Original subtitles

I don't know what happened.

I woke up underneath a tree. Someone left this.

I didn't know if they were trying to hurt me or help me,

but they knew about David's little Sunday session.

What's this?

License plate from Jonas McGee's ute.

Gary's looking for the rest of it.

Who did this to your face? Mick the brick shithouse.

(YELLS) Alright, you pair of bastards.

MAN: I want to help you, but I need you to help me.

Talk to him. Get close to him.

He didn't even tell me he had a kid.

The kid's dead, detective. His son was murdered.

Miriam, where is Zeke?

A stem cell transplant is her best chance of life.

It's from Zeke. America?

That's where he went after he did penance.

No, no, no. Not now. Hide it. Why?

Because David thinks I destroyed it.

David made Zeke do his penance in the desert.

He never came back.

Zeke doesn't exist. We need a grave digger.

What did you? OK, OK, OK, OK, OK.

# In that dear little town

# In the old county down

# It will linger way down in my heart

# Though it never was grand It is my very land

# Just a wonderful world set apart

# Oh, my island of dreams

# You are with me, it seems

# And I care not

# For fame or renown

# Like the black sheep of old

# I'll come back now. #

I'll ask you again.

How many biological children do you have?

You only ask questions you know the answer to.

When's the last time you saw your son?

Ten years ago.

When he went into the desert.

To do what? Penance.

Penance.

Penance.

Did Elsie do penance?

Or did Jonas take her away before you could execute that penance?

He had a lapse in judgement. Did he?

Sounds like he needed punishment. Did you punish him with a penance?

I never had to.

Well, you know, God took care of that.

God took care of that.

Takes care of a lot of things, this God.

How did he take care of it?

Well, Jonas caused an accident

that killed two people, spent years in prison.

His daughter was exiled.

Now his granddaughter's sick.

And we're here talking because he got his head cut off.

You think God is punishing Jonas by making Beth sick?

Sins of the father. All that.

Sins of the father? Mm-hm.

You never reported Zeke missing? No.

Why? He wasn't missing.

He wasn't missing? No.

Where was he?

Well, I received a letter from him from a commune in Arizona.

Saying he was healthy.

Saying he was well.

He wrote you a letter to tell you he was healthy and well

and he sent it from a commune in Arizona

so that he could fly back and then bury himself under your tree?

Does that make you feel superior? What is that?

To be glib.

When I've just watched you dig up the remains of my son?

Do you still have that letter from Zeke, David?

No.

Why not? Why would I keep it?

Did you write that letter?

Why would I write a letter to myself?

Do you only ask questions that you know the answer to, David?

What are you talking about?

Why did you write that letter?

You wrote that letter because you killed your son.

Your penance killed your son. You buried your son.

You wrote that letter.

What happened to my son was his choice.

He brought it on himself.

What happened to him was God's will.

Just as what happens to all of us is God's will.

Was that God's will?

Is that God's will? What are you doing?

Is that God's will? What are you doing?

Is it? Stop! Stop!

Is that God's will? Get him away from me!

Get him away from me! I wanna leave!

(METAL CHAIR CLANGS) I wanna leave! I wanna leave!

Stay away from me. Gary!

Stay away! Is that God's will?

What is it that you did? Take him to holding now.

Why do you hate God's will? Why do you hate God's will?

Come on, bugalugs.

What is it that you did? What'd you do, detective?

What did you do that you can't live with?

What'd you do? Come on.

What did you do? What did you do? What did you do? What did you do?

Hey.

Get him away from her! Get him away from her!

Get up, get up! Stand up!

Come with me.

This way, Miriam, this way. I've got it.

It's alright.

What are you doing? I was just getting him a drink.

You had one job. One job? (STAMMERS) I didn't...

Get him in there, Gary.

Here's your drink, Gary. Gary.

WOMAN: Gary. OK.

Come on.

# In that dear little town

# In the old county down... #

You like my car?

You ever been in a car like this? You ever seen a car this nice?

On the telly. Oh, on the telly.

Information. Thank you.

They let you watch telly in there, do they?

Huh? Back in Adelaide. Ah.

You know, when I was your age, I used to think that if I got a car

with Italian leather like this, then that meant I had officially made it.

Made what?

That's a great question, buddy.

