What is your opinion on Hardy's canon relationship with Claire? Do you think they actually slept together? I feel like that's the impression Chibnall tries to give us, but I have a hard time picturing Hardy doing something like that. This has been torturing me for ages, I'd love to hear someone else's thoughts on it.
Hardy never had a relationship with Claire and he never had sex with Claire. Definitively. End of story.
Chibnalldangles the possibility that Alec and Claire had been sexual partners to implythat he is Leeās rival for Claireās love. This invites comparison between Lee and Alec as lovers. Lee is violent, sexual, possessive,inconstant, selfish; Alec is selfless, supportive, doting, patient, respectful,undemanding. The hints, of course, come to nothing, and it is clear Hardy had noromantic interest in Claire whatsoever. All Hardyās love and care is wrapped up in Miller.
The implication that Claire and Hardy were lovers serves another point. A big question people ask is - why did Claire stay with Hardy when she really was involved with the murders? Why stay so close to the detective? The answer is because she could manipulate him. Hardyās Achilles heel is his self-sacrificing nature and his willingness to do anything to protect the innocent. All Claire has to do is play the damsel in distress and Hardy cannot help but drop everything to protect her. Watch the way Claire talks to him in early S2. She uses the phrase āI needed youā a lot because she just knows Hardy wonāt be able to resist that siren song. Someone needs him? Someone requires his protection? Of course heās going to drop everything to help.
Ellie Miller is the person who breaks this spell. S2 starts with Hardy ignoring Claireās calls because he wants to stay focused on Ellie and Joeās case. So she comes and finds him and bats her eyes and says sheās in danger. Later on, Ellie meets Claire. She can see somethingās not right almost straight away, and she tells Hardy. Very slowly, the veil is lifted.
What I love about this is Hardy knows his weakness. He knows heās too close to the situation. In S1 he always told Ellie to look at things objectively, to look at things from the outside. With Sandbrook and everything he went through with Pippa and Claire and Daisy, heās aware that heās too emotionally invested to solve this case, which is why he turns to Ellie. He takes his own advice and recognises his own faults. He says: āI canāt do it on my own.ā āI sort of need your help.ā āI need Miller.ā Thereās no macho bullshit about needing to do it alone, or not trusting Millerās judgement, or being unable to accept his shortcomings. Heās very frank and honest, and he accepts that, hey, Iām too close to this situation. I need someone to look at it objectively. I want Miller to help me because I trust her and sheās the best person for the job.
Even Ricky believes he can manipulate Hardy into believing his innocence. Hardy empathises with Ricky as the father of a murdered girl the same age as Daisy. He thinks he can convince Hardy that Lee, the predatory outsider, is to blame. And what does Hardy say to him? āYou really want to help? Talk to Miller here.ā Ellie interviews Ricky and Hardy sits out completely because he knows his input would be a liability at this stage.
(I could go on for HOURS about how powerful that is as a feminist narrative and how much itās a fuck you to traditional detective tropes. How often does our broody loner detective man quite freely admit āI canāt do this, I need help, specifically the help of this woman whom I trust absolutely and adoreā? Alec Hardy: feminist. But thatās for another time.)
Bit by bit, Ellieās investigation helps Hardy break free of Claireās grip. As they walk through the forest near the river, Hardy complains that Claire and Ashworth and the Gillespies are constantly screwing around with him. Ellie says, āwell, the stress the put you under, do it to them. Start with Claire.ā
Hardy calls Claire. He says abruptly, āItās me. I think weāre done. I was protecting you from Lee, you donāt want that anymore. You keep changing your story about what happened. This isnāt working, Claire, I need you to move out.ā Claireās immediate response is, āAlec, where are you? Letās talk about this face to face.ā
Just like in S02E01 she knows that she can manipulate him if she speaks to him face to face. But Hardy refuses. He has Ellieās backing. With Ellie, he can be sure heād doing the right thing. Claire is bewildered. Sheās had him so tightly wrapped around her finger she genuinely canāt believe Hardy would kick her out.
āItās over, Claire.ā The camera pans around, showing Miller standing behind him.
He looks at her for support. She nods, telling him he did the right thing. Cut back to Claire, and sheās in shock. If Hardyās not in her control it means sheās in danger. She mutters, āshit. Shit.ā She turns over all the furniture and screams.Ā
Hardy kicking Claire out is definitely scripted to sound like a break-up, but as we see all the hints about a relationship between them amount to the secret that Hardy was her emotional support when she had an abortion. What this tells us is that Claire was manipulating and controlling Hardy, but not with sex. She gave him what he really needed: someone to look after. A chance to play the knight in shining armour. With wife and daughter gone, the only person who needed him was Claire Ripley, and boy did she know how to use that to her advantage.
When Hardy says āMiller, I couldnāt have done this without you,ā he is absolutely right. Without Millerās brilliance as a detective and her emotional support, he would never have broken free. Sandbrook would have killed him if not for her.Ā And he knows it, he fucking knows it and heās so grateful to her and he loves her SO MUCH. After Tess and the mess he got himself into with Claire, Ellie emerges as the dominant woman in his life. He loves her and trusts her more than anything. Heās protective of her, but itās not in an unhealthy way. He doesnāt treat her like his damsel. Sheās his friend and he protects her and helps her and she protects him too. Itās a mutually beneficial partnership, a real, healthy friendship and love that is polarised against his toxic relationship with Claire, and further contrasted against the even more toxic relationship between Lee and Claire.
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