Family Drama Takes the Wheel in 'Happy Valley' Season 3's Third Episode
After the panicked tension of last week’s episode of Happy Valley, culminating in Catherine’s surprise confrontation with Clare in a Sheffield cafe after she drove Ryan to see Tommy Lee Royce in prison, Episode 3 takes a slower pace, focusing on the emotional repercussions of Ryan’s rendezvous with his incarcerated father. We pick up immediately after Episode 2’s cliffhanger, as the Cawood sisters talk in wounded, combative terms; Catherine wants the whole story, except for all the bits she already knows, like all the instances where Tommy Lee Royce acted in violent, sadistic ways to hurt her loved ones.
The details are what we assumed: Ryan’s been sending his dad letters since Frances Drummond gave him his address, but it wasn’t until he moved up to Sheffield that Tommy Lee could sneak out letters back to his son. Clare and Neil weren’t coerced into accompanying Ryan on his visits; the reality is rather more complex and difficult. Ryan pushed them into helping him, which Catherine doesn’t believe outright, even though we know the idea of Clare and Neil being so affected by Ryan’s distress checks out. He’s upset he was denied a relationship with his dad and that he’s been kept so in the dark about his parents that he’s in a prime position to sympathize with Tommy Lee.
As Clare points out, Ryan may be the only person on the planet Royce could have a meaningful, genuine relationship with – even if, as Catherine stresses, he tried to set fire to him as a kid. It’s not that Royce deserves a good relationship with his son. Still, there does exist the possibility Ryan can leave a positive impact on his dad, and any improvement on his monstrous character should be welcome. It’s clear when we see Tommy Lee and Ryan together (where in another act of self-delusion, TLR promises they’ll go bungee-jumping together) that Ryan brings out something honest and caring in his father – even if the ways he intimidates Neil show how little he’s willing to change for others.
