Chef’s Special
Episode 11 of Breathe: Into The Shadows continues in the past as J pays his respects to “Pa”. Following this, he returns home with renewed vigor and a new plan. After bearing the brunt of pain and emotion after all this time, he decides to use that and channel it into Avinash. By making him experience this same wave of emotion, he hopes that it will shape him into a stronger person. J searched for various abandoned areas to use as a base of operations to take Siya and Gayatri. Creating a mask for himself, he kidnaps Gayatri and mentions how, when the 10 heads of Ravan die so too will J as Avinash will be able to deal with life on his own. Back in the present, Avinash sits with the police and questions the connections between the different murders. Kabir however maintains his suspicions regarding Avinash and in particular how all three victims could have been linked by the killer knowing them. With the police questioning Kabir’s motives after he struck an innocent pedestrian several episodes ago, Kabir ignores Zeba and Tejinder’s calls and continues to drive with Avi as they head up to the shore-side. They have reports that a 6 year old body has been found by the shore and Avi prepares for the worst. As he walks however, Avi’s demeanour changes to that of J and he clearly walks with a limp. The body is not that of Siya either but given he checks twice – once as J and the other as Avi – Kabir immediately raises suspicions over what’s going on with him. After driving away, Kabir attends the doctor’s with Meghna. Once there he decides to take advantage of the doctor’s intelligence and shows him the crime scene photos. It’s here Kabir learns that the limp may well be a fake (although we know at this point it is) given the different angles. The DNA results for the pen come back inconclusive and despite checking three times, they’re not a match to Avinash. As it turns out, Avi actually hired someone to hack the system and fake the results. Later that night, Avi (now as J) heads out to meet Shirley and runs into Prakash. Only, Avi is clearly not himself and doesn’t give him a warm welcome, glaring at him from inside the car. For now though Prakash doesn’t pay much attention to this and goes about his evening like normal. Kabir turns his attention to Abha and visits her at work while she’s working in the kitchen. His questions are pressing, to the point and clearly designed to rattle her. Apologizing for being so forward, he turns his attention from the lip balm to how she met Akinash. After receiving more clues, he drives home but his stomach plays up and he’s rushed to hospital. While he’s stuck in bed, Zeba and Prakash come to blows over Kabir’s state of mind and unfortunately the news breaks that the case is being transferred to Zeba. Kabir refuses to allow this and tasks Prakash and Jaiprakash to interview the victims’ families again. Starting to piece everything together, Kabir sneaks out the hospital and gets a lift back but, unbeknownst to him, Avinash happens to be in the car opposite heading in a different direction. Wih Kabir dominating the screen-time this time around and a consistent focus on wrapping the case up, given we already know who the killer is and what their motive is, it all feels like joining dots. It’s a shame too because the early parts of this season were really thrilling and understanding Avi’s split personality does bring some clues around how he was able to suddenly switch and murder so freely. However, seeing J’s motive being all about making Avi suffer to make him able to withstand pain is incredibly shallow motivation and defies belief surrounding just how this makes him stronger. We’ll have to wait and see how this one wraps up its story but right now, this season pales by comparison to the first.
