As this episode of Death In Paradise begins, Nancy Martin (Hayley Mills) speaks to Barbara Mitchell (Ellie Haddington). Barbara is introduced to Eloise Mirie (Juliet Cowan). Nancy and Barbara bicker back and forth. Phillipe Varane (Kevin Harvey) tries to calm them. Nancy asks Barbara if she is coming to bingo. She is looking forward to giving Barbara another thrashing, but Barbara suggests otherwise. During bingo, Phillipe calls out the numbers while Nancy tells Eloise how it works. Barbara accuses Nancy of cheating although Nancy thinks she is just a sore loser. Nancy sees her daughter Oona (Akia Henry) who tells her they need to talk in private.

Barbara tells Eloise that Nancy has the heart of a scoundrel underneath it all. She ends up winning. Nancy excuses herself after saying she needs to be left alone. She goes outside where she says stupid woman. Nancy is stabbed to death on a bench outside. After the intro, DI Neville Parker (Ralf Little) speaks to Naomi Thomas (Shantol Jackson) and Catherine Bordey (Elizabeth Bourgine) about collecting shells. He believes that’d be a good topic for his blog. They applaud Commissioner Selwyn Patterson (Don Warrington) when he comes outside. He isn’t sure why since he can’t return to work. Neville tries to cheer him up but it backfires. Naomi gets a call from Darlene who tells her about the murder at the Paradise Bay care home.

At the care home, Darlene (Ginny Holder) tells Neville about the victim Nancy Martin. She was stabbed with her own knitting needle. Although it was wiped clean, there are still traces of blood on it. Neville notices that her 1920s antique watch has stopped. He finds an old CCTV picture in his pocket. On the back, it says Jeremy Heston, Gatwick July 23, 1993. There are no witnesses because everyone in the care home was in the activities room at the time of the murder. Barbara found the body so she tells them how it happened. Oona tells her to stop her crocodile tears. Neville learns that Oona was Nancy’s adoptive daughter. Neville wants a list of everyone who was in the room at the time of the murder.

Eloise hopes they don’t think they’re suspects. She is Nancy’s cousin but only met her for the first time a couple of days ago. Eloise doesn’t want to get caught up in the investigation because she has a whole room of alibis. Neville asks about Jeremy Heston. He finds it odd that Nancy had made full house two numbers previously and didn’t shout house. Naomi and Neville check in with Marlon Pryce (Tahj Miles) and Darlene. Neville thinks the killer followed Nancy out. When they return, they learn from Catherine that Selwyn is being difficult. Selwyn thinks the name Jeremy Heston rings a bell. He tells Neville that Jeremy was a self-employed accountant from Milton Keynes who arrived in Honore on July 24, 1993.

That’s the day after his photo was taken at Gatwick Airport. The next day, Saint Marie was hit by a surprise storm. Jeremy died at sea after having been there for less than 24 hours. His body was never found and there was no next of kin to bury him anyway. A fisherman named Clement Brown tried to save him but drowned as well. Later, Neville and Catherine talk about Selwyn who drinks alone. The next day, it is confirmed that the knitting needle was used to kill Nancy. The lab found a partial print. Nancy emigrated from the UK in 1994 before setting up a charity for underprivileged children. A lot of the money distributed came out of her own pocket. They don’t know where the money came from.

The care home manager, Phillipe Varane, was Nancy’s personal assistant for 25 years. A mobile phone was registered to Nancy, but they’ve been unable to find it. They wonder if the killer took it. Neville wants to check Nancy’s bank records. Darlene reveals someone has been writing Nancy poison pen letters. Barbara confesses to writing the letters because she was upset. Neville suspects bingo was more than just a game to Barbara. She says bingo was her thing during the difficulty of growing old in a care home. Barbara admits she didn’t like Nancy although she didn’t kill her. Darlene learns that Miss Mitchell was not the only person who had issues with Nancy. She had a row with Oona yesterday. Phyllis saw Oona searching her mother’s room for something.

