'D.I. Ray' Recap: Season 2 Episode 1

D.I. Ray airs Sundays at 9:00 pm and is available to stream. Recap the previous episode.
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D.I. Ray is back from her suspension from the police force after the revelation of her policeman boyfriend’s corruption, and now she has seemingly more support and recognition of her abilities. Her immediate boss, Kerry Henderson, fought for Ray to return to work. The police want the exemplary Ray to be a mentor to a new officer on her team, Charlene Ellis. And Ray’s ultimate boss, the superintendent, tells her in her disciplinary hearing that she could soon be promoted. Ray secretly records the hearing and saves it on her laptop.

There’s a case that requires the abilities of an exceptional officer like Ray. Frank Chapman, the head of an organized crime family in Birmingham that runs pawn shops, has been killed alongside a nurse seemingly caught in the crossfire. Megan Parks was newly qualified as a nurse and just getting off an 18-hour shift when Chapman sped up to the hospital door and spilled out of his car, bleeding. Parks went to help him as another car squealed into the parking lot. The masked driver then fired, killing both Chapman and Parks.

Forensics reveal that Chapman had been shot earlier, not fatally. He then seemingly got into his car of his own accord, as there’s blood inside but no signs of a break-in. There are some unidentified fingerprints on the door handles other than his own. Mild blood spatter in his kitchen suggest he was first shot there, while two glasses of whiskey suggest he invited someone in, although they never took a sip – there’s no DNA on the second glass. Ray also notices a pamphlet in Chapman’s house about how whites are a “minority” in Birmingham. The Chapmans supposedly charged non-white people more for their services.

The Chapmans are feared in Birmingham, although criminal charges have never stuck to them. Rumors say Frank’s son Dave now oversees the family’s operations. Dave has a wife, Lucy, and two daughters, Amy and Joey. They say they were all asleep the night Frank was killed. Joey wants to know everything about her grandfather and his death, but Dave sends her away as the police talk to him.

Dave’s sister Suzie was abroad but returns after learning of her father’s death. Her nieces adore her; her sister-in-law, not so much.

There was a witness to the shooting in the hospital parking lot, a hospital porter, but someone has reached him before the police and beaten him so badly that he’s now in the hospital as a patient. He won’t talk to the police. And the car driven by the murderer is found, but it has been burned to a crisp.

Intimidation is rife in this investigation. Clive brings Ray to an acquaintance named Hardeep, a former youth worker who now runs a restaurant and knows everything that happens in the neighborhood. He explains that a rival family has recently emerged to challenge the dominance of the Chapmans in Birmingham: the Mochanis have been moving in on Chapman territory from Leicester. That night, masked men threaten Hardeep with a knife and tell him to keep quiet about the Mochanis.

The eldest Mochani, Rav, has done time: two years for a gun charge. The police are afraid to once again be accused of profiling South Asians, so Henderson advises Ray to proceed with caution in investigating them. Ray and Clive surveil the Mochani jewelry store, then Ray goes in to ask questions after she sees Rav enter. She asks if he, his mother Sharan, or sister Priya recognize the vehicle used in the murder or know Frank Chapman; they say no. Sharan asks Ray for her full name and wryly notes that the police sent a South Asian officer to speak to them.

Sharan, Rav, and Priya were all at a Persian restaurant when Chapman was killed. CCTV shows that Sharan and Priya were there late, but Rav left earlier – in time to be involved in Chapman’s murder.

Following the arrest of her corrupt boyfriend Martyn, Ray is living in a new home, microwaving dinners and drinking wine out of a mug while swiping through dating apps. Whereas she had only ever dated white men before becoming involved with her now-murdered colleague Tony Khatri, she is now connecting with South Asian men. But after she sleeps with one, she immediately dismisses him and tells him she doesn’t want to go on a date.

She refuses a different offer when she meets Ethan, the brother of Henderson’s husband, and he invites her to join them all for drinks.

Charlene uncovers a possible lead while speaking to a longtime employee of a Chapman pawn shop. The woman says she saw Frank the day he was killed outside the shop arguing with a man in the uniform of a nearby supermarket. When Ray and Charlene visit the supermarket to ask questions, an employee flees. Charlene catches him and he punches her before Ray catches up and arrests him.

Aled has a criminal record. He tells the police the Chapmans are evil: he borrowed a measly two grand from them, and they sent toughs to intimidate his mom over it. That’s why he was arguing with Frank. But he went to the pub after the argument and got drunk, an alibi corroborated by numerous witnesses.

Ray and Clive surveil the pub where the Chapmans are holding a reception for Frank. Clive is surprised to see a man he thought was in prison. Ray thinks she sees Suzie look at her and surmises that the Chapmans know they’re being watched and are putting on a show for them.

But then Ray and Clive are pulled away to something more urgent. Edmunds has been surveilling the Mochani jewelry store, and two masked men in a dark van have gone inside and abducted Rav in broad daylight. No one else was in the store.

Ray sets off in hot pursuit but eventually loses the van after some dangerous maneuvering.

Inside the pub where Frank Chapman’s reception is being held, Dave’s wife Lucy urges him to make a toast to his father before his sister does. But Dave seems shocked and sad, and Suzie interrupts him in his halting toast to take over. She promises justice for Frank, to cheers.