This has been brewing in my head for over a week and I need to procrastinate on my fics (yeah, I dunno, man, I'm writing THREE atm when I am usually pretty rigid about one at a time).
Anyway. Below are some (okay, a lot) of thoughts about Lisa and Kit (and the Weatherfield Police in general).
Oh ... I must preface this with: I LOVE Lisa Swain (Soon to be Connor-Swain). I do NOT like Kit Green. I am trying to remain objective but ... highly unlikely.
I have read quite a bit about DS Lisa Swain not being a good detective. This is not true.
Lisa is a good detective, she's got good instincts and asks the right questions. She gets stuff wrong because people lie or withhold information.
She knew Stephen Reid was a wrong 'un. She couldn't prove it. Did she plant evidence? Nope. She worked the case as best she could. She believed Carla but had no proof. She tried to get proof but was stymied because too many people knew Carla suspected Stephen and nobody knows how to keep their mouths shut. (This is a very basic read because I only caught some of that storyline). Peter did kill Stephen. Lisa overheard the conversation in the police station. Peter thought it was to save Jenny (whether it was or not is up for debate, apparently). I'm pretty sure we can chalk that up to - Peter's portrayer wanting to leave and this was a good way to give him a dramatic exit. Not to prison, obviously. The facts remain - Lisa knew but couldn't prove anything.
Roy. Yes, Lisa was wrong. I LOVE Roy ... but he really didn't do himself any favors even though he was Just. Being. Roy. Lisa is a cop. She didn't know Roy. Didn't understand why someone would pay an employee they'd fired or clean the apartment. (We can also point to the digging with a spade up near the bat roost as "suspicious"). All the evidence pointed to Roy. If we, the audience, didn' t KNOW Roy and his quirks, we'd have thought he'd done something to Lauren, too. But. Lisa kept an open mind about it because she listened to ALL those people who insisted Roy couldn't/wouldn't have hurt Lauren. All those people willing to LIE for Roy (and who Roy wouldn't allow to lie for him). The video that woman who claimed to Lauren's mother makes it look like Roy pushed her. Again, Lisa is doing her job - following the evidence. She knew Bobby was lying. Knew Carla was covering up for Bobby. Couldn't prove it but knew it. (Enter Roy and his honesty which is counterintuitive to his defense - but Lisa KNEW).
Then, all of a sudden, Nathan Curtis is arrested for the murder of Lauren Bolton when evidence was found in his van. Evidence. Lisa did her job, arrested Nathan, got Roy released. Because there was more damning evidence against Nathan. Then Lauren shows up and says it was Nathan.
KIt PLANTED the evidence. Lauren Lied (because Joel is scary. Joel is actually a really good villain - clever, charming, sociopath). Betsy withheld information.
How does that make her a bad detective? It does make Kit a CORRUPT one.
Lisa was on to Joel. Once Lauren came clean, the odd pieces finally slotted into place and she persued it relentlessly. Even after she was warned off it. Lisa finally tightened the noose and Joel was arrested. Thanks to Betsy (Finally) telling LIsa about the misoprostol. Betsy didn't tell her mom about Joel threatening her. (Sighs).
Joel runs and we get a whole other slew of people lying and misdirecting. Joel's plan was to make himself seem unstable, fake his death, and run off and hide. Joel's father lied to the police. DeeDee (intially) withheld information. She finds out about Betsy's involvement and is removed from the case. (Bad Lisa for assuming Mason had something to do with it because he had a crowbar and no alibi).
BUT ... she finds a clue. She tries to follow it up but gets nowhere (because she can't really properly follow it up because she's off the case). Red paint scratches. A red car hit another car, the night of Joel's murder. She's investigating the damaged mirror/stolen catalytic converter. She passes the info to Kit when she can't get any further on it.
Kit ... it was HIS CAR. HE saw Joel that night, that's when he crashed into the other car. He LIES ... tells Lisa it's a dead end. (Are we seeing a pattern for Kit, yet?). Kit arrests LISA (and is smug as hell about it, loving every minute of it).
