'Ridley' Season 2's Third Mystery Asks "Who's 'A Fool for Love?'"

The latest episode of Ridley, “Fool For Love,” opens with two very different celebrations. A well-heeled crowd gathers to celebrate the engagement of Oliver Grant (Rishi Ruan) and Amelia Mellor (Ellise Chappell); meanwhile, a rave at a condemned building slated for demolition and development wildly parties through the night. The current CEO of Grant Construction and Development, Oliver’s mother, Sarita (Sudha Bhuchar), announces that Oliver will replace her when she resigns at the end of the year. Oliver's brother, Lewis Grant (Danyal Ismail), looks on as family and guests applaud. Oliver receives a call about work, apologizes to his fiancee, and leaves the party.

The following day, Carol Farman prepares a special breakfast for her son Jack, hoping to have a heart-to-heart. However, he doesn’t want to talk, although he promises to catch up with her later. Ridley is at home, asleep on his sofa, when he receives a call from Carol that they’ve got a new case they want him on. Oliver was found dead from gunfire at the rave, his wallet untouched, although his torn shirt indicates a struggle. 

Ridley and Carol visit the Grant family, who claim they were worried that Oliver had not returned by morning, though not concerned enough to call the police. Lewis, now the family spokesman, agrees that these unauthorized raves at building sites are problematic before asking the police for privacy for the family. Carol and Ridley noticed that Lewis, who displayed some resentment about his lack of involvement with the family business, was also conspicuously absent in the display of family photographs.

A rave attendee, Charlie (Oliver Wellington), is the one who found the body; he claims he was in the basement looking for his phone when he stumbled across it. He heard about the rave from social media, organized by someone with the handle "@glowupgirlxx." He also seems to have found quite a bit of Molly; Carol suggests since he doesn’t have a record, he can just tell them who was selling it. He doesn’t have names, but he knows a go-kart track is the hub of the business. It's enough for Darren to work with. He comes up with social media influencer and model Ava Tunstall (Lauren McQueen) as the woman behind @glowupgirlxx; the drugs, naturally, are out of Manchester.

Ava is shocked to learn Oliver is dead; they’d met at a company photoshoot. She claims not to know he was at the rave or that drugs were involved, but is happy to hand over the list of attendees. When Ridley and Carol stop off for coffee, he asks how she's doing and gets an earful about Jack; he once again kindly offers to have the kid work on the boat and talk man-to-man

Dr. Newstone reports there were almost fatal levels of cocaine in Oliver’s blood; his sinuses indicate long-term use. Ridley and Carol question Oliver’s fiancee, Amelia, who claims she wanted to tell them the truth but was intimidated by her future MIL, who knew her son was an addict; the promotion was her trying to pull him back from the brink. Amelia says she confronted him with the evidence and told Lewis, who promised to get his brother into rehab. However, what he actually did was threaten Oliver to tell their clients about his addiction.

Ridley drops by the jazz club but doesn’t stay, pleased that business is improving. Oliver’s car GPS has him visiting a go-kart facility in Manchester run by Matt Brandon (Alexander Cobb). He claims he didn’t know Oliver and presents himself as a do-gooder who runs an outreach program for kids. They turn over their cannabis; they get free go-kart rides—it’s an incentive to stay off drugs! 

Back at the station, Wendy reports the gun has a DNA match: Lewis, already in the system for an earlier drunk driving offense. Lewis changes his story, claiming he went with Oliver to the rave to protect him since he would meet some rough customers. He insists that when they arrived, Oliver changed his mind and sent him away, and (somewhat unbelievably) says he obediently drove his car home and went to sleep. 

However, it turns out the Jack stuff has not been a disconnected subplot: Darren’s latest discovery from the CCTV is that Jordan King, Jack’s stoner friend, is on the rave footage. Ridley’s smile fades as he sees Jack there, too. When Jack comes to work on the boat, Ridley asks about his tough year, including Season 1’s traumatic finale. Jack shrugs it off; he was a kid back then. But when Ridley asks about the rave, Jack denies knowing Oliver and hesitates when Ridley asks for help finding Jordan. He’s in Manchester and will meet Jack at the bus station. Ridley returns to the house to fix lunch as Jack tidies up, sneaking a package hidden in his backpack to the boat. 

Meanwhile, Matt finds Jack’s name and notices it’s the same as the officer who visited.

Carol is upset Ridley talked to Jack without consulting her before agreeing to bring Jordan in. (Hopefully, Jack will be kept out of it, having provided valid evidence that drives the case forward, but that bundle on the boat says differently.) Jordan is picked up and arrested when the cops find ecstasy and a half-kilogram of cocaine. He also denies knowing Oliver, although his phone records indicate otherwise. Carol says the courts may be lenient because he’s young and troubled, to which Jordan admits Matt ordered him to call Oliver about the rave and was planning to have Oliver killed. 

Carol and Ridley return to see Matt, pushing him to confess he’s been running a significant drug operation from his go-kart track. He denies it, denies knowing Oliver, and calls Jordan a liar. As they leave, intending to return with a search warrant, he asks Carol if she’s Jack’s mum, and Ridley has to pull her away before she does something she'll regret. When they return to the station, Ridley tells Paul Matt mentioned Jack; he doesn’t think it will damage the case, but Paul should check and ensure she’s okay. Carol tries to insist they should bring Matt in for her son’s safety, but Paul disagrees and reassigns Ridley to lead the case since she's emotionally compromised, leaving her betrayed and hurt. 

Darren is working his way through Oliver’s finances, trying to find more evidence about his relationship with Matt, and noted Jordan’s burner phone has been ringing continuously, indicating a very active drug operation. Back home, Jack is furious that his mom and Ridley arrested Jordan. In his teenage tantrum, he blurts out that he hasn't gotten over Carol not being there when he was kidnapped, that he needed her, and that work is more important than he is. He slams out, asking why there isn’t a dad when he needs one.

Ridley Season 2 continues with new episodes on Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on most local PBS stations, the PBS app, and the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel. PBS Passport members will have access to all episodes of Ridley Season 2 to watch as a binge (or as initially intended, i.e., as four two-hour-long episodes). As always, check your local listings and streamers.