As this episode of Death In Paradise begins, Holly and Sam Portlake celebrate with Joe and Cora Blyth. Cora (Gabrielle Glaister) convinces Joe (John Gordon Sinclair) to dance with her. Holly (Ellise Chappell) takes a picture of them. Later, Cora contacts someone to see if they’ve decided yet. As they leave, they get a woman to snap a picture of them together. Once they get into the elevator, Cora sits down. Joe says he’ll call the concierge to come and get her before stepping out. When the concierge goes to the elevator, she finds Cora deceased. Following the intro, Darlene (Ginny Holder) tells Naomi (Shantol Jackson) about the recent calls. Naomi says Marlon is pumped about Jamaica.

Commissioner Selwyn Patterson (Don Warrington) tells Neville (Ralf Little) and the others that the officer he hired to replace Marlon had decided to remain on the Caymans. Naomi promises to stay late to help Darlene. Neville can’t because he is going to meet his ex. Darlene asks what Zoe (Taj Atwal) had to say for herself yesterday. Neville says it was Marlon’s leaving drinks so it wasn’t the time or place. They’re meeting tonight to talk about it. He will come in early tomorrow to help. Darlene gets a call about the death at the Arawak Hotel. 67-year-old Cora Blyth arrived from the UK yesterday with her husband Joe, daughter Holly, and Holly’s husband Sam. She was seriously ill.

Cora was dying. Around 6:30, Joe helped Cora into the lift. The housekeeper confirmed she was alone and alive when the lift door closed and Joe called the concierge. When the lift doors opened, the concierge saw that Cora had been stabbed. There was no time for the lift to stop. Neville says Cora was knifed in the heart on her own in a moving lift in 15 seconds. When they check Cora’s bag, they find a personal bag and the receiver. They notice that one of Cora’s nails is broken. Holly and Sam learn about Cora’s death moments later. Holly reveals her mom had a bucket list of stuff she wanted to do before she died. They’re asked whether Cora had any enemies. Joe says Cora was a barrister who sent down a lot of serious criminals. He mentions that the housekeeper took the photo before Cora was killed.

Joe explains he forgot the club card so he didn’t ride down with Cora. Sam says he went to the pool for a swim. As for Holly, she went jobbing with the hotel running club. Naomi asks if that’s where she ripped her top. Holly guesses it was. She isn’t sure the other runners can vouch for her because she took a longer route on her own. Moments later, Darlene shows Neville and Naomi the video of the concierge finding Cora’s body. Naomi says Cora’s nails were intact in Joe’s photo so it had to get broken in the lift. They experiment to see how long it’d take someone to climb into the lift, stab Cora, and escape. Naomi tells Neville it took her 29 seconds. They didn’t mention that Cora was religious or that she was religious. Neville shows Naomi Cora’s bucket list and asks if she notices anything weird about it.

Saint Marie isn’t on it. Neville goes for a walk with Zoe later. Zoe believes the Neville she knew would’ve never moved there. When she read his blog, she had to get in touch. She apologizes for pretending to be someone else. Zoe asks if they can catch up tomorrow night over dinner. Selwyn tells Darlene he may have a solution to her excessive workload. Naomi speaks to Neville about Zoe in the morning. Then, they begin discussing Cora’s murder. The postmortem confirmed Cora died of a knife to the heart resulting in massive cardiac trauma. The angle proves Cora didn’t do it to herself. The steak knife has no prints on it, but it wasn’t from the motel. Neville wants to do a full set of checks on Joe and call Cora’s solicitor. Holly works for a charity and lives in Clapham.

Last month, she announced on social media that she’s pregnant. Her husband, Sam, works part-time at a dog café and he’s studying to be a veterinary nurse. His alibi checks out. Neville questions how they can afford to live in Clapham which isn’t cheap. Yesterday, Cora sent a message to Sam asking if he has decided yet. It’s the only text she sent him in the last month. Darlene gets in touch to say Holly’s t-shirt was snagged on the fire escape leading down from the roof. When they meet, Neville says it looks like Holly wasn’t on a run when Cora was killed. The solicitor told Naomi that Cora was going to make a new will as soon as she got home. Joe keeps the house, but Cora wanted to leave her savings to charity. Holly would’ve received them in the original will.

