In Broadchurch, Every Shot Counts. No Detail Is Unimportant, They All Can Belong To The Law Of Chekov’s

“What town is that?”

Longstreet looked. “Gettysburg,” he said. 

The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara, p. 16

I was rewatching random moments of Broadchurch season 2 the other day and started wondering what Ellie Miller actually thinks of Hardy`s ex wife. I couldn´t figure it out, whether she just doesn´t know her enough to judge if she likes her or not or what she thinks. This might be random but I thought I´d ask the one who knows this show much better than I do. What do you think? What does Ellie think about her?

It’s an interesting question. Honestly, I’m not sure if even Ellie knows what to think of her. I’m guessing she must know about how the pendant got lost and what Tess did to Hardy, but she also seems very open-minded, and she’s not willing to demonise Tess or judge her for it.

Ellie and Tess are compared and contrasted a great deal, and just like Joe and Alec, they are depicted as opposites. The women look similar, they are both Hardy’s DSes, they’re both mothers - but they make opposing choices. E.g. Ellie is invited to have an affair at work - she refuses. Tess, on the other hand, committed adultery. The two of them are rivals for Hardy in a way, but Chibnall’s writing is clever and nuanced enough to avoid the whole cliche of women fighting over some dude.

But back to the central question - what does Ellie think of Tess? Remember this is Ellie Miller. Staunch, take-no-shit feminist. Our very first scene showed her greeting all her friends and handing out presents to them right before she chewed out her boss for sexist bullshit. She’s a woman-loving social butterfly and she gets on well with everyone she meets. And if she doesn’t get on with someone, she makes it her mission to smother them with kindness. With this in mind, what I find striking is that Ellie is quite awkward around Tess. She’s friendly enough, but most of the time she’s with Tess and Alec she’s silent and caught between the two, often in a physical sense.

The first time she meets Tess, Hardy acts like a colossal jackass. He doesn’t tell Ellie that Tess is his ex-wife, he’s bitter and aggressive and insulting. Granted, Tess doesn’t behave all that appropriately either, but Ellie is reproving of his behaviour, and the impression is that she’s neutral in this particular marital war. Yes, Hardy is her friend, and yes he was the wronged party in a lot of ways, but his behaviour is inappropriate and she won’t enable it or tell him it’s okay. She whacks him and tells him off. She treats Tess just like she’d treat anyone else.

Tess acts as an obstacle to getting the case reopened, and several times Ellie sighs or rolls her eyes when Tess refuses again to reopen. But she also respects Tess’ capabilities as a detective. For all that happened with the Sandbrook case, Tess is good at her job. She’s competent and efficient, and once she’s put her mind to something she can do it easily. Ellie might not agree with everything she did in her personal life, or even all her professional choices, but she respects her capabilities.

What’s interesting is how quickly Tess can put her off guard. One of my favourite scenes is when Hardy wakes up after his pacemaker and Ellie’s there. They start bickering (because that’s their thing) and Tess comes in.

This shot is so well-composed, I love it. Look at the placement of the hands; it looks like they’re touching, and Ellie is gripping the bed so tight it’s like she’s holding his hand by proxy. Then Tess comes in:

They look up and Ellie’s reaction is almost one of guilt. It’s like she’s been caught. She does this weird shuffle and looks between the two of them, then quickly takes her hand away.

It’s not jealousy Ellie’s expressing - it’s more like embarrassment that she’s been caught with Hardy like this - by his ex-wife no less. There’s also an odd possessiveness. I wish I could gif this scene because Olivia Colman’s acting is so subtle and awkward, and you feel like Ellie herself isn’t sure how she feels. Someone encroaching on her bickering with Hardy? What is this? And does she trust anyone else to look after this idiot besides herself? Not that she cares about him, haha.

Later on, when Tess answers Alec’s phone on his behalf, Ellie gets a tiny bit flustered: “Oh! Oh, I was expecting him to answer.”

In a deleted scene, Hardy is begging Tess to reopen the case. Ellie is silent, and looks like a kid whose parents are fighting. Then Hardy slips up. He says to Tess “Please, love.” Tess immediately scoffs and looks to Ellie. “Did he just call me love?”

Ellie does not rise to the teasing. As Hardy swears and groans over his slip-up, Ellie tries to lighten the mood by saying, “I called the teacher “mum” once. Still can’t think about it without wincing.”

