'Broadchurch' Season 2 Primer: Who's Who

Broadchurch, 2013’s ultimate TV whodunit, returns to BBC America on March 4 for a second season that picks up with the trial of Joe Miller, the man accused of murdering 11-year-old Danny Latimer. In an unexpected twist (considering viewers saw Joe’s confession in the Season 1 finale), he pleads “not guilty,” which will force everyone — including his wife, Ellie, a detective on the case who’s now back to being a uniformed cop and shouldering the blame her son Tom and Danny’s mother place upon her — to testify. But there’s a second source of drama this season: We’ll also finally learn why Hardy really came to Broadchurch as “penance” when he asks Ellie to help him put Sandbrook, his previous case that ended in scandal, to rest.

Update: Get that answer in the sneak peek below:

Anyone who hasn’t recently streamed Season 1 on Netflix may be in the need of a refresher. So here’s a reminder of who’s who and where we left off.

Ellie Miller (Olivia Colman)
When We Met Her: Passed over for a promotion, the detective sergeant and happily married mother of two found herself partnered with her new boss, Detective Inspector Alec Hardy, and investigating her first murder: the death of Danny — her close friend’s son and her boy Tom’s best friend — whose body was found on the beach.
When We Left Off: After Hardy informed her that her husband, Joe, was the killer, he agreed to let her see Joe if she promised not to touch him or do anything to jeopardize the conviction. She knocked him out of his chair and kicked him repeatedly. Ellie later went to Hardy’s hotel room to talk: How could Joe say he was in love with an 11-year-old? Is he a pedophile if he only hugged Danny? How hadn’t she known? She was last seen sitting on a bench with Hardy overlooking the beach saying she was going to leave Broadchurch.

Detective Inspector Alec Hardy (David Tennant)
When We Met Him: The experienced, divorced detective — who moved to Broadchurch after his last case, Sandbrook, fell apart — was only one week on the job when Danny’s body was found. He was hiding the fact that he pops pills for his heart arrhythmia, which is bad enough that he needs a pacemaker (only doctors aren’t sure he’d survive the surgery). We’ve seen him collapse twice. He never shaves. 
When We Left Off: He’d told local journalists what happened with Sandbrook: During a search of the car the prime suspect had just sold, detectives found a pendant that belonged to one of the two girls. One of Hardy’s detectives stopped off at a hotel with another DS on the case to “celebrate,” and her car was broken into. Without the pendant, they couldn’t make the case and the accused walked. That detective was his ex-wife and mother of his 15-year-old daughter. He was last seen on that bench with Ellie telling her he was done for medical reasons.

Joe Miller (Matthew Gravelle)
When We Met Him: The former paramedic-turned-Mr. Mom seemed the doting husband to Ellie and father to tween Tom and infant Fred. He likes to cook (Mexican the night he and Ellie invited Hardy to dinner) and to score skateboarding.
When We Left Off: The killer turned on Danny’s phone a second time, and Hardy found it in the hands of Joe, who said he was tired of hiding. We learned that nine months earlier, Danny’s father gave Danny a split-lip and Joe patched him up. They began a friendship and would meet when Joe told Ellie he was running or cycling. He’d just wanted something of his own, he said. He gave Danny the phone and cash because he wanted him to love him, too. The night Danny was killed, Ellie took a sleeping pill after the family returned from vacation, and Joe met Danny in the hut where they’d go to hug. Danny said he wasn’t going to meet Joe anymore and threatened to tell his father what it was he assumed Joe wanted from him. Joe grabbed Danny by the neck to stop him from speaking and strangled him. He cleaned the hut, took the body by boat to the beach, threw out the trash in an alley dumpster, and went to bed next to Ellie. He was last seen in his cell, being yelled at by Danny’s father.

Tom Miller (Adam Wilson)
When We Met Him: Ellie and Joe’s eldest son had been Danny’s best friend — until Danny found a mysterious new friend (Joe) who understood him better. Angry Tom sent Danny nasty emails, including one that said he could kill him, and tried to destroy his laptop after Danny’s death. He threatened to tell the cops that the local Rev. had abused Danny if the Rev. turned in the battered laptop. Hardy broke the case when he discovered the only people Danny emailed from an account on his phone were Tom and Joe.
When We Left Off: Ellie had broken the news to Tom about his father being the killer. He didn’t take it well: At the start of Season 2, he’s refusing to see his mother and living with relatives.

Beth Latimer (Jodie Whittaker)
When We Met Her: While dealing with the death of her son, Danny, she also learned she was pregnant and that her husband, Mark, had been cheating on her with a local hotelier. After confiding in the local Rev., and meeting the broken, divorced mother of one of the Sandbrook victims, she decided to keep the baby and reconcile with Mark, with whom she also has a teenaged daughter, Chloe.
When We Left Off: She was angry with Ellie: How could she not know?