# Like the black sheep... #

So how come your mum moved in with the troglodytes?

Had to come back because someone dropped her dad's head off.

It's cheaper than staying in a motel.

Plus, she grew up there.

Huh?

And let me guess? You don't want to grow up there.

Hmm. Probably not gonna grow up.

You hungry?

Cheers.

Some chips. Thanks, Bill.

Thank you.

Who's your little plus one? This is a runaway from Bible camp.

I'm not a this.

(LAUGHS) Fair enough. You OK?

She was hungry. I'm taking her home.

So...

Do I get to know your name yet?

Bess.

Bess. I like that. It's a good name. I'm Robbie.

Hi.

What are you, like four? No, I'm nine.

Serious, huh?

Ah, your wig's a little...

Surprised?

Not really.

You got a good head for it. Thank you.

So, um, what you got?

Leukaemia?

Acute lymphoblastic or myeloid? Lymphoblastic.

How many chemo cycles?

Two. The doctors say I'm in relapsed ALL.

But they want to do stem cell transplant.

Classic. Yeah.

You got a donor?

Nuh. Mum can't do it.

It's technically why we're here. Just like my dad.

Hmm.

These are really good chips. I know, right.

Can I have one? Hmm.

Billie's the best in the business.

Hey. Alright, we've gotta get you back there soon.

Just... You stay right here.

Hey, Bill. Can I get some chips for the road?

'Cause she won't let me have any.

Hey, blondie, do you want anything for the road?

A burger.

Wait. Make that two.

Where is it? I don't know.

The letter from your son.

Last you heard from him?

You don't know where it is?

We don't keep earthly possessions.

What did you mean

when you asked David what he did to your son?

I don't know.

His death was God's choice.

God didn't bury him, though.

You can go.

She's lying.

We need that letter. Mm-hm.

Prove it's a forgery. Put David away for Zeke.

And Jonas. Yeah.

What if he knew?

What if he knew David's little secret and David found out.

Jonas was a dead man walking.

(MOANING)

Don't stop.

Keep going.

If you can do it in front of God...

..if you have no shame,

you can do it in front of me.

You broken something?

Get away from her.

You see what you're doing to me?

Flesh of my flesh.

Flesh of my flesh.

Elsie!

What have you done?

I'm sorry, Dad.

What have you done? I'm sorry.

What's undone on earth

is broken in his Heaven.

You're in big fucking trouble.

Bess!

Mum. What are you doing out here?

OK, don't be mad.

I had two burgers.

How did you get two burgers? Robbie.

Who's Robbie?

Um, I think he went that way.

Also, where is everyone?

Well, they're at a vigil for David. What's a vigil?

We need to find a sample of his writing.

Border Force records.

We need to find that letter. OK. I can get us a search warrant.

There's a magistrate in Port Augusta who owes me a favour.

Anything for the mayor?

Stanley. Irishmen.

Can't dragnet the whole town. We don't have the resources.

So we just go with what we've got.

OK.

Hmm.

You look like shit.

Let's go. I'll take you home. Nah, I need to...

..walk.

(RATTLE BEGINS)

(RATTLING CONTINUES)

Dad.

Buchanan, little bird told me that Lucic snapped today.

I had it under control. Really?

You know, I read Horvat's case file.

He never confessed to murdering Ivan's son.

He was released early. There's no link.

Lucic's car was clocked speeding near the Croatian soccer club

the same day Goran Horvat was gunned down in that car park.

In a suspected gangland shooting, according to the report.

Detective Inspector Pakenham signed off on it.

It was her case. Now it's mine.

So stop wasting my time or I'll send you back to uniform.

You're stepping into very dangerous territory, detective.

(DIAL TONE)

(AIR-CONDITIONER RATTLES TO A STOP)

(SIGHS)

Police are asking about that letter.

What did you tell them? Nothing.

Well, David's the reason that we're all here.

You know, I, um... I saw how he used to watch you...

..with Zeke.

Do you really think that he's gonna help Bess

after what he did to his own child?

What makes yours so special?

Mum, why aren't they back yet? Uh, um...

Are they helping David? Helping him with what?

The police investigations.

Does he know who chopped the head off?

Come on. Let's tuck you in, eh?