It goes over about as well as you’d expect. It’s fascinating to see social butterfly Ellie Miller flounder like this. She genuinely doesn’t know what to do in this situation, but we know her sympathies are with Hardy. Tess invites her to join her in laughing at him; she abstains and makes a joke about herself. Then Hardy demands to know why Tess doesn’t want this case reopened; she says she does, but she’s still got a career to protect. Hardy’s speechless. Tess leaves, and Ellie makes a face and mouths ‘ouch’ to Hardy as they get into the car together. It’s just a little nod of sympathy that shows, hey, that was out of line, I disapprove, and I’m on your side.

Ellie’s a woman who’s determined to see the best in everyone. I think she likes Tess and respects her in the professional sense, but she’s disgruntled by certain aspects of her personality and on a personal level it nettles her to see Hardy and Tess close, and she exhibits a certain reluctance to leave them alone. She’s quietly protective of Hardy, more so as the season goes on, and I think in S3 the differences between Ellie and Tess’ values will drive a wedge further between them. At the moment, Ellie isn’t quite sure how to feel about Tess - she’s conflicted on that point, but many of the things Tess does and says and how she treats Hardy don’t sit well with her.

As for how Tess feels about Ellie - well, she definitely resents the closeness between Hardy and Ellie. Regardless of her feelings for Hardy, I think Tess enjoys being loved by him. She’s ambitious and has a certain superiority complex. It’s natural for her to want to be the best detective or the most beloved of Hardy. Ellie represents a threat to that, and even if she doesn’t openly dislike her, she too is quietly unsettled. When she first meets her, there is a sense she believes Ellie is Hardy’s girlfriend, and this sets up that uneasy undercurrent.

The two most telling scenes are when Alec arrests Claire. Tess smugly informs him everything’s set up and she’s on top of the investigation. She says she’ll interview Claire with him. Automatically, Hardy says, “No. I need Miller.”

“Course you do,” she mutters with barely concealed resentment.

Then Tess pulls some evidence Ellie asked her to find. Ellie’s impressed by how quickly she did it. Tess looks Hardy in the eye and says, “I’m really good.” Hardy, however, ignores Tess, looks at the evidence and yells to Ellie, “Outstanding. Out-bloody-standing!” This makes Ellie grin like a dope.

Stay salty, Tess.

Tess’ reaction makes me wonder how Hardy used to treat her when she was his DS. Was he always complimenting her? Is that why she seems so sure of herself? Is Tess watching Hardy shower the exact compliments on Miller that he used to bestow on her? Divorced or not, it must sting.

In all, I think the women do respect each other, and they treat each other civilly. There’s never any hint of close friendship, however, and there is an underlying tension or an awkwardness to the way they act that will probably get worse in S3, though I don’t think Chibnall will ever make it so they’re doing anything as dull as fighting over Hardy. However, Ellie’s growing protectiveness of Hardy may certainly lead her to view Tess less and less favourably, because Tess has and continues to treat Hardy unfairly, and if he won’t stand up for himself and accept he’s not the guilty one, Ellie might have to force his hand.

Fanfic Ask Meme

Hamlet is such a sassy little turd, and I love him a lot.

Alec Hardy remembers and dreams about drowning as much if not more than actually carrying Pipa’s body and that affects me A LOT.

She'd never really noticed how often Daisy spoke to her father with her hands. It simply wasn't any of Ellie's concern and she had other things to worry about, like her job and her boys, and whether or not she would eventually snap and murder Hardy when he was being a knob. And today she was absolutely furious as she walked through her front door.

The absolute nerve of him! Brushing off that boy's concern like it didnt matter at all, practically ignoring him and handing it to Ellie to handle. Where did he get off acting like that? Her mood was not improved when she realized she didn't have anything for dinner, and that meant going to the store to buy something. With a curse, she grabbed her coat and headed back outside without even having had the chance to take her shoes off.

The store was on the other side of town, and of course she was caught in traffic on the way. Cursing to herself at this blatant ill luck granted to her by the cosmos, she happened to spy two familiar figures walking down the sidewalk: Hardy and Daisy, out buying fish and chips together. Daisy was in full conversational mode, engaged with her story-- but then Ellie noticed her mouth wasn't moving.

Her hands were. Quickly, precisely, and so casually that it was clearly habit, and what was even more amazing was that Hardy was doing it right back.

