Wedding Fever – As the finale of McDonald & Dodds begins, Paul Watt (Bill Bailey) speaks over the radio. He reveals Bath is going to be the World City of Love with 21 nuptials going on at 21 different venues. Lenny (Richard Harrington) brings his daughter, Lotty Wood (Esme Coy), to the wedding venue. Lenny walks behind the altar. When he returns, it appears he has blood on his shirt. The priest has also been stabbed. DCI Lauren McDonald (Tala Gouveia) awakes from a nightmare and receives messages about the murder. Paul Watt mentions that Lotty should be named Wood-Bridges by now. Chief Supt Mary Ormond (Claire Skinner) tells DS Dodds (Jason Watkins) that the suspect is concussed so they’ll have to get his statement at the hospital.

Dodds learns he’s in charge until McDonald is back. He works with Samuel Goldie (Charlie Jones) and DC Lee (Bhavik C. Pankhania). Inside, DC Goldie tells Dodds about Lenny and shows him the vestry where Mitchell Morrison lies dead. Mitchell and Lenny were best friends. Dodds is told the door there is always locked and never gets used. The victim has defensive wounds. McDonald arrives outside. Dodds wants to question Lenny, but McDonald thinks he should reassure Lenny’s family after what they just witnessed. She complains about her flight. McDonald tells Dodds about her spooky dream. They speak to Lilith Wood (Holly Dempsey), Lotty, and Lynn Wood (Lucinda Dryzek). Their mom died young so Lenny bought them up alone. William Bridges (Charlie Coombes) says they were at the altar but Mitchell wasn’t there.

Lenny went to see what was going on. When he came back, he had blood on his shirt. The daughters defend their daughter and say Lenny and Mitchell just built a summer house together. Lilith asks the detectives to leave them alone. At the hospital, the detectives learn that Lenny claims not to remember anything about the attack. Lenny can’t tell them anything about the blood or the murder weapon. McDonald argues he was supposedly holding it. Lenny questions why he’d kill Mitch. Outside, Dodds tells McDonald that the knife didn’t come from the church. They realize they’re being pointed out to press photographer Dora Lang (Victoria Hamilton). She explains The Guardian commissioned a feature called The Great British Wedding. Dora has pictures of everything.

She says she tried to save the victim. When she realized it was too late, she decided to take a photo of the victim. McDonald argues with her for a while before asking for fingerprints and DNA. Dodds points out that the camera is a Canon AE-1 so they only need the film roll. Dora has to film another wedding because the assignment is everything. She believes the victim raised his hand, pointed to his chest, and said,“snake.” Paul Watt talks about an incident at St Mary’s and All Angels. Samuel tells Dodds and McDonald about the photos taken by Dora Lang. Dodds finds it odd that there’s a picture of the reverend outside with the door open even though it’s supposed to be kept locked. McDonald asks Lee for a background check on Dora Lang.

She wants to get a measure of Lang to see if there’s something she’s not telling them. Lee reveals she spent ten days in Oldmere Clinic this year. The hospital specializes in mental health treatment. Dodds takes her prints. Dora admits she should’ve come forward straight away, but she wanted more photos. Dora denies seeing or taking a key near the victim’s body. She lets Dodds know she isn’t going anywhere. McDonald tells Lenny’s daughters that he’s being released. She wonders why Mitchell was drinking outside. Lotty denies anything going on between her and Uncle Mitchell. She calls that idea sick. Lilith blurts out that she and Mitchell had something going on. They were going to get married and Mitchell was about to tell Lenny. Lilith still doesn’t believe her dad would’ve killed Mitchell.

