'The Gulf' Episode 5 sees Doug Bennington shoot Maori man, pulling Jess Savage into drug ring case
In the penultimate episode 5 of 'The Gulf', we see Jess Savage (Kate Elliot) trying to take control of her morphine addiction, even as a case, involving her former boss, Doug Bennington (Jeffrey Thomas), brings to the surface the racial tension between the Maori and white residents of Waiheke Island.
Doug Bennington shoots a Maori man dead claiming he was being robbed. He calls Jess Savage (Kate Elliot) right after. When she reaches his place she finds Doug in his living room with the dead man's brains splattered on the floor.
As a former cop, Doug has the goodwill of the police force. The only exception is Detective Harding (Ido Trent) who suspects how Doug keeps up his lavish lifestyle. There is also the man's relatives and other Maori residents who get increasingly incensed about how Doug got away with shooting one of their own.
Jess, while trying to do right by everybody, can only order an autopsy as she is unable to find any reason why the intruder tried to break into Doug's house. We as an audience though can piece together some clues.
In the earlier episode, Doug tried to mislead investigators about the spot where Ronan, the drug-peddling playboy, had dumped Chelsea Lee's body. It all becomes even murkier after Ronan, bashed up in prison, reaches out to Detective Harding through Harding's father who was in prison with him.
Jess decides to interview Ronan on her own, not knowing what to expect. Ronan promises her all the information about the drug ring being run on the island and how the murdered Maori man was involved.
He also promises to erase Jess's fingerprints that could be used to convict her for the theft of the morphine pills from his yacht. His only wish is to be transferred from the prison he is in so he won't be killed.
Jess, shaken that her theft was noticed, leaves and tells Harding the Maori man was connected to the drug trade and was probably looking for guns in Doug's house to protect his men. But the little clues the series has given us point to Doug being the main drug runner.
There is also the fact that both his men, Jack, the bus driver, and Ronan, who he tries to cover up for, are both involved in kidnapping or killing children and girls. Ronan obviously becomes too much of a hot potato for the drug ring.
He is kidnapped from the hospital by men wearing guards' uniforms. A few minutes later, he is a bloodied mess in the back of a police van. The guards place a razor in his fingers to make it look like a suicide.
Jess will probably be able to put these pieces together in the series finale next week. But this week, we are left with another cliffhanger of sorts. Morphine withdrawal results in her having flashbacks of the car crash and she remembers how she was furious at Alex at the moment of impact, spat in his face and left him to die as she swam away.
This fragmented memory that comes back to her shows that she had blocked the reason why she was mad at Alex. In episode 2, Ruby, Jess's daughter, had deleted Alex's message. So whatever Alex was going to confess to Jess, Ruby knew about it.
At present, Ruby is much closer to Jess after telling her about the pregnancy. Jess is showing up for Ruby's doctor's appointments having resolved to help her instead of forcing her to abort.
She is also accepting AJ, Ruby's boyfriend sticking around. But will all his bonhomie change once Jess knows Ruby's been keeping a secret about Alex and the car crash? Next week's episode will hopefully tie up all the loose ends.
'The Gulf' airs on Wednesdays at 3 a.m. EST on Sundance Now.