Stateless – Episode 3 Recap & Review

The Right Thing

Cameron & The Guards

Episode 3 of Stateless begins with Clare facing the media and answering questions regarding the safety of the compound. At the same time guards mobilize, desperate to find the leak and who was responsible for smuggling the camera inside. Eventually they do find it and Clare is put under pressure by Genevieve to uncover what really happened.

Brian approaches Cam, Harriett and Sully with the security footage and reminds them that what’s happened is a serious situation. Harriet pleads with the others to stick together but Cam is not so sure. Cameron’s relaxed approach comes back to bite him though when he returns to visit his sister Janice and sees one of the nuns in the house with her.

Cam finally opens up to Ange about what happened inside the detention centre and she encourages him to speak up and tell the truth. Tell the truth he does; in his interview Cameron reveals to Brian exactly what really happened that day.

Clare learns the beaten UNC was telling the truth and on the back of this reveal, watches the security footage as Sister Bernadette is stopped. As she scrambles down to check the nuns, she a mobile phone hidden inside a fried chicken. Cam’s compassion comes back to bite him again and Clare takes Javid aside – Bernadette’s contact in the Detention Centre – and learns there’s going to be a protest on Sunday, promising the photos are just the beginning. Unfortunately Clare has heard enough and takes him to isolation.

Despite him telling the truth and coming clean about the beating, Cam learns that none of the officers are being fired for what happened.

Ameer

Ameer and Mina have a good chance of getting a VISA following what happened. Mina struggles to wake her Father though, instead heading to the cafeteria and picking up some food. Farid promises to help Ameer while Sofie distracts the guard long enough to let Mina slip out the back with food for Ameer.

Farid stays true to his word and a chemist arrives that evening to check on Ameer. Together with Mina, they get him to his feet and encourage him to head outside and go for a walk. Harriet approaches though and forces the chemist to leave as it’s past midnight.

Ameer finally awakens and notices blood on the bed-sheets next to him. With his older daughter huddled up in a ball, he promises to be there for Mina as he looks on solemnly.

Later in the day, he and Mina sit together and he notices Mohsin has arrived at the compound. Something happened during the time they ran away together but for now, that remains a mystery.

Sofie

After her act in the cafeteria earlier in the episode, her case worker Jason learns she’s lying about her identity and realizes she’s stolen Eva’s name. However, she refuses to let up on who she really is.

In the wake of this, Sofie is approached with a proposition from Javad (prior to him being thrown in isolation of course) and asked to be the voice for the other UNCs inside the compound; an ironic juxtaposition to GOPA and their message. As we soon see, Margot is desperate to find Sofie and confronts Gordon about his operation and what’s really going on there.

Sofie seizes her opportunity in the wake of a fight breaking out in the cafeteria and heads outside. Only, when she does she runs into Rosna, the girl she took clothes from in the previous episode, and demands Sofie stop watching her. As the episode draws to a close, Sofie notices a hole in the ground being hidden and tells Rosna she wants to join their escape attempt.

The Review Write-Up

As we hit the halfway point of this mini-series, Stateless moves the focus onto what’s happening inside the Detention Centre. With an escape imminent and Javad’s reveal of an upcoming protest, it looks like we’re in for quite the dramatic set of episodes to come. So far Stateless has done a great job balancing the slice of life immigration issues with more intimate character developments and the three-narrative approach is something that works surprisingly well here to balance out the perspective across all walks of life.

Honest, poignant and at times heartbreaking, Stateless is shaping up to be a very good limited series.