Shouldn't we be helping David, too? Then he might help us find my dad.

Your dad's dead busy.

He can't really help us with that any more.

That's OK. Be weird having a stranger's blood inside me anyway.

Roll over. You roll over.

(HAUNTING SONG)

# Fire

# So let us burn

# Burn, burn

# Before we made any sense

# Burn out them bridges... #

(DOG BARKS)

Be quiet, Carter. It's just the vacuum.

What the hell?

(MUSIC PLAYS)

(MUSIC CONTINUES)

# Smokin' in the...

# In the sky. #

Have you seen my driving gloves anywhere, Petticoats?

Two oligarchs on my tarmac at the same day.

It feels like back home.

Colleen. Robert.

Madame Chairman. Yuri, where's my driver?

Mr. Claxton just called in to say he had a slashed tyre,

but he's on his way.

Why don't we have a seat while we wait, Colleen?

Please, please. Make yourself comfortable.

Refreshments. Yuri.

(SPEAKS FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

Happy Nulla Day, Col.

I hear you're handing out free burgers at this thing today.

And French bubbles, yeah. Cheers.

There I thought tech bros only drank raw water and nootropics.

That was last year. Now we're into mining.

100 million on an unproven, rare earth mine.

It'll take three times that again to get it operational.

You'll be bankrupt in two years.

That's what your father said about computers.

And look how that turned out.

My father was into mining. He was a geologist, just as I am.

Four generations of Delaney tradition.

Complicity. Careful.

Mining built this country.

And buried a few bodies along the way.

It was a tragic accident.

And if you're here because you think...

I'm here for rare earth and to support local businesses, Col.

Oh, what business is that? The Matterhorn or her side hustle.

Both do their bit to stimulate the local economy.

You'd know. Oh, come on.

When was the last time that you felt a little pleasure, Colleen?

Huh?

I'll tell you when your float bombs.

Free beer beats free burgers, Bobby, always has.

Here's my drive. Well, it was nice chatting, Col.

You're looking real good, chook.

Piss off.

Catch of the day, murder victim's ute.

Freshly located by yours truly.

Took a bit of finding, Dead Man's Well.

I knew it was McGee's as soon as I saw it

because of the Jesus thing in the windscreen.

Well, that's good.

Without that, all you had to go on was the make

and model and the other number plate.

Good find, Gary. Thank you.

Excuse me.

Too much to hope you wore gloves, Gary?

Obviously.

Did you find anything?

Check the glove box, seat pockets?

No receipts, no handwritten notes?

Were there any keys?

No, but actually, I found a signed confession by the killer.

But silly old me, I just threw it straight in the bin.

You want me to go and find it for you?

That'd be great, Gary. Yeah, great.

Search warrant for The Third Row came through. We should go.

Soil sample. Present for Carole.

Keep the ute locked in the yard. I'll send Carole.

When she's done with Zeke's phones. When she's done with Zeke's phones.

Here to help detective.

Hang on. Aren't you going to Nulla Day?

Free beer.

How does David know about your son?

Because he reads the paper.

Or maybe he really is a seer.

I know about Horvat.

OK.

So does everybody on the force.

I didn't.

Did you know each other?

No.

You never met?

I thought about it for a long, long while,

and then it doesn't change anything.

It doesn't bring him back.

My boy is still gone.

What do you know about crocodiles?

What?

A crocodile sits where they can't be seen.

And they're looking for patterns.

And if they see a pattern, they don't attack.

They position themselves.

Sometimes for days, watching.

And then when everyone's comfy,

then they strike.

Football.

That was his pattern.

Football.

So it's definitely Zeke's bones.

Broken clavicle matches the local hospital records

from when he was seven.

I'm sorry.

Now the pathologist says there's no sign of foul play.

What concerns us, and David's told us this,

Zeke was sent out there knowing that he would die.

And what's concerning is that if he can do that to his son,

what could he do to your father?

We have a warrant. Let us in, Elsie.

This is where David sleeps? It is.

He doesn't keep anything, OK?

It's the Bible and those scissors.

We heard Zeke sent a letter from America telling everyone here

that he was healthy and safe.

Do you know where that letter is, Elsie?

How could Zeke have sent a letter if he's already dead?

Exactly.

Where's the letter, Elsie?

