Episode guide > Mea Culpa

Note that while this episode deals with the subject of Paedophiles, no sexual activities are shown, and it does not portray the subject as something that is socially acceptable.

Father Downey works at a Catholic school, and wonders where one of his pupils is. He finds him in a classroom feigning illness. Downey clearly doesn't believe him as he's phoned Gary's mother and know he hasn't been to see a doctor. He asks what's changed between them. The closer he gets the more hysterical Gary becomes, finally shouting don't touch me, and then stabs the priest with a Stanley knife twelve times. Father Downey collapses on the floor, completely shocked, and Gary runs away dropping the knife as he goes.

Pearce's test results.

Angie's at home trying to get her daughter out of the bathroom and eating some breakfast when the doorbell rings. She signs for a recordered delivery letter from the postman. It's the results from the tests she did on Pearce, sadly it confirms he has cancer. At work she tries to find Pearce, but he's down at the morgue. A fellow priest has been killed, and he feels there is reason to suspect Code 5 involvement. Vaughan tells her that Pearce wants her to go down and examine the body.

Gary is in a park washing his hands of Father Downey's blood in a public water fountain. He removes his school blazer and tie to become less conspicuous.

Vaughan and Mike arrive at the school, while Angie arrives at the morgue and finds Pearce standing over the body. He only knew him by reputation, but he's still clearly infected. Angie's not sure if there is any reason to believe there is Code 5 involvement. Pearce says Gary was talking about the Priesthood six weeks ago, what else can change a boys mind so quickly? It's not unheard of, when she was ten years old she wanted to be a gymnast. "But you didn't reach for the Stanley knife when you changed your mind." Pearce replies.

Mike is talking to the rest of Gary's classmates, trying to find out if they know where he might have gone. While he talks, Vaughan goes over to some Venetian blinds that are down and closed. He opens the flaps to let the sunlight in, and some of the boys respond, shielding themselves from the light.

A man called Colin goes into the public loo in the park where Gary was. He finds Gary crying in a cubical.

Mike questions whether its Code 5 involvement to Vaughan. Vaughan points out their aversion to sunlight, to which he replies they could be coming down with meningitis. The mood swings, light becoming painful, they're all symptoms. Angie then appears, saying its unlikely, meningitis appears over days not weeks, and it makes the patient hate all forms of light, not just sunlight. She'd rather it was meningitis, but tells Mike not to jump to any conclusions.

Jacob and Kirsty are having lunch in a cafe. Jacob has just told her he can't find Mike, and that this is great progress. She's confused, so he explains. Mike hasn't just moved he's covered all his tracks, he's disappeared. It's like he's been put on some witness protection scheme or something, cutting himself off from Kirsty was just the start. What they need now is a bit of luck, someone to talk to them, just not from his family (who are saying nothing). Old friends, past contacts...old flames? Jacob suggests. Kirsty says she can try Mike's last girlfriend, Frances.

Colin takes Gary back to his flat, where he's introduced to Maxie, Colin's dog. Gary makes himself at home, and sits in front of a computer to play games. As Colin gets him a drink, Maxie goes for Gary biting him repeatedly. Colin rushes in and pulls the dog off him.

Mike and Vaughan arrive at a council estate to talk to Gary's mother. Gary's father is the religious one, his mother doesn't seem as keen on the church as a career. She tells them that Gary was getting a bit grumpy in the mornings, and had trouble getting him up. She'd only have to draw the curtains and he would complain. Mike asks if Gary's made any new friends, but apparently he never brought any home even though he was allowed. But he did see father Downy outside the school at choir practice.

Angie finishes examining one of the children at the school. She takes a copy of the bible and places it in front of the boy, asking him to open it. He struggles visibly and can't do it, and eventually she removes it.

Colin drop Gary off at the hospital.

Colin drops Gary off at the local hospital and then does a runner saying his dog has had all its shots!

Back at the school, Angie is moving all the children onto waiting coaches. Mike and Vaughan arrive, and while Mike confronts Angie, Vaughan answers his mobile phone. Angie is moving the children on a public health order, but Mike clearly isn't convinced. Angie says they are displaying the symptoms, and once she's examined them under UV they'll know whether the children are infected. Vaughan then joins them telling them Gary has been found. He's been bitten, but not how you think!

Back at his flat Colin takes some videos from his shelf and puts them in a bin liner. Later he's seen burning the bag and the tapes in a home made bonfire.

