Luther (TV Series) Episode #3.4 (2013) User Reviews

A welcome return

[Tweekums · 9/10 · 23 July 2013]

After the tragic finale to the previous episode the vigilante killer Tom Marwood sets off after Luther's new girlfriend Mary. He is unsuccessful but Dec Supt Stark thinks that Marwood is trying to help Luther get rid of people who could harm him in return for Luther letting him continue to kill 'undesirables'. This leads to Luther being arrested but he is soon free again when Alice Morgan rescues him from Stark's custody. Meanwhile Marwood has kidnapped the wife of the prison doctor who is treating his wife's killer and Luther and Alice must avoid being arrested themselves while trying to get to Marwood before he can kill again. This leads to a confrontation where Luther must decide which of the two women he cares about should live and which Marwood should kill!

After the sad ending to the previous episode it was great to see things brighten up with the return of Alice Morgan… she may be a sociopathic killer but she is a fun character and Ruth Wilson does a great job in the role… it was just a shame that the BBC's trailers for the episode spoilt the fact that she was returning to the series. She has a great chemistry with Luther which makes their unlikely friendship more believable. As always Idris Elba put in a fine job in the title role and is supported by a fine cast of secondary characters. The story was as melodramatic as we've come to expect from the series and the finale was exciting and lead to a nice little twist (which most viewers should guess) at the end. Overall this was a fine conclusion to the third series; I hope we get more and if we do I hope Alice becomes a regular character again.

A Terrific Conclusion to the Season

[Hitchcoc · 10/10 · 14 September 2017]

I thought the pacing, the plot twists, and the portrayals of evil in this episode were quite wonderful. Luther is always under the gun. There are two out to get him (for whatever reason), he can't seem to have a romantic connection, and he seems perpetually hurt. I love the return of Alice. She is truly superhuman in the most bizarre way (she is also beautiful). Her acting is quite astounding. At first, I couldn't really dis the vigilante because he truly had an acceptable motivation. But, of course, once he got the public's acceptance, he began to feel utter power. This leads to him not only killing for revenge but, rather, for self preservation. The cool ending is great fun.

Off the scale.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 10/10 · 15 May 2021]

Marwood makes it personal, and switches his anger, frustration and annoyance towards Luther.

The question was always going to be, how on Earth could they follow the exploits and drama of the previous episode? That was big, this goes one step further, this is even bigger.

Marwood has been an incredibly good character, we perhaps get a bit less of him in this second part, but when he's needed, he's up for the challenge, throw in Luther's best ever villain, and you have a pulsating episode.

Excellent the whole way through, but the ending had me on tenterhooks, it was a thrilling conclusion. Lots of twists and turns, plenty of shocking moments.

People are critical, complaining that it's far fetched, Luther has been far fetched since the very start, this isn't news by Series three.

Brilliant, 10/10.

Season 3: Brutally engaging despite some weaker threads and a slightly rushed final episode

[bob the moo · 1 August 2013]

Having been very disappointed with the first season of this show, I was pleased to find that the second season had a much better grip of what it wanted to do and that it continued this into the third season. It isn't the most realistic show or the most clever but the show has a great atmosphere of morbid decay which combines very well with brutal and shocking crimes and characters. This third (and final?) season keeps the second's structure of 4 episodes which play like a full season but do have elements that stand alone to make it also work as two two-hour specials.

The first of these specials has a great air to it and produces some horribly tense situations. The thread of Luther being investigated as potentially (?) acting outside the law is a bit overly-familiar but yet still works well and has good tension between the characters. The second set of episodes continues this thread and moves to a vigilante killer which offers a nice morality edge to the plot. This story works very well for the first episode but does too much too quickly in the second episode. Major characters come and go as if they were on a busy bus route, the killer changes actions and acts out-of-character and in a way that really makes very little sense – mainly to create a certain climax which the writers want to get to. This latter aspect particularly breaks the internal logic of the show; not that realism or logic applies, but the show has its own rules and reality and within them the viewer goes along – when they are broken it shakes you outside of these and makes it harder to be engaged with the action. This happened in the final episode for me and it was a shame that it didn't work as well as the previous 3, also a shame because this sudden shift loses the morality aspect which was working pretty well.

Mostly the season worked though. It had a brutal edge that adds to the generally grim (but beautiful) portrayal of Luther's London – it isn't flashing murders like CSi, you are forced to feel their horror and, although it is still an entertainment show, I liked that as an aspect. The cinematography really helps this and so too do the performances – or at least most of them. Elba is great; gruff, tired, determined all in one package. It is no Bell in terms of the characterization (what is?) but it works and he has a great presence throughout. Brown is good support for him but this season Amuka-Bird is not quite as good as she is more a plot device than a character. O'Hara is a very nice foil for Elba and the two of them made real tension in their few shared scenes. Guillory is terrible – but it is not all her fault. Her character feels fake and is clearly happening for plot reasons, even her introduction is clunky and the show would have been better without her character. It would also have been better without her; she is stiff and doesn't fit the tone of the show and, worst, has no chemistry with Elba – she makes those around her worse by virtue of acting with her – it is impressive to see how consistently this occurs, but I wish it didn't.

