As this episode of Grantchester begins, Will Davenport (Tom Brittney) gets dressed and tells Geordie Keating (Robson Green) he thought they’d go somewhere new. Geordie isn’t a fan of the establishment though. They get some drinks before Will notices a woman, Maya (Ellora Torchia), dancing alone so he decides to join her. Geordie ends up standing by the bar by himself. Instead, he leaves and runs into Miss Scott (Melissa Johns) at the police station. He tells her how he was jilted by a frisky vicar. As for Scott, she has been forced to change the filing system thanks to the new boss who is changing everything. Once Will gets drinks for himself and his new friend, he finds that she has already left the club.

He catches up with her as she says her landlady turns into a dragon at a half past ten. Maya refuses to give Will her phone number. He keeps flirting with her until she writes something on a piece of paper and gives it to him. They kiss before Maya leaves without telling Will her name. He checks the paper and doesn’t find a phone number. Instead, it only says, “ciao”. Leonard Finch (Al Weaver) practices his poem in front of Daniel Marlowe (Oliver Dimsdale) who asks if he is boiling in that jumper. Next, Mrs. Chapman (Tessa Peake-Jones) screams for Will and the others to come down because they have guests. When Geordie comes down, he admits he forgot it was Saturday. Cathy (Kacey Ainsworth) told the kids he was busy planning something special which Will believes was swimming.

Will reveals the Fitzgeralds open their garden pool to the village once a year and the kids can borrow some swimsuits. Geordie offers to make it up to Cathy by taking a run down the coast next Saturday, but she says no since she doesn’t want to confuse the kids. Once they go to the Fitzgerald place, Geordie tells Will he owes him and his kids are growing up when he isn’t looking. While the others are swimming, Esme (Skye Lucia Degruttola) isn’t because she didn’t want to get her hair wet. Geordie tells him that he left when the dancing started last night. Will admits he didn’t get the woman’s number or name. After Will steps away, Geordie helps Maude Fitzgerald (Emma Cunniffe) get the kids away from her garden.

He asks her for advice for growing cornflowers which are his wife’s favorite. She insists it doesn’t do well to spoil them. Adele Fitzgerald (Anna Wilson-Jones) approaches Will for a chat. He tells her about the upcoming wedding and the fact he is looking forward to meeting the groom before they hear someone screaming for help. Will and Geordie run over to Maude who tells them it is in the outhouse. They go there and find a man dead on the ground in what looks like an accident. Esme makes her siblings leave while Will tells Geordie it looks like a vagrant although he is wearing an expensive ring. Geordie’s new boss arrives and complains about him giving a civilian access to the crime scene, but Will claims he was offering a final prayer.

Will suggests the man was there all night before he is sent away. Larry Peters (Bradley Hall) tells his boss it is the third dead tramp they’ve had this year. Geordie offers to help only to be sent home. Larry is put in charge so he instructs the officers to get the man down to the morgue to find out who he is. Will recommends using the man’s signet ring to find out who he is. The Keating kids say it was the best day ever and they got to see a dead man although Geordie says he was just having a nap. They don’t believe him. Geordie asks Esme not to mention that to Cathy. He also tells her that her hair looks lovely. Will is at the morgue when Adele identifies the man as her brother. Larry asks why Maude didn’t recognize him so Adele insists he has changed.

She explains he has been abroad for 20 years or so and they lost touch besides a telegram every now and again. Once she leaves, Larry tells Geordie he thinks it was a heart attack and he doesn’t mind the new governor. He likes having a young guy at the top because he is more in touch. Larry leaves before Geordie tells Will he was right about the ring, but Edmund doesn’t look like a lord of the manor to him. Geordie shows him the love letter he had in his pocket from someone called Irene. Will finds it odd that the letter was written in 1946 while Geordie questions whether the bricks on top of Edmund were a decoy.

