Grantchester Series 8 Episode 4 Recap

As this episode begins, Jack (Nick Brimble) and Leonard (Al Weaver) watch Will and Alfie play table tennis. Geordie (Robson Green) tells Cathy (Kacey Ainsworth) he is taking parts for Ernie’s go-kart. Cathy tells him about her promotion. Geordie doesn’t want to talk about it and instead tries to escape to Will’s. After Will’s game is over, Keith (Narinder Samra) steps up to play. Mrs. Sylvia Chapman (Tessa Peake-Jones) and Martha (Simone Lahbib) argue in the kitchen. Keith and Alfie (Santo Tripodi) get into an argument over their tennis game. Sylvia tells Jack they’re leaving. Keith ends up punching Alfie. Duncan (David Rubin) invites Alfie outside for a fight.

Judith (Jessie Bedrossian) asks Will (Tom Brittney) to put a Band-Aid on her finger. Once she leaves, Leonard argues that she has just as much right to be there as the other prisoners. Daniel Marlowe (Oliver Dimsdale) comes in to tell Leonard that Keith nearly broke Alfie’s jaw. They talk about spending time together. Leonard promises that they will. Meanwhile, Will speaks to Martha about the go-kart as well as Judith and Mikey. Once she goes inside, Will checks on Alfie. In private, Alfie says he wants to confess because the guilt is sometimes so bad he wants it to end. He sometimes contemplates killing himself. Will insists he understands before urging Alfie to repent. Before Alfie went to prison, he fell in love with a girl. They had to meet in secret being an immigrant. When it became too much, Alfie hurt her.

One day, she came to him to say a life must pay for a life. Alfie takes pills to stop his mind from racing. He gives them to Will just in case he can’t stop himself. Alfie explains he wants to become a good person. They pray together. Will stops midway through, says he can’t, and leaves. He goes to the church to ask God to help him hear him again. When Leonard gets home, he finds Keith passed out on the floor. Daniel notices that his camera is gone before they hear a bang nearby. Then, they find Alfie dead. Leonard and Will come over moments later. Will tells Leonard about his conversation with Alfie yesterday. He blames himself for Alfie’s death. They learn that Keith locked Duncan in his room. Geordie suspects Alfie didn’t kill himself.

He says the knife wounds on his wrist correlate with the weapon nearby yet there is very little blood. Geordie believes Alfie’s heart stopped pumping blood before the wounds happened. Geordie goes inside to speak to Leonard about the residents. Leonard suspects an outsider came in and stole Daniel’s camera. Geordie asks them to stay inside for the time being. Leonard notes that Judith Evans is the only one missing. Mikey tells them he was with a mate in Newtown. Duncan says he played cards with Keith who locked him in his room. In private, Geordie questions whether Leonard realizes he could be the dead. Will questions whether he thinks one of the residents did this. Geordie is surprised to find chloroform in a bottle.

He suspects someone knocked him out so they could take him downstairs to kill him. Geordie catches up with Larry Peters (Bradley Hall) outside. They want to put an officer in Northumberland Street to see if Judith shows up. Duncan tells Geordie that he farmed the land during the war. Geordie asks Mikey about the Double Diamond narrowboat. He remembers Mikey gave them a runaround. They want to know where Mikey was. He claims he was with a guy named Jeff or Jack. Keith tells them that Mussolini has a lot to answer for. Geordie tells Leonard that he is going to take Keith in for more questioning. He explains to Leonard why he thinks someone in the house killed Alfie. At the station, Elliott Wallace (Michael D. Xavier) tells Leonard that it is only a matter of time before his doors are closed for good.

Geordie asks Miss Scott to get everything she can on the halfway house residents. Keith admits he gets angry when he drinks. Geordie asks if the cobra tattoo on his arm is linked to the Southill Boys. Keith claims they were notorious because they have to be. He says the SJ stands for Sanjiv Joshi which is his birth name. They changed it when he arrived to fit in although he never did. He explains that the gang did what they did to survive. Keith says that isn’t who he is now. He reveals that he walked in on Alfie threatening Judith with a knife at one point. Larry questions Leonard and Daniel. Once they’re alone, Leonard and Daniel argue about being treated as suspects. Will tells Geordie that Keith just wants to get drunk and forget. They talk about whether Duncan could be responsible.

Will doesn’t think Mikey is responsible. Geordie argues he is still in the picture unless he gives them his drinking friend’s name. Once Leonard, Daniel, and Will get back, they find Martha cleaning up a mess at the front door. Someone has thrown eggs at the house. They hear glass breaking and someone yelling that they’re not welcome there. Meanwhile, Geordie learns more about Alfie who served three years for robbery. He was questioned over a girl’s death in Stanley but released. Geordie wants to find out who Alfie’s sponsor was. Sylvia urges Leonard to call the police, but he refuses to do so. Mikey gets upset because Leonard isn’t doing anything about it. Moments later, Will catches Judith stealing from the house.

