Dead Last – The episode begins with a very brief scene showing Jade McCready (Naomi Sequeira) and Curtis Faleafa (Callan Colley) preparing for a marathon of sorts. Detective S.C. Colin Cartwright (Lloyd Griffith) and Glenn Strong (Tai Hara) will also make a brief appearance before the story picks up at the house of DI Mackenzie Clarke (Anna Samson. Surprisingly enough, Clarke is listening to a voicemail from Curtis while enjoying her breakfast. It would appear that he is pleading for her help to prevent future deaths. Although Clarke returns the call, she appears to be more concerned with the fact that she’s run out of milk. Her remedying the situation will lead to an unpleasant encounter with Trevor Bongiovanni (Ron Smyck) at the local market. Also by this time, most of the runners, including Curtis and Jade, are finishing the marathon. Curtis collapses merely seconds after crossing.

Cartwright and Glenn are throwing around theories by the time Clarke and Senior Sergeant Philomena Strong (Catherine McClements) join them at Curtis’s body. After sharing the voicemail, Clarke will discover a 10-digit number written on a scrap piece of paper with Curtis’s phone (8765 91 – 24 89). Before questioning Jade, Cartwright makes things a bit awkward by attempting to establish who will take the lead on the case. It’s clear that he wants the responsibility but Clarke takes it. Their brief interrogation will reveal that Curtis and Jade are successful fitness influencers who built an entire business around health and wellness. More importantly, she and Curtis always fast in the mornings and the only refreshments Curtis had were at the drink station during the run.

Clarke and Colin next question the volunteer, Keith Cole (Alan Dukes) operating the drink station but this is practically a waste of time. The volunteer can’t shine any light on the number either. Cartwright appears ready to believe that Curtis simply had a heart attack whereas Clarke is willing to collect all the cups and have them individually tested. Surprisingly enough, they’ll get a hit on one of the cups but it has to be sent to another lab for identification. While that pends, Clarke and Cartwright will question Keith again. They will learn that he used to coach Curtis in football. Clarke also takes special note of a scratch on his hand that he claims came from an accidental collision with a boat rack.

Cartwright and Clarke return to the station to discover that Reggie Rocco (Celia Ireland) and Constable Felix Wilkinson (Aaron L. McGrath) not only assembled a murder board but managed to string together a video timeline of Curtis’s movements. Although their efforts don’t really uncover anything damning, it will lead to a discussion about Jade, who both Clarke and Reggie went to high school with. Apparently, it was Jade’s use of homemade supplements to overcome two cancer diagnoses that spurred her popularity and success. In addition to all this, it was leaked a week ago that Jade was planning on selling the business to a private equity company in Singapore. She and Curtis would end up with an even $20 million each.

The discovery inspires them to take a closer look at Jade, who openly admits to enjoying the wealth but despises what is required to earn it. This leads to them suspecting, Nick Dosanjh (Roy Joseph). Although Clarke turns down Cartwright’s initial invitation for a drink at the Surf Club, she will make an unexpected appearance. Clarke shows up just as Cartwright is raving about her to Daisy Dixon (Andrea Demetriades). She clearly overhears him and storms off.

By this time, Glenn has managed to narrow down the specific cup containing the foreign substance but is yet to hear back from the lab. Clarke will awkwardly attempt to discuss people holding a grudge against her but Daisy’s unexpected arrival abruptly ends that. The next morning, Clarke sets her sights on one of Jade’s followers, Just-In-Time who appears to be paying her an unhealthy amount of extra attention. Her thoughts are soon interrupted by the distant chatter of Madge Woodburne (Genevieve Lemon) and several other local ladies. Clarke will express her displeasure over them using her property as a shortcut to the beach but their response is that Clarke’s mother didn’t mind. A request from Cartwright to meet him at the Surf Bar interrupts this encounter.

Cartwright only makes this more awkward when he attempts to apologize for his earlier ranting. This too will soon be interrupted by a call from Felix who has just discovered a suspicious text Curtis sent to Nick two weeks before he died. The message is Curtis telling Nick that he will not sign the deal until they have a discussion. Nick will claim that this discussion never occurred because Curtis never brought it back up and he didn’t approach it. Nick attributes it to jitters but the discussion goes no further for the moment.

Reggie discusses feeling underutilized while Glenn goes over the autopsy results with Clarke and Cartwright. Despite the fact the other lab still hasn’t responded, he’s practically ruled out the possibility of a heart attack. Even more interesting, he’s discovered a week-old black eye under Curtis’s left eye. This causes Clarke to remember the cut on Keith’s right hand.

Clark will share the discovery and her uncovering of the online profile, Just-In-Time, with the other officers. What Clarke didn’t know is that Justine died six months ago. When approached this time, Keith openly admits to fighting with Curtis but claims to be innocent of the death. According to him, Justine became obsessed with Jade’s story after she developed an illness of her own. Justine would obviously not experience the success that Jade did.

Their new discovery inspires them to return to question Jade, which turns out to be virtually useless. She admits that Justine was obsessed with her while at the same time claiming that she knew nothing of Keith and Curtis’s confrontation. Before they leave, she will tell them that she is flying to Singapore in the morning and the trip cannot be rearranged.

By the time Glenn shares the results of the lab test with Clarke, she’s so obsessed over the mysterious 10-digit number that she nearly misses the significance. If it wasn’t for Glenn bringing attention to the fact that she hadn’t eaten since breakfast, she would have probably missed it altogether. Trying to remedy the malnutrition with one of Jade’s supplements leads to an even bigger discovery that will be revealed the following morning.

With all the suspects gathered and the assistance of Cartwright, Clarke will explain how Jade used a poisoned-laced water bottle to kill Curtis. The true ingenuity behind the ploy was the fact that Jade also drank from the bottle. This explains why she was drinking one of her special charcoal-filled supplements every time they encountered her. As for her motive, Curtis was on the verge of revealing that it wasn’t the supplements that cured Jade’s cancer, it was surgery and chemotherapy which she miraculously kept hidden from the world. The 10-digit number was a patient ID for the Green Grass Institute.

Jade will eventually be arrested after admitting to everything. Clarke later commends Felix and Reggie on their contributions to the case before offering to treat Cartwright to smoothies. He’ll accept but she’ll immediately leave after paying for his purchase. This leads to her encountering Glenn where they briefly discuss his dating Daisy. The episode ends with Clarke returning home and dumping a bucket of cold water on Madge after discovering her skinny dipping.

 

Return To Paradise Review

I cannot say the episode was all bad. It certainly wasn’t great and some of Keith’s parts were embarrassingly bad. This could have easily been cut in half and probably been much better. Both the influencer and marathon themes are way overplayed.

I don’t know if the creators were trying to build suspense or meet a specific time quota, but there were so many attempts at twists that it only managed to confuse things. Sometimes less is more. There were aspects I did enjoy such as Clarke’s awkwardness with the locals and her coworkers. I’d give the episode a 5.1 out of 10.

Get more Return to Paradise recaps here. Join our newly established forum to see what others are saying. Support our site by donating. Learn about our advertising packages here.