I don't know what you're talking about.

Mum!

Mum! Hello.

Can we go now? Now.

Where are you going? Nulla Day. Free burgers.

I promised.

And the whole town will be there. So...woo.

Do you want a lift?

Mum, hot chips.

Hey, I heard you finally arrested the seer

for what he did to my uncle.

We're discussing other matters, Kyle.

It's all connected, though, isn't it?

What do you mean by that?

Jonas knew too much. That's why David had to shut him up.

Tell me more about that.

I saw them fighting in Jonas' caravan once.

Physical or verbal?

Physical. The whole van was fucking shaking.

Kyle, that's enough.

How long has this been happening? Nulla Day?

Since the mayor invented it, yesterday.

Let's take a look around.

(UNEASY MUSIC)

MC: How are you all, Nulla?

(ALL CHEER)

Welcome. Welcome to the inaugural Nulla Day.

(CHEERING CONTINUES)

(AIR HORN BLOWS)

The future is here for you and you.

And you know what makes this happen? Two personal close friends of mine.

Generous benefactors who made all this happen for you lot.

From Kununurra Mining Corporation, Colleen Delaney.

(ALL CHEER)

It's a PR stunt.

He's had the two of them bankroll this, dress the whole place up.

Everybody gets to grandstand as much as they want.

From Kalingra Rare Earths,

the handsome, debonair Mr. Robbie Inglis.

(CROWD CHEERS)

Over to you, Bullwinkle.

Thank you, Doug. Thank you.

We started here a hundred years ago,

and Kununurra has delivered millions

of tons of iron ore to the people of this country and to the world.

Carole.

Ivan, handwriting sample for David came through.

Great.

Do you know this is?

This is copies of all correspondence

sent or received by Jonas McGee when he was in Yatala Prison.

Are you allowed back in here after assaulting me, are you?

Well, you look alright.

Is that your handwriting?

I might just talk to her, actually.

Alright, David.

Read that out loud for us, please.

(READS) "Jonas, I'm told your release date is set.

"You should know that there can be no place for you at The Third Row.

"God knows what you have done."

All of it. "Love, David."

So who wrote that letter?

Somebody called Love David, apparently.

There's another letter. We talked about it last night.

Ezekiel telling everybody he was safe.

What would you do if I told you we actually have that letter

and that we gave it to a handwriting specialist

who's going to be able to use that sample to tell us

if that letter from Ezekiel was written by you?

I'd say you're a liar.

You got no reason to hold me.

Jonas wrote back to you just prior to his release from prison.

Read that for me.

(READS) "Dear David. God knows what you have done, Jonas."

It's interesting.

Quite the pair.

What did he mean by that?

God knows. Well, Jonas knew something.

What did he know?

What did you two talk about when you went to see him

after he got out of prison, David?

What did you talk about?

I never went and saw him. Yes, you did, David.

We have an eyewitness account that places you

at Jonas' caravan one week before he died.

We know you fought with him. You argued.

Caravan was shaking. What did you talk about?

Did he want something from you, David?

Did he know something?

Nobody really questions you, do they? But Jonas did.

You not like being questioned, do you, David?

What did he want? Did he want something, David?

He knew something, didn't he, David?

He knew about Zeke.

Is that what happened, David? He knew about Zeke.

That's why you killed him. No.

I loved my son.

I'm not talking about your son, David.

I'm talking about Jonas McGee. Look at me. Look at me, David.

Look at me.

What did you do, David?

That's all for now.

It's close.

I can feel it.

(MOBILE BUZZES)

Carole? Mmm.

Carole. Anything on the soil in McGee's ute?

That's at the bottom of my list. Do you want what's at the top?

Give me the hot tip, Carole.

Jonas McGee. He was strangled to death.

What?

Tell me. Just finished his autopsy.

Crushed windpipe, broken hyoid.

Then the beheading? Came after.

Yeah.

Beheading is, uh, theatrical. Biblical even.

Strangling? That's intimate, personal.

Neat.

Also, your blood work came back. You were drugged.

There was ketamine in your system, but nothing in the water.

What about the blood on my shirt? Stanley Honeywell.

Is very neat.

Mug.

Great job, doctor.

Thank you, detectives. It's all in a day's work.

