Joan Is Awful | Loch Henry | Beyond the Sea | Mazey Day | Demon 79
"Farmicide."
"The mystery is, "how could someone do that shit?". It's "what the fuck?". It's "give me the details!". And the details are so awful, it's irresistible."
— Pia
A young couple, Davis (Samuel Blenkin) and Pia (Myha’la Herrold) journey up to Davis' sleepy Scottish hometown on the way to film a nature documentary, only to be drawn to the grisly tale of Iain Adair, a local serial killer. They decide to retell the incident in a True Crime documentary instead, only to discover that the truth is worse.
Costarring John Hannah as Richard, Daniel Portman as Stuart, Monica Dolan as Janet and Ellie White as Kate Cezar.
Tropes:
- Accident, Not Murder: Pia flees from Janet once she realizes that Janet is a murderer, and Janet rather futilely chases her. Pia successfully eludes her...only to slip on a rock in a creek, hit her head and die.
- Alone with the Psycho: After Davis is hospitalized, Pia goes home with his mother Janet. Upstairs, Pia finds old footage proving Janet and Davis' father as Iain Adair's co-murderer/torturers. Realizing she's alone in the house with her boyfriend's murderous mother, Pia flees...and dies, not because Janet kills her, but because she trips and hits her head.
- Ambiguously Evil: Downplayed. While Iain took part of the killings and tortures, how willing of a participant he was is left ambiguous. In his only appearance in the episode, during a snuff film, he looks disturbed and a little unresponsive, suggesting some kind of mental disability. It's not clear if he was been manipulated by Kenneth and Janet or he was just as much of a sadist as the couple.
- Bait-and-Switch: Towards the end of the episode Richard, who has been acting oddly the whole time, approaches Davis alone in a darkened hospital room in a seemingly menacing fashion ... only to reveal that he wanted to speak to Davis privately to try and warn him about his parents' possible involvement in the murders.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Davis and Pia wish to make an award-winning documentary and Stuart is more than happy to help as he believes it will bring tourists back to the Dying Town. By the time the credits roll the documentary has been made and won a BAFTA and the tourists seem to have returned to Loch Henry in droves... but Pia has died in the process and Davis' is a broken man over the death of his girlfriend and the exposure of his parents as serial killers.
- Biting-the-Hand Humor: The aftermath shows the Loch Henry tourists
wearing replicas of the killers' masks. In 2022, Netflix caught some heat after their Jeffrey Dahmer series inspired viewers to dress up as Dahmer for Halloween. - Bittersweet Ending: Bordering on Downer Ending. The documentary of the Loch Henry murders ends up being a massive success, winning a BAFTA and breathing new life into the town through tourism. However, Davis's parents are both revealed to have been the masterminds behind the murders, with his father's reputation as an honest cop irreversibly tarnished and his mother having committed suicide once she is found out. Pia tragically loses her life as a result, and Davis is left mostly alone, and it's clear that his mental health has plummeted as a result of the experience.
- Cell Phones Are Useless: Due to poor service, Pia is not able to reach Davis via phone after she finds out about his mother. It means Pia is now trapped Alone with the Psycho.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- On their first night at Loch Henry, Pia fiddles around with Davis's old videotape camera. Later, they use it for their true crime documentary, which then results in Pia discovering Janet and Kenneth's murder tapes. It turns out Davis's parents recorded their victims with the same camera.
- The taped episodes of Bergerac not only become instrumental to Davis and Pia's recorded footage of Iain Adair's Torture Cellar, but are later revealed to contain recorded footage of serial torture and murder.
- An old carnival mask is displayed quite prominently as a decoration in Janet's house; it's not until Pia accidentally stumbles upon one of Iain Adair's snuff films that the mask is revealed to be a prop from Janet's serial-killing days. Janet herself wears the mask during her suicide.
- Cluster F-Bomb: The normally mild-mannered and soft-spoken Janet lets loose an extremely foul-mouthed tirade when it seems like Pia has escaped into the fields right after discovering Janet's past as a serial killer.
