Review

Robin is stood down from the Police by Detective Al Parker due to her glassing Sarge down the pub the previous evening, Al suggests she head back to Sydney. Robin still maintains Tui is alive; Al is convinced she isn't after being missing for two months in the rugged Kiwi bush. Johnno and Robin, now that Robin has time on her hands being single and jobless, explore their relationship and just what happened on the night Robin was raped by four drunk Bogans and Johnno did nothing to rescue her. Cracks appear in the relationship and Robin's dying Mom tells Robin to have nothing to do with Johnno Mitcham.

Johnno confronts one of Robin's attackers and orders him out of town in pretty dramatic fashion. Jude, Robin's mother, along with her care giver Turangi and improbably Caroline Platt (played by gay icon Lucy Lawless) visit the Womins collective for sage and unusable advice from G.J. We learn from Caroline Platt that Bob saw something that scared the crap out of him and was in the process of selling up all his assets and getting out of Dodge prior to his drowning. Matt Mitcham has hired a couple of Hunters to go bush and search for Tui, offering a $10k reward if they are successful. They get evidence Tui is alive on a mobile phone but take a few shots they shouldn't have and lose their reward. Robin gets some surprise news from Al and an Invercargill pathologist.

I just noticed the imdb entry for Top of the Lake has the episode "storyline" completely wrong, who ever is writing those should keep off the turps before making submissions. Just an aside there kids, I normally take no notice of the imdb besides checking a few details and catching the odd external review, but thought I should point it out in case anyone else was getting slightly confused. Given the average reader of the imdb site seems unable to comprehend what Top of the Lake is seeking to achieve it's not really surprising the storyline doesn't gel with each episode.

There were a number of revelations in episode four that go some way to explaining the quite intricate web that Campion and Lee are steadily weaving. We discover, via Jude's warning Robin to stay away from Johnno, that there might have been a bit of fence jumping, as we say Downunder, in the past. Is Matt Mitcham Robin's biological father? That was the inference I drew, in which case incest, par for the course in the deep South apparently. Now that development could have some shocking revelations in the second half of the mini-series. We also learn, via the Hunters' video capture, that Tui is alive and well and for reasons unknown hiding out in the bush. The hoodie wearing Kid is clearly supplying her food, but remains a tough nut to crack as Robin founds out after his mother, Simone, asks Robin to talk to her bone collecting, non communicative off spring. Clearly Simone hasn't had teenagers before; grunting in mono-syllables is apparently a legitimate form of communication for the next generation. And I just got to ask, what is it with the barista thing? Seems to be a thread running through the show with the Cafe now being featured in two episodes. We also get the slight hint of paedophile behaviour from Matt, which he violently denies, and a bunch of other revelations. You are going to have to pay close attention and listen to the dialogue to get the inferences, so guess the show isn't going to work for the low attention span audience amongst modern youth.

There were a couple of other aspects to the episode that have me intrigued to say the least. Firstly the appearance of Caroline Plant, which comes out of the blue, but which adds another slice of drama to what is already a pretty full plate. Caroline can inform Robin that her husband Bob was terrified after having seen something that chilled him to the bone. Bob was in the process of selling up and getting out of Dodge when the whip came down in the form of Matt Mitcham. He sold Paradise to the Womin's collective for twice the money Matt had offered, which makes his decision to go fishing with the Mitcham lads somewhat weird.

Robin meets with Invercargill pathologist Ian Fellows, guess Dunedin doesn't have a pathologist in this reality, who can inform her there is something very wrong with the local Police force. Fellows can inform Robin that he has requested three cases go ahead to a Coronial enquiry, all three vetoed by Detective Al Parker. We are already aware of the deaths of Bob Plant and Wolfgang Zanic but Fellows can throw the death of April Stevens, a young girl who was hit by a car late night on Lake Top Road. What Fellows found interesting was April had traces of cocaine in her vagina. Don't know about you but that suggests something very dark to me. Interestingly April was also on the barista program, the proof of something dark in that direction is building steadily. Later Al is almost lethargic in disputing Ian Fellows worries, pointing out he is a fiction writer, but Robin should tread very carefully there.

In one of the stranger developments in the episode Detective Al proposes to Robin, your guess is as good as mine there.

Robin is reinstated as a Detective due it seems to interest in the Tui case from an Auckland journalist. During the subsequent interview Robin conducts herself well but does notice a couple of things in the coffee shop, which audience members with their radars on will pick up on. Which I guess is indicative of Top of the Lake, you need to take a lot via inference, dialogue, and what initially appears as unimportant background detail. The Directors aren't overly highlighting things for the audience but if you concentrate you'll pick up on the clues.

Jane Campion takes on the director's hat this episode and continues the excellent standard achieved through the previous three episodes. She nails the ambient sound in stunning fashion, the creaking of wood planks on a house, the ever present lapping of water, and the wind that seems almost like an eerie disconnected murmur. Campion keeps the atmosphere flowing with plenty of shots over the lake in long focus, including following a couple of trips by our "hoodie kid" who may or may not be providing Tui with supplies.

There's a bit of T&A going down for those interested, Robin and Johnno get it on in the bush in soft porn style.

Still rocking along to this excellent series, am digging the atmospherics and the story that is building towards something very dark that I'm not expecting to end well, there's enough information on the table currently to whet our appetites for darkness. I'm still seeing multiple story angles that haven't been capped off but which are building toward a coherent whole. Excellent mini-series that rightfully deserves all the accolades it has been receiving, highly recommended. Only downside I would guess is a lack of Kiwi leads though I'm definitely enjoying the performances of the four leads.