The fifth episode of "Under Salt Marsh" commences in the aftermath of August's body being discovered. Bull and Jackie drag him up to shore, where they store his body inside a freezer to preserve it. The circumstances surrounding his death—whether by suicide or drowning—are still debated, but it seems plausible that he was paid to keep quiet about the waste and Nessa's death. The police now need to uncover who was paying him and where this waste is being disposed of. As Jackie inspects the board, she thankfully avoids the post-it that clearly states that Dylan's DNA matches. For now, Jess instructs her to stay out of the case.
With the storm surge already at 3 meters and more on the way, Bull returns to the hotel where Morgan pleads with Carys to evacuate the pub and find higher ground. That would mean heading to the farm, so she's reluctant to go there. However, they don't have much of a choice.
Bull awkwardly asks if he can apologize to Morgan, but she's having none of it. Jess, on the other hand, isn't pleased that Jackie knows the details of their case. They drive deeper into the island and notice smoke coming from the hills—it's the caravans. The pair rushes up and finds August's caravan on fire.
Victor is here trying to put out the fire with a water hose, but it's not doing much. It's definitely an act of sabotage, but Bull finds something buried in the soil—a drawstring bag containing a bunch of documents. It seems August was trying to warn the council about the landfill. There's also clear evidence showing he knew about Nessa.
Victor chips in, explaining that he has CCTV footage of the caravan. August was getting too paranoid, so they decided to cover their own backs—and it paid dividends now. Within the footage, Ned Bevan shows up and then leaves, but somebody else arrives and sets the place alight. It's hard to see exactly who it is, but it seems almost certainly a male and slightly overweight, given their build.
Jackie made her way to see Osian, questioning him about his encounter with Cefin that afternoon. It seems that after grabbing the kid at school, he went looking for him to apologize. However, he didn't tell the police because he feared they would pin the murder on him.
Osian had followed Cefin when he left school, but when he caught up to him and James, they ran off when they saw him. They ran along the salt path not far from where they found Cefin's body. Osian then went home after that, but as we already knew, James was with him that afternoon.
Predictably, the townsfolk decided not to go to the farm but to the woods instead. Morgan didn't think this was a good idea given the 100mph winds inbound, but this gave Jackie a way in to see James. She headed over to see the boy while he was in the back of his mother's car and questioned him about Osian's conflicting statement.
Eventually, James admitted that he didn't want Dylan to get in trouble. Dylan was the one who warned them to stay away, otherwise, the Black Sow would drown them. When James started panicking under Jackie's scrutiny, Jackie headed back to town to confront Dylan.
Bull was also in town, and Ned had gone missing. The family apparently had no idea where he was, but there were a lot of secrets with the Bevan family. Solomon eventually admitted that the night Ned discovered Nessa's body, he was with August and relayed this on to Solomon.
Apparently, Nessa was already dead when they found her, so they buried her as there was nothing they could do for her. They did this for "the good of the family," thinking of the farm first. This also recontextualized Solomon's "confession" from last episode as it was actually Ned's words. Solomon was covering for him.
Solomon confronted Ned about Nessa's murder, and since then, he's disappeared. He's actually getting a boat and leaving the island. After witnessing August's death, he believes he's next.
On the phone, Bull tells Jackie to leave the investigation to the professionals, as she believes Ned is the one who killed Nessa. He rushes off to confront him.
Meanwhile, Jess brings Victor over to August's documents, seeking help translating them. He admits that they list deliveries for the seawall and that Dylan Rees' name appears on all of them as the recipient of the parcels. Jess can't reach Bull, who's too preoccupied with stopping Jackie from spooking Ned and doing something stupid.
When Jackie shows up at the dock, she confronts Ned. He explains his desperation and relays the story about burying Nessa. When Jackie tries to stop him, Ned pushes her away, and she smacks her head. Ned disappears, leaving Jackie to inform Bull that she had to confront him. Bull is frustrated but then opens up, explaining how he's been protecting her for a while now due to evidence linking Dylan to Cefin.
Jackie is not happy and tries to bring up the false evidence, equating it to what happened with Lydia. Jess watches the whole thing and is similarly not pleased that Bull compromised their investigation to protect Jackie. It's all a bit of a mess, to be honest!
Jess doesn't understand how Bull can trust Jackie after she assaulted him. She also thinks Bull can't handle the investigation and believes she should report him. Bull immediately perks up and challenges Jess, telling her that he's sticking to this and it's his to mess up. Jess is actually quite rattled by his fierceness and eventually leaves the car, heading back to town in the heavy rain that threatens to compromise all the evidence they've gathered so far.
As the sea levels rise, Jackie goes on a hunt for Dylan. She eventually finds him wearing a white hazmat suit. Solomon attempts to convince everyone to head up to the barns, and he eventually manages to talk them all around. However, in the chaos of it all, James has run away into the woods and can't be found. As for Bull, he heads to the sea wall and realizes that the waste is being hidden inside them.
