Criminal Record Season 2 Episode 6 Review: June & Hegarty’s Power Struggle Turns the Case Into a Sh*tshow

Hegarty is out, and June is in charge. But for how long?

Criminal Record Season 2 Episode 6 delivers power plays as Hegarty and June spend much of the hour at odds with each other and trying to weaponize “mummy” against one another to dizzying effect.

Meanwhile, Billy is definitely in it to win it after all!

JP Lives!

In news that is a relief, JP is alive and kicking after all, in no small part because the bombmaker for this little terrorist shindig was the person who took the bulk of the blast.

And by taking on the bulk of it, he got hit so badly he was basically vaporized.

Ultimately, the relief is that JP actually survived that ordeal, and shockingly didn’t sustain too many awful injuries or burns despite the explosion.

The man even looked hot in a hospital bed.

Where things get awkward is that his equally hot fiancée returned from Iceland to be with him, and her run-in with June in the hospital certainly was a dose of cold water on whatever was brewing between JP and June.

But the hour puts JP in a quiet, interesting position right now: June isn’t entirely sure whether he was in on some of Hegarty’s shadiness, but he’s still an integral part of the investigation that’s been repeatedly taking hits because Billy is still contacting JP as his point person.

I don’t think there’s any way that JP knew half of the things that Hegarty was up to, though.

That man is an enigma wrapped in a paradox, and he keeps way too much of what he’s doing close to the vest, with Kim being the only person who comes remotely close to knowing even half of what he’s supposed to.

Cosmo’s Billy Thirst Is At the Center of It All

Hegarty tends to keep JP in the dark almost as much as June.

But the plan was exactly as we could’ve guessed. Tony was the one who gave Hegarty intel on Cosmo, which is why he was so fixated on taking him down.

Tony, the disgraced cop, wasn’t a reliable source to put on the books, but Hegarty could create the circumstances he needed to dive into Cosmo, and Billy was the perfect way to do that. So he broke Billy out of prison.

Why? Because Cosmo’s infatuation with Billy has been the man’s Achilles heel this entire time. Hegarty isn’t wrong about Cosmo being “sweet” on Billy.

It seemed to physically pain him when he had to lock Billy away until he could ensure that Billy wasn’t a rat.

And the second he had his rendition of confirmation, he was right behind that door with Billy, giving him the pain meds he took from him like some peace offering, showering him with affection, and holding him like a cross between a parent and their child or a lover.

Cosmo is so gone for Billy.

And we learned from Hegarty that he spent all of Billy’s time locked away, sending him gifts and visiting him, claiming that Billy faced an injustice when they sent him away.

Hegarty Pulls the Strings

Hegarty finally copped to depriving Billy of his meeting with Cerys’ mother to ensure he had the leverage against Billy since the kid turned him down when he asked him to turn on Cosmo the first time.

He’s such a maverick that it’s not even a surprise that he would move like that to take down Cosmo. Hegarty has always operated outside the lines to get something done.

This is no different than what we can usually expect from him.

But June clashing with him over this is not unexpected either.

I do wonder if their investigations could go a long way if Hegarty actually kept June in “the know” and didn’t keep her in the dark and mislead her so much.

Would she be so determined to seek out a superior to course-correct him if she actually knew what he was doing? It’s hard to say.

But they spent most of the hour feeling like two kids tattling to their mother the whole time.

And for now, Hegarty’s mechanizations and manipulations have so annoyed his boss that he’s been benched, and now June is running the investigation.

Hegarty vs June = A Shitshow

It really turned into too much of a clusterfuck to ignore. Because even if they salvage this case, so much has happened that a good defense attorney could have a field day with it.

Billy went offline, and they couldn’t tell whether he had gone rogue. JP nearly died.

And the primary suspect for not only the bomb threats but Rohaan’s murder was blown up in the explosion.

Without a body or solid evidence tying him to the crime, it means all the people Cosmo stirred up will still be out here saying Rohaan didn’t exist… that nobody died.

Of course, it still would’ve mattered, justice.

But despite everything that transpired, this plan to set off bombs is still on. Arresting Cosmo’s men, especially when he’s already telling his followers the cops are after him, won’t stop any of this.

In defense of Hegarty, everyone’s getting distracted by how he got Operation Samphire off the ground in the first place, and, aside from his methods and behavior, he’s not wrong about this plan and the lingering threat.

How long do we think they’ll have Hegarty on suspension?

Billy Remains the Secret Weapon

Billy told JP that the plan is happening the next day, so something tells me Hegarty’s suspension can’t last long. He’s not wrong to say they’ll be calling him soon enough.

There’s also the matter of the team not respecting June the same way they respect Hegarty, especially Kim. He’s pissed off about her being a “Judas” and throwing Hegarty under the bus.

And he’s not the type who won’t publicly make a big deal about it and challenge June’s authority in front of everyone.

With June planning to shut all of this down and wrap everything up, they risk stopping a terrorist attack.

It goes back to how Hegarty had to remind June that they’re about preventives in his unit, not about capturing criminals after crimes happen.

Billy’s phone call is a game-changer, which means June will likely have to readjust her plan or even step back out of the way for Hegarty.

Billy has been the character who continues to impress me. I didn’t know where he stood a few times, but it’s clear he’s on a redemption mission, trying to take down Cosmo or at least stop this terrorist attack.

Every time he sees a vision of Cerys, it’s clear that his guilt is eating away at him, and he’s trying to make amends through this.

But he still has to be careful. Kieran likely won’t trust him much back in the locker.

And he’s still in contact with his dark web friends, who seem insistent on going after June. So that’s more danger lurking in the distance.

Over to you, Criminal Record Fanatics.

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