Ezekiel.

Robbie Inglis.

It's alright, Ray. It's fine.

You think it's appropriate to take a nine-year-old girl

on a joyride in the middle of the night, do you?

Huh? Bess.

If it's OK with your mum,

why don't you go check if Ray's got some hot chips in the back.

One minute, Bess. One.

You can do some driving.

Uh, she was all alone, wandering around on the street,

so I wasn't exactly just gonna leave her there.

Most people would call the police, Robbie.

Yeah, well, I'm not most people.

It's Nulla.

I wanted to help her, not throw her to the wolves.

Hmm.

So why'd you drop her at our gate and drive off?

Because I was a little afraid of her mother's wrath.

And I'm very scared of the dark.

Mum!

Italian leather seats. Wow. Great.

Maybe get out. She's OK.

It's OK. If you're OK, it's OK with me.

How about some music, little missy? Yes, please.

Look, I'm sorry.

I heard about your father and Bess.

It's a lot.

She told you that, did she? Yeah.

It's OK.

# I don't need you any more. #

I was sick when I was a kid, too.

With what?

Medulloblastoma. It's... Brain tumour.

Yeah. Yeah.

They gave me three months.

I guess I got lucky.

That explains it, then.

What?

Why she's taken a shine to you.

You survived.

She's hoping it'll rub off.

(HONKS HORN)

Jeez. Alright, Baldy.

Let's dance.

You came back. Bloody good to see you both.

Well done, you, and well done, you. You'll bloody know about it.

# Go on and get out of that

# But you're gonna make me insane

# I cannot get you out of my head

# But, honey, I want to

# Gonna make it out alive

# But you're gonna make me insane

# In my head not to make it out

# With all that we went through

# Gonna get myself in a spin

# 'Cause, baby... #

That's not good.

Or is it?

(MEN CHEER)

Stanley.

I saw you at The Iron Ring the other night.

You're good.

You're very good.

I need to know how your blood got on my shirt, Stanley.

Can you tell me that?

We can talk about it here, or we can do it at the station, Stanley.

It's up to you.

OK.

You fought.

Then what happened?

Did you take Detective Lucic out to that dead tree?

Did you carry him?

That's what the blood's from?

From you?

You kept him safe, Stanley. Thank you.

Why did you do that?

Was there something you wanted him to see?

Did you know there was a body buried there?

No?

OK.

What was it then? Something else?

Something to do with the seer?

Has David done something wrong?

Tell us how Jonas died.

Do you know how he died?

Mmm.

Before that, someone strangled him.

They crushed his windpipe.

Like your father. His windpipe was crushed, too,

If there's anything you want to tell us

about what happened between you and Jonas

now's the time, Stanley.

(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC)

He was my friend.

Talk to Kyle.

OK.

Excuse me, Nulla, I've got a message for Mick the brick shithouse.

(CROWD BOOS)

Yeah, this rat's got something to say.

(SHOUTING AND JEERING)

Stanley, Stanley, Stanley!

(GUNSHOTS)

Oi!

For fuck's sake, this is meant to be a fucking family day.

OK, OK. That was not assault. It's self-defence.

Very good. Self defence.

Very good.

Someone's going to come and take a look at you soon, Kyle.

Thanks.

Before we do that, I need you to tell me something.

The other night at The Iron Ring, you were there,

Stanley took me to the dead tree.

Can you tell me why Stanley took me to the dead tree?

Dead tree? Mmm.

Well, OK, I couldn't carry you myself, could I?

Mmm. And you weren't in any danger.

Mm-hm. Right.

I left you water, didn't I? Mmm.

And I knew they'd do their little Sunday morning drive out there.

Mmm. So you should be thanking me. Thank you, Kyle. Thank you.

Why didn't you just tell me?

I knew you wouldn't take me serious.

I had to make you see what sort of head case the seer is

for yourself.

Like this?

Ezekiel Mammon's remains were found buried underneath that tree, Kyle.

Is that what you meant? Did you know about that?

No. No?

No.

I just heard Jonas shout out his name that day when David drove off.

Zeke's name? Yes.

So Jonas knew about it?

Oh, well, all I know for sure is a week later,

my uncle's head wasn't on his body any more.

That's why we've got your friend Stanley in the holding cell, Kyle.

