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The Worst Episodes of Vera

Every episode of Vera ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of Vera!

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A sharp detective with a messy life, DCI Vera Stanhope patrols her “patch” of northeast England, pursuing the truth in cases of murder, kidnapping, and blackmail. Vera is obsessive about her work and faces the

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Worst Episode
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    Vera Season 1 Episode 1 - Hidden Depths
    7.3/10(1171 votes)

    #1 - Hidden Depths

    S1:E1

    After two young people are killed in the same way - placed in water and surrounded by flowers - DCI Vera Stanhope knows that she must catch the murderer before they strike again. Aided by her team, especially her trusted right-hand man Sgt Joe Ashworth, she unpicks the complex and dysfunctional relationships amongst a group of bird-watching friends. As the friends' loyalty turns to betrayal, Vera finds that a small act of teenage blackmail and an illicit affair may have driven someone to kill.

    Director:Adrian Shergold
    Writer:Paul Rutman

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  2. Vera Season 4 Episode 3 - The Deer Hunters
    7.4/10(658 votes)

    #2 - The Deer Hunters

    S4:E3

    When a suspected poacher is found dead from a gunshot wound, Vera must unearth the real truth behind his return to the Northumberland moors.

    Director:William Sinclair
    Writer:Steve Coombes

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  3. Vera Season 2 Episode 4 - Sandancers
    7.6/10(706 votes)

    #3 - Sandancers

    S2:E4

    DCI Vera Stanhope and DS Joe Ashworth investigate a suspicious death in an army barracks. Although the scene has been made to look like a suicide, Vera quickly establishes that Staff Sgt 'Dev' Deverson was murdered. Sensing a connection to a soldier named Ollie who was killed in Afghanistan, Vera interviews Dev's loyal comrades and Ollie's grieving family, exposing a deeply concealed trauma at the heart of the crime.

    Director:Edward Bazalgette
    Writer:Paul Rutman

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  4. Vera Season 5 Episode 1 - Changing Tides
    7.6/10(734 votes)

    #4 - Changing Tides

    S5:E1

    Vera takes a look into a suspicious fire that rips through a holiday park on the Northumberland coast. Three cabins are destroyed and the body of a woman is discovered inside inside one of them.

    Director:Marek Losey
    Writer:Martha Hillier

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  5. Vera Season 10 Episode 2 - Parent Not Expected
    7.6/10(603 votes)

    #5 - Parent Not Expected

    S10:E2

    DCI Vera Stanhope must unravel a tangled web of deceit between two wildly different families when the body of a teenage boy is discovered floating near a Northumberland salmon farm.

    Director:Rob Evans
    Writer:Colette Kane

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  6. Vera Season 1 Episode 2 - Telling Tales
    7.7/10(938 votes)

    #6 - Telling Tales

    S1:E2

    After Jeanie Long commits suicide, evidence comes to light exonerating her for the murder of teenager Abigail Mantel 11 years earlier. DCI Vera Stanhope and her team set out to retrospectively solve the killing, delving into the secrets and lies of a small community which still feels the repercussions of Abigail's death. Then the case takes an violent and unexpected turn - can Vera use her skill and instinct to find the truth and lay ghosts to rest?

    Director:Peter Hoar
    Writer:Paul Rutman

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  7. Vera Season 1 Episode 3 - The Crow Trap
    7.7/10(862 votes)

    #7 - The Crow Trap

    S1:E3

    When a woman is murdered in the remote Northumbrian countryside, DCI Vera Stanhope is led back to a place from her past. As she and her team investigate, they uncover shadowy liaisons, conflicting sympathies and hidden injustices.

    Director:Farren Blackburn
    Writer:Paul Rutman

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  8. Vera Season 6 Episode 3 - The Moth Catcher
    7.7/10(1754 votes)

    #8 - The Moth Catcher

    S6:E3

    DCI Stanhope and her team, including new recruit DC Hicham Cherradi, travel to a remote country house when the woman looking after it is killed.

    Director:Jamie Childs
    Writer:Paul Matthew Thompson

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  9. Vera Season 6 Episode 4 - The Sea Glass
    7.7/10(862 votes)

    #9 - The Sea Glass

    S6:E4

    A fisherman's body is found tangled up in a North Sea trawler's net. Vera and her team investigate with the help of the local harbourmaster

    Director:Paul Gay
    Writer:Martha Hillier

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  10. Vera Season 7 Episode 1 - Natural Selection
    7.7/10(1265 votes)

    #10 - Natural Selection

    S7:E1

    CI Vera Stanhope is drawn into a suspicious death on Ternstone, a remote and inaccessible island off the coast of Northumberland, home only to numerous species of birds and the rangers who observe them. The last thing anyone expected to see was a body, cruelly washed up on the shore.

    Director:Jamie Childs
    Writer:Helen Jenkins

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  11. Vera Season 8 Episode 4 - Darkwater
    7.7/10(620 votes)

    #11 - Darkwater

    S8:E4

    Vera is confronted with a tragic mystery when the dead body of teenager Ethan Dewley is found floating in a reservoir in a remote rural town, DCI Vera Stanhope must scrutinise the fractured relationships of the surrounding community to find his killer.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  12. Vera Season 9 Episode 2 - Cuckoo
    7.7/10(626 votes)

    #12 - Cuckoo

    S9:E2

    Vera must get to the bottom of why a teenage boy is found murdered far away from his home in a coastal town.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  13. Vera Season 3 Episode 1 - Castles in the Air
    7.8/10(747 votes)

    #13 - Castles in the Air

    S3:E1

    DCI Vera Stanhope investigates the brutal murder of a young physiotherapist gunned down at a luxury country retreat.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  14. Vera Season 8 Episode 2 - Black Ice
    7.8/10(645 votes)

    #14 - Black Ice

    S8:E2

    When a seemingly beloved resident of a coastal community is fatally driven off the road, DCI Vera digs up the victim's past in the hope of unmasking the killer.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  15. Vera Season 10 Episode 1 - Blood Will Tell
    7.8/10(635 votes)

    #15 - Blood Will Tell

    S10:E1

    DCI Vera Stanhope must unravel the circumstances of self-styled entrepreneur Freddie Gill's death when his body is found by bailiffs, attempting to repossess his house.

