History Series / Luther

* FoeYay: Alice Morgan and Luther. The interrogation in which they first meet -- mixing in scientific theory and relativity -- sounds like good-natured flirting of two people on a first date.
** Gets pushed to eleven in one of the final scenes of episode one. A confrontation on a bridge leads to Luther deflecting a knife from Alice and nearly choking her on the spot.
--> '''Luther''': Stay away from Zoe!\\
'''Alice''': Kiss me, Kill me... [[{{TooKinkyToTorture}} do something.]]
** The fact that they keep calling each other to taunt/flirt only adds to this.
** In episode three Alice and Luther admit they are scared of each other.
** Alice's reaction to Luther walking away when he declares he can't see her again in episode four sounds a bit like a lover scorned.
--->'''Alice:''' No.\\
'''Luther:''' Yes.\\
'''Alice:''' No!
** In episode Six Alice finds Luther has broken into her flat. She thought he was an intruder and, armed with another sharp implement and wearing a nightie, says casually...
---> '''Alice''': If you wanted a key, all you had to do was ask.
** In the same scene Alice tells Luther [[spoiler:that if he killed Zoe, he must have had a good reason. Luther then states that he didn't do it. Alice face-faults as if she was hoping he'd say the reason was her.]]
** In Series 2 Episode 2 Alice askes Luther to run away with her [[spoiler: He says no]]
** Lampshaded also in the title sequence song.
-->''Look at her, with her eyes like a flame''
-->''She will love you like a fly will never love you...''

** In episode five, he calls her and she comes running to meet him in a church. Where she renews his faith in humanity.

** In the final moments of the final episode of season one. After [[spoiler: Reed had taunted Mark into agreeing with Alice, breaking a tiebreaker preventing Alice from blowing Reed away. Leaving a woman suspected of patricide, a cop suspected of killing his ex-wife and the ex-wife's boyfriend standing around a newly murdered Reed.]] To make matters worse Teller and the rest of the CID are about to storm the platform the three of them are standing on.
---> '''Luther:''' Now What?

* BenevolentBoss: DSU Rose Teller seems to one of these. Willing to play politics to allow Luther to do his job. [[spoiler:Subverted when Luther is accused of murdering his own wife - she's completely willing to let him die, since this means a bigger chance for her to keep her job.]]

* BusFullOfInnocents: Quite literally [[spoiler:Cameron's]] final plan, as he thinks making a bus full of schoolchildren will give him the infamy he craves.

** Which, following the Munch Continuity Property, means that due to his appearance in one episode of The Wire, Luther and Stringer Bell are the same person.

* XanatosGambit: Two in a row by Lynch, to enable him to kill more police officers.
** The above-mentioned beating of Luther's love rival? Alice gets the girls doing the beating to claim Luther sent them. Luther denies this, naturally enough. Only Zoe, his wife, believes him -- and she has doubts. Then, when Alice tells Mark the truth and scares him into retracting his accusation, Zoe's faith in Luther is reaffirmed and she walks back into his arms. Which is almost certainly [[ManipulativeBastard exactly what Alice had planned all along]].
** Luther seems to have done this in episode four, when he finds himself under investigation for the aforesaid attempted murder of serial child killer Henry Madsen. When Madsen wakes up from his coma his accusations place Luther's career in jeopardy. [[spoiler:Luther visits Alice Morgan and informs her point blank he can never speak to her again due to this investigation. Her cries of 'No' at this news don't seem to surprise him. He's pretty much unleashing one killer on another -- she murders Madsen to save Luther.]] A case of [[ManipulativeBastard Luther pretty much pushing]] Alice's {{Berserk Button}} for his own benefit.

* IShowedHerWhatARealManIs: [[spoiler:Part of Reed's taunting speech to Luther and Mark in episode six, in which he claims that not only was Zoe a slut but she enjoyed fucking him the most because he was her revenge on Luther.]]

Idris Elba returns to his native United Kingdom to play the titular role in a six-part {{BBC}} drama, broadcast from 4 May 2010. He plays DCI John Luther, a police officer working for the fictional Serious Crime Unit. Like many a fictional bobby, he has marital problems. Well, you would if you were married to Suzie from ''{{Torchwood}}''.

* EngineeredPublicConfession: In episode 6, [[spoiler:Reed finally admits to killing Zoe when he believes Luther is about to kill him. Turns out Luther had a tape recorder in his pocket].] Subverted on an earlier occasion when Luther uses an edited recording to make a kidnapper's girlfriend think her lover has refused to exchange her for a hostage.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Inspector Schenk is investigating Luther for corruption. He knows that Luther is a good cop who gets results, but he will bring him down for the unethical way he conducts investigations, and will live with the consequences of putting an effective and basically good cop behind bars. An attitude that Luther respects. [[spoiler:He's also more willing to accept that there are holes in the theory that Luther killed Zoe than Teller.]]

* RussianRoulette: Luther forces a VillainousBreakdown from Owen Lynch, but then has an OhCrap moment when Owen empties all but one bullet from his snubnose revolver and starts putting it to their heads and pulling the trigger. [[spoiler:Eventually Owen is down to the last chamber and it's his turn -- Luther decks him when he puts the gun to his head to commit suicide.]]
** [[spoiler:And against in series two, only with one trigger pull this time around.]]