Neville learns Oona applied for and received a passport only two weeks ago. She arrives to get Nancy’s personal effects. Phillipe watches from a distance. When Neville mentions the watch, Oona admits it has never worked. It was a family heirloom that Nancy couldn’t leave behind when she left the UK. Naomi and Neville ask her about searching Nancy’s room and her cell phone. Oona admits she was in Nancy’s room, but she didn’t break in or steal anything. She was only looking for her passport. Oona tells them how her mother was smothering. She was supposed to be leaving today on an adventure. Nancy tried to talk her out of it and supposedly took her passport to prevent her from leaving. Oona admits she was so angry when she last spoke to her mom.

She insists she wouldn’t have murdered her though. Darlene questions Eloise who tells her how Nancy stormed out of the bingo game. She also says Phillipe popped out for a bit. At the station, Naomi tells Neville that Phillipe was born in Jamaica and was in and out of juvenile institutions. Two hours before Nancy was murdered, $100,000 was transferred from her personal account to an account in the Cayman Islands. The transfer was authorized by Phillipe Varane. When they question him, Phillipe claims he transferred the money at Nancy’s request. He says he has financial power of attorney. Phillipe won’t tell them where the money was going. During the bingo game, he claims he stepped out to take a call from a nuisance caller.

Naomi and Neville say they found emails from Phillipe asking Nancy for a loan to cover the interest repayments on a debt. He says he was embarrassed that he made some bad financial decisions. Phillip explains he tried to rob Nancy but she took the knife from him. That’s how he met her. She bought him lunch and gave him a job. Phillipe explains that’s why he wouldn’t murder her for money. Later, Neville and the others go over the latest evidence. He believes they’re missing something. Naomi tells him that Interpol has been trying to reach him. When Nancy’s exclusion prints were entered into the system, it triggered a 30-year-old Red Notice. Neville says she was actually Gwen Jackson who was the wife of Frankie Jackson.

His gang stole 5 million pounds in one of the largest heists in UK history. Frankie was killed in a shootout with police a year later. On the same day, Gwen disappeared. Marlon asks how she could have a second cousin if she doesn’t exist. They find that Eloise is in a hurry to escape. Once they corner her, she surprises them by revealing she is a Detective Sergeant with the Flying Squad. Frankie was her first case. Her partner died in the shootout. Eloise swore she would catch Gwen. Heston allegedly helped smuggle the money out. Eloise tracked his final days to there. Gwen would collect the money when she was ready to assume her new identity. Eloise says she found Gwen at Saint Marie and confronted her.

Gwen offers her 100 grand for the photo. Eloise says it was going smoothly until Nancy ended up dead. She just wanted to get off the island as quickly as possible. Eloise claims this was a professional hit. Neville speaks to the others about the latest details. He thinks Nancy must’ve known her murderer. Darlene wants Naomi to go out with her tonight and no isn’t an option. Naomi asks Neville if there is anything she can do since she doesn’t want to go to Catherine’s Bar. Selwyn shows up. He wants a full briefing because he is going to a town hall. Neville and Marlon believe someone else should handle it, but Selwyn argues he won’t be treated like an invalid.

Selwyn gets upset and nearly collapses. He insists he was just startled, but he agrees to let them call a doctor. Later, Catherine scolds Selwyn for not caring for himself. Selwyn asks Neville to handle the town hall. He warns Neville that it’ll require tact, skill, and diplomacy which are qualities he is lacking. Catherine thinks Selwyn should speak to his doctor, but he isn’t going to do that. Neville asks if he ever heard from Florence. Selwyn says they only need to know that she is in witness protection. That triggers something for Neville. He catches up with Naomi to say there is only one person Gwen knew and trusted on Saint Marie. Neville says that was Jeremy Heston and he may not be dead. He suggests Jeremy came out of hiding because Eloise tracked down Gwen.

