Rebus (TV Series) Question of Blood (2006) User Reviews

Surprising detail mistake

[Syxiepoo · 10/10 · 22 October 2016]

As always, Ken Stott plays an excellent character as Rebus in this brilliant series. Blunt, brusque and a bit of a rebel, he has his own devils, including the drink, but he eventually gets the job done.

This title has a gritty story, and a strong air of reality, presenting the dour Scottish city in a light that tourists might not recognise.

But there is a small, yet niggling error, that I spotted:

Scenario: A shooting at a school. 3 deaths, including the suspect, and one injured who is rushed to the hospital. The suspect shooter, a teacher, is one of the dead.

A revolver is found next to the deceased teacher and, whilst searching, a SOCO officer finds an unspent bullet on the floor across the room.

A supposition is made: "The gun jammed …" "… and he cleared it" responds Rebus.

The fact is, although a shell could jam in the cylinder of a revolver, this would be quite unusual, and re-cocking or triggering the gun would move the next round under the hammer. The failed round would simply remain in the cylinder. If a shell had jammed and stopped the cylinder from turning, the only solution would be to remove the dud shell, but this could prove difficult to do, and would certainly interrupt the sequence of shooting.

This small lack of detail and poor continuity is unusual in the Rebus series, and most viewers probably wouldn't have registered it.

One of the weaker episodes, but still watchable.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 6/10 · 7 February 2023]

Two students are shot at a school, their teacher is believed to have shot them, killing one, and injuring the other, then turning the gun on himself.

This is the only episode from the entire Rebus series that I struggled with. Question of Blood has a plot that's quite hard to piece together, I wasn't sure to focus on the shootings, or the man pursuing Siobhan, it lacked a clear narrative.

I found the solution a little hard to fathom, I couldn't quite see how it could actually have worked, it seemed to have come out of left field.

It had a couple of amusing moments, and there was a crazy scene where I thought the two were going to get too close.

It gets a few bonus points for featuring a young Karen Gillan, and I think she's pretty good here, she shouts very well.

It isn't bad, just too bitty.

6/10.

Question of Blood

[Prismark10 · 5/10 · 6 January 2021]

An episode notable for the acting debut of Karen Gillan.

Rebus is called into a college shooting. Two students were shot dead and one was left badly injured. The suspect was the sports teacher.

It seems he went berserk and shot the students and then turned the gun on himself. He was ex army and might also had links with the underworld.

For Rebus this becomes personal when he finds out that one of the dead boy's was his cousin's son.

Meanwhile DS Siobhan Clarke is being harassed by a menacing man and eventually tells Rebus about it. Clarke thinks that Rebus might have shut him permanently when his burnt body is later discovered.

There was something unsatisfactory about the episode. It was rather choppy and maybe you would have thought the forensic examination of the crime scene might have been done earlier in the episode.