* CliffHanger: In the final moments of the final episode of season one. After [[spoiler: Reed had taunted Mark into agreeing with Alice, breaking a tiebreaker preventing Alice from blowing Reed away. Leaving a woman suspected of patricide, a cop suspected of killing his ex-wife and the ex-wife's boyfriend standing around a newly murdered Reed.]] To make matters worse Teller and the rest of the CID are about to storm the platform the three of them are standing on.

* DirtyCop: [[spoiler:DCI Ian Reed]] is revealed as one in the fifth episode of the first series. Frank Hodge from the second series used to be TheMole for a human trafficking ring, but by the time we meet him he's left the police and gone to work for them full time.

* AnyoneCanDie: Luther unfortunately has only a fifty percent success rate in saving the victim. And that's on a good day. Women get bled dry or gutted. Men get shot and wrapped in plastic. And as of episode five [[spoiler: Zoe gets shot and killed by his best friend Reed.]]
** And in episode six [[spoiler:Reed himself.]]

* BigNo: [[spoiler:Ian Reed after he accidentally shoots Zoe.]]

* BritishBrevity: As per usual only six episodes in season one. Thankfully despite Idris Elba taking time out playing [[{{KissTheGirls}} another American Detective]] and a [[{{Thor}} Norse God]] come 2011 there will be two two-hour movies for season two.

* BusFullOfInnocents: Quite literally [[spoiler:Cameron's]] final plan.

* ContinuityNod: In episode five of series one, Ripley is shown to still have the mugshots of the villains from episodes three and four on the walls of his cubicle.

* DrivenToSuicide: Averted in episode two. [[spoiler:Owen Lynch goes for this but a well-timed intervention from Luther stops him in time.]]
** [[spoiler:Ian Reed strongly considers it as well...]]
** [[spoiler:In episode six Reed succeeds with a little help from Alice, with Mark's consent.]]
* EngineeredPublicConfession: [[spoiler:Reed finally admits to killing Zoe when he believes Luther is about to kill him. Turns out Luther had a tape recorder in his pocket.]]
** Subverted on an earlier occasion when Luther uses an edited recording to make a kidnapper's girlfriend think her lover has refused to exchange her for a hostage.
* EvilRedhead: [[FoeYay May overlap with]] HeroesWantRedheads

* FridgeLogic: Why would Mark believe Luther's claim [[spoiler:that he's innocent of Zoe's death,]] especially when he's working in cahoots with the woman who was behind him being beaten up?

* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Not that he was that sane in the first place, but when Owen Lynch finds out the truth about his father he doesn't take it well.
** Linda Shand in episode four.

* HeyItsThatGuy: It's [[Series/DoctorWho The Eighth Doctor]]!
** And he's having an affair with [[{{Torchwood}} Suzie]]. Won't Captain Jack be jealous.
*** Never mind Captain Jack, [[{{Rome}} Lucius Vorenus]] is going to ''kill'' him.
** And now the Third Doctor's son has got bored of [[DogSoldiers killing werewolves]] and [[{{Equilibrium}} controlling people's emotions]] and gone to prison.
** Luther's best friend Reed is [[{{Underworld}} used to being a voice of reason.]]
** Looks like Alice's stay [[{{ThePrisoner}} in the Village]] left her a little nutty.
** See Mickey, if you don't pay [[{{Hustle}} Eddie's bill on time,]] bad things happen.
** [[Series/BeingHuman Ivan]] is still a vampire of sorts.
** So this is how bad [[{{LifeOnMars}} Vic Tyler got after he ran away...]]
** Luther himself was once [[{{Film/Thor}} the guardian of the Bifrost]]!

* ILetGwenStacyDie: [[spoiler:Zoe.]]

* OddFriendship: He's a hot tempered cop who solves murders. She's a genius physicist who got away with murder. She gives him supportive encouragement regarding his wife. He took her out for coffee. And in episode three he goes to her as a sounding board regarding the case of the week.
** And in episode Six she gives Luther shelter and aid [[spoiler:while he is on the run for the (framed) murder of Zoe.]]

*** Luther pulls these once an episode.

* BenevolentBoss: DSU Rose Teller seems to one of these. Willing to play politics to allow Luther to do his job.

* InternalAffairs: Schenk tags along with SCU to keep an eye on Luther. He's a subverted case, since while he'll sack Luther without batting an eye, he also acknowledges him as a good man and brilliant cop. [[spoiler:After Zoe gets killed, he proves to be more of an ally to Luther than Teller, who is at this point more concerned about not being held responsible for nothing.]]

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Inspector Schenk is investigating Luther for corruption. He knows that Luther is a good cop who gets results, but he will bring him down for the unethical way he conducts investigations, and will live with the consequences of putting an effective and basically good cop behind bars. An attitude that Luther respects.

** Rose Teller, too. She's behind Luther's back, but if necessary, she will put him in his place if there is need.

-->'''Alice:''' He thought the humiliation of prison would be worse -- the beatings, [[PrisonRape the rapes]], the incessant fear for your life but I told him "No John, you're wrong." Dying would be worse. Because well, honestly -- it is, isn't it?