Once Eloise turned up, Nancy became a liability. Neville suspects Jeremy is dealing with loose ends. Naomi and Neville speak to Oona and Phillipe about it. They warn them that they could targets as well. Phillipe thinks Oona should go into police protection because Nancy would’ve wanted it. In private, Neville learns from Naomi that Phillipe is in love with Oona. She isn’t worried that he ruined her date night because he wasn’t her type anyway. Then, Neville speaks during the town hall and makes a mess of things. Later, he asks Naomi if they can never mention it again. Naomi tells him that Phillipe’s phone records show he didn’t make or receive any calls despite saying he took a nuisance call. They learn that Jeremy Heston has made contact.

Darlene shows them an email from Jeremy to Oona saying he is sorry about Gwen. Oona asks why he’d be asking for her forgiveness. At Neville’s instruction, they respond asking what happens now. Jeremy says it’s over and Oona will never hear from him again. Neville thinks they should tell Phillipe the good news. Neville sends an email to Jeremy and it ends up going to Phillipe who says he is ready to make a full confession. He admits to murdering Nancy. At the station, Neville tells Marlon they should wait to get a confession. He finds it odd that Nancy left the room when she had every reason to stay. Neville remembers what Eloise said about Jeremy getting the money from the bank. He believes it is all about Jeremy Heston.

Neville looks at the CCTV picture closer and says he knows why Nancy was so keen to get it. He asks Marlon to see if Phillipe received any video calls around the time of Nancy’s death. Darlene is asked to get a death certificate. All video call data has been deleted. Neville is certain Phillipe received a video call that was a message from beyond the grave. He wants to go to the care home pond. Neville finds her phone there before confronting the suspects. Naomi and Neville tell the suspects about Nancy’s life and Jeremy’s death. Besides Jeremy, someone else paid a high price for his death. Clement Brown died trying to save him. Neville thinks Oona was his daughter. Nancy was desperate for the photo when Eloise showed up with it. Oona ended up seeing the photo first.

Neville says Jeremy never existed. That secret was never realized by the police or Frankie’s gang. Gwen is the person in the photo. She faked Jeremy’s death at sea, but she didn’t think Clement would jump in. Neville shows Eloise that the person in the photo is wearing the broken watch. Eloise doubts Oona murdered Nancy because she was in the room with her the whole time. Neville explains that Nancy was stabbed in the room with them. He suspects Oona confronted her with the photo, saw the truth in her eyes, and murdered her. Barbara thinks they would’ve noticed. Neville says Oona never meant to get away with it, but the murder was covered up by the victim herself. Nancy knew she would die so she used her last few minutes to protect the daughter she cherished.

Nancy called Phillipe and asked him to protect Oona. She threw the phone into the pond to destroy any evidence of the call. With the last of her strength, she wiped the murder weapon. When the plan failed, Phillipe was ready to take the blame himself. He tells Oona that Nancy was sorry and loved her. Later, Selwyn congratulates Neville on his performance during the town hall since he has been deluged with complaints. Selwyn is surprised to see Andrina there to see him.

 

Death In Paradise Review

This episode of Death In Paradise wasn’t as obnoxious as the first, but the writing was dumb enough to make up for it. If viewers think about the investigation and outcome, they’re going to be disappointed. If they’re willing to accept everything at face value, they may enjoy what they’re being fed. The episode had a good guest cast with the likes of Hayley Mills and Ellie Haddington, but neither was put to good use.

Once again, the investigation is drug out far too long leading to excessive red herrings that make the whole thing unbelievable. Spending 45 minutes on the case and the rest of the time on the characters’ personal lives would probably work out better. Selwyn was very annoying in this episode while Neville continues to be a whipping post. The conclusion was by far the worst aspect of the episode though because it was too farfetched.

It’s inconceivable that Nancy would get stabbed in the stomach only to spend the last few minutes of her life covering up for her killer. When that’s combined with all the previous twists and turns, it is impossible to take this seriously. The episode scores a 4 out of 10. Recaps of Death In Paradise are available on Reel Mockery here.

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