The WORST episodes of Scott & Bailey

Every episode of Scott & Bailey ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Scott & Bailey!

A thrilling crime drama exploring the personal and professional lives of two female detectives.

Last Updated: 8/20/2024Network: ITV1Status: Ended
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Congratulations
star
7.06
297 votes

#1 - Congratulations

Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 5/29/2011

DC Rachel Bailey, DC Janet Scott and the team take on a new case - a young Turkish woman has been killed, and her murder made to look like suicide. Rachel finds out that the woman's husband was having an affair, and takes a risk when it comes to interviewing the man's mistress. Will her high-stakes approach get results? She also uses her police privileges to carry out an investigation into her own ex - and is horrified to discover that he is married with two children. Meanwhile, Janet agrees to take another look at the case of an old school friend, Veronica, who was abducted and murdered when they were children.

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Secrets
star
7.20
176 votes

#2 - Secrets

Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 3/19/2012

Part two of two. Despite arresting four people, the detectives face a wall of silence in their investigation into the grisly murders - but they eventually make a breakthrough, which doesn't quite give them the answers they were expecting. On the domestic front, Rachel wakes up in bed with charismatic colleague Sean - a mistake she is keen never to repeat - and Janet wants to keep her newly single status a secret. So the last thing she needs is daughter Taisie telling Andy about her dad moving out.

Directors: China Moo-Young
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A Matter of Rank
star
7.30
180 votes

#3 - A Matter of Rank

Season 4 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/1/2014

Gill introduces her new sergeant to Will Pemberton, an ambitious detective superintendent on his way to the top. However, Rachel and Will have been enjoying a passionate yet discreet affair for the past few months. Will wants to go public but Rachel would prefer to keep it quiet, worried about how others might judge her. Inspired by Eleanor's happy home life, Janet determines to persevere with the dating game. But a speed dating evening proves a disaster when she realises she is unable to step out of character, and has been interviewing every man there as if he was a suspect. The case of the week involves the murder of a woman in a Manchester hotel. With only a necklace and the name Lola to go on, Syndicate 9 try to piece together her last known movements. When a witness comes forward to report a troubling sexual encounter, it seems that a hook-up site could hold the answers.

Directors: Noreen Kershaw
Writer: Emily Ballou
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Personal
star
7.32
271 votes

#4 - Personal

Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 6/12/2011

When a rape and murder case goes to trial, DCI Gill Murray is determined to see the defendant, Georgios Stelikos, convicted. But the case is made more complicated because only one of the alleged victims is prepared to testify. When Rachel gives evidence, she is horrified to discover that her ex Nick is the defence barrister. Nick's cross examination shakes her when he uses information which passed between them when they were together. But as the verdict is delivered, events take a shocking turn.

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Execution
star
7.39
234 votes

#5 - Execution

Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 6/19/2011

Adult movie star Vicky Birkinshaw finds herself being arrested on suspicion of her murdering her husband three weeks after she reported him as having disappeared. Rachel has to go through the woman's home-made pornography collection to look for clues. The case ends up taking a dark twist after Vicky's daughter turns up with an older boyfriend.

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Things We Do For Love
star
7.40
149 votes

#6 - Things We Do For Love

Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 4/10/2013

After businessman Adam Armitage pushes a homeless man, he doesn’t know that he’s killed him, so what is the reason why is he running away? Rachel gets married to a happy Sean and Janet admits her marriage is over.

Directors: Morag Fullarton
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Thin Ice
star
7.44
111 votes

#7 - Thin Ice

Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 4/17/2013

The detectives investigate the murder of a wealthy man whose double life left him vulnerable to exploitation. Away from work, Rachel's recent moment of indiscretion threatens to come back to haunt her when a confused Sean takes a phone call from her one-night stand, and after Ade is pushed into living with his girlfriend on a permanent basis, Janet asks her mother to move in.

Directors: Morag Fullarton
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Damaged
star
7.46
141 votes

#8 - Damaged

Season 4 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/24/2014

After promising that the chaos of her personal life was behind her, Rachel is torn when she discovers that her mother's new boyfriend is a violent domestic abuser. Janet goes on her first date, but gets cold feet at the last minute when the idea of having to sell herself to a stranger makes her heart sink. The murder of a gay man has all the markings of a hate crime, but why is his friend struggling to answer some simple questions?

