Original subtitles

Let me tell you a story about a man...

my man, Billy.

And how he was lost for a while.

Until beauty found him.

How we doing?

We moved here for a better life.

Billy brought me to Shetland,

Britain's last outpost before the Arctic.

Cetaceans?

For that, so yes it's been a really successful year for

tourists coming up here to see cetaceans.

He was born here but felt he'd been away too long.

It was in his blood.

I asked him what that actually meant, and he said

"he did really know".

We moved to an old house by the sea,

and started fixing it up.

But before we knew it, routine, life, caught up with us again.

Lerwick Thistle nil, Ness United nil,

Wastside Rebels nil.

Sometimes, when you get everything you want,

you convince yourself that it's everything you need.

You convince yourself you're happy.

And I think we were both guilty of that.

But then who isn't?

Billy had a wee hole in his heart.

Perhaps it's the hole a man has when he doesn't get to

be a father.

He'd never let you see it;

in fact, he'd convince you of the opposite.

Like he'd convinced himself.

I could never have imagined that a wee creature

washing up at his feet,

would change everything.

Hello there!

It was March.

It was third of March actually when I was lucky enough to

first, meet her.

She was just a bag of bones.

What you doing here?

She was eating a crab,

and apparently when otters eat crabs,

it takes more energy to get into them than they get from them.

So it wasn't a good sign.

Otters are normally so shy here,

for her to be so relaxed around me

meant she must have been desperate.

Hello.

I don't know where she came from, but I heard that a

mother otter had been killed on the road near the house.

So I just assumed it was her mum and she was just too young

to be fending for herself.

Maybe I was her last resort.

She was vulnerable, and she was alone.

And it took me back to a moment in my own life,

in my childhood,

where I was in a situation that felt like I was alone.

It was a horrible feeling; it was an exposed feeling.

And I immediately transferred that feeling onto her.

Good mornin' girl, how are ya?

Are you hungry? Come on then, come on.

Watch the fingers.

As she got stronger, we started spending more time together.

Until eventually, what started out as a chance encounter,

turned to trust.

Leave the engine alone otter.

Yes, that's the petrol can.

I named her Molly, I don't really know why.

It just kind of popped into my head.

Come on!

She brought a wee smile to my face that just stayed with me.

I'm not sure that Billy knew what Molly needed back then.

She didn't need a friend.

She needed a mother.

What are you planting?

Your favorite.

What, Livingstone daises?

Sounds lovely, until Molly comes and digs them up.

I tell ya, if that otter digs them up,

I am gonna hold you responsible.

You don't see Jade doing that.

Perhaps because Molly had lost her own family,

she quickly became part of ours.

It was like she was lonely, and wanted some company.

Billy bought a book on otters to find out what she needed.

But it didn't have the answers.

So, he just decided to try and find out himself.

In you come, I've filled your bath up for you.

She's not a sea otter, even though she lives in the sea.

She's a river otter and her fur apparently needs fresh

water to wash the salt out of it.

She's no body fat, her fur's all she's got to

keep her warm, so, if it loses condition

she'll die very quickly here.

You having a good rub?

Well, just you rub and dry yourself off.

I'll get it washed sometime.

Maybe that's why she spends so much time rubbing in my jacket

after her bath.

She seems to sleep a lot, so I reckon she needs a nice bed.

One of the things with getting to know Molly

has been getting to know the different moods she's in.

Sometimes she turns up and just wants to hang out.

Sometimes she rocks up and she's angry,

like she's in a bad mood.

Sometimes she just wants to dig up Susan's flowers.

And she's fussy, sometimes really fussy.

Her favorite food seems to be salmon, but I can't afford

that too often.

So, she tends to get haddock or mackerel.

Getting Molly back to health took over

our lives that spring.

Until eventually everything just seemed to revolve around fish.

That one?

A bite?

Nothing.

Don't think I don't know why we're out here!

What d'you mean?

You know what I mean.

We've come out here to catch some fish for our tea.

We're out to catch fish for Molly.

You wanted haddock though.

I'd like some haddock, but I don't see a lot of the haddock

that comes in.

She's had the odd small haddock.

She's gets all the haddock!

Woooaahhh!

Oohhh! A cod.

Just, just take the box down, I'll aim for it.

Two moving targets is too many.

Oh, that's good! We know they're down there.

Could you hold this, and I'll release him.

Mmmm, Molly'll enjoy that.

If we weren't out fishing, Billy was on the phone,

calling whoever he could, to get more fish.

It was costing us a fortune!

But it was clear Molly was getting stronger by the day.

Billy decided we needed a new freezer.