Mike talks to Gary's football coach, who isn't convinced that Father Downey was up to anything un-toward. Perhaps Downey was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

At the hospital, Angie's asked for some spinal fluid to be taken from Gary. If he does have meningitis, that's where it will show up.

Mike searches through father Downey's house. A computer has numerous pictures of small boys, one of which is Gary. Angie, meanwhile, is examining Gary under UV light. There are no bite marks on his neck. Mike then shows Pearce and co what he's found out. He brings some stills taken from videos he found. Pearce still isn't convince Father Downey was a paedophile, even though the alternative is remote. None of the boys have been bitten, but Angie's convinced they are infected. But how? She agrees that the other boys should be released, although she insists on keeping Gary in, he's the most infected. Pearce tells Mike to find out who downloaded the video stills, as Mike has told hi that they weren't downloaded at his house (he's checked the phone records).

Mike and Vaughan check out the park where Gary's jacket and tie were found in a bin. No one heard a dog attack, and the park has been searched with no blood found anywhere, suggesting that the attack took place elsewhere. Mike suggests that Gary left the park with someone, but who? There are hundreds of people in the local area with dogs..but cross reference that with known paedophiles and the number may just go down.

Back at the lab, Angie starts to ask Gary some questions. She asks why he attacked Father Downey. He "makes me sick" he replies. Pearce then comes to visit Gary, and he becomes scared, demanding that Pearce leave. Pearce asks what it is about him that makes him sick, but Angie stops the questions, and comforts Gary after Pearce leaves.

Angie then visit Pearce in his office, they talk about the case, but underlining the conversation is the fact that Angie is trying to tell him about his test results, and he knows it. She asks him to dinner, and he agrees.

Kirsty meets up with Frances in a wine bar, and asks if she knows where Mike is. Frances remains tight-lipped, and tells Kirsty to leave him alone. She won't even pass on a message to Mike, so Kirsty gets up and leaves, telling her that she's not alone anymore and that she will find out what happened to Jack without his help.

A newspaper article on microfilm about the death of Angie's husband.

Jacob is at a local library looking at some old newspaper stories on microfilm. He comes across a story about Angie's husband, but feels someone is watching him. He retrieves some more papers, when he spots someone down the aisle. When he looks at them they quickly disappear. Walking home, his mobile phone rings, its Kirsty telling him how her meeting with Frances went. He tells her not to ring him from her home phone for a while, and then hangs up, saying he'll ring her later. He then turns round and asks what he can do for the person following him. A man then steps out of the darkness down the road. Kirsty tries to phone Jacob again but this time from a pay phone. The phone rings but there is no answer.

At Angie's house, she tells Pearce he has cancer. He asks what his chances are, but she needs to run more tests before she can give him an answer. Pearce notices her daughter playing with a ball outside. She's punishing Angie, as she wasn't allowed to play at the leisure centre after dark, so the basketball team dropped her.

Vaughn questions Colin in a tough manner.

Mike and Vaughan find their man and go to question him. He's already spoken to the police, and he is being co-operative but only up to a point. Vaughan then takes matters into his own hands and grabs Colin by the throat. Maxie, Colins' dog, starts barking at Vaughan, but a swift kick soon sends him running away. Colin looks at Mike almost pleadingly, but he's not looking in their direction. Vaughan then slams Colin against a wall and slaps him in the face. Eventually Colin caves and admits Gary was there, but that he never touched him. He used to video the soccer matches and then sell the videos, but he never sold them to Father Downey. Mike asks for a name, and when none is forthcoming, he threatens to have Maxie put down. Maxie has only ever gone mad with one other person; his name is Oliver and he's local. He never used to go around in the daytime, had some sort of skin allergy or something....

Mike and Vaughan go to the address Colin gave them, but no-one's home. They get the keys from the landlord and go look around his flat. Mike finds the room that was in some of the pictures he found at Father Downey's. A camera covered by a fake speaker sits on top of the wardrobe. Down the hall Vaughan finds a TV which is hooked up to the camera. He also finds some videos, and plays one, but nothing happens on it, it's just an empty room. Mike then hears someone enter the flat, and leaves the room to hide. Two people make their way to the room with the hidden camera. A man, Oliver, is telling a young boy to sit down next to him on the bed. Mike looks down the hall and sees Vaughan looking at the video he's playing. He sees an empty room, and so kicks open the door fully and shoots the man twice. He then sees the man in his own camera attachment on his gun and freezes. He's not a Vampire. Vaughan hearing the shots runs down the hall to see what's happened. The boy then touches Oliver's stomach, his fingers becoming covered in blood. He then licks his fingers, and Vaughan shouts at Mike to shoot him, but Mike is still reeling from the fact he's shot the wrong man. The boy escapes, and Vaughan runs after him, while Mike comes to his senses and looks after Oliver who keeps saying he's sorry and not to hurt him. Mike clearly looks distressed.

