Part 2 of 'Patience's Series Premiere Pushes Our Pair Together

The second episode of Patience, “Paper Mountain Girl, Part 2,” begins where we left off: in an interrogation room as detectives question why Patience was at Chopra’s crime scene. She is too distressed and overstimulated to speak. Baxter gets angry watching what he believes is an uncooperative suspect, and Metcalf follows him to his office, trying to tell him about Patience’s autism. Mr. Gilmour barges in, and in short order, we learn that he is Patience's godfather, is a former DCI, and that Patience is not under arrest, but there voluntarily. Gilmour points out that she’s probably more traumatized because her rights weren't read to her.

Metcalf calms Patience enough to speak. Patience explains she was at the crime scene looking for a cigar, like the one found near Jamieson, and notes there was a cigar at Dr. Clark’s crime scene as well. She insists Dr. Clark wasn’t a smoker. Metcalf studies the photos from Clark and Jamieson’s files, noticing both cigars are the same Cockscomb brand.

Hunter is upset he wasn’t told about Patience’s autism and claims it makes her “temperamentally unsuitable” for police work. Metcalf balks: “I don’t care if she’s autistic, I just care if she’s right.” And of course, she is – after a thorough search, Metcalf finds a Cockscomb cigar in the tailpipe of Chopra’s car. New footage from a neighboring building shows someone in a black hoodie placing the cigar, and in other footage, taking the envelope of money. This clears Patience and opens the investigation to treat the three crimes as connected.

(Don’t get me started on convenient plot points via deus ex CCTV.) 

Metcalf is well-intentioned in this episode, but frustratingly circumvents Patience to get her on the investigative team. First, at Baxter’s behest, Metcalf approaches Gilmour for permission without asking Patience if she’s interested, and then gets flextime approved without consulting her. Metcalf then ambushes Patience outside her support group and shares the great news with her, only to be rejected. The unpredictable nature of police work could lead to Patience burning out. She protects her mental health by sticking to a routine.

To have a show, these two must work together as a team. Furthermore, there’s a realistic element here of neurotypical people not treating autistic adults as if they have agency. However, it is exasperating nonetheless when Metcalf further works around Patience after being told no. She ropes in the support group leader, Billy (Connor Curren), for advice on how to convince Patience she’s a “natural” at police work. Billy says autistic people often have a special interest, a sort of hook, and that for Patience, it’s puzzles: she’ll forgo sleep, obsessing over how to solve something. (There’s something weirdly reductive about this.)

In a moment of stalker-level persistence, Metcalf rolls up to Patience at the bus stop. She dangles the pieces of the unsolved puzzle at Patience: What’s the significance of the cigars and the missing money? Oh well, ho-hum, and then Metcalf speeds off, seed planted. Patience can’t help but take the bait.

Back at the station, Hunter discovers that the cigars are only sold locally at a café owned by Belizean immigrants. Patience, meanwhile, has been combing through the evidence, and Metcalf is floored when she independently figures out the connection to the café. She shows Metcalf her evidence tree, a visual representation of her thought process, complete with a string connecting one piece to another. Patience is sure that all three men visited Belize. Dr. Clark had a travel guide to Belize on his bookshelf. Jamieson posted on social media about visiting Belize. Chopra’s vaccination records, in preparation for a trip, match the inoculations needed for Belize.

Metcalf pushes Patience to accompany her on police interviews, further disrupting Patience’s routine. To her credit, Patience packs what she needs to be comfortable in an unfamiliar situation and goes along. The pair visits Jamieson’s employer to interview James Cooper (Christian Contreras), the exec who planned the company conference in Belize. He gives them the standard runaround, claiming they can’t have the attendee list until it’s approved by legal. Patience embarrasses Metcalf by asking if “Cooper” is his real last name. He admits he changed it to the English version.

This leads Metcalf to discover a criminal record for soliciting sex under Cooper’s original name. She puts the pieces together: Belize has legalized prostitution, and she thinks Cooper (along with the three dead doctors) was involved in sex tourism. Patience, meanwhile, gets frustrated by the legalities and rules of police work. Her vexation with the unsolved puzzle leads her to divulge confidential case details to Billy.

As the cops are preparing to re-interview Cooper, Patience and Billy admit to hacking him for the attendee list. Among Cooper’s private emails was a boat reservation for him and four passengers. Though inadmissible, Metcalf is excited because it proves a definite link between the deaths. Billy then shows he’s great at burying the lead when he warns the cops that Cooper had anti-hacking software and therefore knows that they’re on to him. Metcalf and Hunter go racing to Cooper’s apartment.

But when Cooper answers a knock at the door, it’s someone in a black hoodie. (We immediately know this is the killer.) By the time Metcalf and Hunter get there, Cooper’s alone on the roof of the building, looking dazed. They attempt to talk him down. It seems Hunter is getting through to him until Cooper turns and jumps, falling onto Metcalf’s car below. He survives the jump, barely.

When it’s an official crime scene, Patience identifies where in the room Cooper was dosed with scopolamine. CSI finds fingerprints which match Yemaya (Joana Borja), the cleaner at the hotel who found Jamieson. The detectives reach her landlady’s voicemail in an uncrackable code. (The Achilles heel of monolinguistic white people everywhere: Spanish!) But Patience does speak Spanish and instantly recognizes the number left on the voicemail as the café from which the cigars came.

After a short chase through the building, the detectives find Yemaya at the café, where she’s been renting the apartment upstairs. Hunter cuffs her without reading her rights or saying she’s under arrest. The rest of this case wraps up through many exposition dumps, so I’ll try my best to keep it brief! The cops discover an altar in Yemaya’s place with pictures of her sister Violeta, and Cockscomb cigars, which Metcalf correctly guesses are offerings. Landlady Maria (Jimena Larraguivel) explains that they’re for Changó, the Santería god of fire, who can be invoked to bring revenge on one’s enemies. She describes the connection of Friday and the number 4 as special to Changó.

Yemaya confesses to all four crimes: the three dead doctors and Cooper. Her sister was not a sex worker; she was a hostess at the conference who naïvely got on the boat after the doctors offered her money to serve drinks. The boat returned without Violeta. Yemaya came over to England and worked at the hotel, waiting for Jamieson, then pried a confession from him under the influence of scopolamine. 

She learned the horrific truth that the doctors took turns raping Violeta, then Cooper pushed her out of the boat when they were done. Yemaya used Jamieson’s phone to track down the other three through their WhatsApp group. And the sums of money Yemaya was extorting? She was simply sending it back home to grandma. It's a tragic and ambivalent conclusion, and one that builds empathy for Yemaya.

After the case wraps up, Metcalf and Patience lunch together in the cafeteria, with Patience noting that she doesn’t understand why neurotypicals eat together. It involves small talk, which Patience struggles with. But she loves puzzles since they give her something to talk about. Metcalf praises Patience’s puzzle-solving skills, saying they’d never have caught Yemaya or Cooper without her. Then Metcalf solves a 9-dot puzzle that’s been plaguing her for two episodes, and Patience praises her back. This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Patience Season 1 continues on Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on PBS, the PBS App, PBS Passport, and the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel. All six episodes are available for members to stream on PBS Passport starting from premiere day.