Because he'd filled the other one with fish for Molly.

Ok so if you can just steady it.

I'll lift it and slot it onto the ground.

Are you going to give it a clean before you

put it inside?

Can do but it's clean on the inside.

But its filthy on the outside!

Yeah, okay but...

Yeah, we can get it clean.

- Is that bird poop? - No.

- You ready? - Yep

No rush. Watch your back.

Right, next little peerie bit.

Okay, perfect.

Get your kicks on the B9076.

You thought Muckle Roe was nice?

Why not try Northmavine?

It was impossible to get cross with Billy.

Because he adored Molly.

I think if I'm honest in myself, I don't really

have a clue what I'm doing.

I can do the obvious stuff, make sure she's eating well,

run her the odd bath,

but beyond that, I'm a bit out of my depth.

I don't know how old she was when we first met.

She can't have been much more than six months.

She certainly wasn't old enough to survive the winter.

So, she must still have a lot of life skills to learn.

And she's not going to learn them from me just

throwing fish at her.

I have noticed the otters round here seem to feed on

small fish they find in seaweed.

Molly, Molly, here, here.

So, if I can maybe teach her how to catch them,

that would be a start.

Molly.

Molly come on.

Molly girl.

Look, look here.

Not there, look what I'm showing you.

Come on, you're the otter,

you're supposed to be good at this.

Molly, come on!

Molly girl.

Molly!

You're not really getting the hang of this, are you?

Is that good? Are you enjoying your supper?

Are you enjoying your supper? I'm glad I can help you.

Where are you going now?

Where are you going?

She seems to have this little switch in her head,

when it flicks, she's off.

They weren't so dissimilar Billy and Molly.

They both seemed to have an extraordinary ability,

to concentrate on one thing.

For about 15 minutes.

Which when you're building an extension on your house,

and you're a year over schedule

can sometimes be quite hard to live with.

I went into the shed one day and an Amazon parcel had arrived.

Now normally I'm the shopper.

But it didn't have my name on it, it had Billy's name on it,

and I opened it.

And it was a bag of colored balls.

And my first thought was,

"surely to goodness, he has not bought these for Molly!".

♪ If gravity is not enough? ♪

♪ Will you be there 'til the end? ♪

♪ I know that I will ♪

♪ When you go away ♪

♪ Got to go and play ♪

♪ 'Til the end of day ♪

♪ 'Til I hit the hay ♪♪

I don't know if I'm doing the right thing.

I feel a bit daft sometimes.

♪ 'Cause when I'm alone ♪♪

But then I see how happy she is when she's playing.

♪ I'm a lonely one ♪♪

If she had a family,

they'd be rough and tumbling,

but I'm all she's got, and I have bills to pay.

Billy's job at the energy recovery plant

often meant he'd be away from home on long shifts.

So, I'd have to 'step in'.

Hello.

Oh hi, it's a strange one, this one.

Um, I'm not phoning about the dog.

We have a wild otter that comes and visits us,

pretty much daily just now.

And we've noticed that she's got quite a hurl in her chest

and coughs a bit.

And we're just wondering if she might need some help.

Medication help.

Crabsticks, oh mercy!

Crabsticks in the soup and it's not the best.

Well for those of us who've just joined us,

we're talking Cullen Skink.

I'm a fan of oxtail but it seems to have gone out of

fashion in the 2020s.

It is a dying soup!

Hello little one.

This is going to make you feel better.

You ready? Whoa.

Good girl. Good girl.

Having Molly in his life gave Billy a sense of

responsibility, which he thrived on.

But part of being a parent is learning when that

responsibility fills a need in your children,

and when it fills a need in you.

Billy didn't seem to want to leave the confines of

our garden with Molly.

It was like he was trying to convince himself that she

needed him more than she actually did,

by pretending that she didn't have a life beyond the garden.

But she did.

As Jade and I discovered, on our morning walks.

Hello!

Hello.

Hello Molly.

She'd spend a lot of time fishing in the sea loch.

Quite a distance from the house.

I'd see another side of her up there.

She was more confident and independent.

And being out and about living like a wild otter was probably

really good for her health.

And she had friends.

Other otters who she'd play with.

One of them was a male that came by the house occasionally.

Billy called him Bozo.

He was quite a bruiser.

But to see Molly out with Bozo,

made me realize that,

although she was a huge part of Billy's life,

he was just one part of hers.

I wasn't sure how that would make him feel.

So, I just kept it mine and Molly's wee secret.

I was glad she had another life beyond our life,

because, of course, if she hadn't,

I probably wouldn't have seen my husband.

But then, she made him happy, and he made me happy.

