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What happened to Tosh and Some Other Thoughts on Season Three (spoilers)

posted 8 years ago by maskirovka77
6 replies | jump to latest

I thought season three was pretty good but not quite up there with seasons one and two. I think that the problem was that Shetland strikes me as a pretty unlikely place for multiple murders related to Scottish organized crime. It was enjoyable but I liked the stories about Shetland with crimes that were part of the tapestry of the place, and I hope that season four returns to that mold instead of having something else wild taking place (like Jimmy fighting an incursion of the Camorrah or the Real IRA).

Two additional points:

1. The Asha story-line was actually pretty well done. I'm glad they didn't kill her off in the end and at least showed that she and Jimmy were in touch. I hope to see her character return, although the idea of her suddenly joining the Shetland Police Service while being Jimmy's lover seems rather unlikely.

2. The story-line with Tosh was a mixed bag. It was a good idea not to show the actual rape take place. Showing something like what we've seen in "Game of Thrones" would have sort of broken the spirit of the show. Besides, the actress playing Tosh did a fine job showing the impact of being assaulted had on her life.

I'm not so sure a woman who is also a police officer would easily choose not to pursue the man who raped her. I know she rationalized that decision by saying that the lawyer who commissioned the rape was dead, but not going after the actual rapist would still leave a very violent dangerous criminal who could very easily rape more women on the loose. I would think that a police officer would have a hard time doing that, especially since part of any future police job she might have might entail having to persuade a rape victim to press charges.

I kind of hope that whenever season 4 rolls around, we find out that Tosh decided to press charges against her rapist (and he was convicted) and also stay on in Shetland. They could address both of those decisions with just a few lines of dialogue in the next season.

[–] Helena727 8 years ago

I'm not so sure a woman who is also a police officer would easily choose not to pursue the man who raped her.

I agree. I found that utterly implausible.

And: She's seeking a transfer because she feels the need to stand on her own two feet (which implies a lot of inner strength), yet she doesn't have the inner strength to face the trial of her rapist? Does not compute.

Annoyingly unsatisfying and implausible conclusion to an otherwise very good series.

"All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people."

[–] lilactime2014 8 years ago

I disagree (politely).

I think Tosh would have seen how a victim of a serious crime can become an obsessive. They can let the crime dominate and completely take over their lives. Yes there is a desire for justice but it depends on what kind of life you want and what type of person you are. Chasing down the rapist would have totally ruined her career and probably 5 years or more of her life, IIRC the rapist was flown in from abroad especially to get to her and rape her and would have been off the island pretty soon afterwards.

So she would not only have had to find him, needle in a haystack springs to mind, he would have been in a foreign country. True, legal justice would have taken years, with extradition even if you could find a local policeman or court to take you seriously. At best, the only kind of justice Tosh could have had, even if she could find him, would have been to kill him in some Spanish or Moroccan back alley and only then if she got lucky.

Not every country takes the rape of a woman (officer or not) seriously and there are still countries where the victim can be imprisoned for allowing herself to be raped... She would be battling misogyny along with everything else, sad, but true. Let alone the ordeal she knows she would face if she did try and go through the courts, with Lawyers still trying to shame victims....."So you got drunk with a stranger........".

I think, on balance, Tosh possibly saw that it was all futile and it would be better for her mental health to carry on with life. Get some counselling, deal with it in her own way and get revenge by becoming a better policewoman and who knows in years to come she might cross paths with the rapist.

It's a totally personal decision, each to their own, but I could see why Tosh wouldn't want to give up the best years of her life chasing a ghost. It's too easy to say she should do this or do that because we think that is what we would do.

'tler

[–] joegerardi (384) 7 years ago

Yeah, but...

We're talking the EU here, (he was Eastern European) and Interpol doesn't really know borders, so getting him extradited would be pretty easy. She was raped as part of a criminal investigation, so all that guilt thing could be easily explained away- she was a warning to Perez to stop. Rape was a threat here, not an act of control.

Overall, this season was very weak. I think it's because they went for the long form arc, and it doesn't really work in the Shetland format. 3, 4 episodes at the most is how long the longest arc arc should be, with 2 shows my preferred length. Here, there was a lot of padding in Glasgow - which isn't Shetland - to give the season its legs. Also, this was the season that the Beeb used all the forced diversity: there had to be interracial relationships, homosexual relationships, everything the Beeb forces into every TV show they produce. I have no problem with it, but they force it on you in such numbers that's way beyond the actual demographics of the UK.

The biggest issue is the Shetlands themselves. There's only 23,000-odd people in all the islands. Hard to get a lot of murders out of that number of people. It makes me question how much longer they can keep this up.

..Joe

[–] letess (1820) 8 years ago

I can see why she doesn't want to pursue a trial. She really wants to keep her job the way it was and it gives her healing. She needs to get her bearings. She has the evidence at SARC. She knows who the guy is - so she might have a plan for him. It will be up to her to figure it out. At first she didn't want anyone other than Jimmy (and then Lowrie) to know, but in time she wanted her fellow workers to know. This will be a good subplot for next season.

When I saw the office transfer scene, I thought - oh, she's not coming back to the series, but I checked and she's in S4. She is such a great addition to this series. The scene with Lowrie when she storms into his house - "What gives you the right to look at me" was absolutely fantastic.

The conclusion was very satisfying. A lot of work went into this season and I thought it was the best one. The other was the Mima murder on Fair Isle and of course, the beginning - Red Bones. In this ending, I thought everything connected and it really comes full circle. It was unbelievable to find out who really did what and Jimmy's, "what have you done." You really feel how lives were affected by one act that just snowballed.

[–] Jobimfan (95) 7 years ago

Well maybe....

Just because Tosh is a policeperson it doesn't mean that she's not subject to all of the same reactions, fears, and insecurities of any other survivor of sexual assault. There could be any number of reasons why she wouldn't want to pursue her rapist through the courts...

(a) She might feel shame or embarrassment that as someone who is trained to engage physically with criminals to protect the public, someone was able to overpower her and make her a victim of crime. In court they would be sure to ask her, "but aren't you trained to defend yourself?"

(b) By not going after her rapist, she can pretend that it never happened. Some people think the best way to handle trauma is to pretend the trauma never happened

(c) As someone in law enforcement, she might realize that it's very difficult, if not impossible, to find the man who raped her. Police departments, regardless of their size, have to be judicious with their resources. Maybe she realized that practically, they wouldn't have the resources to hunt the man down and prosecute him.

[–] [deleted] 7 years ago

Just watched season 4. I think it would be a good follow up to have Tosh press charges. I can see how she was in the early stages of recovering from the trauma and focusing on what was best for her own healing. But she is a police officer and at some point it would be good to see her turn a corner and seek justice, if only to protect potential future victims.

I like Archie Panjabi and hope her character has a recurring role. Can’t see her character relocating to Shetland either.