Summary
“Guy” has some courtroom drama but nowhere near enough in a chapter that gets the balance a little off, making for a weak instalment.
This recap of The Twelve season 1, episode 6, “Guy”, contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
Check out our spoiler-free season review.
The selling point of The Twelve is its balancing of a facts-first murder-mystery with various character-driven personal subplots, and thus far, that balance has been just right. But here in The Twelve episode 6, “Guy”, things tip a little too much to one side, pulling the action away from the courtroom, leading to little progression and the least engaging instalment yet.
In the obligatory flashback, we see Stefaan and Britt setting up the titular Guy. In the present day, we also see Mike exhibit the classic patterns of the abuser, while Carl and Juliette continue to beef, Yuri and Bjorn try to buy off the wife of their dead illegal construction worker, Arnold continues to have very little bearing on matters, and Frie holds out hope that Stefaan will be revealed as having probable cause for murdering Britt.
Given the episode’s title, though, it’s only right that we hear from Guy, the cattle farmer who was pegged as the main suspect for ages, though seemingly has no evidence of his alibi. Curiously, he seems particularly suspicious in regards to Britt’s vandalized student room, which from the opening we know he wasn’t responsible for. But the idea that he’s any kind of legitimate suspect is never really felt here in The Twelve episode 6. The key development is that the father of Britt’s unborn child was her professor, not Stefaan, which gives Frie the probable cause for murder she was hoping for.
It’s difficult to care about much else in The Twelve season 1, episode 6. There’s a lot of time devoted to Arnold that feels like it isn’t really going anywhere other than perhaps to emphasize the effect of mounting stress, but it feels superfluous in the grand scheme of things. The other jurors continue to deliberate and enjoy some further development, but for now, this focus feels misplaced. I know the temptation must be there to stay well away from the courtroom after the big revelation to keep the audience on tenterhooks, but the supporting drama here isn’t uniform in its quality or, I think, its importance.
While The Twelve episode 6 deploys its last-minute reveal to stop attention from wavering, I can’t help but be reminded again how much better served this show might have been with a couple fewer episodes.