And isn't that what love is?

Letting someone be themselves because that person is

everything you need.

♪ Sweet dreams of you ♪

♪ Every night ♪♪

Jade. Jade! Do you wanna go walkies?

Come on! Walkies.

Jade, come!

Jade, come! Come!

Jade, Jade!

Jade, in behind. Come!

Molly girl, are you coming too?

Come on, let's go rootlin'!

Come, come!

Molly girl.

Come!

Look at you, catching your own.

There was a point where Billy's relationship with

Molly flipped.

From him being there for her,

to her being there for him.

Molly you've totally got the hang of this.

You're catching far more than I can find.

Look at you! You're a pro.

Molly just woken a little bit of me, that had been lying dormant.

Oh hello, hello.

It's like she's showing me how to be a kid again.

That fascination, that joy that we somehow seem to allow

ourselves to lose, as we get older.

It's unusually warm in Shetland today,

that fine weather is expected to stay!

Certainly, over the next few days, as high pressure pushes

up from Scotland and the rest of northern Europe.

Temperatures...

As Molly began to need less time and care;

Billy could finally, get on with finishing our house.

The delay was putting a huge pressure on us.

I remember, just being so pleased our lives were

getting back on track.

Until he came in one evening with a big smile on his face

and explained that he'd finished the house and

would I like to come and see it.

And I nearly suggested, he go and live in it.

We call these a but and ben.

Just a kitchen-y, living room and a bedroom.

Like what our house used to be.

I got the Wi-Fi into Molly's house today.

You've got the Wi-Fi?

Wi-Fi? Yeah.

So, Molly has Wi-Fi in her house?

Well, she, Yeah.

And I don't have Wi-Fi in our house.

Well, she doesn't realize she's got Wi-Fi.

It's for the camera.

But yeah, I suppose technically she's got Wi-Fi,

all over her house, okay.

Well darling we can sort that out.

I'll get you an extra thing.

But you've been saying that for such a long time.

I know but.

And there I find that you've put Wi-Fi into Molly's house.

And as you say, she doesn't even know she has Wi-Fi!

I'll get you a new Wi-Fi router for your birthday.

Do not even think about it.

Christmas?

I've rigged her wee house with a camera.

And a special app that tells me when she's home.

As fun as Molly's new house was.

And as much as we loved watching her in it,

I think it marked the point where Billy realized,

he may have gone too far.

Billy always said that he needed to get Molly to a point

where she could survive the winter, without his help.

And as the summer days gave way to the long nights of autumn,

like it or not, he was forced to face that commitment.

We started to see another otter coming by the house

usually at dusk.

And then one evening, we realized who it was.

It was Bozo, and he was looking for Molly.

I should be happy for her.

But instead, I feel kind of protective.

That's my wee girl.

It's hard watching her go off with 'him'.

But there's nothing I can do about it.

I guess all I can do is just let go a little.

I'm going to stop feeding her.

I don't want to, but I know I should.

I will never forget that morning.

It was a moment so fragile.

And I think Billy knew that.

It was like he was banking memories of something.

He knew could never last.

Molly visited a few more times over the next couple of weeks.

And then she just stopped coming.

Winter came quickly to Shetland that year until once again,

life was ruled by the wind, and the cold,

and the angry North Atlantic.

I found a dead otter on the beach this morning.

I thought it was Molly but when I got closer,

I realized it was a wee cub.

Maybe it got lost in a storm,

separated from its mum perhaps...

I was going to leave it for the gulls, but I couldn't.

That was a little personality, a little life.

Not just another animal.

It was a being.

Just like Molly.

Just like me.

Billy regretted his decision to stop feeding Molly.

He pretended he didn't, but I knew he did.

He started leaving fish out for her again.

Hoping she'd come home.

But they only fed the gulls.

One month turned into two.

Without any sign of her.

The only peace that Billy could find was outside,

in the storm.

I took Billy to town at the end of January,

to watch the Up Helly Aa procession.

The town's folk build a Viking galley,

parade it around the town.

And then burn it in the play park.

A tradition?

Or maybe just a distraction from the brutal Shetland winters.

I hoped it would raise Billy's spirits a little.

But his mind was elsewhere.

I never had kids.

I don't think people who do have them realize that there's

always a part of you that grieves the loss of something

you've never had.

You live with it, and you deal with it.

But loss always runs a little deeper perhaps.

It always seemed crazy to me.

To spend so long building something beautiful.

Only to burn it to the ground.

Susan!

Susan!

Molly! Molly!

Molly girl.

Molly. Molly!

Where on earth have you been, you little horror?

You're home!

You've picked your night to come.

