Stephen Graham plays the mysterious Mannix in Bodies (Picture: Netflix)
*Warning: this contains spoilers for Bodies*
The same dead body landing on the same London street in four different time periods? Death by a gunshot but no exit wound? Confused already by Netflix’s new thriller Bodies, headed up by Stephen Graham?
Fear not, as the drama, which follows four detectives Hillinghead (Kyle Soller), Whiteman (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd), Hasan (Amaka Oskafor) and Maplewood (Shira Haas) investigating the same murder in 1890, 1941, 2023 and 2053 respectively, really boils down to one thing: love.
At least that’s how the time-travelling series’ creator, Paul Tomalin, who previously wrote episodes of No Offence and Torchwood, explained Bodies’ trajectory to Metro.co.uk ahead of its release. And he really ought to know.
Here’s Paul’s take on the eight-parter: ‘Jacob [Fortune-Lloyd], the actor who played Whiteman, said the show is very much about love but also more than anything it’s about the absence of love.
‘And when he said that I was like, “Christ, yeah.” And a lightbulb went off. It’s very much about what it’s like to feel unloved.’
The showrunner continued: ‘It’s very much about the isolation and burden of suffering when you’re not feeling loved and that was something that we discovered through the process of making it. It wasn’t something we went in with.
Paul explains Stephen’s character is acting out because of an absence of love (Picture: Netflix)
‘We went in with, “How the hell do we get to episode 8?” and we went in with, “How do we answer this conundrum in a satisfying way?’
‘But the theme that emerged via Stephen Graham’s character, and of course, his performance became really centralised on that and it’s very gratifying.’
If you’re still baffled, here’s a rundown of what happens in Bodies. Let’s begin where the show starts: with the mysterious dead male body.
Hillinghead is the first detective to investigate the body (Picture: Netflix)
So, first off, the dead body belongs to Defoe (Tom Mothersdale) who is part of an organisation called the Chapel Perilous, which is trying to bring a stop to Mannix’s (Stephen Graham) evil reign in 2053.
To end Mannix’s dictatorship in the future, Defoe has created a time machine with the hopes of going back in time to put a stop to Mannix.
However, Maplewood has been brainwashed by Mannix and serves as an officer for his government, keeping the nation under his rule. She has been tasked with bringing down Chapel Perilous.
Maplewood is initially working for Mannix but soon switches saids (Picture: Netflix)
Successfully infiltrating herself into Chapel Perilous headquarters where there’s an epic showdown she shoots Dafoe while he is half in the present and half in the time machine, sending his body to four different time zones.
Mannix also travels back to 1890 where he impersonates Lady Harcourt’s son, and becomes accepted as part of her family, and begins a Doomsday cult.
He arranges the killing of Hillinghead, the detective who suspects him of foul play in the murder of Defoe and marries his daughter Polly (Synnove Karlsen).
Hasan spearheads the movement to bring Mannix down (Picture: Netflix)
In 1941, an elder Polly (Anna Calder-Marshall) is manipulating Whiteman, who is also investigating Defoe’s murder, in order to successfully carry out her husband’s wishes.
In the present day, Hasan is the officer tasked with Defoe’s death and it dawns on her the same man was also found in previous eras.
She arrests a teenager called Elias (Gabriel Howell) in relation to the murder but he manages to still denote a nuclear bomb that destroys London and paves the way for Mannix’s dictatorship.
Jacob identified the series was about love and the absence of love (Picture: Netflix)
If you’re still with me, now let’s return to the future. Defoe isn’t the only member of Chapel Perilous in fact it is led by the older version of Hasan, who is determined to bring Mannix down.
They realise the only way to do so is to go back in time and prevent the chain of events from happening in the first place, therefore stopping the loop.
Maplewood, who shortly after shooting Defoe, recognises the error of her ways, switches sides and offers to go back in time herself.
Paul created and wrote Bodies, his first major solo TV project (Picture: Netflix)
The plan works and she successfully meets the first detective Hillinghead and convinces him to confront Mannix, telling him what happens in the future.
The message gets through to Mannix and, slowly, the loop alters, beginning instantly with Mannix not killing Hillinghead, which he had done in previous loops.
This change in the chain reaction means that Elias, who is revealed to be the younger self of Mannix and had been traumatised by the abandonment of his mother, decides not to detonate the bomb.
As Paul explained, Mannix had only ever set off the catastrophic blast because of the misplaced belief that being the nation’s leader would fill the void of being unloved.
But was there a moral of the story? Paul’s response? No.
He continued: ‘I don’t dial in to be given ever a moral. I think what is satisfying is when the idea is baked into every page, every word, every image.
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‘And so I hope that’s what happened, [a moral] certainly wasn’t a conscious attempt. I think the best writing is where you deliver a bit of your own unconscious and then everybody finds that similarity within it, I would hope.’
Bodies is available to stream on Netflix.
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