Lockerbie: A Search for Truth – Episode 4 Recap & Review

Episode 4

Episode 4 of Lockerbie: A Search for Truth begins with Jim discussing his evidence, which includes the numerous flights, the timings and the suitcases that appear to have been put on at Heathrow. As a result of everything he’s uncovered, Jim is convinced that the two standing trial right now are innocent.

At the trial, Fhimah is found not-guilty while al-Megrahi is found guilty. al-Megrahi gets life behind bars and while the officials all shake hands and believe this is a job well-done, Jim collapses.

We then cut forward to September 11th, 2001. This is 8 months after the verdict and, as we know, the world is rocked by the World Trade Center disaster. As a result of this, al-Megrahi’s appeal is unsurprisingly refused.

March 2002 is our next time jump and here, al-Megrahi is moved to a secure unit over at Balinnie Prison in Glasgow, Scotland. As a result of all this, Jim causes a bigger wedge between him and his family, as he becomes convinced that al-Megrahi is innocent.

Jim has not let this case go in the slightest, despite promises to Jane a few episodes back, and he’s also still working alongside Murray too. al-Megrahi does get a second appeal though, and Jim shows up to see Roderick McGill, who happens to be part of the defence team for al-Megrahi.

Jim does manage to meet al-Megrahi at the prison though, which ties us into the start of episode 1. Face to face, he confirms that he didn’t kill Flora, and knowing the case as well as he does, Jim vows to do everything in his power to get the right result, and his conviction overturned.

Jim speaks to Murray after a year of all this ongoing and tries to make a deal with him. He can get an interview with al-Megrahi, but of course the world has moved on and with the shadow of 9/11 and the war on terror, there are better news pieces to work on. And, as he’s reminded here, a lot of people are convinced al-Megrahi is guilty and have moved on.

Jim heads back home and realizes that he’s losing his family. His kids are barely around, nor are the grandchildren, and Jane wants to leave the house and sell it as there are way too many bad memories there.

In the midst of all this, Jim continues to pursue the investigation regardless, and he ends up speaking to a man named Robert Baer, who’s a former CIA operative, about this. The man has released a book and is convinced that the Flight was bombed by Iran. They had iron-clad proof they were behind this but the US administration shelved it. Why? Well, with the war on terror beginning and needing Iran on side, the finger was pointed at Libya. Thus, al-Megrahi was the fall-guy.

Fast forward to 2007 and the review commission finally deliver their verdict… and it goes back to the appeal. A year later and Murray appears to have found documents withheld from the trial and the public which confirms that Libya was innocent in all of this, but the document in question was buried. Unfortunately, Murray flies too close to the sun and a year later, they have to drop the case. They can’t run it with the paper because they’ll be sued to the degree of tanking the entire paper under the weight of legal fees.

Murray speaks to Jim, who wants to publish this with another newspaper, but Murray doesn’t think this is a particularly good idea. Even worse, everything is thrown out when Jim finds out that al-Megrahi has prostate cancer. He’s devastated when he learns of this news but is determined to clear the Libyan’s name and not let him take the fall as the Lockerbie bomber.

The only play here though to get al-Megrahi out of prison is to basically be released on compassionate grounds. But of course, none of the leaders believe this should be done.

On the 20th anniversary of the bombing, which happens to be 21st December 2008, Jim and Jane are still at loggerheads, especially with Jim wearing a badge that reads “Justice for Megrahi”. They’re on opposite sides of the room, barely talking, and Jim is basically shunned by everybody, who don’t want to talk to him.

Jane is convinced that all of this is just Jim’s way of processing grief, and Jane pleads with him to try and see reason here, given he’s missing everything in his life. However, Jim refuses to let it go and Jane walks away, exasperated.

The Episode Review

Seeing Jim so fixated on this case, unaware that he’s basically destroying his entire family in the process, is a tough pill to swallow. He’s missing out on the lives of Will and Cathy all in the pursuit of the truth. It’s definitely somewhat of a dilemma because on the one hand, his search for finding out what happened to Flora has torn everything in his life apart and is continuing to do so, alienating him from everyting, but simultaneously, you have to admire his dedication to the case too.

With the list of allies growing thin and everyone having moved on, trying to put their lives back together, is it time for Jim to follow suit and do the same? We’ll find out in the finale!