Overall this third season of Luther continues the engaging and satisfyingly brutal tone and works it to good effect with the exception of the rather convoluted and unconvincing final episode. Elba is a powerhouse throughout it and the production is generally very strong, from the cool opening theme, the great cinematography and use of locations and even the fragmented "coming next" structure over the closing credits. It isn't perfect but I really hope they do a fourth season because what this show does well, it does very well.

S3 Review

[r96sk · 8/10 · 22 September 2020]

The weakest of the opening three seasons of 'Luther', but that's not to say it's a bad one - the opposite, it's a very good third coming.

Not much more needs to be said about Idris Elba, he is yet again the key to the show and gives a hat-trick of superb performances. As for those around Elba, Warren Brown continues to be enjoyable as Ripley, as do Dermot Crowley (Schenk) and Michael Smiley (Benny). Nikki Amuka-Bird continues too. I still like her as an actress, but man does her character continue to irritate - Gray goes full-on hypocrite this season. She's joined by Stark (David O'Hara), who is like a Mini-Me in terms of what I found annoying about Gray in S2. Stark should be one of those characters you love to hate, kinda like Alice (Ruth Wilson) in the earlier seasons, but he's just simply irritating to see - at least to me.

I found myself unappeased with a few of the storylines here, which is something that I didn't feel across S1/2. It's not that any of the plots are disappointing or negative, they just unfold in a way that allows me to be questionable about them. The final episode is fantastic, but the one or two before aren't as great as what we've seen before from this show - probably a victim of its own success more than anything, given how utterly brilliant the preceding load of episodes have been.

I want to make it clear - I thoroughly enjoyed this when all is said and done, despite some (pretty minor) issues as mentioned. No matter what, I'm buzzing to watch the next two seasons.

A Thrilling Conclusion

[thomasjay-2201 · 9/10 · 28 June 2018]

No better way of ending a season. An extremely well paced finale that flies by in not time at all, the face off between John Luther (Idris Elba) and arguably the series' best villain Thomas Marwood (Elliot Cowan) set in an isolated backdrop with stakes that are toweringly high the episode manages to completely wrap up all loose ends whilst depicting the characters at their very best. Elba's character as ever is at his abnormal best and the villain Marwood is perfectly crafted by the shows creatives giving a grounded and understandable antagonist that is perfect opposed to the protagonist. A thrilling rollercoaster of emotion an incredibly tense episode to perfectly end off this season

S3 Review

[IPyaarCinema · 9/10 · 20 October 2020]

Review By Kamal K

Really interesting cop show. Idris Elba is great as Luther. The odd, mostly one sided relationship he has with the genius socipath Alice Morgan (played by Ruth Wilson) keeps things interesting. She seems to be in love with Luther and trys to help him, even murdering a pedophile she believes Luther tried and failed to kill in order to keep him from implicating Luther. I generally like cop shows when they are done well.

Open a Can of Alice

[Warin_West-El · 8/10 · 5 February 2023]

None of the conclusions in this episode have the slightest basis on any of the events that happened in previous episodes.

Frankly this season was ridiculous and insulting to the audience.

It's baffling how stupid George and Erin were portrayed. In this episode it was infuriating. The abrupt about face of the vigilante's character was beyond ridiculous. He went from killing criminals to a personal vendetta against John, which made absolutely NO sense.

BUT I WAS HAPPY ABOUT TWO THINGS:

In several of my reviews, I mentioned the writers have been CONSISTENTLY projecting their own sense of impotence onto these stories . . .

NOW quoting DIRECTLY from this episode's script (48min and 41sec) . . . . . . "It's ugly, isn't it? Being impotent!"

If you've been wondering why SO MANY of the stupid scenes in the Luther show involved people failing to do what needed to be done, the writers have given you the answer . . . "IT'S UGLY, ISN'T IT? BEING IMPOTENT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

To save the wretched mess of this season, the writers opened a can of Alice. She's like a psychopathic Wonder Woman.

I've been saying for MANY episodes that John should grab Alice and run. Well, it finally happened. If we are to believe the subtext of this episode, it took John trying to make a go of it with Mary Day for him to realize what a catch Alice is. Finally !

This episode was a 4. But the ending with Alice and John on the bridge made it an 8.