Geordie admits he’d be suspicious as heck if this was his case, but it isn’t. Next, Sylvia complains about Will leaving paper and coins in his pocket because she is doing the laundry. He apologizes and checks the paper which is the one Maya gave him. He goes back to the same club in hopes of seeing Maya, but she doesn’t show up. Meanwhile, Miss Scott and Geordie laugh at Larry. Geordie doesn’t want to interfere in another man’s investigation although he wonders if Edmund sent a telegram to anyone else. Scott offers to ask her friend Patricia who works at the post office. When the boss enters, Elliot (Michael Xavier) tells Geordie he doesn’t need to be working on the homeless cold case and would prefer him to deal with the paperwork.

Will visits the Fitzgeralds and learns that Edmund loved flying. When the war ended, he refused to come onto land. Since inheritance in their family is a male affair, it was his money to squander and that is mostly what he did. Everything here belongs to Edmund and they’re just there on sufferance. Will sees Geordie walking by outside as he asks when they last heard from Edmund. Adele says he sent a telegram to say he was coming home for the wedding. He wanted them to send the airfare, but they didn’t have the funds. They believe he came overland instead. Adele admits the men in their family are short-lived. Geordie approaches the handyman Frank Gibbons (Philip Whitchurch) to see what he has to say, but he doesn’t want to say anything.

Will spots the wall peeling and admits they had rooms like that. His mom knew the telephone number for Sotheby’s off by heart. Adele says she does too before calling Edmund a selfish, bloody idiot. She says he never grew up and this place paid the price. Will catches up with Geordie who is convinced the wall didn’t call yesterday the bricks were used as a cover-up. Although Edmund blew most of the money, the rest of it will go to the next male Fitzgerald. Will doesn’t think it’ll be hard to find his name. Geordie recommends staying away from the station for a bit since the boss is a stickler. Next, Leonard and Daniel work at The Cherry Orchard Café to get ready for guests.

Leonard wants it to look like a beat poets’ café. Daniel encourages him to have faith in himself since it is a new adventure. Leonard shows him where he wants to put the stage although he is worried about the noise from the espresso machine. Sylvia and Jack Chapman (Nick Brimble) enter before Leonard welcomes them to The Cherry Orchard. Sylvia complains about the gloomy articles Daniel is hanging because they’re wrong for an English tearoom, but Daniel reveals he took them. She goes to the kitchen to see what it looks like. Jack asks Leonard not to let her run away with herself. Leonard admits he couldn’t have done this without them. When he says he can never repay them, Jack says they only want him to be happy.

Will visits Adele to talk about her brother’s funeral and is introduced to Howard Fitzgerald (Philip Buck). Adele tells Howard that William is going to be presiding over their wedding. Will learns that Howard will be the new Lord Fitzgerald and Adele’s fiancé. Will meets with Geordie at Leonard’s tearoom to tell him about Howard who is Edmund’s fifth cousin. Sylvia gives them drinks before suggesting Irene Gibbons (Kelly Price) would be the one to bump him off if anyone did. They learn she is the daughter of the handyman Frank and the letter was from someone named Irene. Sylvia claims young Lord Fitzgerald let her down and she never forgot it. They visit Irene who says they knew the minute they laid eyes on each other.

Edmund didn’t care that she wasn’t posh. When he wanted something, there was no stopping him. Once he went off to war, Irene wrote to him, but he never wrote back. On VE day, she finally got a letter revealing Edmund wanted to break off their engagement. Edmund was her one and only and used to say he’d put a ring on her finger. As they leave, Geordie reminds Will that someone saw Edmund crossing those fields on the night of his death. They question whether he was coming to see Irene who hit him with something, but Will suggests they’re missing something since they don’t know how he got from Brisbane to Grantchester. They agree to search the field. As they do, Will complains about Irene wasting all that time waiting for Edmund to come back.

Geordie argues he sounds like a man who has never been in love. When he met Cathy, every other woman in the world just melted away. Will says look how that turned out although Geordie insists it is just a temporary blip. Will finds a bag with Edmund’s passport and other items in it. They find that someone bought Edmond a ticket with Henderson’s Travel Mayfair. Geordie believes Mayfair is the new Lord Fitzgerald’s stomping ground. Geordie takes that information to Larry who suggests it means nothing, but Geordie says it means Howard knew when he was arriving. Larry says he’ll need to bring him evidence. Geordie doesn’t need to bring him anything since it isn’t his case. He encourages Larry to find out whether the guy who just inherited the estate killed him.

