As this episode of Grantchester begins, Alphy Kotteram (Rishi Nair) speaks to God and admits this is the first time he felt abandoned by him. He asks what God wants from him. Alphy asks for a sign. Next, Marcus Blakely (Cavan Clerkin) takes Geordie (Robson Green) and Larry (Bradley Hall) to a bone he found on his property. Larry wonders if it could be the girl who went missing after going to the pictures. Geordie doubts she had a sword in her purse. Sylvia (Tessa Peake-Jones) and Jack (Nick Brimble) try to tell Alphy about the Roman soldier but he isn’t interested. Later, Sylvia interrupts Alphy to tell him about the archaeologists in Marcus’s field. A bit later, Sylvia tries to convince Alphy to come and take a look for himself.

As they walk over, Alphy learns that Jack knows his stuff because he dabbled back in the day and worked digs. Professor Henry Waddingham (Geordie Asprey) digs up a cross that he quickly shows to Kate Earnshaw (Natali Servat) and Billy Randall (Curtis Kemlo). Kate quickly pokes fun at Billy for his potential lack of sexual experience. Henry invites everyone to his talk this evening at the Village Hall. Kate introduces herself and speaks to Alphy. When Alphy says he’ll be at the speech, Kate says she will be too. Geordie speaks to Cathy (Kacey Ainsworth) about the speech. She seems out of it. Dora (Rose Allen) breaks a vase and Cathy doesn’t budge. Geordie checks on her and sends her upstairs. Geordie tells Cathy it was her vase, but she doesn’t seem to care. During the meeting, Geordie and the others learn that the cross might be worth three hundred pounds.

Jack doesn’t think it could be Byzantine because Britain wasn’t a part of the Byzantine Empire in its early days. Henry agrees and says it’s more likely Flavian. He believes they can find more with enough time, resources, and financial support. Alphy and Kate keep eyeballing each other. Henry begins taking donations. Alphy speaks to Kate when the speech ends. David Lane (Jonathan Rhodes) tells Alphy he stopped by so he could meet his new flock. In private, Sylvia alleges David is stomping all over Alphy’s grave. When Alphy steps outside, he hears Della Blakely (Laura Jane Matthewson) arguing with Henry about something. Geordie comes outside to check on Alphy who says it is what it is. Geordie doesn’t know why everyone is so calm including Cathy. He thinks Alphy should be out there causing a ruckus.

Alphy is going to wait for a sign from the big guy up above. In the morning, Geordie and Larry return to Blakely’s property where they find Henry deceased. They wonder if it’s a sign that his body is laid out just like the skeleton. Billy thought Henry was in his tent sleeping. Alphy sits with Billy who says Henry was his tutor at Oxford. He was like a father to Billy. Kate comes over to call Billy a fool because the cross has been stolen. She alleges he left it out but shows them where she left it. Billy finds out that his rock hammer has gone missing from his tent. Geordie tells Alphy it’s good that someone is showing some emotion. Larry goes looking for a rock hammer. Alphy tells Geordie about Mrs. Blakely and Henry arguing. Della calls Henry a charlatan. She tells Marcus that he wouldn’t see any of the money Henry was getting.

Della admits she took the cross although she denies murdering Henry. The group argues back at the station. Alphy decides to keep the cross until a decision is made. Geordie suspects Alphy fancies Kate. Alphy will only say that’s intriguing. They find a notebook mentioning Declan Miller who is into fine arts and antiquities. Henry was supposed to meet him today. Geordie asks what NQA means. They go to Jack to see if he can help. Jack tells them it means “no questions asked”. He thinks it might be black market. Jack recommends keeping an eye on all of them. Alphy doesn’t think Kate is a thief. Miss Scott (Melissa Johns) and Larry are hanging out instead of being at each other’s throats. Geordie asks Miss Scott to speak to the Ashmolean Museum to see what she can find out about Kate.

Daniel Marlowe (Oliver Dimsdale) joins Jack at the pub. Jack believes he wants to talk about money. Daniel talks about how he’s been working with Sam at the halfway house. He thinks they can expand and reach more people. Jack just gave Sam twenty pounds a few weeks back. Daniel admits they need more money. Jack explains he can’t keep putting his hand in his pocket every time someone asks. He doesn’t have endless reserved although Daniel says he does for Leonard. Jack argues that’s a little different. Daniel decides to leave. Miss Scott tells Geordie that Earnshaw has a somewhat checkered past. Her boss at the museum had a lot to say about her and the professor. Geordie confronts Billy and Kate to allege that Henry was a grave robber. Kate quickly denies that. Billy doesn’t believe it either. Geordie tells them that Henry already had a buyer for the cross.

