‘Get Millie Black’ Gives Janet A Voice In Episode 4, But She Has Surprising Things To Say

Get Millie Black has spoken in the voice of the oppressed since it began, but Episode 4 makes that literal by handing narration duties over to Janet. She won’t get the chance again, to be fair, since she gets shot in the back of the head later, but nevertheless it’s nice to hear her perspective.

It’s nicer, I think, that she’s absolutely awful. Janet has fulfilled a damsel function in the plot thus far but the most compelling aspect of this installment is that she has a surprising amount of ruthlessness and agency. She put the moves on Freddie, knowing she could manipulate him as a way out of Jamaica. She’d kill the baby Jesus if given the opportunity, which is… quite the claim.

Anyway, picking up from the cliffhanger ending of Episode 3, Janet is alive. Freddie, on the other hand, is not – Stennet shot him dead. However, he was alive long enough to pique Millie’s suspicions about Holborn, so she takes Janet and flees without taking her back to the station. This relationship looks a bit like how you’d expect it to look, with Millie doing the obligatory “motherly” things like washing Freddie’s blood off Janet and trying to keep her safe, but it becomes obvious really quickly that Janet isn’t as much of a victim as we’ve been led to believe.

This isn’t lost on Millie. When Janet isn’t forthcoming with information she reminds her that she was highly complicit in trafficking Romeo; she basically handed him over on a plate. But it’s also obvious that Millie has few places she can turn. Despite her suspicions about Holborn, Meera is still adamant that he’s clean, and until his corruption is exposed, Millie can’t trust her own department.

But Holborn knows that Millie knows – or he suspects, anyway. His Sanguis Meridian handler wants him to start cleaning up, which he thinks he’s slightly above – there are the white man tendencies coming out, I suppose – but understands it is necessary. So he trails the one person he knows will support Millie in her time of need – Curtis.

At this point, I don’t know how I feel about Millie’s decision-making. Her back is against the wall for sure, and she’s desperate, but taking Janet to the Gully imperils Hibiscus and everyone else there, who’re already marginalized, to begin with, and continuing to involve Curtis in her schemes, knowing how Daniel feels about that, is difficult to justify. Curtis was shot way back in Episode 1 and has been limping around in Millie’s shadow ever since. I’m not confident about his future.

Gershwyn Eustace Jnr and Tamara Lawrance in Get Millie Black | Image via WarnerMedia

Either way, he agrees to meet Millie at Somertime Tours, the travel agency that was being used as a front for the trafficking operation. Holborn follows. The building is empty aside from the rotting body of Miss Val, who ran the operation and has evidently been offed to cover its tracks. But the smell gives Janet an opportunity to feign nausea and flee. Since Holborn is lurking nearby, he spots her leaving and follows. He loses her quickly, but she eventually calls him to pitch a deal. Remember, the underlying arc of Get Millie Black Episode 4 is how Janet is ambitious to a fault, and what she’s doing here, unbeknownst to her, is guaranteeing her own death.

In the meantime, Millie’s questionable decision-making continues. More flight logs – this time for upcoming bookings instead of past ones – lead her to Daphne, who is supposed to fly to London the next day following a very sudden job offer, and Millie’s plan is to replace her with a stand-in, despite the potential risk to Daphne’s family if the deception is exposed. We’ll return to this ill-advised plan in a minute, but in the meantime, Millie is pulled away by a call from Hibiscus. Holborn has her captive.

This is the big moment in Janet’s arc, since of course targeting Hibiscus was her idea. She emerges in the stand-off feeling very pleased with herself about how she manipulated Freddie, escaped Millie, and then arranged all this with Holborn. But she overlooks a crucial detail – she’s a loose end. So, while she’s monologuing, Holborn shoots her in the back of the head. This gives Hibiscus a brief window to attack him, and she and Millie are able to escape, leaving Holborn’s fate unknown (though I strongly suspect he’s alive and will be back before long.)

Millie’s going alone from this point. She has a fake passport with her picture and Daphne’s details, and she’s heading back to London to save Romeo, with no help from Barracat and the station, having left behind Hibiscus (again) and Curtis, whom she implores to keep her sister safe. I imagine Holborn won’t be far behind her, or he’ll remain in Jamaica to try and clean up the loose ends in the form of Hibiscus and Curtis. Things are unlikely to go well.