Shetland viewers fear DI Tosh McIntosh may meet a grim end after the opening episode of series 11 saw her trapped inside an underground tank. The BBC crime drama returned on Thursday, November 12, with DI Ruth Calder and DI Tosh McIntosh investigating fresh murder mysteries across the Scottish archipelago.
Actress Alison O'Donnell has announced that the current series will be her final outing as Tosh, confirming her departure from the show.
Discovery of skeletal remains
In the opening episode, skeletal remains of an unidentified male were found inside a vehicle pulled from the sea. Calder and Tosh were tasked with tracking down the troubled owner who fled the Isles nine years earlier. The investigation focused on two men who vanished in 2017: local doctor Raymond Linden, the car's owner, and Ukrainian contract worker Ivan Dudka, who had an emergency home appointment with Raymond shortly before his disappearance.
Ivan had been staying at a hostel in Lerwick, but the address in the surgery diary was in Isbister, about an hour away. Tosh travelled to the location and began investigating an underground tank, unaware she was not alone.
Tosh's terrifying ordeal
Tosh called out, "Are you okay? Do you need help?" but received no response. As the ladder she was climbing gave way, she plunged deeper into the tank and tumbled. She escaped injury and regained her footing before a mysterious figure darted towards the ladder while her back was turned. She tried to escape and shouted "Hey", but the figure slammed the hatch shut and bolted, leaving a visibly panicked Tosh trapped inside.
The detective used her mobile phone torch to examine the area and discovered the remains of another body, just as Calder was leaving a message on her phone. It emerged that the skeleton in Raymond's car belonged to him, and that Ivan was most likely the man Tosh found in the tank, though the motive remained a mystery.
Fans react to cliffhanger
Viewers took to X to express their fears for Tosh. One pleaded: "#Shetland I hope Tosh gets out okay. I know she's leaving, sadly." A second fumed: "#Shetland hasn't been the same since Jimmy and Duncan left. Now Tosh is the last straw."
A third wrote: "That was a pretty good episode except for that at the end......why oh why #Shetland", with another commenting: "So good to have this brilliant drama back on TV. I could feel it in my bones that something was coming right down the road at Tosh, oh & I was right; please no, not Tosh #Shetland."
One viewer questioned the writing: "Who is writing the scripts for #Shetland this Season?! There's no way Tosh /Any Woman would enter & explore that building on their own...Finished with it." Another added: "So, new season of #Shetland started tonight, first: Did no one tell Tosh you don't go down a dark, scary hole on your own without backup and/or without telling anyone where you are?"
Shetland series 11 airs Thursdays at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
