Trust Me episode 3 review

This review contains spoilers.

Now we’re talking. It’s taken two episodes to bring Trust Me to a riveting place, but it’s there. The third instalment was an involving hour that not only gave us much-needed clarity into Cath’s until-now opaque motivation for lying, it also placed her in some gripping situations.

Cath’s speech on the contempt the real Ally Sutton showed for her career and how casually she tossed it away framed her crime as a class revolt, thereby shining a light on her hitherto murky motivation. Perhaps I shouldn’t have needed to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth, but there you are.

Cath is clearly as bright and capable as any doctor, but her single-parent family lacked the resources and crucially, the precedent (medicine being one of those careers that, like diabetes, tends to run in families) for her to become one the usual way. When she took Ally’s qualifications out of that bin, it wasn’t on a whim; it was fuelled by years of measuring herself against her friend’s taken-for-granted privilege. We now know what Cath’s been thinking this whole time. It wasn’t about the trips to Zizzi; it was about righting a social injustice. Why shouldn’t daughter Molly have the same right to discard her career as the real Ally? As she said, isn’t that real choice?

The reason Cath’s lies have felt so out-of-character these past weeks too, is that they are. As ex Karl said in this episode, she hates liars. She was raised to tell the truth and do the right thing so this deception runs entirely against her grain. That much was clear from her trembling reaction to doctoring the abscess patient’s records in Brigitte’s cover-up. Why did she go along with it? To avoid the inevitable scrutiny of an investigation. Oh what a tangled web, etc.

Before the grisly events of full moon Friday, the episode’s intensity came from Andy knowing Cath’s secret but not confronting her. His hostility on the ward created real tension. It was also entirely forgivable. She’d not only lied to him, but disrespected his profession and potentially put people’s lives in danger.

Andy choosing to collude in Cath’s deception was this drama’s first real surprise. On the surface, it seems like a remarkably pragmatic move showing respect for Cath’s obvious skill as a doctor. Underneath though, there seemed to be a less favourable side to “Dr Perfect”. His actions—confronting her in such an isolated spot, pressuring her to move in with him—felt more about his ability to control Cath than to help her. In the space of one episode, their relationship has grown satisfyingly in complexity.

As has Cath’s work situation, thanks to Brigitte’s loss of control and the expected revelation about her drinking on the job. Now Cath has another tricky decision to make: turn in Brigitte, stick by her, or—who knows?—confess all and blackmail her for her silence? The various plot strands are pulling together neatly in time for next week’s finale.

That promises to have a confrontation with a justifiably angry Karl, who’s on his way to Edinburgh armed with a tenth of the lies Cath has been telling. What will happen when he learns about the rest is anybody’s guess. It took its time getting there, but in episode three Trust Me has reached a dramatically satisfying, and more importantly, unpredictable point. 

Read Louisa’s review of the previous episode here.