Wire In The Blood: Series 6 - Episode guide
Robson Green has to confront a cannibal killer with a deadly vendetta in Series 6 of acclaimed drama Wire In The Blood, coming soon to ITV1.
Episodes 1 & 2:
Unnatural Vices
Tony and Alex investigate theories of honour killings, fetishism and cannibalism when human remains are found in wasteland. New team member Collins gets inextricably drawn into the case and Tony begins a personal battle with a serial killer.
When a young woman’s remains are found on a wasteland site, it seems as though the death might be an honour killing. But when the site yields up more remains, of very different victims, the deaths tell a different story.
Tony wonders why the bodies are incomplete. And why has the killer tied his victims in such a complex manner. Is the killer a fetishist? Perhaps so, since the investigative trail leads the team to a shocking S&M scene. But with such extreme injuries and with victims ranging from a female alcoholic drifter to a teenage boy, it seems unlikely that this is only about consensual violence.
While the investigation delves deeper into dark fantasies, Alex struggles with Kevin on leave and his temporary replacement, Collins (Cristian Solimeno), apparently unwilling to pull his weight.
When a middle-aged teacher goes missing during a lunchtime assignation it seems as though the killer is claiming his next victim. Only when her severed finger turns up in an envelope on Collins’ desk does Tony realise that something suspicious has been going on right under his and Alex’s nose.
But worse is to come when Collins himself disappears. Now the team have to race to save one of their own from a killer clever enough to change his identity into the very person that those in need would trust.
Episodes 3 & 4:
Falls The Shadow
Tony becomes the prime suspect in a murder inquiry after a female friend he meets at a psychology convention is killed. Alex is investigating a spate of prostitute murders – and Tony puts himself at risk trying to help.
To his great surprise Tony finds himself enjoying his role as speaker at an experimental psychology convention – mainly because it reacquaints him with fellow delegate and old friend Rachel (Tania Emery), with whom he shares a fun evening drinking before narrowly escaping her attempt at seduction.
Next morning Tony wakes with a sore head and police breaking into his hotel room. Rachel is dead - brutally murdered in her room overnight. And Tony was the last person to see her alive.
Meanwhile, Alex has problems of her own. A prostitute is murdered - apparently without motive, and when another streetwalker victim dies in the same way, Alex realises she has a serial killer on her hands.
Tony tries to help Alex, but when another experimental psychologist is killed closer to home he finds himself the prime suspect in the police investigation.
Desperate to prove his innocence, he applies all his psychological acuity to the question of why someone would want to murder people whose working lives are mainly spent observing rats. And why the deaths are such elaborate rituals - where water and the phrase “Power not Truth” play such key roles.
Only when he puts two unlikely sets of facts together does Tony begin to solve both the prostitute murders and the psychologist deaths. In the hunt for perpetrators the team realise they need a lure. Alex refuses to allow Tony to put himself at risk. But despite her care, Tony is already in danger. And it looks as though he may die before the killer is caught.
Episodes 5 & 6:
From The Defeated
Tony gets caught up hunting a serial killer who is brutally slaughtering young men so doesn’t realise that convicted murderer Michael is planning to escape from a secure unit – with devastating consequences.
The body of a young male victim poses a riddle. Was he killed by the physical beating he sustained? By the strangulation he apparently suffered? Or by the gunshot wound to his head? And why would all three methods be necessary?
It’s not a mugging, and nor does the victim have criminal connections. Perhaps it was a crime of passion… But when a second victim is found who’s mysteriously linked to the first only by the presence of skin under his fingernails, the answer seems to be that the two young men had no connection other than in death. One victim killed the other. But who killed the survivor?
As more victims emerge, Tony begins to piece together a bizarre chain of attacks in which killer becomes victim… And the gun in each case apparently belongs to the same person – an illegal dogfight promoter who claims the weapon was stolen some time ago.
Tony is so caught up in the case that he fails to respond quickly enough when secure unit patient Michael (Jolyon Baker), the cannibal killer Tony helped to convict, drops a hint that he’s planning to escape. Michael claims to have discovered God, and Tony is naturally sceptical, but when Michael kills the prison chaplain and escapes using the man’s clothes as disguise, Tony feels angry about his own failure to read the signs of danger clearly enough.
Meanwhile someone is stalking local young widowed mother Ellie (Jessica Harris). And an Asian victim is found who hasn’t fought or been strangled. It seems that the killer is only interested in white youths… Does this signify sexual preference? Or something more complex? When Tony realises that the killer’s dark intentions go beyond murder and aren’t limited to young men, the chase is on to catch him before he enacts the next stage of his violent plan.
And then there’s Michael… he’s out there somewhere and has Tony in his sights.
Episodes 7 & 8:
The Dead Land
Tony has to work with ambitious Oxbridge graduate Hall when a killer starts targeting homeless men. Meanwhile someone is stalking Tony. Could it be Michael and does every person have the potential to be a killer?
Someone is killing homeless men. Someone is feeding them, bathing them, wrapping them in paper and- bizarrely- salt, stabbing them through the heart, and then dumping their bodies around the financial district of Bradfield.
Because the victims are homeless, there are no homes or lives to investigate- nothing to suggest how they came into contact with the killer and nothing to suggest what it was about them that led to their demise.
Tony and Alex pursue the available clues until a family bereavement pulls Alex away from the case. Suddenly Tony finds himself working with a new detective: ambitious young Oxbridge graduate Hall (John Hopkins) – against whom Tony is initially prejudiced until he discovers that he’s dealing with a trained psychologist who’s a big fan of Tony’s own work.
Mentor and pupil dismiss sexual motives for the crimes, but the careful way in which the killer has treated each body suggests a ritual element in the deaths. Meanwhile, Tony becomes aware that someone is stalking him. Could it be Michael (Jolyon Baker)? And if so, how much danger is Tony in?
Both questions are answered when the area mental health commissioner – a woman whom Tony has blamed for the policy mistakes leading to Michael’s escape – is brutally murdered. Immediately Tony is put under police protection and finds himself sharing his flat in an odd-couple arrangement with Kevin (Mark Letheren). Unused to company, and resistant to the fears for his welfare, Tony insists on continuing with his police work.
As the details of the killer’s ritual become clear, an unusual witness posthumously leads the team to a suspect who seems like the killer in every way. But are they the murderer or the person the murderer would like to be? Suddenly Tony realises that not all the victims are as they appear. And as the team discover that the link to the killer’s ID has been under their noses all along, Tony is unaware that his own life is about to take a plunge into violence. Perhaps everyone has the potential to kill.
