Episode guide > Sub Judice

Marion is a barrister who is on her way home after a busy day. In the car park she is approached by two men with evil intent. They take her bag, and find a personal alarm. She tries to leave, but they stop her and push her up against a nearby pillar. She then faints, and as she falls down the pillar, someone comes from behind. They attack the would be rapists, and kill them both. The personal alarm is then set off and placed in one of the rapists hands. Marion comes round because of the noise.

Pearce is having trouble sleeping, he's having night terrors and sweating.

Mike's old house is boarded up.

Kirsty arrives at Mike's house which now has boarded up windows. A strange foreign man answers the door, he doesn't speak English. There is a sold notice outside the house, and Mike clearly doesn't live there anymore.

In Mike's new place he's trying to sort out his stuff after the move when then doorbell rings. It's Frances, she's managed to track him down after his move. It wasn't easy and a lesser girl might have given up. He covered his tracks very well, and he's being sensible, he hasn't told Kirsty where he'll be living. Frances gives him a present of a cactus, "You just put it in a corner and forget about it. It's very low maintenance. Remind you of anyone?"

Vaughan pops down to the police station investigating Marion's attackers. He looks at some video surveillance film taken in the car park. The murderer wasn't seen on any of the tapes, so Vaughan suspects Code 5 involvement. He asks for all the tapes of the incident, surprising the policeman he's working with. He thought Vaughan was there just to assist.

Back at base, Angie examines Pearce. He's lost weight due to lack of appetite, and has general fatigue, there's also a strange taste in his mouth. She asks him to pop down to the lab to run some more tests, but he asks for this to remain between them. She agrees to run them in his office later on.

In the briefing room, Vaughan bring the gang up to date on Marion's saviour. There is one case she's been working on which has been going on for years about VAT. Big money, and leaches like money. Vaughan can't find anything else in her cases for the last two years that the leaches would be interested in. What about family Angie asks. Husband committed suicide two years ago, and everyone else close to her has been accounted for.

Kirsty meets a man called Jacob who is a reporter for the local paper. She explains what has happened, and he agrees to help find out what Mike is involved in.

While Angie is talking to Marion, Mike and Vaughan are down talking to a member of the court where she works. The VAT case sadly pre-dates him, so he can't tell them. Dominic Kemp was his predecessor but he was killed in a hit-and-run six months ago. This pique's Vaughan's interest.

Angie leaves Marion's house, passing a picture of Marion that her late husband drew, he was a court artist. They met because she complained of the likeness he drew. They share stories, as they have both lost a husband. Neither of them really know why their husbands took their own life (Angie's in a manner of speaking he became a Code 5). Angie thinks it may have been because she couldn't give him what he needed. Marion knows how that feels.

Angie then visits Marion's doctor to find out about her medical condition, she did after all pass out when she was attacked. Marion's doctor refuses to tell her anything, respecting her patient's confidentiality. Angie then threatens to have her struck off if she doesn't co-operate, "It'll take one phone call" she says.

Meanwhile Vaughan and Mike are down the police station to investigate Dominic Kemp's hit and run. The police don't think it was a deliberate hit and run. They've checked people connected in the cases he was working on at the time, but they didn't turn up anything. There were rumours he was seeing Marion, but her husband had passed away, so there was no jealous husband waiting to run him over. Vaughan asks where the husband was buried...

Marion's doctor finally tells Angie what she wants to hear. Marion and her husband, Anthony had been trying for a baby for nearly eight years with no success, all miscarried. Strange that it drove the husband to suicide, Angie wonders. It had become an obsession, Marion was never going to give up. Anthony could have left her, but the doctor says no, "I don't think he could"

Marion paces around the interrogation room. Pearce enters and she asks if she's under arrest. He asks if she had a relationship with Dominic Kemp, but she says no, they were just friends. Asked whether it could have developed into anything she refuses to answer. She won't say anything else unless she has a lawyer present. She asks who Pearce reports to, and why he's no taping the interview. Visibly flustered, she starts to bleed from her nose, and eventually faints.

Ultrasound scan screen.

Vaughan is having no luck at Marion's house, turning up nothing of interest. Mike on the other hand is about to exhume Anthony's grave to see if he's still there. Vaughan then gets a call from Angie asking him to look for some medicine. He finds it in the bathroom along with a nasal spray which Angie was expecting. She then examines Marion's abdomen with an ultrasound monitor and finds a gestation sack, but it appears to be empty. Just like Anthony's grave...

Pearce and Angie talk about Marion's condition while she conducts some tests on him. Marion is about ten weeks into her pregnancy, but Angie can't detect a foetal heartbeat. However there is a medical condition which could explain things. The foetus dies but the gestation sack still grows. Until Angie's spoken to the mother she doesn't want to say what Marion's condition is.