Ellie sat with her mouth open until a car behind her beeped for not moving forward.

She finally understood what it was Daisy did with her hands, and it wasn't simply gesturing.

*****

"So why do you need to use sign language with your dad, Daisy?"

She said it easily, without judgment, the next time she stopped by the Hardy residence. By chance, he wasn't home yet but Daisy was, which made it the perfect time to ask her questions.

Daisy wide-eyed her, sizing her up. "I don't know," she said smoothly, "why does someone need to know sign language?"

"Don't be so sarcastic," Ellie said, " that's your dad's job. My guess would be that you use it to talk to him because he's deaf, but he wouldnt be a detective if that were the case--"

"Partially deaf. It was an accident years ago, I guess on a previous call out. He suffered an ear injury, and he's almost eighty percent deaf in his right ear, a little below forty in his left. He's gotten really good at reading lips and studying body language, but it's easiest to talk to him using sign language. He doesn't have to work so hard to understand that way."

"Why didnt he say anything, the knob?"

"He didnt want you to think less of him, this ability to do his job because he's so hard of hearing. Are you going to be?"

"I--" Ellie paused before she tried to use some excuse. Of course she would have judged him; she was a little judgmental now, but she was also hurt. They'd known each other a long time now-- did he still not think he could trust her? "Do you have any books on how to learn sign language, Daisy?"

The sunny smile she got for that question told her she'd asked exactly the right thing. "I'll give you lessons."

*****

Of course she didn't tell Hardy she knew about his deafness, but the day she approached him and signed, How are you today, sir?, the way his whole countenance lit up was well worth the surprise.

so idk why but I headcanon Alec Hardy as deaf/hard of hearing but I cannot, for the life of me, find a fanfic about it! So if anyone comes across one or even writes one, please send it my way. I just love the idea of him using sign language with Daisy and Miller seeing and finding out he's deaf/hard of hearing and learning sign language to communicate with him. I'd write it myself but I don't think i'd do it justice!

My favorite ladies: Fandom edition

1) Mara Jade Skywalker. I will admit it: I LOVE Star Wars, and I’ve loved it since I was four. As an eleven year old I got into the Expanded Universe, and I immediately loved Mara. She’s brave, intelligent, independent, she kicks ass like no other, and she’s more than just a pretty face. Raised as a child by Emperor Palpatine to be one of his Hands (top assassins), she was entirely obedient to him to the point of trying to kill Luke Skywalker when he commanded her to; until, of course, she started to realize that Palpatine was nothing but a manipulative bastard, and then she ended up marrying said Skywalker later on down the road. (Luke and Mara are absolutely amazing together, and they’ve been one of my OTPs for over a decade now.)

2) Martha Jones. Seriously, though, I think the question to ask is what is there not to love about Doctor Martha Jones? She’s treated less-than-stellar by the Tenth Doctor, yes, but she adapts to this crazy life of time-travel so well (too well maybe), not to mention that she helps him out of the fire several times throughout her run. Have people really already forgotten the fact that Martha is the Woman Who Walked the Earth, stayed alive an entire year avoiding the Master’s efforts to capture her, and was the entire reason why the Doctor’s plan to end the Year That Never Was worked? (Also, she’s the only modern-day companion to have voluntarily left the Doctor, which I admire A LOT.)

3) Mary Watson. I seem to have a thing for the lesser-liked ladies in fandoms. Granted, I’m not normally a Johnlock shipper by any means, so I never had to feel like my favorite pairing was being threatened; but Mary was so much more than what she appeared on the surface. She’s multifaceted, she’s secretive, and I wouldn’t even necessarily label her as a Good Person-- but she is Good where it counts, she’s genuinely kind and caring to others, she tries her best to protect John and Rosie, and she and Sherlock have this amazing understanding of each other which I find absolutely brilliant.

4) Peggy Carter. Her name alone conveys how much of a BAMF Peggy is. ‘Nuff said.

(Seriously, though, I’ll have to do a full-depth analysis on Peggy at a later date, because usually all I can do when I think of her is incoherently flail, and I’ll need more than a paragraph to explain why I love her so much.)

