Flashbacks Finally Bring Answers in 'Criminal Record’s Penultimate Episode

Everything we’ve been waiting six episodes for was finally revealed in Criminal Record’s seventh episode entitled “The Sixty-Twos.” The episode flashes back to late summer 2011, Adelaide’s murder and Errol’s confession. We get A LOT of context for what was going on with all the characters we’ve been following. Hegarty’s wife/Lisa’s mother had died six months before, leaving them both devastated. Hegarty has bought the young (and not heroin-addicted) Lisa a puppy as a way to cheer up the daughter, who has had her whole world “come crashing down.” 

“Eleven days from x-ray to a hole in the ground, there was no time for any of it,” Hegarty tells Tony, giving us more information about how sudden his wife’s death was. He is juggling so much. He’s still grieving (we learn that he only got two weeks of compassionate leave after his wife passed away). He’s adapting to being a single parent (in the midst of work, he calls Lisa’s babysitter to remind her that the omelets are to have absolutely no tomatoes.) “The thing about your mom. That’s all she wanted was for you to be happy,” he tells Lisa.

Hegarty isn’t so sure Errol is their guy. He’s revealed to be much more of a by-the-books detective than we have been led to believe. “Show me the facts. Show me the history of violence,” he barks. Adelaide and Errol had been together for five years. Errol was like a father to Patrick. They were planning to get married. Flashbacks show them happy and getting engaged with a toy ring. 

There is immense pressure on Hegarty to charge Errol with the crime. Adelaide’s murder comes just one month after the London riots that erupted after Mark Duggan was shot and killed by police. Claudia tells Hegarty the police department is looking to take away attention from that and “reset the narrative.” Hegarty has 24 hours to charge Errol with the crime or release him. “Hard to nail it down, isn’t it?” Hegarty says to Claudia about all the evidence they have. “Was it intentional? Was he out of his fucking mind? He never hurt her before. Never laid a finger on anyone as far as I can see.”

Kim and Hegarty try to tie Errol to the looting while interrogating him. They’ve found clothes with tags still attached from stores that were looted in his apartment. “I’m not a thief,” he tells them. Then they tell him Adelaide has bites that match his teeth. “What is this,” Errol wonders. “There ain’t nothing you can do to get me. I loved her.”

Hegarty goes to see Errol’s dad. He notes that Errol’s father hasn’t come to see his son in the hospital and senses that there must be some tension there. He is right. They bond over being fathers, and the truth comes out. Six years earlier, when Errol was a teenager and on drugs, he came to his parents’ house asking them for money. His father told him there was no money left, and Errol stabbed him. Errol’s dad lifts up his shirt to show Hegarty the scar he still has. That’s the history of violence Hegarty was looking for. 

Hegarty takes Errol to the apartment he shared with Patrick and Adelaide. “I want to see if we can’t jog your memory,” he tells Errol. Errol remains steadfast. He didn’t do this. He didn’t kill Adelaide. But then Hegarty tells Errol’s lawyer he can go home. Hegarty pretends he can’t find his phone and takes Errol back to the apartment under the guise of looking for his misplaced phone. Obviously, Hegarty taking Errol to the apartment without his lawyer present is not allowed.

Without Errol’s lawyer there, Hegarty goes at him. He incorrectly tells Errol that Patrick nearly lost his legs, and the doctors say he won’t walk again. “You broke that boy like a fucking China plate,” he tells him. Errol stands his ground. “You don’t know anything about us. The things we had,” he tells him. Then, Hegarty plays a recording of Patrick at the hospital telling Hegarty that his mom and Errol fought. “I’ll knock you flat,” Patrick remembers Errol saying. This admission devastates Errol and also clearly makes him doubt himself. “I killed Adelaide Burrows,” he tells Hegarty.

Did Hegarty alter the audio in some way? Or is Errol not the innocent man June thinks he is? The episode reveals Hegarty is not evil but a man under enormous duress. He’s clearly bent the rules, but there’s no grand conspiracy. He doesn’t seem to be protecting the real killer or anything like that. 

The episode ends in the present with Hegarty telling June, “Well, if sometimes you have to go the extra mile, there’s no shame in that.” A furious Kim barges in and interrupts Hegarty and June’s conversation. Sonya, most likely still devastated over Doris’s death, has released Carla’s emergency call to the public. This puts Carla (not to mention June’s career) in danger.

The series has a lot of loose ends to wrap up and questions to answer (starting with Who killed Adelaide Burrows?) in next week’s finale.