You've no idea what you've put us through.

.

Oh, you're my wee girl, you're my wee girl.

It was so nice to see him happy again.

She was the sparkle in his eye.

And you know what?

Give me a man who loves and cares any day,

over one who doesn't notice.

Oh, Is that a teat?

I think it is.

Wow.

She's wriggling around.

She can't get comfortable.

Look at the size of that belly.

She's definitely pregnant, there's no doubt about it.

Look, she's making, she's making her bed.

She doesn't have all those scatter cushions to worry about.

Oh, look at her.

To be honest, the way she's lying, lying on her back,

I'd say she's not far away from having a baby.

How do I feel about Molly being pregnant?

When your children grow up you prepare them,

you nurture them,

you help them in whatever way you can to get to adulthood

and then live their life.

Molly.

Are you going to have babies?

Are you going to have babies?

And in a strange kind of parallel way, I feel like

I've done that with Molly.

It's almost like if Molly comes back with a baby.

I'll feel like I've done my job.

I've arrived.

By May.

Molly's visits became very regular.

But we noticed a change in her behavior.

She seemed exhausted.

And instead of wanting to hang out and fish around the pontoon.

She just wanted to sleep.

And she slept a lot.

And then one day, when she paid us a visit.

We found out why.

Ohhh, look.

Awh look at that!

Good golly Miss Molly.

Oh how cute is that?

Molly's a mum Jade!

I mean that's really big, he must be 9 or 10 weeks old.

She's a bit narky!

Oh!

Shove over!

Put your teeth away cub!

That's... I'm trying to get some sleep.

Look it is, I'm tired you, get away!

She must be leaving the baby in there, going away fishing

and then coming back but that's it in there on its own.

He looks quite happy

Soon Molly's cub would be going

everywhere with her.

And that's when Billy would need to back right off.

So it would keep its fear of humans.

But he told me that there was one last thing

that he had to do.

To say goodbye.

So, I bought him a gift.

Right, strip!

Your skin's all red.

I feel like you're forcing me into this.

I am!

It's meant to be tight though.

I don't know.

Get my arm in the other sleeve.

There we go.

Sorted!

It was over a year ago that Molly washed up

right here on this jetty.

And there's a whole part of her world that I have never

seen or been any part of.

She always comes into my world,

but I've never taken the step into hers.

But I know I should, I want to,

to see it with her.

Now she's a mum, it's like she's taking life more seriously.

She's still got her sense of fun, that's not gone.

And I guess some of that has rubbed off on me.

She's not hassling me for fish,

or bothering me for some attention,

or digging up Susan's flowers in the garden

or pooping in my boat,

chasing Jade from her ball.

She's just her.

Completely unattached from me.

I see the creature beyond the character.

So graceful, absolutely in her element.

She's just, perfect.

And then that little switch in her head flicks,

and she's off.

And I'm left alone.

Except I'm not, am I?

♪ Tilting with each sudden kick ♪

♪ Shimmer and twisting ♪

♪ So bright and fresh pelt ♪

♪ Heaving the cool at your neck ♪

♪ Turn water to wind as you swing through the sea ♪

♪ Surface resurface again ♪

♪ When you plunge into this heaven ♪

♪ Light around you glimmers ♪

♪ Suddenly you're out of view ♪

♪ But not alone cause I slipped right through ♪

♪ Till almost dawn ♪

Cold, my wetsuit's digging into my neck;

my mask's leaking and the saltwater's stinging my eyes,

and I need a wee, but I don't care.

Because I'm lost to this.

And that line that separates us from nature.

Molly's world from mine.

If she showed me anything,

it's that there is no line.

♪ Pretend with the song of the skylark ♪

♪ In the court of today, we all carry on ♪

♪ Stand with the legs of a heron ♪

♪ Let water pass over peat under the bird ♪

Molly came into our lives,

probably when we needed her most;

and she changed us.

It's a good size.

She opened our eyes again.

Have a look.

Reminded us of who we were, not who we'd become.

I've lost them.

Oh, there they are.

Beauty's a powerful thing when it catches you off guard,

and Molly showed us that,

and she knew nothing about it.

♪ When I see you close or deep ♪

♪ I pack my sphere on water ♪

♪ Suddenly you're far beyond with a shot ♪

♪ As I sit here holding by your home ♪

♪ I will sit here waiting by your home ♪♪

What will we have for dinner?

Umm, Haddock?

I am sick of haddock.

Well, we've got quite a lot to get through.

We've got a whole freezer full.

I've got a present, this is for you.

Oh, oooh!

Catch?

Good girl!

Captioned by Cotter Media Group.