At the lab, Angie looks after Oliver, he's on a drip and still asleep wrapped in bandages. He has some skin grafts on his face, and it turns out he does indeed have a genetic disorder which makes him allergic to sunlight. His body can not repair the damage caused to his DNA by UV in sunlight. Mike can't believe his luck, the one time he shoots first and asks questions later and he shoots the wrong man. Oliver's condition is like a leaches, which maybe why they were interested in him. Now he's stable Angie can run some tests to find out if it was Oliver who infected the children. She tells Mike to go home. He assumes he's suspended, and is surprised to discover he isn't.

Kirsty waits at a cafe for Jacob, but he never shows...

Angie presents her findings to Pearce and Vaughan. Gary has a variation of meningitis C, the variation being Code 5 infection. The infection is then spread by close human contact instead of saliva from bites. All they needed was a subject to incubate the new virus, and with Oliver's aversion to UV, he was the perfect candidate. Unfortunately he couldn't keep his quarantine, and spread the infection. Angie's confident that she can produce an anti-serum based on Gary's spinal fluid, so he should recover. Vaughan then points out he'll have to stand trial, for murdering Father Downey. Pearce says the leaches have framed Downey, and that they should go along with it. Vaughan's surprised, Pearce wants to go along with saying Downey was a paedophile? He's gone, Pearce says, Gary has his whole life in front of him.

Frances pops round to see Mike, telling him she had a visit from Kirsty. Mike hears that Kirsty has got Jacob helping her now (Frances lifted Kirsty's phone records!). Mike isn't very thankful for Frances' help, his mind seems to be elsewhere. He tells Frances, she won't receive anymore visitors, he's on his way out...thank God.

Pearce questions Oliver. They made him do it. They don't make you do anything you don't want to, Pearce says. They make you do things you want to, Oliver replies. Pearce then guesses correctly that they gave him a boy. A boy he could abuse with a clear conscious. But it didn't work for him, because the boy was probably older than he was, plus he could never re-live the experience on video. So he returned to boys like Gary, even though he knew he was contagious. Pearce asks where he went for the experiments, but the boy brought the chemicals with him. They'll find out what you want, Oliver tells him...

Mike is in Pearce's office, and he's surprised. Pearce has compared his and Vaughan's account of the shooting, and he's decided there is no case to answer. He's free to go back to work straight away. Leaving his office, Mike walks past Vaughan in the hall and asks what he has to do to get fired. Vaughan laughs, the fact that he shot a human isn't the scary part. He put two shots to the chest and still managed to miss the heart! If he had been a leach, Mike would be dead now. Vaughan rates Mike quite highly, he has a lot of potential, providing of course that he can stay alive.

Jacob kisses Kirsty on the neck.

Down the road from Kirsty's house, Mike waits in his car. He sees Kirsty and Jacob hugging, and then leaves...he's not happy. Inside the house, Jacob and Kirsty are having dinner. He's given her some explanation of why he never showed up earlier on. She seems to have accepted it, but we never hear what it is. She asks if he really believes her phone is tapped. He's certain. He's also found out that Mike is up to his neck in some sort of death squad. Kirsty says they should now go to the police, but Jacob says no. This makes Kirsty feel some what useless, but Jacob re-assures her. She knows Mike, she's vital to help find out what is going on. She smiles and they continue to eat.

Later we see Jacob throw up everything he's just eaten. He then comes down stairs to find Kirsty with his coat, she wants him to leave. Before he goes he kisses her, but she stops, saying she likes him but it's too soon. He backs off saying it's okay, and that he won't do anything to pressure her. She seems to cave and they kiss again. He moves round to kiss her neck, pulling her hair out of the way....

The episode ends, and we can't really tell if Jacob has crossed over as the camera angle moves to Kirsty's face, and she doesn't look like she's in pain...

Guest cast

Kirsty

Frances

Jacob

Colin

Gary

Father Downey

Oliver

Angie's Daughter

Gary's Mother

Sports Teacher

Orderly

Alter Boy

Boy

Vampire Boy