5) Ellie Miller. I had a hard time deciding who I was going to put down on this list, Ellie or Beth Latimer. I decided on Ellie because I’ve made it no secret Beth is my absolute favorite character in Broadchurch, and I’ve talked about her a lot on previous posts. So here’s Ellie, the Detective Sergeant of Broadchurch who is the one who helped close three major cases, loves her sons more than chocolate, builds her life back up after it comes to pieces around her, and gives some truly amazing tellings-off when she needs to. And she threatens to piss in a cup and throw it at Hardy when he’s being particularly difficult, and if that isn’t legendary I don’t know what is. She’s all-around brilliant, and honestly one of the main reasons why the tv show works as well as it does.

These are just a few of my favorites, but this list is already a bit long, so part 2 is going to have to come later.

I didn’t think it would be possible to find any similarities between two of my favorite shows, Broadchurch and MASH. I was wrong.

Spoilers after the cut (for both shows)

Specifically, the similarity lies between Alec Hardy and Hawkeye Pierce in terms of trauma. Both suffer from varying degrees of PTSD, but their individual experiences are opposite from the other’s. 

Hardy in BC is already deeply traumatized by something in the first series, but we don’t see its cause until S2, when he reveals he was the one who discovered and carried out a murdered girl’s body out of a river. Ever since then, he suffers from nightmares and by his own admission rarely sleeps soundly anymore. It’s honesty one of the saddest scenes of the series and it adds a lot more weight to Hardy’s character seeing that moment as he’s carrying Pippa Gillespie out of the river:

Unlike Hardy, whose experience happens well before we actually meet him as a character, Hawkeye’s in MASH happens right at the end of his story arch. We’ve watched him become more and more unstable and exhausted as the series continues; his nightmares and bouts of insomnia have already been going on for quite some time, and he’s shown having the tendency of rewriting traumatic memories. Which is why we find him in a mental hospital in the beginning of the final episode, being treated for for what he thinks is absolutely nothing. Then we hear about an incident on a bus when he and the rest of the MASH unit are hiding from Chinese and North Korean soldiers. He’s adamant about the fact that a South Korean woman hiding with them killed her chicken when he ordered her to keep it quiet, until finally the truth comes out:

(Sorry for the crappy quality- I can’t screencap from itunes, so a video on youtube was the best I could do.)

Now, I’m all for stopping the usual fridged-wife causing manly pain backstory, but damn it this isn’t much better! 

i never talk about these things but i can’t remain silent.

i know tumblr doesn’t give a SHIT when things happen in countries outside the “most popular ones” (such as the usa & england). it’s true, don’t lie to me. y’all don’t give A FUCK. not every issue and problem in said countries gets the appropriate exposure but in general shit shows up on the news WORLD FREAKING  WIDE. you set up donations, you help out, your spread the word, you say “pray for x”……

southern europe is burning. 

my country is burning.

people are dying - at home, on the road, trying to run away, in their cars.

yesterday my country had 300 active fires.

people are losing EVERYTHING they own.

i have a friend that is on a train right now passing through places that have been burnt to the ground and she says the smoke is so intense it’s getting inside the train and she can barely breathe.

and yet, even though several people (myself included) have been trying to bring awareness to what has been happening in southern europe… what we get from most of you, those not part of the countries suffering, is silence. we don’t ask for money, we don’t ask for shit other than a reblog to spread awareness… something you can delete in 24/48hrs if you wish. 

i don’t know what to tell you. i’m angry. i’m frustrated. i’m disappointed. i feel like i’m screaming into the void. “a reblog does nothing” - you know that’s a damn lie, you know exposure always helps, you know people start paying attention when posts on social media become popular. my country in particular is a small one, we get ZERO exposure. y’all are only starting to figure out we even fucking exist bc of the shit we’ve been winning lately. 

but hell, if the EU doesn’t give a shit, why should some user on tumblr dot com?

again, i don’t know what to tell you so i’ll let the images speak for themselves: 

An image captured by a Nasa satellite shows a thick plume of smoke blowing southward from the Greek island of Chios over the island of Crete

Torneros de Jamuz, Spain

Duca, Croatia

A helicopter from Italy’s civil protection service drops water on a fire near the railway between Venice and Trieste

Residents take refuge on the beach as a wildfire burns on the mountain next to the village of Lithi, on the Greek island of Chios

Men gather cattle during a forest fire in Vieira de Leiria, Marinha Grande, Portugal.

Charred trees are seen on the hills above the Cloister of Thivaidas on Mount Athos, a World Heritage Site in Greece

Portugal

“As long as you are proud, you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see anything that is above you.”

— C. S. Lewis