Viewers of a certain age and vintage will recognize Craig McLachlan as the former ingénue from NEIGHBOURS. Here he has a much more somber role as a police doctor operating in Ballarat, Victoria, in 1957. While concerned for his patients' welfare, he definitely has a past that concerns his conduct during the War and after-wards. This is repeatedly alluded to but not actively explained: viewers will have to look back to Season 1 to find out precisely what it all means.
In this episode a self-important mayoral candidate (Colin Lane) meets a sticky end. Dr. Blake is drawn into a complicated web of intrigue that has a lot to do with self-interest, even though mayors and other local government officers are supposed to be responsible for the citizens' welfare. In the course of solving the case, Blake experiences more personal trauma, but at least right triumphs in the end.
Declan Eames' production is rich in period detail; the setting could not be better (it is almost as if Ballarat has been stuck in a time- warp over the last five and a half decades), and the radio broadcasts of Richie Benaud bowling against the touring Indian cricket team remind us of how cricket has always been part of the (white male) national consciousness. Blake's often rocky relationship with Spt. Matthew Lawson (Joel Tobeck) is well brought out in this episode; it sometimes as if they are working against one another rather than in collusion.