Directors: Simon Delaney
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Sacred Trust
star
7.46
140 votes

#9 - Sacred Trust

Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 4/2/2012

The duo look into the murder of an eight-year-old boy, coming up against a pedophile who cruelly deceives his victim's family. Dom's HIV test comes back negative, so he sets out to celebrate - only to endanger his own life and jeopardize Rachel's sergeant's exam in the process. Janet tells Andy she is having second thoughts about their brief liaison, but he finds her decision hard to accept.

Directors: Paul Walker
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Undermined
star
7.49
115 votes

#10 - Undermined

Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 5/8/2013

The team investigate the suspicious death of care home resident Gerald French after his daughter Catherine raises some concerns about the level of care her father had been receiving. Shy trainee, Rosie is seen slapping a resident and she is upset to discover that her mentor doesn’t have her best interests at heart.

Directors: Juliet May
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Graves
star
7.49
144 votes

#11 - Graves

Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 4/9/2012

Janet comes face to face with the man who left her fighting for life just months earlier - serial killer Geoff Hastings, who has vowed to finally reveal the full extent of his crimes. Rachel and the rest of the team investigate the racially motivated murder of a taxi driver. On the personal front, Andy refuses to take no for an answer, so Janet threatens to report him to the DCI.

Directors: Paul Walker
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Tough Love
star
7.52
176 votes

#12 - Tough Love

Season 4 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/17/2014

Syndicate 9's new sergeant is thrown in at the deep end with a historical missing person's case as Mandy Sweeting's body is discovered, 23 years after she disappeared. The biggest challenge is wading through poor police work that hampered the original case and re-interviewing bruised and bereft family members, making this a particularly challenging job for the new sergeant. Janet keeps Gill's secret but shares another secret with Rachel - she wants a boyfriend.

Directors: Simon Delaney
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Neglect
star
7.52
173 votes

#13 - Neglect

Season 4 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/8/2014

Unable to get over being second choice for the sergeant's job, Rachel punishes Janet for not telling her. After Elise moves in with Ade, Janet feels inadequate as a mother although she has not given up on the idea of a boyfriend entirely. When an unconscious baby is admitted to hospital, staff are concerned that his injuries do not match his parents' explanation. But with a child-minder and her stoned boyfriend in the mix, it is unclear who had the baby's best interests at heart.

Directors: Noreen Kershaw
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Cradle
star
7.52
149 votes

#14 - Cradle

Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 4/24/2013

Having witnessed her father Joe being arrested for the murder of her mother Eunice, Helen shows up at Janet’s door saying that she believes her brother Michael might be buried in the cellar of the family home. After the remains of a second body are discovered, the case becomes much more serious and Det. Supt. Dodson is drafted in as the S.I.O, with Gill as her deputy.

Directors: Juliet May
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Vulnerable
star
7.53
126 votes

#15 - Vulnerable

Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 4/3/2013

After a concerned neighbour knocks on Janet’s door, she can only guess at the horrors about to happen. Rachel wishes she was still single while Janet ends up realising that her own marriage is over.

Directors: Morag Fullarton
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Pipe Dreams
star
7.56
115 votes

#16 - Pipe Dreams

Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 3/26/2012

It's Murray and Bailey this week, as Rachel travels to Bristol with the DCI, who is advising on a rape and murder which bears similarities to a case she worked on 13 years previously. Back then she helped catch the perpetrator, who killed four women, but naturally he is protesting his innocence. At home, Rachel discovers her brother Dom has been prostituting himself in her flat - and just to top things off, she learns the charges against her ex-boyfriend Nick are being dropped.

Directors: China Moo-Young
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Professional Divide
star
7.58
139 votes

#17 - Professional Divide

Season 4 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/15/2014

Troubled by Gill's comments about her relationship with Will Pemberton, Rachel gets cold feet about accompanying him to an awards ceremony. When Janet discovers that Elise's heart is being broken by Eleanor's son, her maternal instincts make her want to rescue her daughter and bring her home. When a couple are shot at close range in their pub in the early hours, their son Simon feels utterly alone, having lost his sister Carla when he was three. But when his aunt is identifying the bodies, she tells them that Carla did not die, but was disowned by the family after failed attempts at rehab.