When the boss enters, they pretend a member of the public found the bag and Larry says it means nothing. Larry steps away. Geordie tells Elliot he believes Larry is wrong based on a hunch and years of experience. Elliot says there used to be room for a maverick, but they’re training the new boys to be professional and methodical. He orders Geordie to leave Peters to it because they don’t want him picking up bad habits. Maya finds Will at the church and admits the barman at The Nouveau told her he was a vicar. They finally exchange names. Maya says the place reminds her that life is short and should be lived at full tilt. Will takes her inside to show her what one does for fun at a vicarage. Once Leonard returns to The Cherry Orchard, he is shocked to see what Sylvia has done to the place.

He tells her it is lovely although it isn’t what he is going for since it is supposed to be a place for writers and intellectuals. He wants guests to feel like they’re in London, New York, or Paris when they enter the café. She tells him that he might as well throw Jack’s money down the drain. Maya asks Will if he thinks she is a terrible sinner. He says he thinks she is the most amazing woman he has ever met. She thinks they should quit while they’re ahead. Maya says there is no us because they’re entirely different people despite Will suggesting they might be perfect together. She says love will out then before kissing him and leaving.

Later, Will walks outside to join Geordie who says the cornflowers have perked up since he started giving them the cold shoulder. Will tells him about Maya as Geordie quickly realizes he is smitten with her. Geordie suggests Maya is the one so he goes for two more beers. Miss Scott meets with Will and Geordie at The Cherry Orchard to show them the telegrams she got. One was sent from Edmund to his sisters asking for single fare and saying he intended to return for marriage. There is no record of a reply. Before the telegram to his sisters, Edmund sent one to Irene Gibbons too. It tells Irene he still has the ring and asks her to wear it. She sent a reply accepting the proposal.

They visit Irene to ask her about it and why she didn’t say anything about it. She says she never heard back from him. She learns Edmund was carrying the letter she wrote to him in 1946 when he died. She claims she never posted the letter and only wrote it to clear her mind. Irene keeps it in her jewelry box that Edmund made for her when they were courting and that he promised to fill with diamonds one day. Will checks the box and finds a ring inside that he believes is for Irene. Geordie says Edmund came straight from the station on the day he got back from Australia. He climbed through Irene’s window with the intention of putting the ring on her finger, but she wasn’t home.

He thought he’d surprise her by leaving it in the jewelry box and found her 1946 letter when doing so. He was interrupted by her father who enters. Irene admits she came home and saw her father wrestling with a man. She screamed which is the scream the neighbors heard. She thought it was some old tramp who had broken into the house and didn’t realize it was Edmund. Will suggests Frank recognized him. Geordie says it was the same night he delivered the changing tents to the Fitzgerald garden. When he accuses Frank of dropping off a body too, Frank threatens to call the police. Geordie tells him the police are already here. Frank is taken down the station where he admits he stopped the letters from getting through during the war so they didn’t know they were writing to one another.

In the end, he broke off the engagement. Geordie accuses him of cheating his daughter out of the love of her life. Frank suggests his daughter would’ve been a laughingstock since she wasn’t a lady of the manor. He denies killing Edmund. If they check the scream, they’ll find that he put up the tents before they heard the scream. He punched Edmund who ran off into the field before he threw his backpack out there. Once they leave, Larry tells Geordie he is going to pretend that never happened for his sake. Will talks to Howard and Adele about their upcoming wedding. Howard says they’re distant cousins and he has been chasing Adele for ages. He tells Will how they agreed to marry each other. Will admits Adele seems happy. She says he is kind and rich although she isn’t head over heels in love with him.

She never thought to marry any of the men she was in love with because they had estates of their own. Plus, she couldn’t abandon Maude who isn’t as robust as she looks. Adele says she has to do what is best for everyone. Maude runs into Geordie who is waiting for Mr. Davenport to finish. He discovers she is wearing gloves because her nails need to be in tiptop shape for the big day. Will comes out and tells Geordie they didn’t get engaged until March even though Edmund mentioned the wedding in January. Will believes he was talking about his own marriage to Irene. Leonard tells Sylvia he is nervous about tomorrow just like he was before his first sermon. They drink to new starts and courage before Leonard says he hopes the customers are happy with what he has done.