Kit's got evidence. Lisa's CS spray. Broken phone. No alibi because she left the hospital before Joel was killed (which, forgive my ignorance, but how the HELL could they know WHAT TIME Joel was killed? Other than ... it was sometime after he left the voicemail for DeeDee? He was IN THE WATER for a week...that alone should have skewed TOD - but this is a digression). Now. Is Kit being purposefully stupid/obtuse or does he actually think that Lisa - all 5'3", 130lbs pounds of her could have killed Joel. Okay, with a rock. Sure, MAYBE with BROKEN RIBS she could have reached up and whacked Joel with enough force to kill him (probably not, though). Joel - who is SIX FEET tall. A full 9" taller than Lisa. So. Lisa, with broken ribs, managed to sneak up behind Joel, clobber him with a rock hard enough to KILL him (or at least knock him unconscious) ... but here's the best bit - she then (9" shorter and probably a good 50 pounds lighter) PICKED HIM UP and TOSSED HIM OVER THE RAILING.
Like, REALLY? And LISA is the bad detective?
Who actually solved that murder? Carla, DeeDee, and Lisa. (Max only confessed because Carla called him and Lauren out on it). But Lisa got to Ellie (with Craig's help). DeeDee convinced Lauren to come clean about who had actually hurt her (and fathered her child).
Moving on.
The Radcliffe Brothers. Lisa knew they were the ones that robbed Underworld. Knew they were the ones who hurt Carla. No evidence, no proof. Why? Because the chop shop LIED about their alibi. CCTV shows Matty's car right near Underworld at the time of the robbery. But the chop shop says "nope, he and his brother were here at that time". Lisa can't do anything about THAT. She knows it was them. No proof. And ... again, Betsy says nothing about what she knows. Lies, misdirections, and omissions - somehow she's a bad detective because she knows but can't PROVE anything? (Now, Kit ... I want to give him a break here because he knows it's them and he does what he can to reel Lisa in - get your head together, etc. But ... but ... Kit "jokingly suggests" banging them up for some unsolved crime. Lisa shoots it down. I 100% believe Kit would have stitched them up for something they didn't do.). Then Matty (cock little bastard) says something about Becky and sends Lisa REELING. And she KNOWS. She knows he knows something. ("I know what him lying looks like, he's been doing it to us all morning. This was different"). This was the start of LIsa's downward spiral culminating in the arrest of Brody that got her on suspension and into the therapist's office.
In and among all of that - she twigged IMMEDIATELY onto Rob and Mandy. Clocked that shit right away. Here's the one place where Lisa's black and white world goes gray. When it's about Carla. Carla needs a kidney and Lisa will do whatever it takes to get that kidney. She lies to Rob. Lies to Costello. Lies about what happened (doesn't tell them that Carla pushed Rob). To her credit - she did think Rob was dead. That was a mistake not a deliberate lie/misdirection just to get Carla to the hospital (although, I think she'd have lied even if she hadn't made a mistake).
But, I digress (again). Next up: Mick.
This one is the worst of it. Kit and Mick have history - and not the good kind. Mick took the rap for something Kit did. Not a good thing for Kit - having a criminal have dirt on you as a cop. So what does Kit do? "Handles" things. The guy at the Dog - n - Gun. *shrug* no CCTV, no witnesses to the fight in the carpark "he said/he said" Mick denies there was a row and the witness inside the pub (that he didn't even bother trying to track down) weren't "reliable" and "scarpered pretty quickly". Lisa knows Mick's a wrong 'un but she gave Kit the assignment and he let it slide.
Then, there's Gary. Again, Kit lets it slide ... another he said/he said (Funny how Gary was the only one busted up - but I don't actually care because it seems Gary's not exactly clean) ... Mick made a complaint about Gary. Nothing Kit can do. Tells Craig "it's being handled the right way through the proper channels" ... proper bullshit. Then he and Mick get into on the street. Lisa sees it. Kit lies.