Stanley didn't kill Jonas. We're talking to him.

How do you know? Uh, a beheading? That's not Stanley.

That's religious wackjob shit. Alright, religious shit.

Right? You can't let him get away with it.

Him. Who's him? Him. Oh, my God.

Who? David.

It's David.

I'm here for you to confess, David.

(SIGHS)

This old merry go round.

Do you miss him, David?

Who's that? Your son, David.

Do I miss him? Do I miss him?

No, because he's still here. Just like your son, detective.

Explain something to me, David.

You preach celibacy.

You're a father. You live with the mother.

Still you preach celibacy.

Yeah, but that was all before. Before?

That was before I was reborn.

It was before the mine collapse.

And back then, I was just a normal man.

Just a normal man. Just like you.

Yeah, normal average parent

and a pervert.

But now I'm God's child.

You can't touch me.

I don't think you are.

I don't think you're a miracle man. I don't think you're a prophet.

I don't think you're a seer.

You know what I think you are, David.

I think you're a father that failed his son.

That's what I see when I look at your aura, a failure.

Sweet dreams, detective.

Huh?

Yeah. Hoot.

Well, I guess it's good to know that you've still got her.

Well, yeah. Almost.

Hey, um, do you mind if I ask about Bessie's dad?

I haven't seen Bessie's dad in years.

Right.

I should probably, I should...

Wait, wait, wait. What is all this?

David's been locked up for nearly 24 hours,

and I'm just hoping

that he realises God is not going to get him out of it.

We can't hold him for much longer.

Elsie.

I want to make a statement.

(DOOR CREAKS)

Whenever you're ready. So you've got David.

Yeah. Hmm. Is he co-operating?

He is.

You got it backwards.

Before he died,

Jonas told me that he buried Zeke alone to protect David.

He found Zeke dead in the desert three days into his penance.

And he knew that it would destroy David

so he buried him and forged his letter.

David forged the letter? No, Jonas did.

Look, he knew that David, he needed hope, and he believed in him.

So he created it.

You came here looking for Zeke because you need a donor for Bess.

So if you knew that he was dead... I lied.

Are you lying now?

You think David's the best donor match for Bess.

So you need him out of here.

And you need him to co-operate.

What I need is for you to find who killed my father.

David didn't know that Zeke was dead,

so how could he have covered that up?

And why would he kill Jonas

for something he didn't even know about?

Well, that's that.

She's scared she's gonna lose her kid.

I need you to get out now.

Get out, get out, get out, get out! Leave!

Jesus Christ! Get out, get out, get out!

What have you got for me?

You want information from me? I want some from you.

I can barely hear you. Where are you?

How long have you known Ivan?

We're old friends.

Why are you calling? Why am I calling?

I want real information, Phelan. Did something happen?

You know it doesn't really mean anything, old friends.

It could be anything.

I don't know what you mean by that so...

So, what was he like when you knew each other,

what did he used to be like?

He was relentless.

Doesn't mean anything either.

He studies people.

He befriends them, gets close, builds trust.

What did he say?

What? What do you think?

Exactly? What, you think he talked to me about Goran Horvat?

The guy who murdered his son, you think...

You think we're chatting it up about that?

You think we're sat in a car

talking about football in the middle of a homicide?

What? What is it you think exactly?

You think my senior partner came clean with me

about avenging the death of his son?

It's great work, detective.

Thank you.

Hello.

Sorry. No, it's OK.

Are you good? Yeah.

Are you good? Good.

Sorry about before. Stanley's gone.

What do you mean Stanley's gone? Stanley's gone again.

So you've got the letter?

What happens now?

I did my part.

Now you do yours.

# And now they're ready

# Oh, I dare call them men

# Let us burn... #

Jonas' ute's gone from the lock up.

He's taken the shoebox of cash.

Where is everyone? Close that.

# Smoke heavy in the sky

# Eyes are cold. #

No one's above the law, detective. Not in my town.

What the fuck are you playing at?

Howdy, cowboy.

It's very hard to turn a blind eye when we see.

I know what you did.

What the fuck?

You're playing with fire.

You think I'm threatened?

If you want to threaten me, threaten me.

Captions by Red Bee Media

Copyright Australian Broadcasting Corporation