'Baptiste' Season 1 Episode 1 Recap: "Shell"

Baptiste begins with a cold open in Deal, England, as a beachcombing pensioner arrives home. Apparently, no one told him when a man comes to read the gas meter tossume an assassin, Romanian, in this case, named Constantin (Alec Secăreanu). This killing is rough enough that there's a chainsaw involved. But no rougher than Julian Baptiste (Tchéky Karyo) is having it right now at home. The detective, who annoyed so many clients in The Missing, is now retired and forced to annoy his family, especially his daughter Sara (Camille Schotte) and her husband Ron (Omar Baroud).

Baptiste: I fought the same battle with my daughter. She thought she was taking drugs, but really they were taking her, piece by piece. But for blind and foolish luck, it could be her in the life your niece found herself living.

Desperate to get Julian out of the house, his wife, Celia (Anastasia Hille), sends him off to meet with one of his old colleagues, Martha Horchner (Barbara Sarafian), to have coffee. Baptiste says he is happy to be retired now that the tumor is gone from his brain. But Martha's got a case. He attempts to protest, insisting he's slowed to much with age to find a missing girl, a teen sex worker named Natalie Rose (Anna Próchniak). But she won't take no for an answer. Edward Stratten (Tom Hollander) is making a fuss around the red light district looking for her.