[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Coldwater Season 1 Episode 3.]
Our fear becomes a reality in Coldwater Episode 3, streaming on Paramount+ as of January 23: Tommy (Ewen Bremner) is just as cold as we thought.
In the premiere, John (Andrew Lincoln) turns to his neighbor after he thinks he kills Angus (Lorn Macdonald), a member of the town he, his wife Fiona (Indira Varma), and their family recently moved to, during an encounter after an early confrontation. But, as we see at the end of the episode, it’s Tommy who really kills Angus when he goes to bury the body for his neighbor; he just lets John think he did. Then, at the end of Episode 2, Tommy’s about to kill John’s cat when his wife Rebecca (Eve Myles) appears. He doesn’t go through with it.
That changes in Episode 3. Tommy has John help him search for his son, and in doing so, attacks and chokes Catriona (Lois Chimimba) in front of him before letting her go. Then, at the end of the episode, Tommy kills John’s cat. Cruelty to animals is part of the Macdonald triad (a.k.a. the triad of sociopathy or the homicidal triad).
“I always find it fascinating about serial killers that when they’re young, they like killing animals and hurting animals. And I just thought it was interesting, if you have someone who has been a successful serial killer 20 years ago and their desire to kill is reignited and they’re trying to control their compulsion, the most obvious thing for them to do would be to harm a cat or a dog,” creator and writer David Ireland explains to TV Insider.
He continues, “So that just kind of made sense to me that — In Tommy’s head, he’s trying to do it so that he doesn’t have to kill John or anyone else because he’s trying to control his compulsions.”
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