- Continuity Nod: Multiple, almost all of them happening at the end with the in-universe trailer for the True Crime documentary which in itself is an inter-season one by depicting it being released on Streamberry.
- Country Matters: Janet's Cluster F-Bomb after she loses track of Pia features about as many cunts as it does fucks.
- Creepy Red Herring: Richard initially looks as if he might have been involved with the murders, given that he openly discourages the documentary and later approaches a bedridden Davis in an overly ominous fashion as if he might be about to kill him. However, he's actually there to reveal the truth behind Kenneth and Janet's involvement in the murders.
- Death by Falling Over: Pia dies not because she ends up cornered by the recently-revealed-to-be-a-murderer Janet who barely makes an effort to run after her, but because she tripped and hit her head against the rocks in the river she was crossing — turns out moving across a risky body of water while in the dead of the night with no lights to speak of while distracted by a pursuer can be just as much of a dangerous affair as the aforementioned pursuer.
- Death by Origin Story: Davis explains that his father died when he was eight. We then learn that Dawn and Simon Challis were killed by Iain before he killed himself.
- Dirty Old Woman: Initially downplayed with Janet, who casually comments that the lead actor of Bergerac had a nice butt. Then played straight (or even exaggerated) when her sadism is revealed.
- Dramatic Irony: Janet commits suicide under the false impression that Pia has escaped to expose her as a fetishistic torturer/serial killer; Pia dashed her head mid-escape and died in the river. But Janet ends up Right for the Wrong Reasons: Richard had divulged his suspicions of Janet to Davis independently of this altercation.
- Driven to Suicide: Janet kills herself after realizing she has been found out by Pia.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Granted, Janet's suicide appears chiefly motivated by the threat of imminent exposure, but she kills herself knowing that it will propel her son's film career. She leaves him an affectionate note alongside the evidence she leaves out.
- Everyone Has Standards: Stuart may like to bust Davis's balls and make politically incorrect remarks towards him and Pia for the sake of riling them up, but he's genuinely angered and disgusted when Richard starts hurling cruel insults at them for trying to create the Loch Henry doc.
- Expy Coexistence: The previous episode established that In-Universe streamer Streamberry, who produces the final Loch Henry doc in the end, is a reskinned Netflix, with similar logos, startup sounds, and user interfaces. This one has Pia and Stuart discuss true crime docs on Netflix, establishing that they coexist.
- Fetishes Are Weird: It's all but stated that Kenneth and Janet's torture (and possibly rape) of innocent people was all part of an extremely sadistic fetish. Sex toys can be seen in the footage showing the dungeon, Janet is shown wearing a latex nurse uniform and a carnival mask (both pretty common fetish apparel) in their snuff film, and in the documentary trailer, Richard admits that he started suspecting the couple's involvement in the crimes after participating in sexual games with them.
- Foreshadowing:
- Iain Adair is offhandedly described as being "easily led," which doesn't seem to gel with the legend of him as a lone wolf serial killer. Sure enough, the tapes reveal him to be an accomplice, led by the stronger-willed Janet and Kenneth.
- When explaining to Pia how Iain Adair's murders went unnoticed for so long, Davis explains about the numerous ways one can die in the countryside: "There's deep water and all that, you know... Walker takes a wrong turn, you know?" Pia herself ultimately dies exactly this way while fleeing from Janet.
- The protagonists decide to use a videotape camcorder to give their documentary a more Analog Horror feel, and Stuart namedrops found-footage movie Blair Witch as an example. They end up finding some snuff footage while things take a turn for the worse.
- Davis notes that the Bergerac videotape they're using has been recorded over several times. It's later revealed that one of those times was a Snuff Film - just like the rest of the whole shelf.
- While being filmed, Janet remarks that it's the first time in years she's been in front of a camera, and muses that Kenneth never had that kind of equipment that Davis and Pia use. The true crime documentary in the end even uses it as a hook.
- Friends All Along: Stuart screams at Davis when he walks into the pub claiming he told Davis to never show his face there again. Davis shrugs this off and recognizes it as a joke between old friends.
