As this episode of Grantchester begins, Will Davenport (Tom Brittney) continues using drugs and preaching. At the police station, Miss Scott (Melissa Johns) tells Larry Peters (Bradley Hall) about two men being admitted to Addenbrooke’s last night after possibly being poisoned. One man died in the night while the other is in serious condition. Geordie (Robson Green) learns that Elliott assigned the case to Larry. As for Geordie, he is tasked with clearing the backlog in the archives. He doesn’t like the idea of being stuck on desk duty. Sylvia Chapman (Tessa Peake-Jones) tells Jack (Nick Brimble) she believes Will is back to his old self. She believes Leonard needs help though.

Will interrupts to tell them they should help Leonard at the halfway house. Larry learns about the victim, Dr. Bill Lambert. He takes the man’s belongings before speaking to Anna Cotton (Bernadett Swann). Anna admits the doctors don’t know when or if her husband will wake up. Larry tells her he was there with his mom right until the end. He learns that she is from Hungary. Larry explains that Mike (Hubert Hanowicz) collapsed at the Week End Club last night. Anna reveals Mike is the barman and Dr. Lambert was their GP. Geordie quickly finds out that the archives are a joke. Miss Scott warns him that Elliott is being kept aware of everything going on at the station. Larry speaks to Sharon (Aleah Aberdeen) at the bar. She explains that Mike only served the doctor.

Sharon doesn’t know what they were drinking although she just cleared their glasses. She can’t tell him exactly which were theirs though. Sharon heard someone giving the boss an earful just before he dropped. Larry speaks to Bernie Palmer (Brian Bovell) about his argument with Mike. Bernie reveals that the doctor requested a 50-year-old cognac salvaged from a German U Boat from their Special Reserve. It has been out throughout the year, but no one has been sick from it. Larry takes the bottle and glasses. He tells Bernie that the club will have to stay shut until they find out where the poison came from. Bernie tries to convince him to keep the club open. Larry refuses.

When Will, Sylvia, and Jack arrive, they find Leonard (Al Weaver) alone with Keith Pruitt (Narinder Samra). Leonard reveals he has invited the local council over so he can put their fears to rest. Sylvia thinks he should consider reopening the tearoom. Will promises they’ll turn this around together. He says Sylvia can be the new housekeeper and Jack can be the latest resident. At the station, Larry tells Miss Scott and Geordie about the case. He admits he hasn’t checked the dead man’s house yet. Larry goes to the Totters Lane Surgery where he finds Debbie Stephens (Lily Carr) and takes her into custody. Geordie joins Larry in the interview room. Debbie admits she is Dr. Lambert’s niece and worked for him for about a year.

She denies poisoning anyone and says Uncle Bill owed her two months’ wages. Debbie says her husband can’t work because he is bedridden. Geordie suspects Debbie and her husband could be involved in this. Debbie is adamant that she was at home at the time. Moments later, Will learns Geordie is being punished by Elliott. Larry tells Miss Scott there is nothing to link the niece to the poison until the lab gets back. Scott asks about Lambert’s patients and whether there were any disgruntled ones. Leonard is glad to see Cathy (Kacey Ainsworth) and Geordie at the halfway house. Larry asks Miss Scott if she ever wanted to get experience working a case. He went back to Dr. Lambert’s place and found a book hidden in his drawers.

It looks like a code but Larry can’t make it out. Scott agrees to help before saying the poison has been identified as cyanide. The Special Reserve is full of it and there were traces in two of the glasses. Larry realizes the murderer knew the doctor would drink it. Scott says cyanide wouldn’t be easy to acquire. Larry confronts Bernie who insists he didn’t do it. Bernie remembers giving Sharon the key. Sharon says she only agreed to fetch the bottle because Mike was busy. None of them liked serving Lambert when he was drunk. Bernie interrupts to say Mike is awake at the hospital. Will checks on Leonard and promises it’ll be fine. Moments later, Leonard shows Miss Taylor (Denise Black) inside. She speaks to Geordie and Cathy about the recent murder.

Miss Scott tells Larry the code seems to be an account. Since it is in a code, she will have to crack it. He tells her that Elliott treats him like he is allowed to be there. Larry doesn’t feel that way with Geordie or her. He insists he is trying. Miss Taylor sits in on a session in which Keith talks about his drinking problem. Keith talks about the importance of the halfway house. Taylor says she is glad she came, but there are steps they’ll have to take. Will wants her to say she’ll support them. He suggests she is going to abandon them and just tease hope when she intends to deliver none. Leonard apologizes. Taylor says she was expecting a showcase and not an ambush. Cathy and Geordie complain about Will’s behavior. Larry and Miss Scott listen to Mike who had a glass. Lambert had half a bottle.

