Ripper Street S2E1 - "Pure as the Driven" Recap

A police officer searches for a particular woman in Chinatown and appears to be ill. He eventually makes his way to a boarding house where he is thrown from a second story window. His leg is impaled on a railing but he's not dead.

Detective Reid and Sergeant Bennet head to the lower level of the the police department where they begin fighting to break up a riot. Jackson makes his way through the violence with great ease. Afterwards, we learn that H Division is in trouble, with citizens no longer respecting the badge or uniform. Sergeant Artherton says they need more men or a Gatling gun but Reid says they haven't the funds nor reputation for either. Another officer bursts in to tell them about the man impaled on the fence and when they learn he is a copper, they head off to help him.

Upon reaching the scene, a mob is trying to attack the officer but the police are trying to keep them off of the man , who we learn is named Sergeant Maurice. While the officers of H division work to save him, the camera zooms in on a Chinese woman staring calmly but intently at Maurice. Reid and Jackson examine the room Maurice was thrown from and Reid states that the culprit must be found for the good of all police's reputation with the city.

Drake hold Sergeant Maurice in his arms as they're driven to the hospital. Maurice warns Drake that a wave of suffering is coming that he likens to the Red Sea. Later, Drake relays this warning to Reid but they're unable to decipher its meaning. The trio stands from above and watches the surgeon work on removing the railing from Maurice's leg. They spot a fist-shaped bruise on Maurice's chest, and the surgeon informs them that there are needle marks along an old knee injury, which they deduce must have been a result of medicating for the pain.

Inspector Shine from K division storms into the operating room but is told to leave by the surgeon. He speaks with Reid, telling him about the woman in a photograph in the room Maurice had been thrown from. Maurice had been in Whitechapel investigating a crime but K Division's lack of fondness for paperwork means H Division has nothing to go off of. As the trio leaves the hospital, Reid briefly chats with Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man. Reid then visits Long Susan to enquire after the woman in the photograph. Susan identifies her as a woman using the alias Blush Pang, whom Susan once offered a job which Pang refused. When Reid is leaving, a girl fetches a bag for Reid and after she leaves, he and Susan agree to keep the matter of the bag "between themselves."

Back at headquarters, Jackson shares a theory that the attacker was just one person, with Reid and Drake. He says that he once witnessed a Chinese monk in San Francisco that exhibited remarkable abilities, including sending people flying three feet backwards with a single blow to the chest. There was also a casino chip they discover that leads them to investigate Chinatown.

In Chinatown, we see Pang walking through a casino and lead a man to a back room. She prepares some drugs for him but flees when she realises someone is coming after her. Turns out, it's the man who can send people flying with a single blow to the chest. The trio reach the casino where Shine and the other men from the K division are already there. The man we had just seen Pang injecting with drugs is now dead. When they examine his body, they find similar marks as what was on Maruice's knee injury. There's shards from a knife in the man's neck, and Shine recognises it as part of rival Chinese clans trying to outdo one another.

Drake is now married to a woman named Bella, who comforts him following the long, tiring day with trying to save Maurice. Jackson asks Susan to run away with him, but she is hesitant to do so. Reid now lives alone. Drake visits Maurice at the hospital, where Maurice suffers from withdrawal symptoms. Drake snoops around and finds a piece of paper. He encounters Merrick on his way out. Drake brings the paper to Reid and they see that it was a receipt for opium signed by Blush Pang.

They're able to track down Pang's opium stash where they encounter the man with the ferocious punch. Though there's a bit of a scuffle, they learn that the man is not trying to kill Pang. He is her brother and he wants to bring her home to restore their family's mother. Many years ago, Pang was kidnapped by a policeman who forced her into opium business. Turns out the policeman is Shine and we see him and Pang holed up together. She's not being held hostage. She was either a willing participant from the start or she has a serious case of Stockholm Syndrome. Meanwhile, Long Susan receives a letter from her landlord threatening eviction if she doesn't pay more money and when she visits him, he refuses to let up.

Jackson has injected himself with the needle they recovered from Maurice and has found it to be containing heroine, not morphine. The trio visits Maurice and interrogate him, promising to give him a dose of heroine if he gives them the answers they seek. He tells them where to find the lab where the drugs are cooked and just when he is about to give up Shine's name, the man himself bursts in and kick them out.

H Division goes to the lab to arrest Blush Pang but she is trying to destroy the evidence in the lab. Her brother shows up to try to take Pang home. Following a long, entertaining fight scene, Pang and her brother manage to get outside. Jackson stops them and it preparing to arrest Pang when Shine arrives and attempts to take Pang and her brother into custody, so he may let Pang off and kill her brother. Reid says that since this is his street and his rules, if Shine wants to take them, he must fight Pang's brother one-on-one.

The fight begins and Shine is made out to be an absolute fool as Pang's brother easily blocks his moves. Shine plays dirty by throwing gravel into his face but before the fight can go on for much longer, Pang stabs her brother in the back, literally. Pang is taken into custody and Shine doesn't fight to stop it since he'd rather save his own skin, much to the anger of Pang.

That night, Shine sneaks into Maurice's room through the winder and kills him with a poisoned injection. The only witness to this crime is Joseph Merrick. Shine visits Reid and Drake at the bar to give them the "bad news" and taunts them by all but outright saying that he has framed them from the murder.

Ripper Street airs on BBC One on Mondays at 9PM.