'D.I. Ray' Recap: Season 2 Episode 2

D.I. Ray airs Sundays at 9:00 pm and is available to stream. Recap the previous and following episodes.
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Clive is upset enough with D.I. Ray’s reckless driving in pursuit of a van with the kidnapped Rav Mochani that he follows her into the women’s restroom to chastise her. He’s not the only one wary of her choices in the field. She receives sidelong glances from both Edmunds and Payne at points while questioning people about the murder of Frank Chapman and the seemingly related kidnapping of Rav.

Ray’s boss, Henderson, asks Ray out for a drink after a day’s work and warns her after some small talk that a member of Ray’s team has raised concerns about her handling of the cases. Ray insists on knowing who it was, but Henderson refuses to share, then is interrupted by the arrival of her husband and his brother, Ethan. They join the women, and Ethan buys Ray her next round.

As they’re leaving, Ethan asks to share a ride with Ray and then asks for her number. The next day at the office, Henderson warns Ray against Ethan, simply telling her to trust her.

Ray doesn’t: she surreptitiously recorded the conversation in the pub with Henderson, in part to help her build a discrimination case against the police force. She has a lawyer who pushes her to go through with the case, but Ray is hesitant: she doesn’t want to lose the respect of her team.

She does still worry, however, that she is not trusted or valued by higher-ups. So she immediately bristles when Patrick Holden, a kidnapping specialist, is brought in to help find and rescue Rav. She insists on clarifying their non-overlapping roles from the start so that she can lead her investigation without interference. She does allow one of her team, the new Charlene Ellis, to be seconded to Holden’s team.

Ellis may be new, but she has already noticed the odd dynamic at play with Ray. She asks Payne why the superintendent and Henderson are harsh on Ray when she’s an exceptional officer. He doesn’t answer.

Holden and Ray seem to work well together. He pushes a source who works for the Chapmans for information about Rav’s kidnapping and receives the location of a warehouse after subtly threatening the source or his mother with more time in prison. But when the police arrive at the warehouse, they find it empty except for the van in which Rav was kidnapped. Some of his blood is inside.

Rav has fought back as much as possible. He wormed his hands out of zipties while in the back of the van and recovered his hearing aid, which had been knocked out, from the ground. But he was once again subdued when the two men who kidnapped him moved him to a new location – perhaps Holden’s source told the captors he had revealed the warehouse.

Ray has seized Rav’s laptop from the Mochani jewelry store, to the displeasure of his upset mother, Sharan. Sharan insists Rav had nothing to do with Frank’s death.

But deleted files on Rav’s laptop suggest he did have a connection to Frank. Frank sent an image of a young South Asian girl standing on a street to Rav three days before Frank was killed, and there are four other images of South Asian kids deleted (but recoverable) on Rav’s laptop. Both the Mochanis and the Chapmans tell the police they didn’t know anything about Frank and Rav being in communication.

The detectives recognize the backdrop of the image of the girl as Birmingham and manage to track down the location. They go door to door and find a woman who recognizes the girl and directs them to a house owned by Dawn Hughes. Dawn is reluctant to open the door, but Ray threatens to return with a warrant. Despite Dawn’s objections, Ray finds the girl hiding in a closet.

Dawn is Rav’s girlfriend – or maybe they recently broke up; she’s unclear. The girl’s name is Sajna, and Dawn claims under questioning that she is Rav’s cousin. But that’s a lie. Payne has recovered a deleted email chain with an orphanage in India from Rav’s laptop containing an Indian health document for Sajna and a fake passport. Dawn’s address is listed as the place where Sajna will be staying.

Dawn insists that Rav wouldn’t be involved in trafficking, and Sajna is at least healthy. Rav asked Dawn to look after Sajna for a time and then he disappeared for a while. She did see him on Sunday, when he showed up late after a family dinner. That’s the night Frank Chapman was shot, so Rav may now have an alibi – if he can be found. Meanwhile, forensics have shown that the two shootings of Frank, at his house and in front of the hospital, were by different guns, and therefore possibly by different people. One of the guns is discontinued and thus a rarity.

Ray goes to visit Sajna at social services and finds that the girl has made her a bracelet. Sajna only speaks a little English, but she immediately recognizes a photo of Rav and names him.

The police continue to surveil the Mochanis, and see Sharan meet with a man who was at Frank’s wake. He hands over an envelope and leaves. Sharan comes to the police and tells them that the man is a Chapman henchman and contacted her. He gave her a photo of Rav tied up and asked for information about Rav’s dealings with Frank, or else. But Sharan insists she doesn’t know anything.

Dave Chapman is indeed behind Rav’s kidnapping. He sends in a thug with wire cutters to rough up Rav, then enters and asks about Rav’s dealings with his father. Rav insults Dave and receives a punch in return  that knocks his hearing aid out. Undeterred, Rav spits in Dave’s face. We hear the cocking of a gun.

Rav’s location has been discovered thanks to a helpful biker who was reviewing footage from his helmet camera and noticed two men pulling Rav out of a van. When Ray’s team update her, she insists on going straight to the warehouse even though an armored squad is on the way. Her team begs her not to go in without backup, but when she hears a gunshot inside while waiting she disregards them and enters. She doesn’t find Rav but Dave – and he’s dead.

She hears running footsteps in the stairwell.