The crimes are personal in 2018’s Last Rite, the second six hour series adaptation (check out our look at the first here) in the Jack Irish franchise as it looked to further expands its character changes and layered storytelling.
Excited voiceover letters talking of university possibilities contrast screaming in the streets and stepping in front of a bus for an eerie, sad start. The courier friend of the deceased works for Jack and swears this apparent suicide was not an accident amid mainframe break ins and vehicular perils. Three years later, a critical package is found undelivered, and abandoned mine shafts lead to skeletons and a bullet in the skull. Jack’s investigation into the cold case faces excuses from a smooth talking headmaster claiming it’s common for immigrant students to not make a successful transition. Jack questions why the courier company hires mostly Indian or Asian bicyclists, but they say it’s doing Chinese, Japanese same difference “lessers” a favor. Coworkers are reluctant to talk of an inaccessible floor where fearful female students live in squalor conditions, and security threatens them while Jack is out on the ledge.
Hostage standoffs and the father of the dead asking questions doesn’t mean the conflicted, flirtatious psychiatrist can provide the patient’s details. Forged paperwork listing a Hindu as Muslim claims the body was sent home, and the dubious college in question hides behind visa issues and administration errors as twenty students are deported at the same time – after they’ve all paid the school upfront, of course. Mystery vans and newspaper clippings lead to cafe snipers and detained catatonic students as Jack is run down, shoved in a trunk, and dumped in the middle of nowhere. Paperwork in triplicate in two days or less makes it impossible for detained immigrants to get legal representation amid passport technicalities and unlawful, non-citizen designations. Our ensemble is likewise caught up in the case with their own stories, and each element is bound in legalese, confidentiality, and nondisclosure documents.
Nonsensical drawings, unsigned medical charts dispensing anti-psychotic medications, and secret lists can’t explain the ashes sitting on the coroner’s shelf. Degrees are given to bodies on ice despite never finishing the courses as more students are ill and dying thanks to Dengue Fever excuses and claims that there are too many Indian people with the same name or that Chinese, Mandarin, and Cantonese are all just “Greek to me.” Special delivery calls lead to bloody noses, chemists, and drugs routed via Hearsts and coffin decoys before shootouts and assassins in the bedroom. Tapped phones provide unbeknownst connections as the personal ties escalate and our taut character plots intertwine. Side effects, foundation grants, and scientific research come to light before tearful, angry phone calls and explosions.
Dirt road perils and body bags tossed in the lake mean corporations are not forthcoming about their compensation incentives, and our ensemble each has a piece of the puzzle as they go off the grid to get answers. Copying files leads to threats at home, abductions, and gunshots. Pharmaceutical companies promise happiness but only death follows as the underground evidence and chemical equations come full circle. Encrypted passwords, videos of the illegal medical trials, and racing double crosses begat a photo finish with sad consequences. A jump drive with critical information provides unexpected turnabouts and multiple bait and switches. So much is happening, we wonder how Jack will get out of it, however the caper is resolved thanks to other characters coming to the bittersweet forefront as Last Rite makes time for humorous resolutions and quiet character moments.
When the villains ask who Jack Irish is working for, he’s says the girl in the coffin. Everyone’s able to move on except Jack, who was happy living with Linda and sending packages to each other. Unfortunately, his last package to her that would have changed his life never arrived – a custom knit baby Fitzroy jersey. Now it’s all lost races, bail, and a test on ashes that turns out to be a tree that cost Jack $300 each but at least he’s learned to take pictures with his smartphone. Jack does small legal claims from an office in the back of the pub amid supplies and toilet paper, and he has to walk outside and back around the front to enter for a drink. His doctor diagnoses him as an eighty year old inside of a forty-five year old, and it’s sad to see every injury, wound, and trauma that Jack has endured listed on his medical file.