Mike and Vaughan watch on a video monitor as Angie runs some more tests on Marion. Mike wonders allowed how sad it is that Dominic waited 18 months before making his move on Marion, only to discover that her husband wasn't as dead as he was supposed to be. Vaughan doesn't seem to find Mike's sense of humour funny, and then points out that the baby can't be Anthony's. Leaches can go through the motions of sex, but as far as pro-creation is concerned the men are sterile, and the women don't menstruate (its a waster of good blood). They don't make other leaches by having sex after all.

Angie tells Marion that she's sorry but she has a phantom pregnancy. Marion is upset, and admits that her husband is the father. It's all above board, her husband had some sperm frozen before he died, and signed all the consent forms.

Angie then brings the rest of team up to speed. The drugs Vaughan found were to help make sure Marion produced more eggs during her cycle. Then each egg was implanted with a single sperm from Anthony, and then the embryo is then implanted into Marion. Angie can't be sure whether it is a phantom pregnancy until she's found out more about the people who did the procedure. She asks Vaughan and Mike to check out the place where Anthony's sperm was kept.

The three of them arrive at the Moorecroft fertility clinic, and Angie talks to the man who treated Marion. They implanted only one embryo as it was the only one that fertilised. Anthony's sperm was very poor quality, but it wasn't that way when it was frozen. However he had no trouble with the procedure of inserting the sperm. He could see it on the video monitors.

What's left of Mr Wainwright's sperm after a sample has been exposed to sunlight.

Back at the lab Angie shows Pearce some of Anthony's sperm under a video microscope. The sperm is dead and not moving, but if it was Code 5 they wouldn't be able to see it. Correct, she says, but. She then exposes the sperm to sun light and it immediately disintegrates. The sperm envelope is human, but the genetic code it contains is Code 5. What they are after is compatibility with a human ovum. Once it's fertilised who knows which genetic material will win out? It wouldn't be immortal, but it might have immunity to daylight. But why would they want this? Angie points out IVF doesn't let anyone off the hook anymore. They don't have to except what nature gave them anymore then we do.

Pearce then asks Angie if she's ever done a termination. She turns the question around and asks if he's every sanctioned one.

Pearce: This isn't human

Angie: It maybe half human

Pearce: I believe that's what I said

In the interrogation room Marion takes a letter out of her bag, but hides it when Angie enters the room. Angie says she wants to help, but Marion says she'll manage on her own. Marion doesn't trust Angie, as she seems to do interrogations in-between medical examinations. What kind of doctor is she? Marion then asks if her lift has arrived to take her home.

As she leaves, Mike and Vaughan are waiting in a car to tail her. To pass the time they talk about Angie. Mike asks how long her husband has been dead. He's been gone six years now, taking one of her daughters with him. They wanted Angie, but she wouldn't go, and ended up killing them both. The rumour is she didn't even bat an eye doing it. Although it's clear Vaughan isn't sure if he believes it. He always seems to be protective of her.

Marion's lift turns out to be Angie, who takes her to another doctor for a second opinion at the Moorecroft clinic. He confirms that she has a phantom pregnancy. She asks whether its better to let nature take its course or have the termination now. The doctor says the risk of infection is minimal, and some people prefer to get it over with, but that there is no harm in letting things happen naturally. Marion seems to make up her mind to have a termination, and asks if the doctor can get her into a clinic tonight. He seems surprised, and before he can say anything, Angie steps in saying, "No problem"

While Angie makes arrangements for Marion Vaughan and Mike have a look around the clinic. Vaughan trains his gun with the video attachment to make sure none of the staff are Code 5. They aren't but they don't seem to happy about having a gun trained on them. The doctor who gave Marion a second opinion also starts to worry as he over hears Angie on the phone. She's taking to the clinic who are going to do the termination, and she is asking them to keep any tissue they remove for her.

While Marion, accompanied by Vaughan and Mike, sets off the lights black out, the alarm goes off, and Marion starts to feel pain in her abdomen. Vaughan takes Marion back to the doctor and Mike goes upstairs to see where the alarms gone off. It's in the lab, so he goes to investigate, he places the video attachment onto his gun and goes in. Back downstairs Marion feels her baby moving, the doctor tries to re-assure her that even if she were pregnant she wouldn't be able to feel anything this early. Angie stands in the background and doesn't say anything, but she's clearly concerned. The doctor tries to calm Marion down, and she shouts that she won't have a termination now. The doctor tells her to go home they can wait for a second opinion. Angie then steps in and says, going home isn't an option, Marion is still in custody and she goes with her. The clinic manager is in the room, and when Marion asks who Angie is, as she clearly isn't the police her suspicions rise. Marion looks at Angie, and says, "You know...You know I'm pregnant." Angie says nothing, neither denying or confirming it. Marion then asks for help from the other woman and the doctor, saying Angie is trying to force her to have a termination.

Vaughn and Mike shoot at the fleeing man.

The alarm is then triggered off again, and Angie takes out a gun and goes to see what s happening. The staff then help Marion to sneak out the back door and escape. Vaughan and Mike see one of the security guards get liquid nitrogen thrown over his face, and go in pursuit of the man who did it. They fire off some shots as someone leaves via the window. Angie then returns, and finds Marion gone and goes to find her. It's too late, she's gone.