Once they speak to Holly, she admits to being on the roof last night so she could be alone. Neville knows Cora paid her rent and made large payments into her account. Holly claims Cora insists and she never pressured her. Cora wanted to give them the best chance of having a baby. She paid for a top fertility clinic and it works. Cora rediscovered her faith and that’s why she wanted to leave her money to worthy causes. Holly believes they would’ve been fine without her money because she is due a promotion and Sam’s degree is almost done. Holly is adamant that she’d never hurt her mom before Joe interrupts. Neville asks if they know why visiting Saint Marie wasn’t on Cora’s bucket list, but they pretend not to know about it.

They also didn’t know she had 10,000 in cash hidden in her bedside drawer. Next, Selwyn catches up with the team to see if they’re ready to welcome their new colleague. Neville is happy to see Officer Dwayne Myers (Danny John-Jules). As Dwayne leaves, he tells someone there’s going to be a lot of partying on the island tonight. Lexi Reece (Ronni Ancona) approaches Joe to if he knows what Cora promised her. Joe says Cora hadn’t mentioned her in years. He asks if Lexi had something to do with what happened. Lexi quickly denies that. Dwayne settles into Marlon’s old desk which used to be his. Naomi says the Met has emails. Holly has no history of violence and Joe’s checks are clean too. Last week, Sam reported an ex-girlfriend stalking him so he wanted a restraining order.

Darlene is tasked with showing Dwayne the crime scene and catching him up. Sam tells Naomi that his ex-girlfriend has been hassling him back home. He hasn’t mentioned it to Holly. They split up the summer before he met Holly. Sam confesses they had a fling around New Year’s. He says he sometimes feels like a loser who doesn’t deserve Holly. He slept with his ex to make him feel better. Naomi asks if Cora knew he cheated on her daughter. As for the text message, she wanted Sam to decide whether or not to tell Holly. Sam denies killing Cora. Dwayne and Darlene catch Lexi trying to enter the sealed room before she runs away from them. Lexi manages to get away when Dwayne falls into the pool outside. At the station, Naomi says the UK Prison Service shows no one Cora prosecuted has been released from jail recently.

They call immigration to see if her photo matches any recent arrivals. That night, Neville and Zoe have dinner. They talk about past romances. Zoe admits she got dumped by her fiancé about a month ago. Neville thought about giving up love before his mom came out for Christmas and made him promise he wouldn’t. Zoe thinks it’s time they both deserve some happiness. She ends up kissing Neville. The next day, Naomi says Sam’s ex in London claims he’s been sleeping with other women even in the last month and she can prove it. Although that’s a motive for murder, Sam has an alibi. Immigration comes back with no matches for the woman. Dwayne comes in and explains how he found out the woman is guiding tour groups in town. He also says a hotel cleaner witnessed a huge row between Joe and Cora the first day they arrived.

Naomi and Neville leave to speak to Joe. Darlene remembers that some of Cora’s last calls were to a tour company on the island. She finds out that it’s called Gary’s Guides. She finds the woman. Joe tells Neville and Naomi that he was never a believer in her faith. He didn’t know about Sam sleeping with someone behind Holly’s back. Joe reveals he got upset when Cora revealed she was giving her money to the church. When he is shown a picture of the woman, Joe claims to have never seen her before. At the station, Dwayne and Darlene explain that Lexi Reece is the one and her name is Alexandria. She was on Cora’s bucket list. When they catch Lexi, she claims Cora called her out of the blue and promised her 10,000 dollars. Cora just wanted a little chat one night in her hotel room.

She says Joe never argued with Cora and just did whatever she said. Cora hadn’t told Joe about the money. Lexi went to her room to see if it was there. They know Cora was her defense barrister in London when she was barely 18. She got convicted of dealing drugs and got sent down. Lexi insists she didn’t blame Cora. She got sectioned because of herself and not them. Her baby got put into care. Cora got her off a child neglect charge as long as she promised to never contact her kid. Lexi left the country to ensure she could uphold her end of the bargain. Dwayne tells Darlene that the old man will be arriving tomorrow. He hasn’t got as much life left in him as he’s been making out. They’re back because he wants to spend the rest of his days there.

