Line #40 Series/Cardinal


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cardinal_poster_ctv.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:[[{{Tagline}} Hunting a Killer. Hiding a Secret.]]]]
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4	''Cardinal'' is a Canadian PoliceProcedural drama that premiered in 2017 as a joint-production between [=CTV=] (which airs it for the English-speaking audience in Canada) and Super Écran (which airs it for the French-speaking audience). Based on [[TheShowOfTheBooks the works of author Giles Blunt]], it stars Creator/BillyCampbell, Karine Vanasse, Kristen Thomson, Creator/AllieMacDonald and David Richmond-Peck.
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6	Originally slated to be a single miniseries, its success led to it being picked up for three additional seasons.
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8	Critics in Canada have hailed the show as an equal counterpart to NordicNoir thrillers like ''Series/TheKilling''.
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10	Set in Algonquin Bay, Ontario, the series follows Detective John Cardinal of the Algonquin Bay Police Department, a deeply burdened and troubled man, as he seeks to unravel complex mysteries and deal with his equally tangled personal life. He and Detective Lise Delorme later take on complex cases in the town. The show has been on the novels ''Forty Words for Sorrow'', ''Black Fly Season'', ''By the Time You Read This'' and ''Crime Machine''.
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12	The show has aired four seasons, the last one being in 2020.
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14	----
15	!!This show contains examples of:
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17	* AffablyEvil: Woody is a criminal who steals other people's stuff for a living, but when he finds a tied up and tortured Keith, he tries to untie him and help him escape.
18	* AndTheAdventureContinues: [[spoiler: Season 4 ends with Cardinal alone and heading into the darkness to once more investigate a murder.]]
19	* ApocalypseCult: Season 3 has the ABPD investigate the activities of a Canadian-American doomsday apocalypse cult led by a discharged female soldier from the US.
20	* TheAtoner: [[spoiler: John Cardinal stole a pile of illegally earned money from criminals he once arrested and since then has felt deeply ashamed of it. Even though he used the money to pay for his daughter's education and his wife's mental healthcare, he eventually considers turning himself in for it and quit being a cop.]]
21	* BigBadDuumvirate: In season 1 which is based on ''Forty Words for Sorrow'', [[spoiler: Eric Fraser and Edie Soames. Although Eric is more responsible as the murders are all his idea.]]
22	* ButtMonkey: Constable Fox. He's forced by Cardinal to take his boots off at a crime scene on a frozen lake, and is later pranked into taking a dead frozen racoon into Dyson's office.
23	* ChekhovsGunman: Woody, the burglar from the serial-robbery subplot in the first episode, comes back as the focus of the fourth episode's B-plot. [[spoiler: He attempts to rob [[SerialKiller Edie and Eric]] and gets killed while [[PetTheDog attempting to free Keith]], making this also an example of ADeathInTheLimelight]].
24	* DirtyCop: The first season's major subplot is Delorme trying to determine whether or not Cardinal is on the take.
25	* DuctTapeForEverything: In the first series, it's how Eric and Edie tie Keith up and gag him.
26	* FanDisservice: Keith London spends much of the first series naked ... and getting tortured by Eric and Edie in her grandmother's basement.
27	* FictionalCounterpart: The OPD (Ontario Police Department) is based on the OPP (Ontario Provincial Police), but [[HollywoodCopUniform wear uniforms and patches that one can assume that he/she is an officer from the Toronto Police Service]].
28	* FairCop: Detective Lise Delorme.
29	* {{Gorn}}: Quite a bit.
30	** In the first series, the torture of Keith London definitely counts - he has a finger cut off and is stabbed in the stomach before escaping and having to hide during the Canadian winter. Given that he's naked, he's very lucky not to succumb to hypothermia as well as blood loss.
31	** In the second series, Cardinal discovers a headless corpse which appears to have been mutilated in accordance with some sort of occult ritual. Later, he finds a severed head from a different victim.
32	** In the third series, the partially-decomposed bodies of the missing rich couple are fished out of the lake.
33	* ItsPersonal: Delorme discovers that her investigation on behalf of the [=RCMP=] is in fact a personal crusade on the part of her contact who blames Cardinal for a sting operation that was blown with a cop killed.
34	* JurisdictionFriction: Between the AB police and the [=RCMP=]. Justified that the latter is a federal police force brought in to check on allegations of a DirtyCop.