Then, we see Florence and Sandra Blake’s (Isaura Barbe-Brown) wedding. Florence drops dead. McDonald catches up with Ormond who tells her about Florence. It is believed she was poisoned. Ormond decides to lead the initial stages of the inquiry since they’re stretched thin. McDonald points out that Lang is supposed to be working this wedding as well. Lenny is now claiming there was a third party in the vestry. Lenny claims he got to the door before seeing Mitchell lying in blood. At the other wedding, Clive believes a maniac is running loose targeting weddings. His nose begins bleeding just before he collapses as well. Lenny remembers being punched and floored by someone. He is surprised to learn about Mitchell and Lilith. Lenny says the guy took the key out of the door after opening it.

Lenny tried to go after him, but the guy locked the door. He believes he pulled the knife from Mitch before going for help. Lenny says the man was wearing a balaclava, but he had a tattoo of a snake on his chest. That seems to trigger something for McDonald who saw the man in her nightmare. McDonald tells Dodds about her nightmare and the man with the snake tattoo. Dodds finds what appears to be the key nearby. That convinces him that Lenny isn’t responsible. They wonder if they’ve been left a message. Clive Saunders (Jason Hughes) tells Ormond that he’s fine. He doesn’t think he shared anything with his sister. He remembers that he and Florence had the amuse-bouche butternut squash though. Ormond tells Goldie to get all the dishes from the caterers. Ormond speaks to Sandra about Florence’s death.

Sandra says Florence said the way her mother loved her was suffocating. Her mom tries to comfort her, but Sandra quickly pulls away. Ormond asks Mrs. Blake if there’s something she wants to tell her. Mrs. Blake thinks Clive is right by saying Ormond should be out there catching whoever is killing people at weddings. Dodds tries to speak to McDonald about her dream and the snake man (Piotr Baumann). When she’s alone, McDonald gets a message from someone saying they’re worried. Goldie tells everyone one of the four cups has to be their murder weapon. They’ve been washed so there might not be any evidence. Dodds and McDonald tell Ormond what Lenny said about the other man. Dodds says the key was found outside and it’s got a peculiar X scraped on it. Lee says tetrahydrozoline was found in the blood samples belonging to Florence and Clive. It doesn’t kill instantly so the killer could’ve gone into the catering van.

Dodds questions whether the killer just dropped poison into any of the sixty cups. If that’s the case, Florence would’ve been very unlucky. Dodds tells them about the man with the snake tattoo. The poison is an active ingredient in over-the-counter eye drops. Lee and Dodds remember Dora using eye drops. Lang is brought in for questioning.

McDonald and Dodds question Dora about the murders that occurred during two separate weddings. Dora accuses them of trying to connect her to both murders. Dodds confiscates her eye drops. McDonald says Florence was poisoned with tetrahydrozoline found in eye drops. Dora claims to have arrived late at the wedding because they detained her and left within 15 minutes before Florence died. She says after a violent encounter with an abusive dog owner, Dora went to therapy. Dodds requests her photos from the barn wedding.

Sahir Hassan (Akshay Sharan) and Rachel are dancing at their wedding when Hamish McClay arrives. Ecstatic, Sahir races to greet him. Hamish apologizes to Sahir before he is shot. A short time later, Goldie tells McDonald that Hamish wasn’t expected to attend the wedding, so the groom chose someone else as his best man. Lenny Woods isn’t a reliable witness and there is no other evidence connecting the man with the snake tattoo to the murders. The detectives find a pearl-handled handgun a short distance from where Hamish was shot. McDonald informs Dodds of her plan to do her own ballistics testing and compare it to the bullet inside the victim. Dodds voices concern about the evidence being admissible in court. While he collects the barn wedding photos from Dora, she performs the ballistics testing at a local shooting range.

Ormond confronts Sahir about his previous statement that omitted a text from Hamish saying he would be at his wedding. Sahir points out that the text was meant for Sally, not him. He admits to hitting Hamish during a heated argument but denies killing him. He says rumors have it that the detectives are pointing the finger at friends and relatives when it is obviously a serial killer.

