The Stakes are Raised & Murder is in the Air in 'Criminal Record's “Kid in the Park”

With its mix of murder mystery, criminal intrigue, and personal strife, Criminal Record established in its premiere that it would be an intense series. Suffice it to say, they upped the ante a lot in the show’s third outing. The episode, aptly titled “Kid in the Park,” kicks off with a brand new but equally horrific crime. A nine-year-old boy is shot in the head while eating ice cream on his way home from karate. Hegarty is called to the case. In the name of keeping your enemies closer, June offers to help with the case, and Hegarty accepts her help. “It’s a chance to see him up close, to see how he works, get on his side if that’s humanly possible,” she tells Sonya.

Sonya has enlisted some of Doris’s friends to find the original emergency services caller. They are passing out flyers throughout the community. Sonya, who admits she can be a little bit “extra,” convinces June to go through the evidence from Errol’s trial. June is worried because she promised her boss she would no longer look into Errol. “Just spare us a crumb of your f-ing expertise,” Sonya begs her.

June looks through the files, watches the video from the crime scene, and listens to the emergency call. She tells Sonya what’s missing is any kind of motive. Yes, Errol stole money from his parents and participated in riots, but he has no history of violence. Errol was fleeing the scene with Adelaide’s young son Patrick when he got into a car crash. The police think the car crash was a murder/suicide—he had killed Adelaide, and now he was going to kill himself and Patrick too. Because of the crash, Errol has no memory of what happened that day.

Sonya tells June she can get her into Whitecross prison to see Errol without Hegarty ever knowing about it. June goes to Whitecross saying she wants to visit a different prisoner, but once in the waiting room, she meets with Errol. Errol is a man who has lost all hope. “Do you think you killed her?” June asks him. “At the end of the day, whatever happened, she’s gone. She’s not coming back,” Errol replies. But June still has so many questions. Errol said his alibi was that he was meeting a man about a possible job when the murder was occurring. Police said his alibi was “unsound.” June doesn’t know what that means, but is determined to find out. “He’s done carrying the cross. We’ve got to carry it for him.” Sonya tells her.

We also learn a little bit about June’s backstory. Her husband is not her son Jason’s father. That man is now married to someone else who is friends with the mom of the boy who was shot. For his part, Hegarty seems to have cronies everywhere. He goes into a car wash to make phone calls trying to shake down information about the whereabouts of the shooter. He’s clearly a dirty cop but a dirty cop who gets results.

Hegarty’s friend, DS Tony Gilfoyle (Charlie Creed-Miles), tells him about the flyers. He also tells him that June has been to Whitecross. Unfortunately for June, that last bit of information comes while they have gotten a tip about the shooter. They raid the apartment building but only find the shooter’s girlfriend. Hegarty is watching everything on video and barking orders from the police van. Suddenly the cameras go out. Hegarty sends the tech guy out of the van to see why the cameras aren’t working. 

But just as he learns about June’s visit to Whitecross, the cameras come back on. Hegarty is alone in the van watching the shooter approach June, who has her back to him. But Hegarty doesn’t warn her. After all, June getting shot would solve a lot of problems for him. But then the tech guy walks back into the van and sees Hegarty looking at the camera and doing nothing. Hegarty then finally warns June. She is shot but isn’t hurt because she was wearing a bulletproof vest. 

Later, Hegarty tells the techie that he’s lucky June wasn’t hurt, implying it was his fault that June got shot. “She could have gotten hurt. But look, she’s okay, so no harm done,” Hegarty tells him. June tells (confesses) to Hegarty that she had been to Whitecross to see an inmate. 

Hegarty and his boss decide June should be part of the press conference announcing that the shooter has been arrested—better optics to have a Black woman up on the stage. As the press conference is about to begin, June gets a call back about the day Patrick, Adelaide’s son, was arrested for possession with intent to distribute. A detective intervened and told them to let Patrick go. “I can vouch for him,” is what the detective said. He doesn’t remember the detective’s name, but we all know it was Hegarty. Now that we also know Hegarty most likely wants June dead, the stakes are definitely higher.