Mike says Lambert always drank alone and it seemed no one liked him there. Once Will and Geordie reach the station, Miss Scott tells them that Anna Cotton emigrated there in /56 under the name Alina Papp. She married Mike Cotton who was previously known as Mikhail Kurakin. Geordie argues that most Hungarian refugees didn’t want to go back. Miss Scott believes Mike’s accent is Russian. The Home Office confirmed he emigrated from there. They quickly try to figure out whether the KGB could be involved. Geordie wants to meet the couple. He asks Larry and Scott go over Lambert’s black book because he had it hidden for a reason. Moments later, Geordie tells Will that Elliott wants to send him to Ramsey. He worries that Elliott is going to make his life unbearable.

Jack tries to cheer up Leonard. He thinks Leonard should speak to Daniel. Leonard believes Sylvia is happy it is over. She overhears him saying this. Jack argues she doesn’t know what they have, but she knows how happy Daniel makes him. Later, Sylvia tells Jack that she needs to show Leonard how much she understands. Geordie and Will approach Mike to ask him a few questions. Mike admits they do not agree with Soviet rule. He moved to Hungary as a young boy and fell in love with the country and Anna. She was a university protestor. They protested against Soviet policies. Things got out of hand leading to people being killed. Anna and Mike were blamed. Mike says they wanted to start new lives. Sylvia finds Daniel laughing with another man. Scott shows Larry the record she decoded.

Larry wonders if people were paying Lambert under the table. He will compare them with the names in the surgery registry. Will confesses to Geordie that he messed things up for Leonard. Geordie believes he is pushing himself too hard. He instructs Will to get over to Bonnie’s early for Ernie’s birthday. Larry tells Geordie about the book and that he had an accomplice. The handwriting in the register matches the second set in the black book. It was the same register Debbie used. Debbie admits Lambert would use that information to blackmail patients for money. She only helped him keep his records straight. Debbie says they should speak to Palmer since he was one of the people being blackmailed. Bernie tells them he has been seeing a lady friend for a while.

It started okay but quickly went wrong. He got a prescription and it cleared up. Then, Lambert started showing up at the bar. He threatened to sell Bernie’s wife if he didn’t give him free drinks. Bernie says he had enough and that’s why they argued, but he is adamant he didn’t kill Lambert. Will takes more pills. Geordie brings Will into his office and asks for the pills. Geordie searches his pockets and finds the pills before they sit down to talk about it. Will thought he could shake the guilt but he couldn’t. The pills brought him focus. Geordie argues the pills aren’t the solution. He yells at Will to try harder. Sylvia goes to Leonard to tell him about Daniel. Larry tells Geordie that the first “A.P.” in the book showed up a week after Lambert saw Anna Cotton or Alina Papp. That was her first and only visit.

Geordie and Will approach Mike to ask him about Lambert blackmailing his wife. Even though Mike says he didn’t do it, Geordie arrests him. At the station, Will tells Geordie he doesn’t think Mike is responsible. Geordie suspects the wife could be responsible since she is a professor. When they bring her in, Anna admits to killing Mike. Lambert figured out who she was and said he knew people at the Russian embassy. She goes through the details of the poisoning. Will asks if she still carries that guilt. Anna admits it never goes away. Mike gets a chance to speak to her before she is taken to her cell. Geordie tells Will he is nothing like Anna. He urges him to take a break from this. Will wants to apologize to Leonard first.

Geordie tells Cathy what Elliott is doing to him. He wonders if he should step aside. If he is going to retire, it has to work for both of them. Once Leonard confronts Daniel, he soon suspects Sylvia may have over-exaggerated what she saw. Daniel gets upset and goes inside. Geordie types his retirement letter. Will apologizes to Leonard who says he isn’t the only one having a hard time. Leonard believes he enjoyed the pandering and fussing around “poor Will”. He suggests Will is no use to anyone when he only wallows in self-pity. Will decides to go away. Cathy tells Leonard. Geordie goes looking for him and finds a letter instead.

 

Grantchester Review

While certain scenes were very effective here, others were not and nothing seemed to click as well as it should’ve. The episode really wasn’t even that bad, but this is probably as good as it’s going to be from here on out. On the plus side, it was neat to see Larry and Miss Scott team up to investigate a poisoning even though Geordie and Will were still heavily involved.

The scene with the heart-to-heart conversation between Geordie and Will was very good with strong performances. That’s pretty much it for the good points though. Again, the murder and subsequent investigation were lacking. Some of the writing wasn’t particularly strong or even logical. For instance, Geordie had just caught Will abusing pills, yet he continued to allow him to tag along during the investigation.

Everything else has fallen short of the mark because we know Geordie won’t be retiring and Will is now going on a trip like Sidney did at one point. There isn’t a great deal of focus here considering so much is being juggled simultaneously. We have Will’s accident and addiction, Geordie’s possible retirement, and Leonard’s halfway house. There isn’t enough meat on the bones as a result.

Again, the episode wasn’t horrible but there have been several average episodes in a roll so the dip in quality is becoming more noticeable. A super-strong finale may bring everything together, but this could be the point of no return for Grantchester and the very reason two leads have stepped back from the series. This episode scores a 5.5 out of 10. Recaps of Grantchester can be found on Reel Mockery here.

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