Dodds informs Dora that someone else was murdered at a wedding approximately an hour ago. She reminds him that he and McDonald were interrogating her when it happened. Looking at the barn wedding photos, Dodds suggests the killer poisoned the victim’s appetizer. She kisses him. She claims to have been on the brink of death when a teenager threatened to shoot her. She suffers from PTSD. She asks if he would like to have sex. A photo reveals Lotty with a phone taking photos. A short time later, Lotty tells McDonald about her relationship with Mitchell. She questions if her dad killed him. The pearl-handled gun was utilized to kill Hamish. The bullet has three X’s on it. Lotty’s photo from the wedding reveals a man behind Dora. McDonald is startled to see it is the man from her dreams.

West of England Police – McDonald calls 276 FM to request information about H.F. Mitchell’s request sent within minutes of Hamish’s murder. The victim’s cup is marked with two X’s (two kisses). Mitchell’s email confirms that he sent one, two, three X’s to the City of Bath and an XL to the Post. McDonald deciphers the X’s as Roman numerals – 10, 20, 30, and 40. Dodds says they represent wedding anniversaries, pertaining to the murder weapons. Aluminum is 10 years, China is 20, Pearl is 30, and the song, “Ruby,” is 40 years.

In her dream, McDonald’s father walks her down the aisle. Dodds is the only family face in the congregation. As they approach the altar, the church goes dark. The vicar does something strange with his hands before she finds herself alone with the groom, a man with a snake tattoo. She says it is the man from Lotty’s photo. Dodds suggests the setting is inside a plane, not a church. The vicar is actually a flight attendant pointing to the emergency exists. The strange guests are vacationers. She recalls seeing the man with the snake tattoo on flight AV94. A short time later, the man is identified as Vassilis Giamakis.

Giamakis is arrested at a hotel in Oldhampton. McDonald says he is not the man in her dream.  She tells Dodds about her boyfriend’s spontaneously proposal which she declined. At the police station, Goldie researches the snake tattoo on Giamakis’ chest. Three fake passports were discovered in his room. A short time later, Giamakis claims he was sent from Greece to collect money from a client who may be the killer.

The victims meet to discuss the case and how the police are pointing the finger at them. Dodds explains the killer’s actions leading up to each of the three murders and the X theory. Florence’s murder was intentional while Hamis and Mitchell’s murders were random. Clive claims the Greek mafia is trying to pin the murders on him because he cannot pay his debt. Ormond says Florence was driving drunk when she killed Clive’s fiancé, Kristen Lewis, 21 years ago. Clive took the blame to protect Florence and 21 years later, she is to be happily married while he is drowning in debt.

Dodds tells McDonald about his past relationship with Dora. McDonald calls Finn and accepts his proposal. The episode ends.

 

McDonald & Dodds Review

A vicar, Florence, and Mitchell are all murdered at separate weddings. Dodds and McDonald are tasked with finding the killer(s). Overwhelmed, the detectives accuse the groom, friends, family members, and other acquaintances. Fed up with the false accusations and the police’s inaction, the victims hold a special meeting to determine their best plan of action.

McDonald’s dream leads to Giamakis, a member of the Greek mafia. Giamakis is placed at all three murder scenes. He is tracking a client, Clive Saunders, who owes the mafia a lot of money. Clive confessed to a drunk driving fatality that claimed the life of his fiancé, Kristen Lewis. 21 years later, Clive has massive debt while the real killer, his sister, Florence is planning her wedding. He intentionally poisons Florence and randomly chooses his next two victims.

 

The X or Roman numeral theory could have been explained more clearly. It’s doubtful the killer would have taken the time to create such an elaborate scheme. Viewers are left to their own devices to decipher the meaning behind the cryptic code. What was meant to impress turned out to be mere mumbo jumbo and then to throw in an irrelevant dream. The theory is pure balderdash. The incompetent nincompoop portrayal of the police is the true accomplishment here.

The episode deserves a 5 out of 10. Get more McDonald & Dodds recaps here. Support Reel Mockery by donating. Learn how advertising with us can help build brand awareness. Join our newly established forum to discuss the latest TV shows and movies.