Shetland series 9: Recap of episode 1, including what happened to mum Annie Bett
By Helen Fear |Shetland returned to BBC One this week with series 9, and possibly the most dramatic start to the detective drama ever - here's our recap.
Okay, so we knew that it was highly unlikely that DI Ruth Calder would lose her life in the hyper-tense hostage situation. I mean, this is only her second series on the show! But, still, it was an insight into the character to see the usually icy detective rattled...
Also, as Ruth explained why she was in Shetland, viewers got a handy explainer as to why and how she ended up back in Scotland.
Shetland series 9 episode 1 started with a gun to Ruth Calder's head. A distressed Malcolm Kidd - having seemingly just shot his brother dead - was then demanding to see someone called Eleanor...
However, after a tricky stand-off, with Ruth doing her damn best to keep him calm, he shot his gun. However, Ruth managed to escape unscathed as police arrived to arrest him.
Here's a recap of what happened in Shetland series 9 episode 1, with a few questions ahead of episode 2.
***Warning: spoilers from Shetland series 9 episode 1 ahead***
Shetland series 9 episode 1 recap: Why did Ruth Calder stay in Shetland?
During the nail-biting hostage situation, Ruth told her captor why she was in Shetland. She explained that she's returned to London and to her job at the Met, however felt the call of home while there.
Ruth admitted that, after the events in Shetland series 8, she had become disillusioned with her life in the UK capital. Ruth made the decision to return to her home and the only family she has left - her brother, who has recently been dumped by his wife Amma.
Why did Malcolm Kidd kill his brother, and who is Eleanor?
Having visited Malcolm Kidd's home on what she thought was a standard welfare check, Ruth found a dead body, and a borderline psychotic Malcolm.
After holding Ruth against her will, and threatening her with a firearm, luckily no one else was harmed.
Malcolm subsequently agreed to submit a full confession to murder, although he still did not reveal why he had killed his own brother Andrew.
After previously begging to see Eleanor, he changed his mind once in jail. Obviously, there's more to this story than meets the eye. We subsequently discovered that Eleanor was Malcolm's fiancée.
Malcolm and Andrew were close. However, Eleanor admitted she had slept with her fiancé Malcolm's brother Andrew "once or twice". Did Malcolm find out, and kill his brother in a revenge-fuelled rage? Or is there more to it?
Shetland series 9 episode 1 recap: What or who is Bergen?
Although Malcolm did not reveal why he had shot his brother dead, he mentioned something or someone called Bergen.
Bergen is a city in Norway, and Malcolm did used to work on the ferries. As the episode continued, we discovered that Malcolm was referring to a person, not a place.
At the end of the episode, Anton Bergen was found dead in the same house as Annie Bett.
What happened to Tosh's friend Annie Bett?
After a hard day at work, Tosh attended a party where she bumped into a friend called Annie. Annie was at the party with her young son, Noah, and her husband Ian was also there.
But clearly, all was not well in the family. As episode 1 of Shetland series 9 continued, Tosh learnt that Annie and Ian were splitting up.
As Annie left the party, she asked Tosh if she could talk to her about something "professionally" the next day. It seemed important. She revealed she was staying at the Harris mussel farm on the west coast. However, she went missing before Tosh had the chance to speak to her.
When she visited the Harris house the next day, John told her that Annie and Noah weren't in their rooms, and their beds hadn't been slept in. If he told the truth, then Annie and the boy must have disappeared after the party.
Of course, sadly she later turned up dead, although Noah turned up alive - albeit covered in someone else's blood. So why was she staying with John Harris and his sons? What's their connection? And can we trust them?
Shetland series 9 episode 1 recap: Who killed Annie Bett?
At the end of Shetland series 9 episode 1, Annie was found dead. Of course, the prime suspect at first is the estranged husband. Property developer Ian Bett left the party drunk, got home in a taxi, and stopped answering his phone.
When Tosh and Ruth went to his house (side note: a pigsty), he was missing. However, it didn't look like he'd done a runner. In fact, it looked like someone had come after him. His door had been forced open. At the end of the episode, Ian was officially missing.
However, a quick chat with Patrick Harris confirmed that "Ian had gone psycho since the split". He added: "If something has happened to them, he'll be behind it."
We learnt that Ian had been turning up drunk at the Harris property, "shouting his mouth off" through the window at Annie. Why had Annie left Ian? Was it domestic abuse? And could Ian be behind her death? Where is he?
Prime suspects in Shetland series 9
Second suspect must surely be the mysterious Professor Euan Rossi, who was found snooping around Ian and Annie's home. Although he insisted he did not break the door. Euan was friends with Annie, having been her tutor when she was at Oxford Uni. Annie called Euan the night of her disappearance and left a message with him at 1am. She said: "I'm in trouble, I need your help."
Are the Harris family involved in Annie's death? She had been staying with them for a few months, ever since her split from Ian. John Harris had become friends with Annie after she had started doing the accounts for his business. Is there more to the relationship, or are we just horribly suspicious?
Of course, with a shocked Noah too terrified to speak, no one knows what happened to Annie. Apart from her and the killer...
All we know is that Noah had what appeared to be plaster dust on his shoes... And it just so happens that Ian Bett Construction Ltd was working on a property a few miles up the road. That's where Annie's dead body was found.
Shetland series 9 episode 1 recap: Who is the other dead body in the house?
After finding Annie's dead body in the house, DI Tosh and Ruth Calder followed a blood trail to a higher room.
There, they found another dead body. Not Ian. But a man seemingly called Anton Bergen, if the identification on his body is to be believed. The French ID card seemed to confirm his nationality and name.
However, at this point, nothing else is known about Bergen. Apart from the fact, Malcolm mentioned the name to Ruth after killing his brother. This links both murders, which were previously though to be unconnected.
Who is Lisa Friel? What is HEM?
In what appears to be a side-plot, Ruth's brother Rev Alan Calder visited an establishment called HEM where a door had been damaged. He learnt that a girl called Lisa Friel had vandalised the property - and not for the first time.
This time, she "kicked off" and accused the staff inside of "stealing her stuff". HEM appears to be a shelter, and Alan had pushed to get Lisa a place there. He begs the shelter to give Lisa one more chance so she's not homeless, which they reluctantly agree to. Is someone stealing from Lisa?
When Alan tracked down Lisa, staying with her friend Angus, he learnt about a new nesting facility on the island apparently to be used for marine research. Of course, Shetland fans will know that the environment often plays a part in the plot. Are there really "secret experiments" going on up there?
What happens in Shetland series 9?
Ashley Jensen and Alison O'Donnell return as DI Ruth Calder and newly promoted DI Alison 'Tosh' McIntosh.
In series 9, the Beeb tells us "a double missing person's case blurs the lines between the personal and the professional, as Calder and Tosh are drawn into a labyrinthine investigation".
As the missing person's case becomes a murder investigation of two people, we discover than somehow this is all linked to another tragic death on the island - that of Andrew Kidd, who was seemingly murdered by his own brother Malcolm.