Directors: Noreen Kershaw
Writer: Emily Ballou
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Surprise
star
7.61
221 votes

#18 - Surprise

Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 6/5/2011

Rachel's personal life gets even more complicated when she reveals to Nick that she is pregnant. At work, the team face a particularly gruesome case - a mother of two has been brutally raped and left to bleed to death in the boot of her car. A sharp piece of detective work from Rachel leads to teenager Luke Farrell being charged, but horrific events start to unravel as a result of his arrest. Janet steps up her investigation into her childhood friend Veronica's death and meets up with an officer who investigated the murder.

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Loyalty
star
7.62
210 votes

#19 - Loyalty

Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 3/12/2012

In the first of a two-part story, the badly burned body of a disabled man turns up in a remote part of Manchester and a few days later another corpse is discovered. The detectives start to realise the victims were not just murdered, but tortured too. They make an arrest, but it becomes clear their investigation has just scratched the surface. Meanwhile, Janet throws her husband out and Rachel's estranged brother turns up on her doorstep.

Directors: China Moo-Young
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Wrong Place, Wrong Time
star
7.63
114 votes

#20 - Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired 5/22/2013

The team investigate the murder of a man whose body is discovered shortly after he is reported missing by his son is discovered. Rachel's self-destructive behavior leads to a falling-out with Janet, and forces Sean to realize that his marriage is over.

Directors: Morag Fullarton
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Sidelines
star
7.65
194 votes

#21 - Sidelines

Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 4/23/2012

The syndicate deals with a shooting, and discovers that the victim has been sexually mutilated. Andy seems determined to freeze Janet out of the investigation. Sean tries to engineer a reconciliation between Rachel and her mother, and Rachel warms to the idea of marriage.

Directors: Morag Fullarton
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Fatal Error
star
7.66
143 votes

#22 - Fatal Error

Season 4 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/22/2014

Janet is unnerved to discover that DSI Dodson cannot ignore her concerns about Gill's drinking. Just as Rachel feels as if she is getting to grips with the job, she makes a fatal error that puts Janet and Chris in danger. When a man's body is found wedged between rocks on the moors with nothing to identify him, a road block is set up and an appeal put out. Enquiries lead Janet and Chris to a nearby farm, but they discover something much more sinister and shocking than they could ever have anticipated.

Directors: Neasa Hardiman
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Witness
star
7.68
119 votes

#23 - Witness

Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 5/1/2013

Having discovered the remains of several bodies, Gill and Dodson’s teams need to try and identify them, and attempt to piece together the order in which they were murdered. Joe Bevan remains tight lipped though. After the remains of a teenage girl are found in an upstairs room, Helen is faced with the possibility that her dad killed both her brother and her sister.

Directors: Juliet May
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Vendetta
star
7.73
236 votes

#24 - Vendetta

Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 7/3/2011

Last in series of the police drama. As Rachel is walking home, she is narrowly missed by a car which then smashes into the side of the road. The next day, she learns that the crash is linked to the disturbing information she found out about Nick's affair with a juror. Was Rachel targeted - and could Nick have had something to do with it? The latest case for the team is that of a teenager shot dead at home. His best friend witnessed the shooting but it takes all of Janet's skill to get him to open up as he is petrified that he could be next. Meanwhile, Rachel's career hangs in the balance as Gill discovers just how far she has gone in pursuit of love, and Janet needs to end her affair once and for all.

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Faultlines
star
7.77
239 votes

#25 - Faultlines

Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 6/26/2011

When Rachel bumps into an ex-juror, she is shocked to discover that the woman had an affair with Nick in the middle of a trial - and a desperately worried Nick does everything in his power to persuade Rachel to keep the knowledge to herself. After a current investigation throws up similarities to Veronica's murder, Janet tells Geoff Hastings that they could be one step closer to bringing his sister's killer to justice. But when Rachel stumbles across some new facts in the case, she realises that Janet is in terrible danger. Can she get the information to Janet in time?

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