Marion is in a park sitting on a bench using her mobile phone to contact a detective Leigh. Meanwhile Angie goes back to Marion's house to see if she can find out where she might have gone. She finds an appointments diary, and finds the name Mrs. Seabrook written down. Phoning Vaughan she finds out that Mrs Seabrook was Marion's mid-wife, and that he'll find an address for her.

Finally Marion gets through to Detective Leigh, but when she mentions Dominic Keep, and Angie and co, he cuts her cold. He'd like to talk to her about the case, but he can't, and he passes her onto Pearce. He tells her the truth, that she is pregnant, but tells a semi lie saying the baby isn't her husbands. The samples he left at the lab were tampered with, and she should have a termination as soon as possible. The people who conducted this experiment on her will be looking for her. Understandably she is shaken, but isn't sure what to believe anymore.

Mike and Vaughn find Mrs Seabrook's lab.

Angie visits the mid wife, Mrs Seabrook to discuss Marion. Marion herself has found a place from the phone book to discuss what her options are. Meanwhile Vaughan and Mike find a warehouse from a background check on the mid-wife. Inside it's kitted out to hold a baby, with acoustic shielding to stop the screams being heard. Mike asks Vaughan that if the baby was here now, he's pull the plug wouldn't he? Vaughan says no, "Angie would kill me, she'd want it for the lab."

Angie goes through the records Mrs Seabrook has on Marion. She very big on Vitamin D for some reason. The body needs it to absorb Calcium which is vital for a growing child. Marion won't be deficient in Calcium, if she follows the diet she gave her. Angie reads on, and then comments that Mrs Seabrook hasn't mentioned the best source of Vitamin D, sunlight. Mrs Seabrook then says rather unconvincingly, "I think she has an allergy."

Back at the new clinic, Marion asks if there is anyway that she can find out who the father is before the baby is born. The nurse she sees starts to try and convince her that she shouldn't make any rash decisions. It's only then that Marion realises that the clinic is pro-life. She wanted independent advice, not a lecture on keeping the baby. She gets upset, and the nurse comes around the desk to comfort her. The nurse is wearing a cross around her neck, and it has an affect on Marion. She collapses, and the nurse calls an ambulance. While she waits for it she covers Marion with a coat, and starts to recite a prayer. Blood then starts to cover the carpet, sadly Marion has miscarried again.

Angie has finished questioning Mrs Seabrook, but she's not sure whether she is infected or not. So she asks her to come in for a check up, under the pretence that there is a virus going round at the clinic, and that it's just routine. As Angie leaves, the phone rigs, and its the nurse telling Mrs Seabrook about Marion. Angie then takes the phone and asks who else the nurse has called. Only the Moorecroft clinic she replies. Angie then leaves in a hurry.

The ambulance is stopped by a man who stands in the middle of the road. It's Anthony. Angie waits at the hospital but starts to worry when the ambulance doesn't arrive. She phones Vaughan, and then goes to back track the route from the hospital to the clinic. Angie finds the ambulance, and the paramedics. They're dead, and there is a trail of blood leading off into the bushes. Angie finds Marion lying on the ground, her head resting in her husband's lap, he's stroking her face. Angie points her gun at Anthony, and says, "You're not taking her.". But she'll die if he doesn't.

Angie cries when faced with the decision of whether to kill Marion's husband.

Marion seems happy to have found her husband again, and begs Angie to let her go. Angie is visibly moved and even cries tears, she wants to believe it's simply a couple in love. Vaughan and Mike arrive with a squad ready to neutralise the threat, but can't find Angie. An explosion of light, helps pin point Angie and Marion, and when they find them, Angie is giving Marion CPR, but it's all in vain.

Back in the lab, Angie finds embryonic tissue in the blood taken from the pro-life clinic. So they know she miscarried in there. Pearce seems to be relieved, but Angie and Mike seem to have some doubts. Marion no longer had anything the leaches wanted, so why did Anthony want to cross her over? Couldn't be because her husband wanted her back could it? Mike says sarcastically. Vaughan calls him a hopeless romantic.

As Angie leaves Vaughan offers her a lift home, but she declines, "No need" she says. She then finds the note that Marion was looking at earlier but hid away. It's from Anthony, the last letter he wrote to her before he crossed over. He explains that he wasn't as strong as she was, and he couldn't go on like they were. He would never be far away from her, and would always be watching over her. Then perhaps one day they can have the child they've always wanted and then they can live as a family.

Angie then goes home to see her own daughter who is safely in bed. The camera then looks into the cells where neutralised Code 5s are kept. It focuses on one of them, it says Robert March...

Guest cast

Kirsty

Frances

Marion

Jacob

Marion's Husband

Embryologist (Doctor at Moorecroft clinic)

Clinic Manager

Pregnancy Counsellor

G.P.

Mrs Seabrook

D I Leigh

Marion's Junior