As the fifth episode of Ludwig begins, the headmaster of a school is killed. Next, Ms. Freya Chordwell (Rose Ayling-Ellis) tries to get Mr. Durose to open his door. The maintenance man tries to drill through the lock since it’s locked from the inside. Once they open the door, they find the headmaster dead. Mr. Bishop (Sam Swainsbury) looks in and sees Mr. Durose (Christopher Parramore) dead. Henry (Dylan Hughes) and Lucy (Anna Maxwell Martin) tell John (David Mitchell) that James’s phone has been hacked. The software was altered so that they cannot withhold numbers anymore. As a result, they have the number for the person who called last night. They discuss the possibility of getting Holly to help. John doesn’t want Lucy to go to the address if he gets it. In private, Henry tells his mom he might know a way to get an ex-directory address.

He hopes she won’t make a big thing about it right now. John sees Holly (Sophie Willan) at work. DI Russell Carter (Dipo Ola) takes him to the school to investigate Ian Durose’s death. DC Simon Evans (Gerran Howell) believes the body had been there for several days. It has been moved already. It looks like a suicide since there was a note. John notices that the suicide note is full of errors even though Ian Durose was the head of English at one time. When John says this was murder, Alice Finch (Izuka Hoyle) comes in and says she knew it was. She explains that they’re sending everyone home. Freya Chordwell is in charge. Henry shows Lucy that he has been using the dark web. They can get ex-directory addresses from there. Henry finds out it’s an address in Wales registered to a woman named Gillian Botley. Henry doesn’t think Lucy should go there. Lucy reminds him she has a day job and won’t be going anywhere.

Russell and John question Freya. She says she last saw Ian going into his office on Friday. It was a Friday after a long week so she just wanted to get home. Freya and Ian have cottages on site. She lives with her fiancé, Mr. Bishop, now. Bishop was away since he was house-sitting for his parents in the Highlands. They had an argument, but it doesn’t matter now. Freya saw one of the housemasters leaving late. He isn’t all there in the head now. John knows Mr. Todd (Derek Jacobi). Russell and John approach Mr. Todd to speak to him about the murder. Todd remembers John who finds out that he’s been working on a puzzle. John asks him about wearing his glasses. Todd puts them back on. He can’t remember if he saw Ian on that day, but he believes he did right before the final bell. He was supposedly having a heated exchange with Mr. Bishop.

Todd doesn’t think Bishop and Freya were exchanged. He says Bishop is a bully so he avoids him. Lucy researches the address and finds out that it’s eight hours away. As they leave, John wonders what happened to Todd since he got many of the puzzles wrong. Russell reminds him he is 30 years older. John remembers Todd helping with him with a bully when he was younger. Then, they speak to Bishop who says he got engaged this weekend. John asks if he got engaged over the phone. Bishop claims he has a video. He insists he wasn’t arguing with Durose. Bishop also says Mr. Todd is on the verge of being let go. Bishop calls for Isaac Upton who is the captain of the rugby team. Last week, Isaac was caught smoking marijuana. Bishop explains why he wasn’t happy about that. He didn’t want any suspension or disciplinary action on Isaac’s record. As for Durose, he said he’d have to speak to the board.

Ian says he was with his girlfriend, Sasha Sparks, on Friday evening. As for Bishop, he says he was several hundred miles away. He believes one of the locals would’ve seen him at some point. At the station, John refuses to believe the door was locked from the inside. They talk about their suspects, including Freya, Isaac, and others. It is pointed out that Freya was progressive and tried to push policy changes such as genderless uniforms. Holly is working on the victim’s computer. Bishop came back with his alibi. He said he passed a couple of hikers but he didn’t know any of them. Russell is adamant there is no way Todd could’ve done this. John believes there has to be a trick with the lock. That night, John speaks to Lucy about Gillian Botley. Lucy insists she doesn’t know who that is. She believes it’s another dead end since it’s a fake address and fake name. Lucy urges John to speak to Holly.

The next day, it is confirmed that Ian was strangled. Holly and DCS Carol Shaw (Dorothy Atkinson) are in James’s office waiting to speak to him. Shaw tells John that the case has gone public so they’re going to have all eyes on them again. Holly says she saw a letter about Isaac but it was unfinished. There was a letter about Mr. Bishop and rumors of inappropriate conduct with a female student. John joins Russell at the school. They watch rugby practice. Bishop hugs a young student who also hugs Isaac. Then, they question Bishop who denies everything. John asks if it was Sasha Sparks (Yasmin Dacre) since he saw Bishop touch her. Bishop says he follows the first rule of sport so he never cheats. Lucy gets a call and learns that Henry didn’t go to school. He’s actually in the back of her car. Henry suspects she knew the name Botley. Lucy admits that was the maiden name of Matt’s wife.