Saved Two Girls

[ZegMaarJus · 9/10 · 17 August 2021]

This episode begins with John, Justin has just been killed by Tom. John is furious when he sees it. Tom is chasing down Mary, he wants to kill her. John got arrested for Justin's murder and for trying to kill Mary, Tom did this. Alice saved John from Erin and George, she is back! Alice has been married, but her man past away. Tom has ubducted Natalie. John and Alice found Tom. Tom shot John in his leg. Alice stole information about who John really is. Tom shot George to death, after that he shot Erin. John has to pick one of the girls: Mary or Alice, Tom will kill one of them. Alice sticks a sharp object in Tom's troath, he stays alive with help from John. Martin saved Natalie. Alice meets John at the bridge. John throws his coat into the water. Amazing Final of Luther Season 3, such a super final episode of this Season. John saved Mary and Alice, but who will he choose in Season 4?

Pretty bad in my opinion

[TusharViv · 6/10 · 12 May 2018]

Well Toms character was not portrayed very well here. Why on the roof scene is he playing a villain like that? Why would he not just shoot both women in front of Luther and then shoot Luther, then himself? Or at least shoot both the woman, leaving Luther completely alone. I simply do not understand the logic behind his actions. He had nothing to gain by doing what he did, he was never getting out of there and he has already killed innocent people, he should have no trouble killling the person who was the most responsible for his downfall. Anyway how does he know which one Alice is? He was pointing the gun at Alice when Luther said shoot Alice, he shouldn't even know which of the two is Alice. He doesn't know what Mary looks like in the first place.

Embarrassing

[MightyCanOfSPAM · 2/10 · 30 March 2023]

What a devastating end to the series, whilst the acting and directing is still on-point, the writing is actually disgusting. I won't spoil anything, but this episode is so far-fetched, and so totally un-Luther it almost made me quit in rage. Thankfully my love for the show has allowed me to persevere, but my goodness it's this type of writing that just destroys good TV shows. I don't see why it's so hard to maintain a certain premise, or why it's so difficult to not stray from a successful norm. Everything up until now has been fantastic, it's almost as if they are trying to bomb the show with this one episode.

Season Three: First Half Great; Back Half "Okay"

[zkonedog · 7/10 · 3 October 2020]

In large part, the success/failure of each Luther season is determined by how well the show runners can mesh the titular detective's personal foibles with that of the killers he pursues. The first two episodes of this Third Season do a great job of that. The final two efforts? Not so much.

For a very basic overview, the season begins with Luther (Idris Elba) on the trail of creepy hiding-killer Paul Ellis (Kevin Fuller), while at the same time being secretly investigated by Erin Gray (Nikki Amuka-Bird), George Stark (David O'Hara), and even partner Justin Ripley (Warren Brown). At the same time, Luther enters into a romantic relationship with Mary Day (Sienna Guillory), a woman he met by chance encounter. After the Ellis plot line runs its course, the rest of the season focuses on Luther tangling with Tom Marwood (Elliot Cowan), a Dirty Harry-type who blames "coppers" for the death of his wife and wants the world to know it.

All told, these are a solid four episodes in the Luther canon. The villains are interesting--as always--and Luther himself continues to break new ground on a personal level. The show is such an interesting mix of serial characters and overlapping "stand-alone" plot lines.

That being said, I also feel as if S3 was a slight downgrade from S2 for two reasons:

1. The Mary Day angle here does not top Luther and Jenny from the previous season. That relationship (him protecting her) is still the best "personal Luther" plot thus far. 2. The back two episodes of this season were somewhat disappointing. A bit too formulaic for my tastes. For Luther to succeed, it has to "go for it" and be slightly preposterous in its continued drive forward. While I completely saw that in the first two episodes, the last two stalled out somewhat.

Overall, though, Luther S3 is still solid. Elba is a joy to watch, his character advances forward, and there are even a few callbacks to previous campaigns that will be appreciated. Well worth your time to continue the DCI's journey.

Like a spit in the face

[adrianamen · 3/10 · 31 January 2023]

Let me tell you first, I love this series, and I watched it once till the end and now until here. I had forgotten what a disgrace this episode was. It's baffling to me how stupid George and Erin are portrayed here. I mean their whole appearance was more than annoying to me the whole season but I thought: "not my cup of tea, fine." but in this episode its infuriating. The vigilante killers character development is a joke, how he went from killing criminals to a personal vendetta against john makes zero sense. How John is once again (loved it in season 1) portrayed as the bad guy, but this time its all so unbelievable, so blatantly far fetched and badly written.

Love Luther, but this episode is insulting!

[pfoster38 · 1/10 · 30 January 2019]

I know the show reaches a bit but, seriously!? None of the conclusions or the theories in the episode have the slightest basis on any of the events that have happened. Even if it was condensed, it still should have had at least a smidgen of plausibility! Ridiculous!

Lame!

[andres-720-783776 · 1/10 · 19 April 2021]

Frankly this chapter, from its beginning, from its premise, is ridiculous. Insulting to the audience that follows this police drama from the beginning. Inconsistent from the start.