'Roadkill' Recap: Episode 3

Roadkill airs Sundays at 8:00 pm and is available to stream. Recap the previous and following episodes.

As Peter leaves the hospital with his arm in a sling after his collision with a deer, lauding the National Health Service on the way out, medicine fails someone else in his orbit. Steff has overdosed in her prison cell. Her cellmate Rose files a complaint, but the prison director says it won’t go forward. Rose angrily responds that she’s in contact with the Minister of Justice; she’ll put the matter of neglect before him.

Peter’s daughter Lily has her own accusation of neglect and mistreatment to put before Peter: his own. She has even called her sister Susan home to partake in a family discussion about Peter’s mistress. Both Susan’s impending arrival and Lily’s knowledge of the affair surprise Peter—he and Helen didn’t know where Susan was.

She was in the Arctic, working for Greenpeace, blissfully free of her family. Peter, who gets on with her better than with Lily, tells her that her absence has been hard on her mother. But Helen herself tells Peter Helen was happy just living her life independently of him. Why doesn’t he just leave her? She doesn’t need him to take care of her.

All this is prelude to a contentious dinner in which Lily flays Peter, Helen tries to avoid engaging—she has a concert that night that she needs to prepare for—and Susan plays cool, mostly staying out of it. Peter reveals that he began the affair with Madeleine after she lost a child; he helped her through the tragedy. When Lily asks if he was going out with her while Helen had breast cancer, he doesn’t respond—which is answer enough.

Lily says Peter has never been good at the truth. He decides to disprove that, telling everyone that he apparently has a third daughter. Shocked, Lily says he has always been a liar and a cheat, and she’s afraid she’ll inherit it. Helen partially defends Peter, then cuts off the conversation—she has to rehearse for her concert.

Duncan is anxiously waiting outside for Peter—he has the news that Steff has died. Peter asks if Duncan is trying to destroy him: he keeps pursuing this unknown daughter, bringing Peter deeper and deeper into danger. Plus, Peter knows that Duncan is sleeping with Julia, giving the Prime Minister access to Peter’s secrets. Furthermore, Peter only ended up in court for libel because someone in his office was leaking news. Duncan should focus his attention on that, Peter says—with a threat in his voice.

Dawn faces her own threat: three charity workers in Yemen have been killed by Saudi Arabia, possibly with British-made weapons. She decides to suspend weapons licenses temporarily to assuage the public, but the influential head of the British Defense Group finds the measure harmful and excessive. Dawn assures him that she is on his side.

But that’s not enough. The British Defense Group head turns to the head of the Conservative Party to plan an ouster of Dawn. But they need an excuse other than her popular move to suspend weapons licenses. Luckily, Julia seems to sense Dawn’s boat is sinking, and attends a Tory gathering where she speaks to the head of the Party. He asks for evidence of lies in order to remove Dawn. Julia demurs, but doesn’t refuse.

There’s similar work being done to undermine Peter. His former lawyers, Luke and Rochelle, discuss the death of the reporter Charmian in a hit-and-run in Washington, D.C. Luke, who spoke to Charmian just before she died, doesn’t believe it was an accident, given that she had finally found someone to speak on the record against Peter.

Rochelle isn’t convinced, but curiosity eventually wins out and she opens the folder with evidence against Peter that was given to her by Margaret. Rochelle finds Margaret and asks for more evidence—and questions why she cares about Peter. Margaret’s mother died from a leaking boiler while living in one of Peter’s buildings; he argued he wasn’t responsible. Plus, Margaret’s girlfriend is Sydney, Peter’s driver, who doesn’t want to work for that “bastard” anymore.

When Rochelle shows Luke the evidence—a photocopy of Peter’s diary entry showing he was in D.C. when he said he wasn’t—Luke says he called the newspaper Charmian worked for, learning that her possessions went to her parents. She probably has a recording of her final interview. Rochelle retrieves the recorder and brings it to the paper, which feels guilty over Charmian’s death. The recording offers them satisfying revenge.

Peter only learns of Charmian’s death—and her presence in D.C.—from Duncan after attending Helen’s triumphant concert with his family. He is then kicked out of the house by Helen after an argument in which he stupidly asks if she will stand by what she said to support him in court. “Do I have any value to you except as a liar?” she asks.

As Peter waits for Sydney to pick him up, he talks to Susan—Lily is out partying again. They discuss their relationship, the healthiest one in the family, and he reveals that Madeleine, his girlfriend, turned down a job in Texas to remain close to him—not something that he wanted. He leaves Susan quietly crying.

When he returns to Madeleine, she’s not sad but angry. Gulping down drinks, she tries to get him to open up to her. It’s awful being just the girlfriend, she says, hurling glasses at him. She’s not real to him, just someone for him to spend nights with.

Another woman Peter once spent the night with appears: his newly discovered daughter’s mother. She speaks with Rose, Peter’s daughter, in prison. Rose tells her she has contacted her father, contrary to her mother’s wishes. Her mother warns her that other people are not his priority. A guard overhears and reports the conversation to the prison director.

Rose calls Duncan: she wants to meet Peter, in order to get justice for Steff. Duncan speaks to Peter: he looked Rose up, and found she’s in jail because she defrauded a bank of a lot of money. This time I will make the decision whether to meet her, Peter tells him.

Later, he plays chess with the head of the Tories, who praises Peter’s popularity—and then floats the idea of him being Prime Minister. I’ll have to think about that one, Peter replies.