9 burning questions we have after Broadchurch episode 4

Let's dash to the Radio Times Crime Lab for a spot of super sleuthing...

1. Who was shining that light at Trish?

When Trish lies on the ground she has a rather distressing flashback to the night of her attack and remembers a bright light shining down on top of her.

Hardy and Miller wonder if it may have come from a nearby house, but when they go to investigate they wonder if the light might have been a torchlight “shining down on top of her”.

Could someone else have been standing over the attacker too?

2. Who lives in that house?

Hardy is shocked to discover that the police haven’t yet had access to a house right beside the scene of the crime.

“We’ve not heard back yet from the man who lives here. Katie’s chasing that up”, says Miller.

And no, it’s not Ed Burnett's house (in case, like us, you were wondering). We had a look back at episode two to double check and his home appears to be wooden and attached to the farm shop.

So, as Lloyd Grossman would say, who lives in a house like this then?

3. What did Sarah want Trish to shut up about?

Ian’s partner Sarah admits that she was the one who sent the texts to Trish using his computer and credit card, but she says she did it before she knew Trish had been raped.

The original text said “shut up or else” – so if she wasn’t talking about the attack, what was she so eager for Trish to keep schtum about?

4. Where is that second cricket bat and was it the weapon?

Hardy is incensed to discover that Axehampton House's owner Arthur didn’t mention that his wife had been picking up bits and piece from around the grounds after Trish’s attack.

We know she was hit over the head with something, but that ‘something’ is yet to be found.

During their conversation he reveals that the cricket bat is one of a pair, much to Hardy and Miller’s frustration. Could that missing bat be key to solving the mystery?

5. What’s on Trish’s computer? Any why is Ian so worried about it?

Ian is utterly desperate to get his hands on “the old laptop”. So desperate, in fact, that he telephones daughter Leah and asks if he can pop over and pick it up because, surprise surprise, it’s Trish’s laptop now.

Ian claims it’s got “some old files on it that I need for school”, but we all know he had dodgy rope boy Leo do something to it.

“You don’t need to bother her,” he tells Leah when she says she’s worried about waking Trish to ask, but his daughter clearly cops something is up and point blank refuses to surrender the computer without asking her mum first.

“It’s mum’s computer, you should ask her,” says Leah, much to Ian’s frustration.

What is he so eager to hide from his wife? And what does he need to wipe from her laptop as soon as possible?

6. What happened to Daisy Hardy?

Daisy’s dad has hinted that something happened while he was attempting to get his family back together. Whatever it was, it inspired Hardy’s decision to take his daughter back to Broadchurch so she could try to get a fresh start.

It seems as though he’s not the only one who knows what went on, though, because Chloe Latimer calls around to offer the new girl her friendship.

Hardy says Daisy got into a spot of trouble – but could the consequences of that trouble still hang over his daughter?

7. Where was Jim for those missing hours? And is Cath telling the truth about him being absent?

It’s clear that there’s no love lost between childhood sweethearts Cath and Jim – she describes their union as “loveless” – but is the animosity between the two enough to drive one of them to throw the other under the bus?

“I didn’t think anything of it at the time,” Cath begins, “I wasn’t going to mention it, but I don’t know where Jim was at the end of the evening.”

We know Jim slept with Trish the morning of the party, but could Cath also know her husband’s little secret? Would she be willing to put him in the frame to get revenge?

Or does she really suspect that he – or someone he knows – could be capable of attacking her best friend?

8. Was Aaron really out fishing on the night Trish was attacked?

Convicted sex offender Aaron claims that he was on the beach between Broadchurch and Flintcombe the night Trish was attacked. He says he left home at about 10 or 11pm and got back at about “half six, seven in the morning”.

He says a few other blokes on the beach would have seen him setting up and even shows DI Hardy his fishing gear.

The thing is, having fishing gear surely rules him back into the investigation? We know Trish’s hands were bound with that blue twine, which could have come from Jim Atwood’s fishing collection or Leo's twine shop.

Was Aaron really on the beach? Or did he take his fishing gear to Axehampton House?

9. Are the two attacks connected?

At the end of episode four a young woman comes into the police station and asks to speak to Hardy and Miller.

She tells them that two years previous, when she was walking home, she was raped in a field by a man who bound and gagged her.

Could she have been attacked by the same person who attacked Trish? And is she the key to catching them?