5 characters who clearly have the hots for Stella Gibson on The Fall
They know who they are!
She’s the kind of woman who just has to pull up at a crime scene, drop a none-too-subtle hint to a young married cop and, hey presto, he’ll show up at her hotel room. Yep, Stella Gibson (Gillian Anderson) is one sexy woman. So while the hunt for Paul Spector continues, we take some time out this week for Gibson’s allure to have a number of ramifications.
Glenn Martin (Emmett J Scanlan)
Perhaps he should be paying more attention to the investigation — he is, after all, the detective who interviewed Paul and let him go. But clearly he’s just the latest horny young officer overwhelmed by Gibson’s feminine wiles. “She wants me for herself,” he whispers to a colleague after his amateur attempt at flirtation goes unnoticed by Gibson. More likely, she’s just uninterested in this buffoon.
His charms, such as they are, have more success with Paul’s wife, Sally-Ann (Bronagh Waugh), who finally admits that Paul wasn’t necessarily at home the whole night for which she’d previously given him an alibi. Martin is not so lucky with Katie (Aisling Franciosi), who covers for Paul then calls everyone’s favourite serial killer to demand a meeting.
Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan)
Paul and Gibson have never met, but they share a strong connection. She understands Paul a little too well. From her whiteboard notes about the possible causes of his criminal activity to her spot-on summary of his psychological makeup during a team briefing, she has him nailed.
And although Gibson may not be his type, Paul is clearly aroused by her. When he meets Katie, he tells his number one fan about the detective and how her silk blouse was unbuttoned at the press conference. “She seemed so cool, so relaxed, so self-assured, superior… and I thought, ‘F*** you, you English bitch.’” But it’s a thin line between irrational rage and love, right?
Having almost come face to face when tyre tracks matching Rose Stagg’s (Valene Kane) car are found by the cops, Paul goes into full-on stalker mode and sneaks into Gibson’s hotel room, sniffing one of those slinky silk blouses, reading her journal and leaving her a note that ends in: “Oh Stella Gibson, how well I know you now.” Touché.
Reed Smith (Archie Panjabi)
It’s been a very odd role for an Emmy Award winner — with hardly any screen time and not much to do besides the odd bit of forensic exposition, but this week Archie Panjabi’s pathologist character finally had a storyline. Naturally, she’s also into Gibson, with some full-on flirting going down when they get a drink together at the hotel bar.
Reed has some lame excuse for wanting to meet up, but it’s really just a ploy to engage in some prolonged eye contact. It’s not until an impressed-with-himself lawyer tries to hit on Reed while Gibson is taking a phone call that the women get anywhere. Gibson returns to the table and greets Reed with a couple of kisses to put the lawyer off. She even accepts the drinks he’d brought over, saying, “Keep them coming.” His reply: “I’m not the waiter”, to which Gibson asks, “So why are you standing there?” Paul’s right — she is superior.
While Reed looks a bit uncomfortable even though she’s clearly getting what she wants so badly, Gibson turns up the heat and invites Reed back up to her room. Reed, however, chickens out just as they’re about to get in the lift, leaving Gibson to return to her room, where Paul is hiding in the closet.
Jim Burns (John Lynch)
There’s always been some unresolved sexual tension bubbling under the surface between Gibson and her superior — and this week it boils over. Before Paul can do whatever it is he’s planning to do to Gibson in her hotel room, Burns shows up, clearly having obsessed about the comments he overheard Martin make. He’s not going to let some young gun move in on his territory.
Gibson asks the obvious: “Have you been drinking?” Oh yes, he has — where else would he get the courage to finally act on his not-so-well-buried feelings? And so he helps himself to some wine as soon as Gibson lets him in her room. Turns out he’s been sober for nearly five years and it’s actually a work issue that has driven him to drink. A fellow officer has called him a “weak man” and so he’s looking to prove just how manly he is. He begs Gibson for just one night and she has to smack him in the face to stop him mauling her.
Matt Eastwood (Stuart Graham)
With pressure mounting on Gibson to wrap the investigation up, this personality vacuum (who just happens to be the cause of Burns’ masculinity crisis) is brought on to the team. “So is he keeping an eye on me or I am keeping an eye on him?” Gibson asks. She knows the answer to that. As well as giving off some serious condescension towards Gibson, Eastwood seems immune to her charms. Surely it’s only a matter of time?
