'Unforgotten' Recap: Season 6 Episode 3

Unforgotten is available to stream on the PBS app and wttw.com. Recap the previous and following episodes and previous seasons.
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Jess follows up with Juliet following interviews with Ram Sidhu, who investigated the disappearance of Juliet’s husband Gerard years ago, and Markaj, a man who loaned money to Gerard. A cash deposit to Markaj’s account eight days before Gerard disappeared suggests Markaj was paid back, despite Juliet’s insistence that Markaj could be behind Gerard’s death. Markaj suggested that Gerard was having an affair, but Juliet furiously denounces any suspicion of such.

After Jess leaves Juliet’s house, Juliet’s daughter Taylor asks Juliet if Gerard was having an affair. Juliet again unequivocally says no. She wants to postpone the joint therapy she and Taylor have agreed to undergo together, but Taylor objects. During their first session, Taylor says she wants to finally have honesty from her mother. Later, when Juliet finally caves and meets with the student union and a student who accused her of racism, she blows up at them. 

A former employee of Gerard’s pub says that Juliet seemed dismissive of Gerard, and that she and he could sometimes be heard arguing through the ceiling of the pub; they lived above it. She says another coworker saw the pub employee Marty Baines slam Gerard against a wall in February of 2021, the month Gerard was assaulted and later went missing. Marty was angry about furlough pay during the pandemic. He moved back to his parents’ in Kent about a week after Gerard disappeared. 

Marty is applying for jobs back in Kent, trying to make money to support his bedbound mother. But her nurse is pushing for her to go to a rehab center, where she can work on walking again, and getting Marty help in the meantime. He doesn’t want to be separated from his mother, nor she from him.

Gerard reported being attacked from behind when he was assaulted in the parking lot of the pub in February of 2021, by someone wearing a hoodie. CCTV footage shows a man wearing a hoodie walking away from the pub to a Tube station around the time of the assault, but the footage was discounted originally because it was before the assault. But Gerard was knocked unconscious; it’s possible he had been unconscious for a while and the assault took place earlier than thought.

The hooded figure in the footage is holding his hand up; Sunny realizes he might be stimming, an involuntary behavior in which people with autism often engage. Marty is autistic. 

When the detectives visit him, he doesn’t want to be questioned in front of his mother, so they bring him to the station, where an advocate sits with him to make sure he is comfortable and not taken advantage of. Marty was arrested once, seven years ago, for burglary.

He tells the detectives that his dad got him a supported living flat in London, and then the council got him a job at Gerard’s pub. He and Gerard got along well, talking about right-wing conspiracies. But when COVID lockdowns closed the pub, Marty’s dad found out that Gerard had applied for furlough money for Marty but not given it to Marty. When Marty confronted Gerard, he said he was in a tight spot and would pay Marty later – but he never did. They argued, and it got physical once in the pub, when Gerard pushed Marty and Marty pushed him back into a wall. But Marty left after that. 

While Marty is being questioned, Dot calls Marty and tells him not to say anything about his dad.

The property management company with which Gerard worked on his rental properties also tells the detectives that Gerard had a propensity for violence. He didn’t want to spend money even on necessary repairs, so the company stopped managing his companies after five years. They continued helping him with tenants for another year before terminating the contract because he was combative, physically intimidating, and verbally aggressive with the tenants. Most were asylum seekers; he may have had an agreement with the local government. 

One particular dispute with an Afghan family stood out for being long-running. The company gives the detectives the name of the family’s interpreter: Asif Syed. 

Asif has been helping his friend Hassan make a life in the UK. Asif paid for Hassan to be smuggled into the country in a truck and has found him work. Asif himself crossed into the UK from France in an overcrowded boat during winter. When it tipped over, the UK Coast Guard took some 40 minutes to help. Seven people died, including Asif’s brother. 

Asif is in the process of legally claiming asylum and becoming a British citizen, but he tells Hassan it’s not worth it and urges him to get illegal papers. Asif was assaulted numerous times in detention. The Taliban back home would kill both him and Hassan if they returned.

Part of the reason is that Asif is gay. His partner, Sam, is in the British military but arrives home days earlier than expected because an exercise was cancelled. He’s upset to see Hassan squatting there, even though Hassan saved both his and Asif’s life, as Asif reminds Sam. But Sam could lose his career if it’s found out that an illegal immigrant is staying in his house, and helping Hassan endangers Asif as well. Asif doesn’t care.

An acquaintance of Gerard’s tells the detectives that he saw Gerard with a woman in the corner of a pub not long before Gerard disappeared, seemingly confirming Markaj’s suggestion that Gerard was having an affair. The woman had red hair.

Another lifelong acquaintance of Gerard’s was the victim of an assault with which Gerard was charged years ago. The two men ran into each other at a Brexit rally; Gerard was for Brexit, while the man was against it. They had both had a few drinks and riled each other up. Gerard eventually placed a finger on the man’s chest; when the man swept it away, Gerard punched him in the face. 

Gerard had become increasingly bitter, feeling left behind and indulging in right-wing conspiracies, the man says. Gerard even created an online forum called UK United in 2016 to promulgate anti-immigrant nationalism. The detectives search through UK United’s social media and find a video of Gerard at a pub with a red-haired woman who’s rejoicing because Boris Johnson retweeted her. She’s tagged as Mel Ricci. 

Mel is a nun turned columnist, but she moved to Ireland a month after Gerard disappeared, when British newspapers dropped her. She’s now an inflammatory anchor (with doubts) on a conservative channel. Her fiance is attempting to recover from a horrible car crash, and Mel asks his doctor if he can still have children. His doctor says probably not. Mel cries. 

Sunny has been spending more time with the coroner, Leanne. They close a bar down, and she kisses him before quickly apologizing and rushing off. After that, she starts ignoring his calls.

Jess’ romantic life is complicated. She goes to see her sister, Debbie, with whom her husband, Steve, cheated on her months ago. Debbie’s place is a mess; no one has visited in a long time. But she’s on new medication. 

After Jess cleans up, she tells Debbie that she wants to move forward, but needs full honesty. Debbie admits that she and Steve were feeling lost, and slept together more than once. Jess hugs her and thanks her for telling her the hard truth.