Having been over two years in the making, it’s fair to say expectations were high for the second series of Liar, the Harry and Jack Williams-penned drama starring Joanne Froggatt and Ioan Gruffudd.
Airing in 2017, series one told the story of school teacher Laura Nielson’s fight to prove she was raped by doctor Andrew Earlham.
After she discovered video evidence of him attacking her and 19 other women, the series ended on a cliffhanger when it jumped forward three weeks to reveal that Andrew had been murdered.
With his body found in the Kent marshes opening Monday night’s episode, the suspects were soon mounting as the new “who killed Andrew?” plot kicked off, and we quickly remembered why we found the first series so compelling.
The police are currently pointing the finger at Laura after she was discovered to be in possession of some damning evidence, but the case is far from over yet.
These are the questions we’ve been left asking this week...
Where was Jennifer at the time of Andrew’s murder?
Given Andrew’s “overpriced” watch was smashed and stopped working at 6am, police presumed that was around the time Andrew was murdered.
In an unrelated conversation between DI Vanessa Harmon and her wife Jennifer, it was revealed Jennifer was unaccounted for at that time, with Vanessa having woken up just after 6am to find her not in bed.
Jennifer offered little by way of explanation as to her whereabouts, simply replying “You know, earlybird and all that”. Given Jennifer also had motive to want Andrew dead after his sexual assault on her wife, could she have killed him?
When did Laura really last see Andrew?
In the intervening three weeks between police issuing the warrant for Andrew’s arrest to his body being found, it seems as if Laura had another encounter with her attacker – she told DI Renton she last saw him at a loft in Sale, a couple of days after he first went missing.
But what happened during this confrontation, and was it really the last time she saw him?
What is Ollie’s connection to Andrew?
After Andrew went on the run, he put a call in to a friend from his past called Ollie, asking him to retrieve items from a locker at work and things in his car.
It was suggested the pair hadn’t spoken in a long time but that Ollie owed Andrew for something, with the wanted doctor having helped him out of a sticky situation in the past – but what was it? And why had they lost contact?
Why did Ian put Alexander Slater in hospital?
Laura’s new boyfriend Ian came under suspicion from police when they discovered he had previously attacked a man called Alexander Slater, landing him in hospital.
It sounded like Alexander had done something to warrant Ian’s attack with police therefore hypothesising he could have taken similar rage out on Andrew. But what exactly had Alexander done? And is Ian really a likely suspect, given that he has only just started dating Laura?
Will Andrew’s son survive?
After police began the hunt for Andrew, his teenage son Luke was unable to cope with the revelations about his father and appeared to attempt suicide by throwing himself off the pier later that night.
Some viewers will no doubt be questioning if he survives, but those who remember the end of series one will remember a flash-forward that showed Luke watching TV coverage of the man hunt for his father, which proves he’ll pull through.
But with Ollie having seen Luke as he was rushed into hospital, is news of his son’s suicide attempt what brings Andrew out of hiding – and thus leading to his meeting with Laura in the loft?
How did Andrew’s car key end up in Laura’s bedside table?
When the police obtained a warrant to search Laura’s house, they found Andrew’s car key in her bedside table – but she seemed to have no knowledge of how it got there.
Flashbacks then revealed that Ollie dropped the the key in the hospital while retrieving Andrew’s belongings, and it was then picked up by Laura’s sister Katy, who is a nurse, in the hospital locker room.
But how did the key get from Katy’s pocket to Laura’s beside table? Is she being set up? If so, is it by the killer, or a conspirator?
Whose blood was on the hook in Carl’s boat?
New characters Carl and Winnie Peterson were introduced during this episode, with Winnie being one of Andrew’s former co-workers and victims.
It was revealed Carl had been struggling to cope with the fact he’d believed Winnie had a drunken one-night stand with Andrew prior to the evidence about his sinister acts being revealed.
We later saw him frantically wiping blood off a hook aboard his boat. Did he attack Andrew as revenge for raping his wife? If not, whose blood was it and why was he so keen to get rid of it?
Is DI Renton going to chew gum all series?
That’s going to get quite annoying, if so.
Liar continues next Monday at 9pm on ITV.