Kit is the sole reason Craig died. Kit let Mick slide. Kit ditched Craig on their shadow/mentoring day. Kit wound Mick up about Lou's "loyalty" until Mick found out that Brody wasn't his. And Craig paid the price.
Kit has Mick beaten up in prison. Lisa covers for him. Lisa. Covers. For. Him. We know damn well that Kit would have thrown her under the bus (Oh, wait... he DID during the Joel Deering mess). I give Lisa a little slack here because 1) she's got no proof - just that Kit told her and he'd lie if she told Costello and B) it was Craig which made it emotionally sloppy.
She makes the Brody mistake (and yeah, she was out of line arresting Brody. Not 100% out of line but...yeah.) ... he didn't tell her what the pills were for but Kit can't WAIT to have a go at her for it.
(I'm ignoring the whole Blecky mess because, honestly? Neither Kit nor Lisa had a chance in hell at unraveling that mess with Blecky AND Costello spinning lie after lie ... Lisa was too emotionally invested. Kit eventually put it all together ... with Carla and Sarah's help.)
Now we're onto the whole Mal thing.
I don't blame Kit for having a go at Mal. If Mal was harassing my mother, I'd have probably taken a baseball bat (or my cane) to his head. My argument here is ... just come clean. Take your discipline and get past it. But no. He comes >thisclose< to doing the right thing to get Bernie off but then doesn't have to because she has an alibi. He lets Dev sit in jail overnight (it's a good thing Dev forgave Bernie). He lies to Lisa's face about not doing it.
Lisa KNOWS something is up. She KNOWS Bernie is hiding something. Again ... she's being lied to and misled.
So, there you have it. My take on Lisa and Kit. It's hard when you know something but can't prove it. There's no evidence. You're lied to and sent in the wrong direction.
As for her "losing" official stuff:
Yes, losing her door pass was careless.
Her CS spray was stolen out of her bag (which, is a little weird because Lisa rarely carries an actual purse/bag). Careless? Eh. More like - too trusting. She didn't expect Lauren to go through her bag and steal from her.
Her warrant card? Was in her personal binder. On her engagement island. In her home. That was straight up theft and not something Lisa could have (or should have had to) account for.
Ok. I think I'm done with this. Probably. Maybe. I might revisit it when I've had more than two hours' sleep.
I've added my additional posts to the bottom of this:
Apr 14
And another thing...
Kit scared off the witness who could identify him as Mal's attacker.
Lisa telling him "give me a reason" (to believe Kit over Mal)...she EARNED that promotion. She KNOWS ... She just can't PROVE.
#lisa swain#ds Lisa Swain#kit green#I will fight anyone#who says she's not a good detective
Apr 16
More on Lisa vs Kit
So.
I was thinking about the ep when Eva calls Lisa DC Swain and Lisa corrects her and a lot of people seemed to be - put off? - by that. And Eva and Ben exchange a look.
Look.
Somewhere in my posts is a whole ramble about Lisa being a good detective. I won't rehash it all here (you're welcome).
That said. Lisa is a woman - a queer woman - in a straight male dominated field (I'm not mentioning race because they're both white so that's "equal" footing *eyeroll*). She's small for a copper. Some would say tiny, others would say petite.
She effing EARNED that Detective Sergeant title. She SHOULD correct people when they get it wrong because I can almost guarantee she had to work harder for her career than DC Kit "bent copper" Green has and HE garners more respect.
Eva should know that Lisa is a DS. She and Carla are friends - you can't tell me that Carla hasn't bragged about her fiancee - the DS.
But even if she didn't (for whatever reason, or forgot) - she should have had more respect for Lisa. Lisa was there on official business (don't get me started on Maggie thinking it was okay to call her Lisa) and should have been afforded - at minimum - the same respect that DC Green would have been afforded had he shown up there.
You can't tell me ANYONE would make the mistake of calling Kit, PC Green. Or would take offense at him correcting them.
Pfft.
Lookit that - you're getting a lot of random ramblings tonight (because I was so damn productive last night, I had nothing figured out for my fics to work on tonight).