- Hard-Work Montage: Davis and Pia get a montage of filming their demo reel of the Iain Adair doc, comprised of conducting interviews, flying a drone to get Scenery Porn, editing, and behind-the-scenes fluff.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: Janet has apparently been keeping her snuff films on the same tapes as her old Bergerac episodes, prominently displayed on a shelf for the past twenty years. Presumably, she trusted that no one but her would ever want to watch them.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Kenneth shoots himself nonlethally in order to frame Iain, gets an infection from the wound and dies.
- Idiot Ball: Pia continuing to watch the tape well after realizing both Kenneth and Janet were in it, on a monitor that faced the room's unlocked door, all with Davis' mom in the house... not a good idea, to say the least. She makes it worse by acting in an erratic, obviously panicked fashion, rising Janet's suspicion enough to check on what material she's been digitalising. This eventually gets Pia killed in the end, for she never slows down in her frenzy to think things over and just pushes forward.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: After Davis tells the story of Iain Adair to Pia, Stuart suggests another pint. Davis immediately responds “Aye.”
- It's Personal: Invoked. Their producer, Kate, isn't too excited by Davis and Pia's Loch Henry demo reel, saying it needs a hook. Pia tells Kate that Davis has a personal connection to the story as his father indirectly died because of the serial killer. Kate is slightly more interested after this. After the truth is found out in the end, the personal angle is amped up. The in-universe Loch Henry trailer salaciously promises that the documentarian is exposing his parents' crimes.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Stuart is boisterous, foul-mouthed, and isn't above making a few politically incorrect jibes, but he's otherwise a good friend to Davis, gets along well with Pia, and helps out with the documentary. In the finale, he calls Davis with praise for the success of the documentary - clearly not realizing that Davis is in no mood to celebrate in the face of the horror and tragedy he's suffered.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Kenneth nonlethally shot himself to make it look like Iain Adair did it, disguising his own involvement in the serial killings... only to end up dying of MRSA because of it.
- Life Will Kill You:
- Kenneth shot himself to bolster his frame-up story about Iain Adair, but ended up catching MRSA in the hospital and dying after months of slowly succumbing to it.
- Pia successfully eludes Janet (who isn't even trying to chase her in the first place), only to slip on a stone, fall over, hit her head over a rock and either die from that or simply drown while unconscious.
- Meet the In-Laws: The episode opens with Pia meeting her boyfriend Davis' mother. She's concerned that Janet doesn't like her because she's black, American and not too keen on her cooking. Pia keeps making various minor blunders through the episode, making the tense situation even worse in her own perception.
- Misaimed Fandom: Happens in-universe, as people start to wear masks similar to the one Janet had as part of a tourism gig.
- Murder-Suicide: Iain Adair shot his parents and then himself. Subverted, as this was a coverup.
- Nightmare Fetishist: The murderers, Janet and Kenneth, are shown to be very into dark and sadistic stuff. Pia is a much lighter version, as she's fascinated by the true crime information she gets from Davis and Stuart. As are the thousands of people that stream to Loch Henry.
- Not So Above It All: Janet, despite being a very prim and proper old lady, is a fan of Bergerac because she likes John Nettles' ass - and when Pia snidely comments on this, Janet remarks "well he did have a nice one." Later played for horror when it's revealed that Janet used to be a dominatrix who gleefully took part in the torture and apparent rape of Iain Adair's victims.
- Only the Leads Get a Happy Ending: Inverted, in a surprising yet twisted way - Pia is dead, not even because of her pursuer but because she mis-stepped and fell down unconscious in a river, while Davis is left devastated and broken by both his girlfriend's death AND the reveal his now late mother and father were serial killers. Still, the truth ends up revealed to the world as all the killers are finally dead and Loch Henry gets a boom of tourists that helps revive the dying town, even Richard's mental health is shown to improve now that he's not burdened with the knowledge of the true killers anyore...too bad for Davis that he can't enjoy any of these facts.
- The Place: The episode's title — and that of the In-Universe depiction of the episode's events — are titled Loch Henry, after the town where the murders took place.
