Shetland series 10: Episode 3's top five bombshells, including attempted murder, and police corruption
Is fan favourite Billy complicit in a crime?
Shetland series 10 dropped the mother of all bombshells this week, when the loyalty of one of the police force’s favourite officer’s came into question in episode 3.
DI Ruth Calder and DI Tosh got closer to finding Eadie Tulloch’s killer, and it all seemed to be connected to that wad of cash in her bank account.
Meanwhile, Ruth just found herself getting closer to Eadie’s son Ed. And who can blame her? Is it a conflict of interests, though? Most definitely! Especially if he turns out to the murderer…
Here’s the top five bombshells that landed in episode 3 of Shetland series 10.
***Warning: spoilers from Shetland series 10 episode 3 ahead***
What happened in episode 3 of Shetland series 10?
In this week’s episode of Shetland (Wednesday, November 19, 2025), Chris and Hayley’s attempts to pay off their spiralling debts went violently wrong when a Lunniswick local got caught in the middle… And nearly fighting for his life.
With little forensics recovered from Eadie’s murder scene, the team looked for leads elsewhere – including Eadie’s bank statements.
Armed with more information about her troubled past in care, Calder and Tosh questioned a cool Stevie. Later, Stevie’s paranoid behaviour began to stoke tension between her fiercely loyal sister Amy and Amy’s sceptical husband Luke.
Meanwhile, a pregnant Jess snuck out to meet her boyfriend and father of her child Ethan, but when Tom found out tempers flared – with dire consequences.
Hayley attacked Colin and left him for dead
Calder and Tosh were stunned when things took a violent turn in Lunniswick, and nosy neighbour Colin Waite nearly got himself killed.
After the shocking news in episode 2 that Hayley was actually in Shetland to carry out a drug deal, she endeavoured to hand over the heroin. Viewers know that her two Edinburgh restaurants got into debt during Covid, and subsequently racked up an £80,000 debt.
She was introduced to a “private finance guy” who invested in restaurants. However, although they “looked like businessmen, they were really just gangsters”.
After a few months, she couldn’t keep up with the payments, and they blackmailed her into transporting two kilos of heroin into Shetland. She arranged a meet up with the heavies t0 hand over the drugs, but they were spooked when Colin Waite arrived on the scene. Smelling a fish, Colin later took it upon himself to snoop in Hayley and Chris’ rental cabin where he found the bag of heroin.
When Hayley found him with the incriminating evidence, she bashed him over the head with a very heavy rock (twice). Leaving him for dead, she and her family fled the scene, leaving Shetland behind. Or at least they tried to.
Police arrested Hayley and Chris Burnett
But Colin wasn’t actually dead. He’d crawled to get help, ignoring his pesky fractured skull, and alerted the police. Tosh and Ruth closed in on the Burnetts as they tried to leave Shetland by ferry. Later, in custody, Hayley eventually told the police the truth and that she’d “panicked” when she hit Colin over the head (did we mention it was TWICE?).
Hayley and Chris stand accused of attempted murder, and drug trafficking. But were they involved in Eadie’s death? There’s no link at the moment. More like a case of wrong place, wrong time.
Shetland series 10 episode 3: Who are the Callaghans?
The Callaghans are a criminal family operating in and out of Shetland. In the first episode of series 10, Ruth and Tosh attempted a drug bust on their ‘fishing boat’ The Guiding Light. But no drugs were found on the vessel.
That’s because, of course, Hayley was transporting the drugs.
Stevie Shannon was the person Chris spotted at Eadie’s house
In episode 3 of Shetland series 10, we discovered that Stevie Shannon was the person Chris spotted at Eadie’s house. She got a taxi to Lunniswick on the night she was murdered, so the optics aren’t great.
Stevie told her sister she was at Eadie Tulloch’s house. She said: “I don’t know why I went to see her last Saturday. I didn’t do anything, I just stood outside her house watching her through the window.”
She admitted she didn’t speak to Eadie, because she was too scared. Stevie didn’t tell the police during questioning because she knew the police would see her as a prime suspect in Eadie’s murder. Which they do already!
Stevie is clearly manipulative and troubled, but did she kill Eadie Tulloch?
Shetland series 10 episode 3: Robert Tulloch was a corrupt cop
In earlier episodes of Shetland series 10, the team discovered that Eadie Tulloch had a whooping £400,000 in her bank account – but lived like a pauper.
The big money deposits were made decades ago into Eadie’s account. Having delved further into Eadie’s bank statements, DC Sandy Wilson told Tosh: “The money in the Tulloch account, all these deposits. I don’t think Eadie made them. I think it was [her husband] Robert.
“A series of large cash deposits were made, sometimes thousands of pounds. They were irregular payments over 12 years, but they stopped when Robert retired. The Tullochs had no other income streams other than their salaries.”
Let that sink in for a minute. Eadie’s husband Robert was a respected police officer, who worked alongside Billy who still works for the force. So if he was getting large cash sums from somewhere, the implication is that he was a corrupt cop.
Is Billy a bent copper too?
As Sandy made steady progress into Eadie’s finances, he confided in Tosh about his worrying suspicion about Robert… And he also revealed that a couple of bank statements were missing from the files.
Moments later, we saw Sgt Billy McCabe – a Shetland fan favourite! – with the stolen bank statements. Is our beloved character complicit in Robert’s corruption, or was he simply trying to protect his friend? All will be revealed in subsequent episodes of Shetland series 10.
What else happened in Shetland series 1o episode 3?
We learnt that there was no DNA found on the rope that strangled Eadie to death. And there was no other rope found at the property, suggesting that the killer took their own murder weapon with them. As for the knot used, it was a running bowline – famously used as a maritime knot. As Ruth scoffed, almost everyone on Shetland is familiar with boats.
There were three sets of fingerprints found in Eadie’s house besides her own. One set belonged to Colin Waite, the neighbour who found the body. The next were David Powell’s prints. David was also a neighbour, and friend to Eadie. But who do the third set of fingerprints belong to?
We discovered that the father of Jess Jameson’s unborn baby was Ethan Stone. She was meeting him in secret, but why? Jess hadn’t revealed the identity of her baby daddy, and we later found out why. For some reason not clear yet, Ethan Stone is not favoured by Jess’ family. When Tom found out Ethan was the dad, he warned: “I told you to leave Jess alone.”
We know Ethan’s mum Margaret and Jess’ mum Isobel used to be “good pals”, but now there’s “friction”. But why?
It’s obviously a difficult subject. When Tom confronted Ethan, he became so angry and agitated that he was left clutching his heart in pain – not a good sign for someone with diagnosed heart problems.
Meanwhile, in happier scenes, Ruth Calder spent time with Eadie’s son Ed. And they certainly seemed to be getting along like a house on fire…
Shetland series 10: Episode 3’s top five bombshells
- Hayley attacked Colin after he found her stash of heroin, and left him for dead.
- After going on the run from the police, Chris and Hayley were finally caught and questioned.
- Stevie Shannon was revealed to be the person Chris spotted at Eadie’s house on the night she died.
- The evidence stacked up that Robert Tulloch was a corrupt cop.
- Billy stole the bank statements from Shetland police, but why?