When they went to the church, it was God. When they visit the café, they’re going to see Leonard Finch. Jack joins them as Sylvia tells Leonard to go home and she’ll take care of locking up. Once he leaves, Sylvia tells Jack she needs her step ladder because she wants to take down the bunting. At the station, Geordie talks to Larry about toxins in Edmund’s system as well as his stomach contents. Geordie encourages him to go check on the latter thing quickly. Then, he learns from Scott that Adele did respond to the telegram her brother sent in January. The telegram congratulates Edmund on his engagement and says the ticket will follow. Later, Will tells Geordie that Adele went to an auction house in Sudbury in January with a small painting to sell.

It reached 500 pounds at auction and the funds cleared in March. Geordie theorizes she goes to Mayfair where she buys Edmund’s ticket. Then, she convinces Howard to marry her. He wonders why she booked Edmund’s tickets for June when she could’ve booked them for March and been done with it. Will suggests she was waiting to build up her courage like he is doing with Cathy, but Geordie says he is just waiting for his plants to grow. Geordie suspects the Fitzgerald sisters were waiting for their plants to grow too.

Geordie goes to Maude’s garden and pulls up her hemlock. They go inside where Will says everything in the family is passed down to the men. His sisters thought they would be evicted when Edmund said he was coming home to get married. They decided to kill it, but they’d have to wait for the hemlock to grow. It is the most poisonous plant. By booking Edmund’s tickets, they could get him to return when the hemlock was at its highest potency. He died quickly once they poisoned him and he had bruises on his face thanks to his encounter with Frank. Geordie believes they tried to explain that away by making it look like a wall had collapsed on him. They also had to marry to ensure the house wouldn’t go to a different Lord Fitzgerald. When Howard says that is preposterous, Maude calls him that and begins ranting at him.

Maude insists pestering Adele is pointless because she is too old to have a baby. Howard is the last of the Fitzgerald men so his sisters will get everything when he dies. Geordie alleges they didn’t get rid of the hemlock because they planned to use it again on Howard or at least Maude did. She confesses she prefers it being just the two of them. At the station, Will tells Elliot is there on a pastoral visit. Geordie agrees he finished the paperwork in the end and intends to revisit the deaths of the homeless gentlemen. Elliot steps out when he learns he has a visit. When he returns, they’re surprised to see Elliot with Maya who is introduced as his fiancée. Then, Leonard recites a poem at his café. When he finishes, he gets a round of applause from the audience.

He encourages them to send local poets who’d like to perform his way. Geordie arrives with cornflowers for Cathy. He explains he grew them especially and has been fretting over them for months. He tells her she is always on his mind, but she doesn’t believe that since he doesn’t show up on time to collect the kids. He wouldn’t send them back in dirty clothes either. When he says it was Sylvia’s day off, Cathy says he could’ve done it. She alleges his time is more important than hers. If that is true, why would he spend all that time growing those flowers? Cathy admits she doesn’t know because she always said her favorites were Canterbury Bells. She leaves after saying she’ll see him Saturday. Will walks past a kissing couple.

 

Grantchester Review

The opening episode of Grantchester’s seventh season was a good starting point, but I expect the series to get even better as it progresses. I always enjoy Grantchester because it is easy on viewers, has no gimmicks, and it tends to have a lot of heart. The episode really put Geordie in the spotlight as he attempted to rekindle his relationship with Cathy to no avail.

Although he is trying, he just isn’t there yet. Geordie also has a new boss who doesn’t like his old-fashioned way of doing things. Leonard Finch has opened a poet’s café with help from Jack and Sylvia Chapman. Both storylines will excellent during the first episode, but I was a bit disappointed with the lack of imagination for Will’s love story. It felt like a rehash of what happened to Sidney. I’d prefer they take his story in a different direction instead of making him a near replica of Sidney.

Nevertheless, it was still fun so I can’t wait to see where things head next. The episode scores a 7 out of 10. Recaps of Grantchester are available on Reel Mockery here. Learn how to support the Reel Mockery project by clicking on this link.