    Director:Paul Gay
    Writer:Paul Logue

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  16. Vera Season 10 Episode 4 - The Escape Turn
    7.8/10(570 votes)

    #16 - The Escape Turn

    S10:E4

    Wealthy betting shop tycoon Alun Wilmott is shot and killed during a home invasion, leaving his wife and daughter traumatized - with large amounts of cash missing from his personal safe, it is assumed he is the unlucky victim of a burglary.

    Director:Carolina Giammetta
    Writer:Paul Matthew Thompson

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  17. Vera Season 11 Episode 3 - Tyger Tyger
    7.8/10(599 votes)

    #17 - Tyger Tyger

    S11:E3

    When security foreman Gary Mallon is fatally wounded during a robbery at a Blyth container port the evidence points to an audacious heist that went awry. Vera begins to suspect an inside job. But the investigation takes an unexpected turn when Gary’s ex-wife contacts police with the news that their 13-year-old son is missing. Gary Mallon was acting under duress - the victim of a tiger kidnapping. His son was being held as collateral - but where is he now? In order to rescue the missing boy, Vera first needs to work out who was behind the robbery. Further complications ensue when she finds herself forced to collaborate with an NCA Officer who is working on a covert surveillance operation with links to organised crime. As Vera closes in on the kidnappers a misstep in the investigation leads to tragic repercussions, and she finds herself taken off the case.

    Director:Paul Gay
    Writer:Paul Matthew Thompson

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  18. Vera Season 12 Episode 1 - Against the Tide
    7.8/10(673 votes)

    #18 - Against the Tide

    S12:E1

    Vera is called to a lighthouse when the body of a local council worker is found, but it becomes clear that his life wasn't plain sailing.

    Director:Will Sinclair
    Writer:Lucia Haynes

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  19. Vera Season 12 Episode 2 - For the Grace of God
    7.8/10(667 votes)

    #19 - For the Grace of God

    S12:E2

    Vera attends to the body of an ex-soldier who ended up on the streets and finds that events in his past and the present made for a deadly future.

    Director:Claire Winyard
    Writer:Sally Abbott

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  20. Vera Season 13 Episode 3 - Salt & Vinegar
    7.8/10(506 votes)

    #20 - Salt & Vinegar

    S13:E3

    DCI Vera Stanhope investigates when the body of the co-owner of a chip shop is found in his own freezer. A seemingly successful entrepreneur and dedicated family man, Vera uncovers secrets, lies and some unforgivable behaviour as she tries to unwrap the case. Once the investigation begins, it soon becomes apparent that our enigmatic entrepreneur has left behind debts, broken promises, ruined lives and seriously interfered in family business that was not his own. Who is responsible for this unsavoury chip shop assault and battery?

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  21. Vera Season 2 Episode 1 - The Ghost Position
    7.9/10(850 votes)

    #21 - The Ghost Position

    S2:E1

    Vera's reunion with her first-ever sergeant, Stuart Macken, occurs under tragic circumstances when his house is petrol-bombed. Stuart is badly burned by the attack and his 18-year-old daughter Stella is left fighting for her life in intensive care. Vera is shocked to see that Stuart is a shadow of the man she knew 20 years before and, when her investigation uncovers unpleasant revelations about his personal life, she is faced with some long-buried memories of her own.

    Director:Peter Hoar
    Writer:Paul Rutman

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  22. Vera Season 2 Episode 3 - A Certain Samaritan
    7.9/10(727 votes)

    #22 - A Certain Samaritan

    S2:E3

    DCI Vera Stanhope investigates the murder of 29-year-old Niall Coulter. With those closest to Niall intent upon obscuring the truth, it is not until the body of a drug dealer is found washed up on a Northumberland beach that the dreadful truth begins to emerge about Niall's past. While coping with revelations from her own past, Vera sifts through evidence of the grief, love and addiction that characterised Niall's life and deduces that his murderer acted through selfless and unrequited love.

    Director:Julian Holmes
    Writer:Colin Teevan

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  23. Vera Season 3 Episode 2 - Poster Child
    7.9/10(707 votes)

    #23 - Poster Child

    S3:E2

    DCI Vera Stanhope and her team must race against time to track down the killer of a respected surgeon and save his abducted teenage daughters.

    Director:Paul Cotter
    Writer:Unknown

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  24. Vera Season 3 Episode 4 - Prodigal Son
    7.9/10(706 votes)

    #24 - Prodigal Son

    S3:E4

    Vera and her team investigate the fatal stabbing of an ex-Met police officer outside a busy Newcastle nightclub.

    Director:Thaddeus O'Sullivan
    Writer:Marston Bloom

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  25. Vera Season 4 Episode 1 - On Harbour Street
    7.9/10(752 votes)

    #25 - On Harbour Street

    S4:E1

    Investigating a mysterious death, DCI Vera Stanhope finds herself in a quiet coastal town with clues that keep revolving around one street.

    Director:Thaddeus O'Sullivan
    Writer:Paul Rutman

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Worst Episodes Summary

"Hidden Depths" is the worst rated episode of "Vera". It scored 7.3/10 based on 1171 votes. Directed by Adrian Shergold and written by Paul Rutman, it aired on 5/1/2011. This episode scored 0.1 points lower than the second lowest rated, "The Deer Hunters".