'The Gulf' Episode 3 sees detectives Savage and Harding on the trail of missing teen as they contend with overprotective parent
In episode 3 of 'The Gulf', the crime in question is a parent's worst nightmare -- the disappearance of a teenage daughter. Something about that age and gender makes for a particularly nightmarish scenario.
Max Lee (Gary Young) is an overprotective parent who turns up at Jess Savage's home (Kate Elliot) to plead with her to take the case. In a bit of ham-fisted dialogue writing, he says, "I've done my research and you're the best."
Jess refuses the look at the folders of his missing daughter Chelsea Lee (Maxie Ouyung) and tells him the police station opens at 6 a.m. The next day she harasses Jules (Fasitua Amosa) who compiled her car wreck report and gave an all-clear "No Suspicious Circumstances" conclusion.
He tells her that she can't blame him if Alex (her late husband) decided to drive off the cliff. Partly to keep her surly presence out of the office, her boss agrees to Max Lee's demands that she be put in charge of the case along with detective Justin Harding (Ido Drent).
This means Jess is again at loggerheads with her mother, Sergeant Denise Abernethy (Alison Bruce), who is the local station in-charge on Waiheke Island. Max continually interferes with the investigation.
While he makes one interview and one bit of evidence inadmissible in court, he actually leads the police to discover Chelsea's backpack hidden by the skeevy backpacker hostel owner in the 'Lost and Found' room. He also pinpoints the exact date of her disappearance by tracking when her phone calls and social media updates stopped.
It leads Jess and Justin to investigate a big late-night held on the night of her disappearance thrown by the rich kids of the neighborhood, Simone (Olivia Monks) and Craig (Jarred Blakiston). A treasure trove of pictures and videos from the party help pinpoint two things. One, Chelsea was there at the party and Craig had an altercation over her.
Craig is shifty when the police come knocking as is the old lady living in a beach cottage in the area with her telescope pointed towards the beach where the party was held. The episode closes with the shot of a dead body caught in the mangroves.
Between all the running around and asking tough questions, it is obvious that Jess is becoming way too dependent on her pain meds. Her doctor puts an embargo on more pills until she comes in for a check-up so Jess steals pills from the first aid kit from the boat of one of the people she is questioning.
She is however not gasping for breath like the first two episodes, which is a relief. Her relationship with her daughter, Ruby (Timmie Cameron), is mostly conducted through post-it note drawings left by her daughter that start out with complaints about there being no food in the house, to the announcement that she is pregnant and going to her boyfriend AJ's place because Jess is not around.
Yup, this episode is all about parental nightmares. Just before this, Jess is also told by a cop at the station that AJ was at the beach party without Ruby. So expect Jess' mom and detective roles to overlap when she questions AJ in the next episode.
'The Gulf' airs on Wednesdays at 3 a.m. EST on Sundance Now.