Strike Back:
Season:     3     / Episode:     8    
Episode 8

Finally, new and surprising answers come to light concerning the murder that has bound up Broadchurch.

Joe Miller is found not guilty. Hardy arrests Claire. The Latimers and Millers are angered at the trial's outcome. Hardy tells Lee that Claire has turned herself in. Joe pleads with Coates for help, but Coates refuses. Hardy and Ellie interview Claire, who accuses Hardy of rape and kidnapping. Lee is caught ransacking Claire's safe-house. Ellie discovers that Lee replaced the floorboards in his house to conceal the murders. A flashback reveals that Lee had sex with Lisa, and when Ricky walked in he killed her by accident in a rage. Pippa had been sitting on the stairs and heard the sex and Lisa being killed. Claire arrives home to have Ricky tell her that Lee killed Lisa and tells her to calm Pippa down by giving her some spirits from his flask. Claire goes in to Lee and asks if he had sex with Lisa and he says no and warns her not to use the flask as Ricky usually has rohypnol in it. Claire goes to calm Pippa and finds out Lee has lied about the sex. She returns to Lee and manipulates Lee to believe that Pippa thinks he killed Lisa and Ricky will take advantage of that. Lee goes to smother the drugged Pippa. Claire waves down Ricky on his return and orders him to drive to the woods. She then bluffs and asks what was in the flask as Pippa had a reaction to the Rohypnol and died. She orders him to go off alone for a while to calm down. When he returns he is holding a bluebell and Claire tells him she has hidden his flask here as her security. Ricky is disgusted as he realises Claire's manipulations. Ricky is arrested, and confesses to burying Lisa's body at the church were Lee had been working. Knight reconciles with Bishop. Mark and Nige kidnap Joe and take him to the beach house where Danny died. Coates has arranged for Ellie and Beth to be there, and they demand Joe leave and never return. Ellie threatens to kill him if he does. Coates arranges for Joe to live temporarily in a half-way house. The Latimers, Millers, Stevenses, and Nige watch as Joe leaves Broadchurch. Hardy also leaves Broadchurch, feeling his penance is over.

Bill and Wendy interview candidates for a fourth member of the team. Holden is intrigued by complaints about a school principal's odd habit.

Mr Groff finds the drugs that Sean sold at the dance and assumes Maeve and Otis are running a drug ring at school. He threatens to call the police, but Maeve takes responsibility, making her a candidate for expulsion. She defends herself in front of a tribunal, but the decision is deferred. Distraught after Maeve tells him she does not love him, Jackson starts skipping practice. He agrees to represent the school again if Maeve is reinstated, but the headmaster reneges the deal. Eric and Adam are in detention; a physical altercation suddenly turns into sex. Their relationship is scuppered when Adam is shipped off to military school. Otis fights with Jean about her intrusiveness, but they later reconcile. Jean goes to tell Jakob she can no longer see him but ends up having sex with him again. Otis apologises to Ola; she accepts, then walks with him back to his house. Sean has disappeared. Maeve finds the essay prize Otis stole from the school office along with his note apologising to her. She goes to his house but sees him kissing Ola and leaves without them noticing. The kiss arouses Otis and he is finally able to masturbate.

Scott and Stonebridge learn that Allen is actually a double agent working to keep track on Latif's plans. Later, the hostages are taken in two separate transports, where the males are taken for organ harvesting, and the females for sex slavery. However, Scott finds that one of the American soldiers secretly gave him a gun to organise an escape. Following the escape, they search for the camp holding the female hostages. On the way they encounter Hassani's men; Stonebridge stays behind to fight them off while the rest journey on to the other camp, however one of the hostages dies while running through a mine field. Meanwhile Hassani meets with Latif and Allen at the camp; Latif then has Allen and Hassani killed after they hand over intelligence on a weapons bunker in Chechnya. After Scott liberates the camp and rescues a captured Stonebridge, the hostages are taken to safety.

James and Alyssa bury the dog at the beach, then passionately and sincerely make out. At dawn, ruminating about their current situation, they decide to take the boat owned by Leslie and leave the country. When they ask Leslie for the boat keys, he reveals to them his knowledge of their crime then secretly calls 999 and tries to induce their confession. James deduces this and confesses while taking the blame upon himself. Noon, listening in, arrives at the scene and tries to convince both to be willingly arrested for manslaughter while Leslie tries to convince Alyssa to let James be arrested instead. Alyssa asks Noon if she were to go with her idea, would James and her still be together. When Noon tells that that would be unlikely, Alyssa knocks her out with Leslie's shotgun, takes his boat keys and runs to the boat with James, only to find that the tide had gone out. With the police armed response unit closing in, James knocks Alyssa down with the gun in an attempt to take all the blame and runs across the beach. A shot goes off, but the screen cuts to black before the result can be seen.

Pius XIII struggles to find clarity regarding his Papacy; a trip to Africa seems finally to bring about some.