Out of breath running, Jack wants more pain pills, drinking in mellow moments alone again. We can see the physical scars on his body and fearing a further depression, his doctor refers Jack to a psychiatrist who can make him the happy go lucky well adjusted lawyer with no personal problems he isn’t. He claims he can’t sit still at a therapy session because the chair is poorly made and he builds furniture that will stand the test of time, but unsolicited psychoanalyzes and unethical flirting with a problematic psychiatrist led to late night house calls and multiple conflicts of interest. Jack’s hit, bound, interrogated, nearly garroted, drugged, and betrayed. However, at the end of the day, he’s still arguing on the phone over a six centimeter fence dispute and making terrible woodworking joints.
Linda uses Jack’s razor to shave her legs but swears she’s not moved in because it’s his place with no neutral ground. She wants a permanent home that is theirs, but she’s wasted six years on the never changing Jack and moves back to Manila to be with Orton. Ironically, Linda flirts with him in the same way she does with Jack, repeating their practical jokes and claiming a poorly dressed lazy man has taken over her life. He proposes to make their adoption red tape easier, but Jack call Linda to do an exposé on the school. They’re awkward on the phone, with Linda thanking Jack for reminding her why she left. She rebuffs his scoop – no one cares about investigative news, today it’s all click bait. Of course, Linda is over fluff celeb interviews and Orton encourages her to find the real story. Their video calls are much happier than her back and forth with Jack, but she enjoys making him feel guilty when she says she’s been to the hospital and Jack asks what she learned rather than if she’s okay.
Unfortunately, Linda is threatened as she digs deeper and admits she’s frightened. Again, Orton insists this story is too sad and suspicious to ignore, so he contacts Jack. Upon returning to Melbourne, Linda introduces Orton as her husband and that they will be adopting soon. Jack is shocked but Orton is very friendly with Jack. Jack claims he’s taller and not balding, but Linda wants them all to be friends because Jack will always be important her. Jack wants to borrow her press pass if she’s not doing the story, but they go to get the scoop together anyway, with Orton sneaking in to assist them while Jack flees from security. They make for an interesting team, and Linda gets the big interviews. However, when Linda finds the little sweater, she sobs and wonders why Jack never asked if she got the package. He figured she did and was over him, but Linda says he let her drift away and now it’s too late.
Roy Billing’s horse racing guru Harry Strang refuses to call an episode for the heart attack it was and has to give up the excitement of the track, but Cam Delray is tired of golfing with Harry and accepts a position at a security company. Cynthia has also become a racing steward, but Harry wants them all to still have Sunday breakfast together – which Jack always misses. Harry feigns that he doesn’t miss the races and enjoys a life of leisure doing the crosswords. However, when his wife makes bad investments and massive renovations leave their mansion surrounded with scaffolding, he gleefully digs into his stash and returns to the racetrack annoyed that Jack forgot his hat. Cynthia’s after banned rivals doping horses, warns Harry he too could be banned if his cloak and dagger investigation interferes. He intends to save the integrity of racing, but Jack offers his unwanted legal opinion about bugging the high roller in question and Harry is aghast at listening to all the sexual activity on a stakeout with Cam.
Cam enjoys twisting arms for the lowdown on disqualifications, light weigh ins, and paid off jockeys; but Harry’s offended that Jack would rather be tied up and left to die in the Outback then be at the track for morale support as they swap lookalike horses Panda for Kumquat. Now promoted to Deputy Supervisor – Homicide, Barry Tregear drinks mineral water and complains about being stuck behind a desk doing paperwork. Jack freely enters the police station for Barry’s aid, but he begs Jack to stop finding dead bodies. Barry mocks Jack as a criminal mastermind who leaves his fingerprints everywhere he snoops. He’s angry when Jack withholds vital evidence that disrupts their proper investigation, so Jack confesses his illegal activities on the case and Barry warns him he’s on a tight rope. Barry wants to know who he pissed off that they’ve come into his home, for Jack needs to get over this David versus Goliath crap before he ends up dead. Linda calls Barry when she fears just that, but Barry consoles her that he isn’t that lucky to be rid of Jack.
