Get Millie Black – Season 1 Episode 1 Recap & Review

Millie

Get Millie Black Season 1 Episode 1 starts with Millie narrating how she feels haunted by a ghost. She takes us back to her younger days when she and her brother, Orville, lived with their mom after their dad abandoned them. Millie’s mom was not happy when she realised that Orville was queer. She kept beating him, and one day, Millie stood up for him. This saw her mom sending her to London to live with relatives. Her mom only called once to tell her that Orville was dead.

Since then, Millie felt like she let her brother down and carried a guilty conscience. However, when her mom died, Millie was stunned to discover her brother was alive. She parks up her life in London and moves back to Jamaica.

In Jamaica, Millie joined the local police department and partnered up with Curtis to solve crimes, mostly cases involving children. On the ride to work, Millie confides in Curtis that she is worried about Orville. He is no longer Orville but Hibiscus. She is living in the Gully, and Millie wants her to come live in their newly renovated childhood home. However, Hibiscus is not ready to face the ghost of her mom.

Upon arriving at the station, their boss gives them a new case and directs them to a nun waiting. Sister Agatha is concerned that one of her good students, Janet, has been missing for two weeks. Unfortunately, Janet’s mom is too busy to care about Janet’s whereabouts, and Janet’s dad is long gone. Sister Agatha says that she once saw a car pick up Janet, but this was unusual behaviour for Janet.

The detectives track Janet’s mother, but she is uncooperative. She suggests that Janet is probably working as a prostitute and is probably off with one of her men. Millie finds this offensive since Sister Agatha described Janet as a good girl. They look inside Janet’s room and find a card from a popular bar, Hot Pinky.

As they drive to the club, Millie gets a message that Hibiscus is arrested. She drops by. The police station to pick her up. Millie is concerned that Hibiscus has bruises and was found prostituting. She brings her to the club with her and talks to the manager. The manager is uncooperative, but one of the strippers informs Millie that Janet has been around with the landlord.

In the meantime, Hibiscus sneaks out and returns to the Gully. The man in question is Freddie Somerville, the only son of the richest family in Jamaica. Freddie is known to be a paedophile, but thanks to his parents’ wealth, he gets away with it every time.

The two detectives drive to the Sommerville mansion and find the family celebrating. However, Freddie is nowhere in sight. Freddie’s dad doesn’t appreciate the interrogation and threatens to call the police chief. He kicks the detective out, but Millie sneaks into the kitchen and speaks to the housemaid. The housemaid reveals that Janet might have been pregnant. She saw Janet carrying a bag from a baby shop boutique.

At the Hot Pinky Club, another man, Corsica, drops looking for Freddie. The manager tells him the same thing she told the police. Once Corsica leaves, the manager asks one of her men to follow Corsica. She hopes that Freddie is in trouble, which will be good for them.

After a long day, Millie signs off for the day and meets with Hibiscus for dinner. Sadly, Hibiscus is not open to moving into their childhood home or giving up her life on the streets. The two get into an argument, and Hibiscus leaves. Millie ends up taking the bartender back to her house for some stress-relieving sex.

The next morning, Curtis picks her up, and they continue looking into the case. The detectives visit the boutique and discover Janet was there with Freddie. However, she bought clothes for a big kid, mostly 8-10 years old. While there, they get a radio message that someone was shot on one of Sommerville’s properties. They quickly head to the crime scene. They are welcomed by an incompetent detective who insists that Freddie was killed in a robbery gone wrong.

As Millie inspects the scene, she takes one of the letters and snoops around to find a positive pregnancy test in the trash. Despite the victim’s badly bashed-in face, Millie figures out that the victim is not Freddie. She argues that the victim was an intruder who Freddie overpowered. As she theorises, the police chief arrives along with Superintendent Luke Holborn of Scotland. Millie isn’t pleased that her case is turning out to be more complicated.

She confronts the police chief and demands to know why the Superintendent is there. She believes that Freddie might be a witness to something big and is a police witness on the run. The police chief doesn’t confirm or deny Millie’s assumptions. She asks Millie to find Janet before it is too late. Later, Millie talks to Luke and realises Luke doesn’t care about Janet. He only wants Freddie, and this makes the situation more dire for Janet.

Later that night, Hibiscus and her other sisters from the Gully are attacked on their way from a gig. The homophobic attack leads to one of them dying.

As the day wraps up, she gets a call from the bar manager, who informs her that Freddie might be hiding in the Hills. They check and discover Freddie’s mom has a house there. They call for backup but breach the house, since the backup is running later. They find Janet, but no sign of Freddie. As they try to convince Janet to leave with them, the hitmen of Freddie’s back arrive. A shoot-out ensues, and Curtis is shot.

The Episode Review

This first episode set a good stage for what the show is about. The show follows Millie as she struggles with the ghosts from her past. It was a genius move to have Millie narrate throughout the show because she doesn’t hold back. She talks about the history of Jamaica and what the people have had to endure. She calls out the effects of slavery and racism. The narration adds a heartfelt element to this intriguing police procedural show, giving it a unique charm.

One of the themes we see in this show is homophobia and transphobia. Sadly, Hibiscus suffered a lot of violence at the hands of her mom. It is probably why she left and went to live in the Gully. It was so wrong of Millie’s mom to lie and say that Hibiscus died. While many people may not understand sexuality and gender issues, it doesn’t make it right for them to attack queer people.

We also have the theme of corruption and how powerful people get away with crimes. However, I find it ironic that Millie is doing the same while judging others for it. She bribes the police to set her sister free and bribes the stripper to give them information, but has a problem with Freddie’s dad doing the same for his son. It is a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black!