What’s Worth Watching: The Verdict Is In on Broadchurch

Broadchurch, Episode 8 (Wednesday, April 22, 10/9c, BBC America)

OK, that was a brutal cliffhanger, forcing viewers to wait an entire week for the verdict to be read in what the judge rightly calls “an extremely difficult and distressing case.” The murder trial of Joe Miller (Matthew Gravelle), the husband of unforgiving Detective Ellie Miller (Olivia Colman), has rocked the town throughout Broadchurch‘s second season by exposing so many damaging personal secrets—especially regarding the victim’s still-grieving parents, Mark and Beth Latimer (Andrew Buchan and Jodie Whittaker). And the verdict is only the beginning of an emotionally shattering season finale.

There’s also closure in Detective Inspector Alec Hardy’s (David Tennant) previous case from Sandbrook, but once again, discovering who done it provides little peace, as no one emerges unscathed from the revelations and reckonings in this gripping story.