35	* KilledOffForReal: While a lot of people die in the backstory, all of the "current" victims survive. This makes it even more shocking when [[spoiler:John's wife, Catherine]] appears to commit suicide at the end of Season 2.
36	* MaybeEverAfter: [[spoiler: John and Lise end seasons four with Lise heading to Toronto. They agree to see each other though.]]
37	* MobWar: Part of the first season's backstory was the investigation to allegations that Detective Cardinal provided info that helped jumpstart a gang war in the 1990s.
38	** In the second series, Ray and Leon are trying to muscle in on the local drug trade, leading to friction with the local biker gang who controls it.
39	* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Spectacularly averted in the case of Lise Delorme. Karine Vanasse usually plays French characters when she's on English-language TV, but here she gets to use her natural Quebecois accent.
40	* NoCommunitiesWereHarmed: Algonquin Bay is a fictional counterpart for North Bay in Ontario, which is where much of the show was filmed.
41	* NothingIsScarier: The revelation of two teens killed in AB has shocked the community and scared them out of their wits.
42	* PlotArmor:
43	** In Season 1, despite [[spoiler:Eric and Edie's]] habit of torturing and killing teenagers, [[spoiler:their most recent victim, Keith London, survives being ''brutally'' tortured over multiple days, having chunks of his flesh torn out while being ForcedToWatch, being shot at several times, and finally, being ''stabbed in the stomach'' and having to hide in the middle of the Canadian winter while naked with a stab wound.]]
44	** In Season 2, Teri (aka Red) and [[spoiler:her brother]] Ryan. Teri is shot in the head in the middle of the woods, but she survives with amnesia. Then she is kidnapped, held hostage, and tortured by the gang, she's shot at multiple times by the gang members, but she is unhurt when Cardinal comes to save her.
45	* ShipTease: With John and Lise in series four [[spoiler: (after John's had sufficient time to mourn his wife's death, which occurred at the end of series two and was proven to be murder rather than suicide over the course of series three). While they do spend the night together, the show ends with Lise transferring to Toronto and John remaining in Algonquin Bay.]]
46	* ShownTheirWork: Whenever a police officer in Canada is suspected of being involved in a criminal case, the department or agency would depend on either an independent agency from outside the province/territory, or have officers involved from out of the area.
47	** The presence of a Native-managed casino is real. They're used to help Natives living in their territory get money as a means of sustaining the communities.
48	* TheOner: "Keith" has one when Detective Cardinal and Lise search for the killer in a school.
49	* TheShowOfTheBooks: Every season is based on a different Cardinal book. Series one is ''Forty Words for Sorrow'', series two is ''Black Fly Season'', series three combines ''By the Time You Read This'' and ''Crime Machine'', and series four is ''Until the Night''.
50	* SigilSpam: You can see the red maple leaf in the uniform, including rank lapels and cap in the AB uniforms. TruthInTelevision that most police forces in Canada use this in their logos or on their uniforms.
51	* WhatTheHellHero: In "John Cardinal", Detective Cardinal accosts Constable K. Fox who goes to a crime scene without being cleared off by forensics officers, potentially contaminating the evidence. He tells him to remove his police-issued winter boots and leave the scene.
52	-->'''Cardinal''': Constable, I'm gonna need your boots.
53	-->'''Constable Fox''': My boots?
54	-->'''Cardinal''': And then I want you to go home. You're dismissed.
55	-->'''Constable Fox''': Sir.
56	-->'''Cardinal''': You have kids? Pets? Carpet in your TV room?
57	-->'''Constable Fox''': I have two kids.
58	-->'''Cardinal''': Their DNA is now contaminating the crime scene, the unprocessed crime scene - that you chose to enter.
59	-->'''Constable Fox''': Sir, I swear, I...
60	-->'''Cardinal''': Let me tell you something. If one day we're lucky enough to get this guy, I can't have you serving up freebies to his defence attorney. So off they come.
61	* WhamEpisode:
62	** In Season 1: John Cardinal: It's revealed that Lise is recruited by the [=RCMP=] to hunt down for a corrupt officer, specifically to check on rumors if Cardinal was a DirtyCop or not; Woody: Cardinal learns that Lise that she didn't leave financial crimes and is scheduled to go back once her stint to investigate him is over.
63	** Season 2: El Brujo: [[spoiler:Catherine Cardinal, John's wife, appears to have killed herself after finding out the truth that Cardinal was protecting her from the mob war.]]

Context Series / Cardinal