Buried

A construction company was renovating an old townhouse owned by Council. After breaking a wall where once was located the fireplace, they found human bones. Detectives sent it to forensic for analysis: the victim is a child went missing in the eighties whose mother still doesn't lose hope in finding him alive. So a cold case has to be reopened, a frozen case to be honest (25 years old): Brooks and Devlin begin questioning the old detective, now a retired old man who spends time fishing in a filthy stream (not so much a forthcoming kind of person) and the neighbors. Anyway, despite all those years witness seemed to remember well the boy and that helps detectives and lawyers finding the solution.

It's not the first time an upstanding old man hid something terrible in his past without being formally charged of anything, thanks to his wife help. His estranged daughter, (Holly Aird, who played a 35 years old girl even if she looked much older at the time) is very pitiful in this episode.

The blinking lights thing is a therapy called emdr (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) - Google "emdr" and you'll find lots of information about it. I am a psychiatric nurse and have been trained to provide this therapy. Although initially developed to re-process traumatic thoughts in ptsd it has been developed to be used for other issues including phobias, bereavement etc - and the technique I believe they are using in the programme is a float-back technique to help uncover memories. Blinking lights are optional! So long as there is a bilateral stimulus like vibration, taps or following the therapists finger it will work!

I recall well the original US version of this episode, so was fascinated to see how it had been adapted for the British take on its trajectory.

Most interestingly, the build-up of tension to the final courtroom denouement seemed to me almost unbearable, compared to the more humdrum treatment in the original, and the appalling revelations' impact on the characters to be far more devastating and powerful in this new interpretation. I think that is partly because of the more reserved behavioral tone of the characters according to British cultural style, but am not sure.

Also intrigued to see how deeply repressed memories of a key character were activated by a neuro-psychological tool/process I've never seen or heard of before, involving small blinking lights in front of the client's eyes. Anyone know about it?

Amazingly well written and done. The series is normally well played but this is my favorite episode by far. Each actor did his/her best to express emotions. Amazing work!