At the station, Judith’s purse is searched and Daniel’s camera is found. Geordie asks her about her whereabouts between 10 p.m. last night and 7 a.m. this morning. Judith says she was out and about working. She claims she was returning Alfie’s wallet. She owed him and it was a surprise for him. Judith seems shocked when she finds out that Alfie is dead. They ask her about Alfie coming at her with a knife. She denies killing him. Judith says she had a rough day and got back late morning on Sunday. She asked Alfie to rough up someone who did a runner without paying. When Judith tried to kiss him, Alfie pulled out a knife. She insists he was never mean before and doesn’t think it means anything. Geordie asks her to stay at Leonard’s place.

Judith doesn’t want to stay there for too long. She reveals that Duncan was always lecturing her on the evils of men, especially Alfie. In Alfie’s wallet, Geordie and Will find a newspaper clipping about a woman who took her own life. They discuss what they know about Alfie and the woman he once loved. Will wonders if it reminds Alfie of this girl whenever he gets close to someone. At the church, Will prays for God to show him the way. Mikey shows up to say he is in a spot and needs advice. He admits he lied to the police. He has three girlfriends and was with Lucinda on the night Alfie died. He says hell hath no fury like three posh birds scorned. Sylvia and the others speak to Leonard about the halfway house. Leonard is adamant that he isn’t going anywhere. Geordie learns about Mikey and immediately tells Miss Scott.

When he learns that Alfie worked in agriculture, he remembers Duncan said he farmed during the war. He asks Larry to find out if any of the farms in Stanley employed Duncan Williamson. Miss Scott checked everywhere but wasn’t able to find a file for Duncan. Geordie approaches Leonard to tell him Duncan never served time in prison. Duncan comes forward to admit to lying because he needed a bed for the night. He says he caught Alfie staring and lusting after her. Duncan insists he has never been in Derbyshire. Geordie finds Will upset so he asks why he is so upset by Alfie’s case. Will believes Alfie died for his sins and the same could happen to him. Geordie knows what it’s like to suffer. He insists Will helps so many people every day. Geordie asks him to stay clear of Leonard’s place for a bit.

Will says it helps going there because they understand the guilt. Geordie asks him about Duncan who didn’t even have a criminal record. He says Duncan farmed in Scotland. Will says there’s a Stanley in Scotland before rushing off. Daniel tells Leonard that the halfway house needs structure and rules. Leonard believes Alfie may still be alive if he hadn’t left that night. He admits it hurts the most that Daniel would support what he is trying to do. Daniel asks if he is talking about the café he ended up running or Leonard giving counsel to the homeless at the back door. Daniel says he’s only had one week in Morocco of not having to compete with Leonard’s guilt of abandoning god. Once Daniel leaves, Martha enters to give Leonard her resignation.

Will calls about Heather Williamson who is the one that took her own life. He tells Geordie that Duncan was married to Phyllida Williamson and they had a daughter named Heather. It was also confirmed that Alfie and Heather had been seeing one another. When the parents found out about Alfie, they blamed him. Will goes looking for Duncan. He asks Martha about the muir burnings. Will calls her Phyllida. Moments later, Duncan and Phyllida are being questioned at the police station. They remain adamant that Alfie was responsible for Heather’s death. Geordie accuses them of drugging Alfie and trying to force him to take the blame for their daughter’s death. Phyllida urges Geordie to think about his daughter.

Will says a minister said Heather and Alfie had asked him to marry them just before her death. The minister refused because he knew how strongly Duncan would oppose it. Alfie broke it off a few days later and Heather killed herself the next day. After the interview, Geordie tells Will that their work can redeem them. At home, Will speaks to Ernie on the phone about his birthday. After the call, Will writes a letter to Bonnie to say he misses her. He writes that he is afraid it’ll rot inside if he doesn’t do this now. Will ends up taking two pills. He seems to feel better when he arrives at the church.

 

Grantchester Review

This was another standard episode of Grantchester that was just going through the motions. It probably focused on the investigation too much and that wasn’t all that special unfortunately. The series thrives when it pays more attention to the relationships of the main characters and those dynamics. Very little of that was on display here and what was didn’t really click into place.

The investigation seemed to drag at a snail’s pace while Leonard’s halfway house angle is running around in circles. The series can be deeply moving at times, but it hasn’t managed to achieve that in the last two episodes. It may be building up to something bigger with Will using drugs to forget the accident so it may only be a matter of time. Truthfully, this was just an okay episode that didn’t come close to the quality of the second.

The episode scores a 5.5 out of 10. Grantchester recaps 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 series and more at the Reel Mockery Forum.