Vera Black Ice is re-airing on ITV3 and some viewers might want to know more about the intense events that take place in this episode.
After a brief period of worrying over whether Vera was ending, it was finally confirmed that Vera season 14 would be happening - albeit as a last outing for DCI Vera Stanhope and her team. The upcoming season will consist of two episodes and it’s likely that it will air in 2025, if it follows the pattern of its previous series. In the meantime, as we prepare to say a difficult goodbye, many Vera fans might be excited to know that ITV3 is currently re-showing Vera season 8 on Thursdays at 8pm.
Vera Black Ice is episode 2 of season 8 and it’s set to air on 10th October, bringing a particularly hard-hitting storyline to viewers. Whether you’ve seen it before when it first aired in 2018, watched it on ITVX or are watching it for the first time, there are plenty of intricate and heart-wrenching details to follow. Here we explain what happened to Faye Wakeland in Vera Black Ice and what her boss Tony was involved in.
*Warning: This article contains spoilers for Vera Black Ice and references to sensitive subject matters*
What happened to Faye Wakeland in Vera Black Ice?
Vera Black Ice began with atmospheric scenes of Faye Wakeland driving down country lanes, before being rammed by another vehicle until she went careering off the road. Faye was rushed to hospital after being discovered, but doctors declared that there was very sadly nothing they could do for her and she died after they identified her next-of-kin. At the time of the incident Faye had been 16 weeks pregnant and it was down to DCI Vera Stanhope and DS Aiden Healy to track down Faye’s next-of-kin and work out who the father of her baby was.
They eventually found their way to her home which she rented off Noel Richards, and it later emerged that Noel and Faye had been seeing each other. When she fell pregnant Faye hadn’t wanted to be a mother at this time and, hoping to make this slightly easier for Noel to bear, Faye had faked a DNA report.
This was done to convince him that he wasn’t the father and that her boss Tony Everett was. DC Kenny Lockhart later found out that the doctor who supposedly sent Faye the report had actually been off sick for "at least eight months" and that the report was a lie.
Tragically for Faye, Noel never reached this same conclusion and believed her completely when she showed him the report at local man Roddy’s funeral. Vera and Aiden came to realise that Tony had been the intended victim of the car incident and in that light, Noel became the most likely suspect. They questioned Noel’s sister Simone and she admitted that his alibi of spending time with his son Liam was something she couldn’t corroborate as she hadn’t seen them together.
At Roddy’s wake, Noel had snapped and he wanted to scare the man he thought Faye had been having an affair with and called for a taxi, requesting Tony by name.
Tony had passed the details on to Faye as her last cab driving job for him and a none-the-wiser Noel was behind the wheel of the van that rammed her car off the road, believing it was Tony. After committing the crime, he proceeded to spend a considerable amount of time getting rid of the van in the lake and then went home. It was only the next morning when Vera and Aiden came to his home that Noel realised his mistake.
Vera confronted Noel with what she knew and revealed that she’d spoken to his son Liam and he’d admitted lying about the alibi he gave Noel. Noel disclosed that he hadn’t set out to murder anyone and broke down, declaring, "I killed the woman I loved more than life itself."
This emotionally intense declaration was followed by Noel wondering if he was to be arrested for manslaughter. Vera then explained that he’d deliberately laid a trap and killed Faye, which made it murder, even if she hadn’t been his intended victim.
What was Tony Everett up to in Black Ice?
Although DCI Vera Stanhope and her team were focused on investigating Faye Wakeland’s attack, another major subplot of Vera Black Ice revolved around her job and her boss Tony Everett. From the very start the community had rallied around him, backing up his alibi and refusing to speak. Suddenly the truth of what was really going on came to Vera late in the episode, when she realised that Tony was a loan shark and the community was too afraid of what he would do to speak out. They managed to find one woman brave enough to talk to them and she shared that if you couldn’t pay, Tony’s men would take everything you had and then they’d "try to scare you".
Faye had been working for Tony, officially as a cab driver, but she’d been horrified when she found out the extent of Tony’s loan shark operation and what the people he employed were doing. She had reported him three days before she died, after Roddy had taken his own life. Later in the interview room with everyone’s favourite mackintosh-wearing detective facing him down, Tony Everett claimed he hadn’t been aware of what his employees had been doing and insisted that it was all Faye making "connection" and he was just the money man. Vera wasn’t having any of it, telling him that he was preying on vulnerable people.
As Vera Black Ice continued, Vera discovered that Noel’s sister Simone had owed money and that before Faye had helped her out, one of Tony’s employees had come round demanding payment and had sexually assaulted her. Faye had tried to encourage her to report what had happened and was there to support her.
After speaking to Simone, DCI Stanhope had Tony’s men arrested and furiously confronted Tony. Once again he stated that he hadn’t been aware of what was happening and being carried out in his name. During this interview Tony had explained that he’d been supposed to be the driver the night Faye was attacked and this prompted the team to view him as the intended victim and led them to Noel as her killer.