Mark Latimer (Andrew Buchan)
When We Met Him: Danny’s father, the town’s plumber, was an early suspect, but all he was hiding was that affair with the hotelier. We believe him when he says he only ever hit Danny once. Emotionally distant and less open to faith (and psychics) than his wife, we’re waiting for him to pull away again.
When We Left Off: He’d gone to confront Joe. In the end, he told him that he pitied him — he was nothing.

Chloe Latimer (Charlotte Beaumont)
When We Met Her: Danny’s older sister was the least interesting character in Season 1. She’s the one who encouraged the family to talk to the press. She had a boyfriend, Dean, who implied that the local newsagent, paperboy Danny’s boss Jack, was a pedophile because he liked to hug his Sea Brigade scouts. We learned that Jack did that because he missed his six-year-old son, who’d been killed long ago in a car crash when his wife was driving. Jack had started a relationship with his future bride when she was one-month underage and served a year in jail before marrying her. They’d divorced after the accident. Once the newspapers got ahold of his story and the town turned on him, Jack committed suicide on the beach.
When We Left Off: She was there with her parents when the town paid tribute to her brother with bonfires along the coastline.

Maggie Radcliffe (Carolyn Pickles)
When We Met Her: The editor of the Broadchurch Echo mentors young reporter Olly Stevens. 
When We Left Off: Together with Olly, they’d convinced DI Hardy to tell them what happened with the Sandbrook case after leveraging their knowledge of his recent hospital stay.

Olly Stevens (Jonathan Bailey)
When We Met Him: Olly, Ellie’s nephew, is a tenacious reporter who wants his byline in larger papers. He has an estranged father we’ve never met, a mother with money problems, and the ability to get under DI Hardy’s skin with his questions.
When We Left Off: For a moment, at least, Olly seemed to understand that family comes before headlines. He and his mother helped watch Ellie’s boys after Joe’s arrest.

Susan Wright (Pauline Quirke)
When We Met Her: The creepiest of the Broadchurch residents, Susan lives alone in a caravan with her dog, Vince. She made friends with Tom, and essentially threatened to have Maggie, the local newspaper editor, raped if she kept investigating her past. She was brought in for questioning after she gave Danny’s skateboard to Tom.
When We Left Off: During her interrogation, we learned that decades ago, Susan’s husband murdered her eldest daughter when the young woman, who’d been sexually abused, tried to make sure her younger sister wouldn’t suffer the same fate. The husband told the cops that Susan had known about the abuse. Susan was pregnant, and the baby boy was taken from her. That boy was Nige, Mark Latimer’s best friend. She told the cops she was out walking Vince and saw Nige place Danny’s lifeless body on the beach. She was last seen walking out of town with Vince after Nige threatened to kill the dog if she didn’t leave. She told Nige he has his father in him.

Nige Carter (Joe Sims)
When We Met Him: The second creepiest Broadchurch resident, Mark Latimer’s friend and employee was a prime suspect because he took Danny hunting without his parents’ knowledge and wanted to silence Susan. His secrets, however, were that he was nicking pheasants the night Danny was killed and that Susan had told him she was his birth mother. He only learned about his father and siblings when Hardy showed him the file during his interrogation.
When We Left Off: He’d kidnapped Susan’s dog and made us whimper when he pulled a crossbow on it in the back of his van. While he later threatened to gut the dog as Susan slept if she didn’t leave town, he never harmed Vince.

Reverend Paul Coates (Arthur Darvill)
When We Met Him: He’s the first person Beth confided in about her pregnancy. A recovering alcoholic who’s had insomnia for six or seven years, he also helped hotelier Becca Fisher with her books and taught the IT club at Danny’s school. His secrets include the fact that he had a joke “gone wrong” with another child.
When We Left Off: He was preaching to his congregation to be kind to one another and forgive the ways they turned on each other during the investigation. He passed the word down the coastline to coordinate the beautiful bonfire tribute that ended the Season 1 finale.

Becca Fisher (Simone McAullay)
When We Met Her: The flirty Australian hotelier was having an affair with Danny’s dad Mark, but they ended it. Beth confronted her about it in front of Rev. Paul. She’ll do anything to keep her guests happy except “relax” with them (Hardy propositioned her once, but she was aware of his heart condition and declined).
When We Left Off: She was still trying to get tourists to return to Broadchurch before her business went under. She was friendly with the Rev. at the bonfire.

Lucy Stevens (Tanya Franks)
When We Met Her: Heavily in debt for reasons we do not know, Olly’s mother wanted to sell information to her sister, Ellie, about the night Danny was killed. She was closing her blinds and saw a man putting a bag into a dumpster.
When We Left Off: She was helping take care of Tom and Fred.

Watch the trailer for Season 2, which introduces Claire Ashworth (Eve Myles), a key witness in the Sandbrook case, and the man (James D’Arcy) who claims Hardy had the wrong guy:

Season 2 of Broadchurch premieres March 4 at 10 p.m. on BBC America.