Peacock‘s Lockerbie: A Search for Truth is a superbly acted exploration of the way grief can not just change a family and transform someone’s entire life, but also a look at how the lack of concrete answers can leave you unmoored, despite your best intentions. It is also a case study on how to move on, step by step, even when getting up in the morning seems like an impossible endeavor.
Both Colin Firth and Catherine McCormack, as Jim and Jane Swire, the parents of Flora Swire, who lost her life in the real-life PanAm 103 tragedy, spend the entire show not just trying to come to terms with what happened to their daughter, but with what it means to not really know why it happened, or what the government could have done to prevent it. And that’s the real tragedy of the show, and of the story it’s trying to tell: the uncertainty.
MORE: Laid was a blast! Check out what Stephanie Hsu had to say about it.
In a way, that’s also what makes the show feel so ultimately unsatisfying at times, too. Narratively, there’s no tidy little bow. At times it feels like too much is going on and there’s no clear direction. Who did what and when? The show doesn’t know because the reality is that no one knows for sure, even after all these years. If Lockerbie: A Search for Truth can’t tell you, it’s because some things are still a mystery. Sometimes life has no tidy answers for us.
That brings up the question of if stories are only worth being told if there are clear-cut answers. I don’t believe the answer to that is yes. What happened to PanAm 103 was a tragedy. What happened to the town of Lockerbie was a tragedy. Someone knows the answers. There might still be ways to get even more information. Often getting more eyes on the story helps. Even as someone who knew about what had happened, I learned details while watching this. I imagine there will be a lot of people learning about this tragedy while watching Lockerbie: A Search for Truth. That means something.
MORE: Check out our interview with Lori Tilkin deFelice
A federal trial for Libyan national Abu Agila Masud is set for May of 2025 for participating in the bombing of PanAm 103. So it is ironic that this show is being released now. Officially, Gaddafi accepted Libya’s responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing. He also paid over a billion dollars in compensation to the families of the victims. But that doesn’t mean there have been clear answers. Lockerbie: A Search for Truth doesn’t have any, either. But it does have a moment where Colin Firth’s character has to explain what the pin he’s wearing is for. “In memory of the victims of Flight 103,” he says, to the woman’s blank stare. She doesn’t know. A lot of others won’t either.
If, after this, there are a couple more people who now know of the story, then Lockerbie: A Search for Truth, will have done a good thing. The families of the victims of Flight 103 and the people in Lockerbie surely agree.
Lockerbie: A Search for Truth is available to stream on Peacock.