Darlene invites them to come around on Saturday. Later, Neville learns the knife was taken from a restaurant around the corner from Gary’s Guides. Neville gets something in his eye and uses his phone to deal with it. The team discusses the case and the suspects. Neville believes he knows why Cora was murdered although he isn’t sure how it was done yet. Dwayne experiments in the elevator. None of them can get in and out fast enough. Dwayne complains about going up and down. That triggers something for Neville. He asks Dwayne to get some drain filters. The suspects are brought together. Neville says Cora wasn’t killed in a moving lift in 15 seconds. He claims the lift was coming up. It traveled down initially, went past reception, and stopped at the lift lobby by the pool.

It was deserted at dinner time except for Sam and that’s where he murdered her. Sam allegedly retrieved the knife he’d hidden earlier and wiped his prints off with a towel after killing Cora. Then, he sent the lift back to reception. They found Cora’s nail in the filter of the pool. When they test the nail for traces of Sam’s DNA, there will be no doubt. Neville claims Joe had the housekeeper take the photo so he’d had an alibi since he was part of the plan too. Neville explains how they made it look like Cora was killed in those 15 seconds. He tells Holly about Cora finding out about Sam cheating. She admits Joe didn’t tell her. Neville suggests Joe agreed to keep it secret as long as Sam helped kill his wife. Sam says Joe said it wasn’t murder because it was more like putting down a sick dog.

Neville says Holly told them that Cora had struggled to conceive. Joe admits they were desperate for a child and Holly fell into their laps. Cora lied when she said Lexi would be charged with neglect if she ever tried to contact her child. That’s what Joe and Cora were fighting about. Cora told Joe the real reason she wanted to come to Saint Marie. If Cora confessed, Joe would’ve been sent down and they would’ve lost Holly. Neville says he figured it out when he realized Holly has brown eyes. A DNA test confirmed Holly is Lexi’s daughter. In private, Holly admits she doesn’t like the thought of going home and being alone. Neville suggests she might want to stick around for Lexi. Then, he speaks to Zoe about his case and how it’s made him think about life.

He admits being with her isn’t on his bucket list. When they kissed last night, the spark wasn’t there anymore. It was just a rebound thing. Neville explains why he is grateful she came out there. Neville tells the others when he meets them later. Darlene pulls Dwayne away to get more drinks. Neville tells Naomi he wants to put finding love again at the top of his bucket list. He needs to be more like Zoe and take a risk. Neville is leaving Saint Marie so he can go traveling. Selwyn calls Florence Cassell (Josephine Jobert) who says she can come out of witness protection.

 

Death In Paradise Review

Although the last episode of Death In Paradise was a bit better, it has become clear that the series is scraping the bottom of the barrel at this point. Bringing back some of the old characters isn’t going to rejuvenate the script. Unfortunately, this episode was a good example of everything wrong with the series including the lifeless plot.

Characters are dying in every episode, but those characters are only treated like props. Until the revelations, everyone was supposed to have a tight-knit relationship with Cora. Nevertheless, no one seemed sad in the least that she had just been killed. The victims should at least have some purpose besides being a plot point and there should be some reason to care about solving the case and getting justice.

The cases have become repetitive. Many of them are focused on the victims dying earlier or later than previously thought. Then, countless twists and turns are added near the end of the episode that just make the entire story seem idiotic. How is anyone supposed to care if Neville suddenly disappears when he is consistently ridiculed by every other major character in pretty much every episode? However, it’s pretty clear that the character won’t depart with the return of Cassell.

Truthfully though, it’s hard to care because the episodes are so tediously dull. It’s just needless rambling until something finally clicks for Neville. In between that and at the end, the story might touch on personal issues. The episode scores a 4 out of 10. Recaps of Death in Paradise can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link.

Learn more about advertising on Reel Mockery here. Discuss this show and others with friends at the Reel Mockery Forum.