A ghost in the (recording) machine.

We’ve had the spectral ‘reversed-speech’ audio recording, but this time the message from beyond comes the right way around in the form of melodic and creepy lyrics.

The Roman team’s various strengths are showcased in their handling of a superstar recording artist and his entourage. While it seems as if the Big Scary Thing has been vanquished in the opening minutes of the episode, Luke has the experience to dig deeper and uncover a more heart-wrenching presence from further back in the troubled property’s past. How Susan manages to hold her tongue in dealing with the rapper’s assistant is beyond me but she clearly has mad customer service skills.

Here we get more of a window on ex-priest Phil’s past, which contains the requisite scary nun, as you’d expect. They’re not all bad though, as he receives some assistance from an surprising yet kind source. His conversation with his God in the bowels of the church archives, prompted by a dusty portrait, strikes true and is very poignant. When the episode reaches its climax it is quite a moving moment as the rapper and his team are witness to a lonely little boy’s pain. A traumatic subject is handled sensitively and the haunting tune may have found its way onto his next big hit, as we hear over the end credits.

There isn’t much in the way of progression of the main story arc in this episode, other than a bowling game with Luke and his late father. More is revealed about what Luke does and does not know about his childhood but his dad isn’t playing ball.

Verdict: You coulda been gettin’ down to this… haunted… beat.  7/10

Claire Smith