Kate is reminded she was suspended from the Ashmolean after she was caught pilfering from the exhibits. When Alphy checks her bag, he finds Billy’s rock hammer. Kate is questioned at the police station. She tries her best not to answer any questions. Instead, she tells Alphy that he looks lost. Kate believes something happened in Alphy’s past, but he doesn’t talk about his past. Kate denies everything including killing Henry. Leonard (Al Weaver) joins Jack and Sylvia to talk about the church. Sylvia and Leonard refuse to let Alphy go without putting up a fight. Sylvia thinks they should write letters so she leaves to get supplies. Jack tells Leonard he’s been meaning to apologize about Daniel. He has to be careful with his pennies. Alphy goes to a pub to gamble.

He sees a woman at the bar. Geordie buys Cathy a dress and tries to take her out to a restaurant, but she says she’s just too tired. Cathy thought this is what Geordie wanted. Geordie goes to the pub alone and finds Billy sitting with Marcus. He watches as Billy gives Marcus an envelope. He visits Della to talk to her about it. She doesn’t believe Marcus could’ve killed the professor. After Alphy loses, he is joined by Petra. They end up making out. They go back to Petra’s room at the school. She warns Alphy that she’s finished if he gets caught there. Alphy leaves in the morning and finds the door open when he gets back. He finds his room ransacked so he calls Geordie.

Alphy thinks this is the sign he’s been waiting for her. Geordie learns he only got him this morning. Alphy worries that the cross is missing but he finds it. Geordie tells him what he saw last night. Alphy suggests Billy was doing the right thing by paying Marcus when everyone else was taking advantage of him. Leonard is not happy with Daniel and he tells him that. Daniel believes he’s just Leonard’s shadow. Leonard asks when he got so bitter. Daniel claims he’s just stating facts. Daniel admits Sam said Leonard would just walk away. Geordie and Alphy speak to Jack about the cross. Jack confirms that it is Byzantine and it couldn’t belong to the skeleton. When Jack pointed that out, Billy realized that Henry was lying. Sylvia enters to confront Jack as Alphy and Geordie leave. Geordie asks Marcus about the envelope.

Marcus claims Billy said it was what the professor owed them. Della mentions that Billy and Kate are leaving. Geordie and Alphy quickly catch up with them. Kate asks Billy what he did. Billy is questioned at the station. It is alleged Billy found out that Henry was everything he pretended to stand against. Kate stole the cross from the museum and Henry planted it to fool the Blakely family. Henry made a small fortune on the donations from the villagers. Billy says Henry told them archaeology was not about money. A flashback shows them arguing and Billy hitting Henry with the rock hammer. Alphy approaches Kate who believes he’s looking for somewhere to belong. Kate doesn’t believe in signs. Alphy does and he thinks he’s had a sign. He has his answer as to whether he should stay or go.

Later, Alphy speaks at the church about searching for meaning. Geordie glues Cathy’s vase back together. Sylvia continues writing letters in hopes of keeping Alphy in town.

 

Grantchester Review

While this episode of Grantchester was decent, it does seem that the writing has lost a step along the way. The writers obviously had a lot to cover with Will leaving and Alphy entering the picture. Unfortunately, that test hasn’t been passed just yet. Instead, it’s made the writing worse across the board.

Again, Geordie and Alphy looked at Kate and everyone else for the killer. Instead, it was the one person everyone would expect. This use of the same formula is taking away from the predictability of the series and making the investigations a little bland. The Kate character was a little baffling at times. In some ways, the character has been done previously as a way to get the main character to look at things differently.

Even though she was a thief, it appears she was let off the hook. The dialogue for the character was a little strange too. For instance, she berated Billy about leaving the cross out and letting it get stolen. However, she took Geordie and Alphy to the spot where she left it out. That was odd to say the least.

Kate was also just another character to build sexual tension for Alphy who ultimately slept with a student. The Alphy character has been pushed a bit too quickly to the point that everything feels forced. There doesn’t really seem to be a reason for Sylvia to fight so hard for Alphy because the relationship wasn’t properly built.

More time should’ve been spent on building those relationships. Otherwise, everything is really just falling flat. The writers also need more diversity for Alphy who is becoming a combination of Sidney and Will. Alphy is going through the same steps as Sidney and Will did. There needs to be a stronger backstory and unique problems for the character.

The sexual innuendos are getting very old very quickly considering there were multiple in each episode so far. Sadly, the writing has suffered noticeably since the introduction of Rishi Nair and that has nothing to do with Rishi Nair. We’ll see how it plays out, but the preview for the next episode doesn’t look promising.

This one scores a 5.5 out of 10. Recaps of Grantchester can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent work at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. See what others are saying at the Reel Mockery Forum.