- Politically Incorrect Hero: Downplayed with Stuart, who's a bit crass and moves against the progressive grain, but becomes fast friends with Pia and supports her and Davis's endeavor to the fullest. He's probably the only character to come out of the episode with a happy ending.
- Profiling: Pia, who is black, says that cops might take action against the ongoing egg theft if someone who looked like her was committing the thefts.
- Retired Monster: Janet at the very least a known serial killer's accomplice, but now lives a mundane life. Her Villainous Breakdown suggests she might have been willing to come out of retirement and for Pia.
- Retraux: Invoked. Documentarians Davis and Pia deliberately use an old camera to film in the abandoned farmhouse for the Analog Horror effect.
- Right Through the Wall: Pia playfully goes down on Davis in his childhood bedroom, both of them blissfully unaware that Janet can hear them moaning several rooms away.
- Scenery Porn: Upon seeing the Loch, Pia remarks that is absolutely beautiful and is surprised no one else is there. Later her and Davis get some in-universe scenery porn of the Loch via their drone.
- Serial Killer: Iain Adair, a local farmer, was later found to have eight bodies of people he tortured and killed on his farm, including a young couple who recently went missing. It understandably killed local tourism. It eventually turns out that Davis' mother and father were also in on the murders.
- Snuff Film: Kenneth and Janet recorded their torture sessions after the end of their Bergerac VHS tapes.
- Surprise Car Crash: Davis, Pia and Stuart are singing as Davis drives on a dark country road, trying to make light of the horrific experience they just saw. Cue incoming farm vehicle.
- Taped-Over Turmoil: The tapes with Bergerac also contain other snuff footage that Pia discovers by accident.
- They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: While Iain was a bit of a weird loner who is always photographed with a haunted expression, Davis's parents looked like a perfectly charming couple who also happened to be sadistic murderers.
- Tourism-Derailing Event: The episode takes place in a Scottish village that used to thrive on tourists exploring the scenic wilderness. However, during the '90s, local man Iain Adair was found to have abducted, tortured, and murdered eight visitors, effectively frightening off the tourist trade, leaving Loch Henry a Dying Town. As such, Pia and Davis hit upon the idea of making a Netflix-style documentary about the murders, with Stuart supporting it in the belief that it will lure in a more modern breed of tourist. However, it's discovered that Davis' parents were enthusiastic participants in the murders, resulting in an Alone with the Psycho situation that ends with Pia dying in her attempt to escape, Janet hanging herself to avoid arrest, and a huge stockpile of Snuff Films being uncovered. The documentary is extended to encompass the more recent tragedy and becomes successful enough to rejuvenate Loch Henry's tourist trade, albeit at the cost of Davis' happiness.
- A Tragedy of Impulsiveness
- Janet's suicide is this: she kills herself due to believing Pia had escaped and is about to report her, not knowing that Pia accidentally fell and died while wading across a river.
- Pia crossing the river is also this. Janet doesn't as much step off the road or give chase to Pia, only standing on the road and shouting for Pia to show herself before letting out a Cluster F-Bomb and returning home to kill herself. Pia could have hid in the bushes and she would have been just fine.
- Trashy True Crime: The show's theme is about the contemporary fascination with True Crime. Pia takes a detour to the farm where they found the bodies and pitches a documentary about it instead because their original idea didn't have mass appeal. In her and Davis' unethical efforts to do so, she finds that the truth is even worse, and dies for it. And then it all becomes a sensationalized True Crime doc anyway, with a dramatization on the way. The whole experience destroys Davis emotionally.Richard: Pulling it all up for what, eh? You want an award? A pat on the back?
- Unholy Matrimony: For a pair of sadistic serial killers, Davis' parents seem to have been Happily Married. Janet angst over her husband's death shown during the episode appears to be genuine.
- Wham Shot:
- When getting to the basement where the Torture Cellar used to be, Stuart starts to prepare a fake blood strain to show in the UV light for their documentary. When they turn on the UV light, the entire floor is still glowing, especially around where the strapping table used to be.
- While going over some footage from the shoot, Pia discovers that she actually recorded on the same tape that Iain used. Turns out he had an accomplice, Janet which is revealed when she appears in the tape.