Meanwhile, John tries to figure out how the lock works. Freya barges in with a student and talks to John about the rumor regarding Mr. Bishop. She insists it’s common for someone like him. Freya says he is over-friendly with him. She reveals she is the one who caught Isaac with the joint. Bishop didn’t think she should report it, but she knew she had to. They argued about it. Freya wrote him essays about her insecurities. She got a long video message from him apologizing. Out of the blue, he ended with a proposal. Lucy checks into a motel before calling John to tell him he’ll be home alone. Lucy claims they’re going to a wedding. John leaves Russell because he needs to see a man about a door. John remembers speaking to Mr. Todd about the bullies. Todd lets him play with a puzzle to see if he can solve it. In the present, John visits Todd.

He talks to him about the locked room. Todd explains it could be a false path. John asks what the real solution is. Todd says he should tell him since it’s his puzzle. He didn’t know he was talking about Mr. Durose. As John leaves, Bishop asks him why he joins the police force. Bishop talks about alphas and betas. Bishop suspects it’s awkward for John that the door was locked from the inside. It makes him wonder if justice will ever be served. John promises him it will. When John gets back, he immediately blames Mr. Bishop for killing Ian Durose. John goes home to an empty house. Lucy calls and learns that he hates being alone in her house. He admits he didn’t manage to talk to Holly. He knows who killed Bishop and he can’t prove it. John also talks about Mr. Todd who has nothing but an empty house. Lucy insists he will never be alone. She offers to build a granny flat when James comes back.

John looks at a banana peel in the trash before saying he needs to go. He runs into Holly at the station and says he may have solved some of it. Simon overhears John asking why she covered for him. Holly asks if they’re going to keep pretending nothing happened between them. James supposedly kissed her at the Christmas party. Then, John looks through the evidence and possibly figures it out. Lucy sneaks out and leaves Henry. John gathers everyone to talk to them about the case. He says he asked Todd’s advice on the puzzle. He said it was impossible. John agrees they were being led down a false path when trying to figure out how the door was locked. The killer never actually left the office. John suggests Bishop stayed in the room with the victim for three days. The body was clearly visible from the door.

Once they saw the body and panicked, Bishop made his escape. John says an apple was eaten that morning and thrown in the bin. Bishop claims he ate the apple on Friday when he was meeting Mr. Durose. He believes Freya can explain the apple core’s color. John says they have other evidence anyway. He mentions the video proposal. John says Bishop knew Freya wouldn’t be able to hear what he just said. John says they heard the bells in the background. The bells ring in the present too. Bishop tries to come after John only to be tripped by Mr. Todd. Bishop is arrested. Todd says he hates bullies. Lucy finds Matt Neville (Karl Pilkington) and asks him about calling James. He knows that wasn’t James. Matt’s wife comes outside and immediately says they have to leave now. Lucy asks if it is linked to the Sinclair case.

They tell her to leave now before she causes problems for them. They refuse to tell Lucy anything. John visits Mr. Todd to thank him for his help. Todd asks why he’s pretending to be his brother. John says it’s complicated. He says no one else has figured it out yet. He’s relieved to know Todd is still just as brilliant as ever. Lucy tells Henry that the place was abandoned. At home, John tells Lucy he spoke to Holly and it was not what they thought. Lucy continues lying about the wedding. Holly calls Lucy in the middle of the night. Holly wants to meet tonight so they can talk about James. Once again, Lucy sneaks out.

 

Ludwig Review

The fifth episode of Ludwig was okay although a bit silly in the end. The case-solving techniques seemed to have declined a lot from the start of the season. In the first episode, they were pretty complex and unique. Now, they’re starting to be mundane and just like everything else.

In this episode, there was barely a puzzle to solve. It’s also silly to believe that Bishop was going to stay in the office for so long and know he’d have an escape plan after the discovery of the body. It was also too easy considering John was on Bishop’s trail from the very beginning.

It seems the investigation into James’s disappearance is really going nowhere. Lucy and Henry traveled that far only to turn around and return home empty-handed. Now, it appears Lucy is going to be accused of murder in the finale. How cliché is that? It’s a good thing this show doesn’t take itself seriously.

Overall, this episode was watchable but it barely did anything to push the story forward. It’s really just becoming another British crime drama with the same tropes. The episode scores a 5.5 out of 10. Recaps of Ludwig can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link.

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