Drew Greer goes to a healing retreat in the bush, lying in a hole in the ground he dug himself to be a real man. Jack laughs at their awkward group meditation meeting, but Drew has an epiphany that Jack is driven by fear, trauma, and daddy issues keeping him prisoner. It was Simone who broke up with Drew, and she doesn’t want Jack at her I.T. job where she has motivational themes days like Fiesta Thursday, hiding behind her filing cabinet on Ninja Day to avoid being drug back into his bleak little world. She delivers information dressed as a pirate, for Simone is happy to hack into a database for Jack, feeling alive when living on the edge of federal offensives and quitting her job because her miserable coworkers voted against her theme days.
It’s bemusing to see Jack in action with Cam, Simone in her ninja outfit, and Brendan O’Grady – who arrives two hours early offering to break thumbs if need be but drugging the wrong horse. The camera pans to the unannounced Brendan by Jack’s side while he offers a finger in a jar so those not so forthcoming become willing to talk. Brendan takes Jack to meet friends who think Brendan is a real stand up guy. He’s told them he “hurts people for a living” but they laugh when he says he’ll shoot anyone who touches his macchiato. Jack gives the ornery eulogy at woodworking mentor Charlie Taub’s funeral where he meets Tiarnie Coupland as Charlie’s granddaughter Gus.
Gus sneaks into Jack’s courtyard to continue using her grandfather’s tools, and it’s bemusing that after not committing to a family with Linda, Jack is effectively handed a teen daughter – bailing Gus out several times while she stays on his couch, makes a mess, and says his handmade tables look like the work of a child. She groans when Jack calls her mother or asks if there are problems at home yet sets a fire in the doctor’s office. Jack picks up two takeaways now for him and Gus, and he gets worried when she’s not there. He goes looking for her and demands she call him with where she is and when she’s coming home. His home is hers, and when thugs are afoot, Jack runs to rescue Gus. Their relationship is cantankerous yet chill and touching, and such fatherly moments prove Jack is capable of commitments beyond himself.
Norm has sadly passed away, however his name is engraved on his Fitzroy Youth Club bar stool between Eric and Wilbur while they hold interviews for new club applications. Wilbur also goes to Eric’s place for the first time, and Gus works the newfangled VCR so they can re-watch Fitzroy’s last game. They approve her at the center stool with a lemonade, for Damien Garvey as Prince of Prussia bartender Stan and his wife Cherry Blossom (Ivy Mack) are tired of no one paying for Norm’s perpetual glass of beer. Unfortunately, Immigration deports Cherry, claiming her visa is invalid and their wedding is unregistered. Stan says he was born upstairs and has hardly left the pub yet now he’s adamant about putting his happiness first and moving to China to be with Cherry.
Stan spruces up and calls a Realtor about selling the pub, but Jack uses his connections to reunite Stan and Cherry and save the Prince because Eric and Wilbur realize they liked the kung pao chicken. They also all love Orton for Linda, and Last Rite allows us to see the odd little interactions beyond Jack – even though his presence is what brings them all together. Kriv Stenders (Doctor Doctor) and Fiona Banks (Wentworth) join Mark Joffe in directing two episode blocks alongside house writers Matt Cameron, Andrew Knight, Andrew Anastasios, and Elise McCredie. The crew develops the first hour about our characters well, updating the three year gap as Last Rite gives the ensemble their own arc storylines and case developments throughout the season.
Tenderness and humor alleviate serious moments as Jack Irish layers commentary on racism, the education system, drugs, and roles for women. These extra statements let Last Rite go deeper into Jack Irish’s quirky little world as the well paced investigation comes together for another memorable entry.
still courtesy of Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)
If you liked this, please read our other reviews here and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter or Instagram or like us on Facebook.
Kristin Battestella writes articles, editorials, and reviews for several websites, magazines, and print publications including I Think, Therefore I Review and Search Magazine. Previously a traditionally published author of speculative fiction and the Fate and Fangs vampire novels, Kristin’s DIY Halloween how-tos and Kbatz Krafts articles have been featured at http://HorrorAddicts.net and in two Horror Addicts Guide to Life anthologies. In addition to sewing and @KbatzReviews Youtube vlogs; Kristin can be heard on the Women InSession podcast at http://InSessionFilm.com alongside her written classic film discourse. Kristin is also active in the local author community, having chaired writing events and conferences with the South Jersey Women Authors.