Directed by: Lisa Cholodenko  |  Written by: Susannah Grant

Official synopsis: As Karen and Grace Rasmussen compare notes on their cases, they consider an alarming possibility. In Washington, Marie’s name is leaked to the press.

Episode 3 of Unbelievable begins with the man out in the woods admitting he was moving rocks to reduce the possibility of bacterial infection. On April 22nd, he was at a conference and this proves to be a stable alibi, meaning he’s not the man Grace has been looking for. As he leaves, Karen catches up with Grace and it turns out she has a similar case to that of our hardened police investigator. It turns out the woman in Grace’s case had only just moved in too and on top of that, there’s also items missing from drawers in Grace’s rape case. Having heard enough, the two investigators decide to join forces for now as the cases are pretty similar.

Back in 2008, a frazzled Marie is approached by Judith who offers her a lift home. Unfortunately her phone constantly rings with people shouting profanities and abuse at her. With Judith not helping matters, Marie snatches her bike out the boot and rides away, eventually comforted by Connor who comes and sits with her by the beach before driving her home. After checking in with the guard on duty, thanks to her curfew, Marie receives a letter from the police which happens to be a criminal citation – a police charge for false reporting. Unhappy with her team’s apathy toward the case, back in 2011 Karen grills some of her associates before checking the CCTV for clues. There, she finds a Mazda with a broken mirror and as she continues to look, they also find a few minuscule skin cells on the foreign material from Amber’s room. As she heads over to Grace’s to see if she can help, they question whether that could be a clue or not.

Given the distinct cleanliness and thorough nature over not leaving any clues, Karen happens upon a very worrying and real possibility – they could be dealing with a serial rapist police officer. She goes on to suggest asking the police districts for help, which Grace vehemently rejects thanks to the possible consequences of doing this. As she heads back home and begins searching through the police database, she tells Grace that the officer could be moving around precincts and draws up a list of rape cases from the last 5 years. After searching through the various different names and numbers, Grace finds two other case matches which back up their theory that a police officer is the one committing these acts. With fire in her eyes, Grace tells Karen she’s going to get the FBI and CBI involved and merge their investigations. Game on.

The third episode of Unbelievable really begins to set the wheels into motion for the series ahead. The organic way both these investigations merge is pretty impressive and the subtle changes in pacing really begin to see Unbelievable become much more engaging and exciting. The realistic depiction of police work is a nice touch too and the big reveal about it possibility being a police officer is certainly an interesting twist, one I didn’t see coming at all. Quite what will happen from here remains to be seen, but for now Unbelievable does well to keep things exciting and unpredictable.