meaning of but did consist of Hegarty and two other officers named Tony Gilfoyle and Kim Cardwell.
After meeting with Sonya, June looks for details on the son, Patrick Burrowes, and learns he was arrested at 12 for dealing drugs but let go with no charges, and there's no current information on him. My guess is that Hegarty had something to do with Patrick's release and he was working to prevent him from getting into the system at such a young age.
We cut to Patrick getting ready for work, and as he heads outside, Mathis's mom catches him and says Errol's on the phone and wants to speak to him to wish him a happy birthday. Patrick takes the phone but hangs up before speaking. I went back and rewatched because I thought Doris said something about Errol being Patrick's father, but that didn't actually happen. That said, it feels to me like Errol actually is Patrick's dad. It seemed a bit forced that Hegarty slid in the "not his boy" comment earlier in the episode, so I'm thinking we may later find out that Errol actually is Patrick's father and had to confess to these crimes to somehow protect his son.
We then see flashbacks again of Errol covered in blood, removing Patrick from his room the day his mother was killed. As they're driving away, they were hit by another car, and then we cut to June listening to a recording of Errol's confession to Chief Hegarty. In the recording, Errol confesses and recounts everything he did in detail to kill Adelaide and says he did it because he lost his rag.
After that, we see Daniel meeting with Tony, and he says that they need to cover their backs, just like he had told Kim, which reveals to whom the mystery voice was in the call Daniel had earlier in the episode. As Daniel's driving away from Tony's, he's looking at an empty back seat in the mirror and says, "Don't you start," insinuating that he's seeing something or someone that we aren't.
June receives a call from Dionne and the Professional Standards Department about some things they need her to explain, but then she takes another call from Jasmine, the call handler, saying she has their mystery caller on the line again, and that her name is Maria. The calls are patched together, and we hear Maria locked in her bathroom as her boyfriend's banging on the door to get in. June walks her through how to defend herself, and the call drops. June arrives at the main setting of our story, the high-rise apartment buildings, but just as she gets there, we see Maria fall to her death.
Criminal Record Episode 1, ends with June saying she's heading up to the ninth floor in hopes of catching the boyfriend.
- Series Title : Criminal Record
- Season : 1
- Total Episodes : 8
- Release Date : January 10, 2024
- Language : English
- Genre : Action, Crime, Drama
- OTT Platform : Apple TV+
- Origin of Country : US
- Runtime : 50 Minutes
- Rating : 7.8 IMDb
- Cast :