Last week, Jamie Dornan played out his role as Paul Spector in a spectacularly creepy way: as Paul feigns memory loss, the last scene indicated that possibly the old Spector is still in there somewhere. With Stella (Gillian Anderson) now fighting to find evidence to link Paul to crimes prior to his supposed memory loss and Sally Ann (Bronagh Waugh) losing her last thread of sanity, we can only watch and wait to see what happens! And this week did not disappoint.
The episode begins as Stella lays in a tub surrounded by candles. She looks relaxed for the first time in this season, enjoying the water and serenity. A hand reaches out for hers and begins to massage. Pleased by the gesture, Stella goes to open her eyes and finds that it is none other than Paul Spector, who takes the opportunity to now push her under the water and drown her. While struggling, Stella then wakes up in a hotel room in bed, clear that she was having a nightmare. As she lays back down, an older gentleman approaches the bed and sits down to talk to her. When Stella answers, she calls him "Daddy" and settles in further to sleep. Stella awakes again, but now she is in her office on a cot. Both were dreams, which Stella now writes down in her new dream journal.
While Stella and her team now look into the death of Susan Harper to find a way to link Spector to the crime, Paul is still undergoing testing at the hospital before being moved to the Institute where Dr. Larson (Krister Henriksson) will assess him. Healy (Aidan McArdle) and Wallace (Ruth Bradley) are also working on a new strategy to help Paul's case by investigating Stella Gibson. Stella & Paul had a more intimate relationship than an investigator should have to their culprit. From Stella providing Paul with her personal number, Paul visiting Stella's hotel room and leaving a note in her dream journal, and how during Paul's interrogation he asked for Stella and only Stella, Healy believes that he could portray the relationship between them as something of an unprofessional manner and paint Stella in a bad light.
Before Stella's investigation can continue, the news reports about Sally Ann's car being in the water. Stella watches the footage as passersby run out to the car and rescue not only Sally Ann, but Olivia (Sarah Beattie) and Liam (David Beattie) before the car is completely engulfed by the waves. They will be taken to the hospital where Paul is currently kept. Shocked by the news, Burns (John Lynch) is given a verbal beatdown by Stella as he is partly why Sally Ann tried to kill herself and her children.
Stella promptly goes to the hospital and visits Olivia, who requests a hug. Olivia is barely keeping it together while her brother is in a coma and Sally Ann lays despondent in her hospital bed. But a statement must be made and Gibson enlists the help of DCI Eastwood (Stuart Graham) to make a proper statement. Later, Stella learns that Healy requested Stella's dream journal from evidence, to which Stella responds how Paul is a "contagion", as he has destroyed so many lives around him.
After Paul's testing was completed, Dr. Spencer (Barry Ward) presents his findings to Healy and Wallace, suggesting that there were issues with Paul's MRI scan, but none that could indicate memory loss. Healy and Wallace then meet with Paul to discuss his case. They present him first with the recording of him and Stella discussing the murders. The longer Paul listens, he starts to become more distraught and asks for them to turn it off. But the next video is what does Paul in: the kidnap video of Rose Stagg (Valene Kane). Paul immediately starts hitting his head and thrashing about, prompting Nurse Sheridan (Aisling Bea) to come in and help him calm down. When Healy and Wallace leave the hospital, they are confronted by Katie (Aisling Franciosi) who asks them to give Paul a letter for her. They refuse and she is later apprehended and put into police custody.
Once calmed, Paul shares with Nurse Sheridan how he used to "split" himself when he couldn't handle life around him. An athiest by nature, Paul simply feels that once he dies he won't exist. And maybe if he had done what the evidence provided showed him, he now feels rescued. Nurse Sheridan, now confident that Paul is calm, accompanies Paul and Dr. Spencer to the Pediatric ICU so Paul can see his son Liam, despite the fact that he can't remember him. Paul is then released from the hospital and back into police custody, where he will be taken to Dr. Larson forassessment at the Foyle Clinic.
With news that Stella's team can now have access to the Susan Harper file, Anderson (Colin Morgan) is sent to London as Gibson heads to the Foyle Clinic. She gets there before Paul arrives to meet with Dr. Larson and discuss his findings. The doctor gets notification that Paul has arrived and goes to greet the guest, leaving Stella in the office. As Paul is led out of the car, he looks in his hand at a note that he had in his hand, which reads "He that loves not abides in death." We are not sure how he received this note. Larson leads Paul to his room, where the orderly gives Paul the quick tour and advises him of the rules before leaving him to freshen up.
As Dr. Larson and Stella talk, we watch Paul showering. Glimpses of the old Spector still apparent in his mannerisms while he freshens up. Stella believes that Paul needs to be held accountable for his actions. As a victim of child abuse, he has now become the abuser and "spectator of his own actions." From the women, to dressing up mannequins (and himself) in women's attire, to the perversion in his writings, Stella sees danger. However, Dr. Larson sees that the abuse Paul suffered still renders him a victim. When Stella leaves Foyle Clinic, she comes upon a note on the ground....the very same one Paul had had in his hand earlier.
Rose Stagg goes to meet with Stella to give more testimony about the kidnapping. When finally alone in the room with Stella, Rose then shares more of her personal sexual history with Paul, who was named Peter at the time. Peter had taken pleasure in restricting Rose's breathing during their foreplay and sex, treating it almost like a game. Rose even recalled an incident where Peter asked her to play dead. She had broken up with Peter because he was selfish, but knows that in his eyes, she was the only girl. Stella shares that it was because of her investigation and calling Paul by Peter during their conversations that she led Paul right to Rose, a mistake that Stella is deeply sorry for. Rose then assures her that she was not the only one who made mistakes.
In the last scene, Paul is in his room at the Foyle Clinic. The doors are open and a fellow patient Mark Bailey (Conor MacNeill) introduces himself. As the day winds down and the rooms are now locked down for the night, we catch a glimpse of Paul's eyes through the blinds of his window. And we still wonder: has the old Paul come back?
With only two episodes left, what's to come of this cat and mouse game between Spector & Gibson? Stay tuned for next week's recap of The Fall!
