What’s going on in BBC’s The Missing and what’s happened to Alice Webster? The best theories on the plot so far
HANDS up if you love The Missing but haven’t got a clue what’s going on?
Now at its half-way point and throwing just as many curveballs as answers, for those of you who are as confused as us, here’s our dummies’ guide to the show. Warning: serious spoiler alert!
In a nutshell…
The BBC hit series follows the emotional fallout surrounding the abduction of British schoolgirl Alice Webster from the German army town of Eckhausen, where her family is stationed. The dramatic story swaps between 2014 and the present day, when Alice is found and taken home 11 years after her kidnapping.
Who’s who?
Julien Baptiste
After appearing in series one with James Nesbitt (whose son went missing while on holiday in France), renowned missing persons detective Baptiste is back from retirement. Unable to let go of another unsolved historic case – the disappearance of Sophie Giroux over a decade earlier – cynical Baptiste suspects that the girl claiming to be Alice is actually Sophie. But after he finds himself struggling to cope with a terminal brain tumour, Baptiste behaviour becomes more obsessive as he risks his life hunting for AWOL army recruit Daniel Reed in Syria. But why?
Alice Webster
In 2003, schoolgirl Alice was abducted from an English school near a military base in Germany. Twelve years later, she dramatically stumbled back into the town claiming to have escaped her captors, but has since been rousing suspicion. After Baptiste probed her about her real identity it was all too much for Alice, and in a dramatic scene that saw her get locked in a shed by her brother at her request, the young woman appeared to kill herself by setting fire to it while inside. However, last week’s episode showed the same girl casually sitting in a Swiss cafe looking very much alive. Yes, really.
Gemma Webster
Played by Keeley Hawes, Gemma is the mother of Alice and lives with her husband Sam and their teenage son Matthew. Like Julien, she sensed that the girl who came back after years in captivity wasn’t her daughter, and after doing some detective work of her own found a picture of the girl who claimed to be Alice sitting next to her actual daughter on a roller coaster, taken during the time they were held captive. Despite DNA results proving that it was Sam’s daughter who died in the shed fire, in the present day Gemma continues to search for Alice, and even comes across a third girl who she thinks was also involved in the abduction…
Sam Webster
Military man Sam – played by David Morrissey – was beside himself with joy when his daughter returned, and wasn’t suspicious at all. However, others’ disbelief at Alice’s identity made him grow increasingly distant from the rest of his family. When the fire broke out, Sam ran into the flames in an attempt to save his daughter, but suffered horrific burns. In a traumatised state, he pushed away his wife and son and ended up seeking comfort by embarking on an affair with fellow military officer Eve.
Matthew Webster
Just a child at the time his sister went missing, Matthew was the last person to see Alice before she was abducted. After Alice returned, she begged her little brother to lock her in the shed, claiming it was the only way she could drift off after years of sleeping on the floor. When it led to the blaze that killed her, Matthew blamed himself – which wasn’t helped when it became clear dad Sam blamed him, too. In the present day, he’s estranged from Sam, barely on speaking terms with his mum and hanging out with a very dodgy pair of brothers.
Eve Stone
Sergeant Eve works as a military police officer on the Eckhausen base where the Websters live. She took charge of the case in 2014 while heavily pregnant, however in present day, it’s clear she has no children. Did she lose the baby when Matthew Webster shoved her to the floor in an angry rage? With her father Brigadier Stone suffering from dementia, it’s clear she’s struggling to cope with his deteriorating state, and her affair with Sam Webster provides some release. Despite Gemma admitting to Eve that she knows about the affair, Eve agrees to help her found out what really happened to Alice.
Adrian Stone
The commander of the base in Eckhausen, Brigadier Stone is Eve’s father and also worked on the case in 2014. Creepy Stone was seen threatening Alice to keep her mouth shut before she died. But a later diagnosis of dementia has left him vulnerable and in a state of confusion. In last Wednesday’s episode he mumbled to Sam Webster that he wondered what really happened to Alice. Did he forget about the fire that killed her? Or was he letting slip that he was far more involved in the abduction than people think?
Daniel Reed
A young recruit worker who was tragically killed on the front line in Wednesday’s episode, it seems there is a lot more to Daniel’s story than meets the eye. Before he died, Daniel was investigating suspicious payments made by his father Henry, and discovered a dark secret. After tracking Daniel down in Iraq, detective Baptiste learnt the money was going to a man called Mirza Barzani. When Baptiste found Barzani, the museum worker told him: “Henry Reed made those payments out of guilt.” Still keeping up?
Henry Reed
Thought to have committed suicide, Daniel’s father was good friends with the highly suspicious Brigadier Stone, and seemed to share some sort of bond with the girl who claimed to return as Alice. Last night we saw Baptiste discover that Alice took flowers to Henry’s grave before the fire. Did Reed kill himself out of guilt for his involvement in the abduction? Barzani added to those suspicions after claiming he could never forgive Reed for what he did to his nine-year-old sister. But with a rather abrupt end to the scene, the audience was left begging for more information.
Kristian Hertz
Kristian is a butcher who lives in Germany with his ex-military-officer wife. He was dramatically arrested for the abduction of Alice Webster and Sophie Giroux in 2014 after Alice identified him as her captor. But one of Alice’s last acts before she torched the shed was to make her brother Matthew promise that he’d tell Kristian that she was sorry. Sorry because she set him up? Maybe, but two years later Kristian is still in prison while his wife crumbles on the outside.
Nadia Hertz
Butcher Nadia was serving in Iraq in 1991 with Henry Reed and Brigadier Stone before settling down with Kristian. In 2014 she was brutally beaten following the arrest of her husband, but viewers pondered how the thugs knew that Kristian had been accused before a statement was released. While many, including Sergeant Eve, suspect angry brother Matthew had something to do with it, fans have also been speculating whether the attack was actually sending a message to Nadia to keep her mouth shut…
THE BEST THEORIES
#1 Sam had a daughter with another woman.
Viewers have been speculating whether the fact the DNA of ‘Alice’ was only matched with Sam Webster, rather than both parents, could have more significance than they’re letting on. And after Sam’s extra-marital affairs with Sergeant Eve, could the body found in the shed be the product of another affair?
#2 Eve is not Adrian’s daughter
As everyone becomes more and more suspicious of a rather sinister Adrian Stone, some fans have pondered whether Eve is even his daughter. Due to the fact Stone was clearly involved in the abducting of the girls – after ‘Alice’ delivered the line, “How can you live with yourself after what you’ve done?” – could Eve be another one of his victims tricked into living a lie?
#3 The third missing girl is Barzani’s sister
So we’ve established there’s something dark going on with Adrian and Henry Reed after Barzani claimed the pair had done “something bad” to his sister in 1991, but we don’t know much more than that. Fans are now questioning whether the third girl found by Gemma Webster in the photo on the roller coaster could be Barzani’s sister. Did the pair of them abduct her too?