As the episode begins, Eliza Scarlet (Kate Phillips) enters a house wearing all black. She approaches a desk and begins looking through the drawers until she finds one that is locked. She quickly picks the lock and opens the drawer before finding a handful of coins. A little girl steps in and interrupts. She wants to know what Eliza is doing there so she pretends she is playing a game with her father. The girl’s mother returns outside and she asks Eliza for money. The girl threatens to scream if she doesn’t give her some. She tells the little girl that her father hired her to do a job and refused to pay her because she is a woman. Eliza hands the money over and the little girl screams her head off anyway. After the intro, Eliza meets with Rupert Parker (Andrew Gower) at his new home.

She is soon introduced to his friend Dr. Moorhouse (Kieran Hodgson). Eliza wants to discuss their financial situation so Moorhouse sits down and listens to their conversation. Eliza tells Rupert about the teething problems their new business is having but Rupert says there is no rush to make the payment. Moorhouse tells Scarlet that he would love to have a hobby like being a detective. He wants to know what happens to the villains before Eliza changes the subject and asks Rupert what happened when his mother found out he was moving out. Dr. Moorhouse reveals that she was furious about everything. On her way home, Eliza runs into Mrs. Parker (Helen Norton) and she has bad news. They go inside and discuss the lease renewal on the house and the fact that Eliza’s father didn’t do it. Mrs. Parker is eager to kick Eliza out so she can find new tenants.

Eliza realizes that Parker is angry with her because of everything that happened between her and Rupert. She also blames Eliza for her son moving out. When Parker leaves, Eliza speaks with Ivy (Cathy Belton) about her conversation and the fact that she’ll do whatever she must to save the house. Then, she learns that Kitty has left after finding a new position because Eliza hadn’t paid her for several weeks. Next, Eliza goes to the station so she can speak with William (Stuart Martin). She serves them a drink while they discuss William’s staffing problems and the murder cases accumulating quickly. She encourages him to accept her assistance for a fee. William reminds her that she has only had a few cases before they’re interrupted by DS Jenkins (Danny Midwinter) who needs William to work on an arson case.

William leaves before PC Honeychurch (Matthew Malone) enters with an urgent message and leaves it on his desk. Scarlet checks the note and immediately heads to the scene where she is told not to go upstairs because it is dangerous. Once there, she finds two men and another woman, Tabitha Butler, enters and screams. Edward gets up and grabs a knife while the other man is dead on the ground. William enters and subdues Edward Butler immediately. William takes the opportunity to ridicule Eliza got getting involved in police business and he threatens to make her show up in court. She is charged with obstruction and fined 40 shillings or a month in jail. Tabitha (Deirdre Mullins) agrees to pay the fine. After that, Tabitha tells Eliza that she doesn’t believe her husband is a killer but the inspector won’t listen to her.

She is confident that her husband is innocent and she wants Eliza to investigate the murder. Tabitha tells her that money isn’t an issue so Eliza immediately asks for information about the dead man Sebastian Ridley who owned a saloon in Mayfair. Edward was responsible for handling his accounts and that is how they knew each other. Eliza visits Ridley’s Saloon immediately. She gets inside and tries to see if anyone is around. She runs into Moses (Ansu Kabia) who says he has spent many hours thinking of Eliza because she caused him to lose his job. Eliza pulls a knife and Moses pulls a gun. He tells her that Ridley was a cautious man. He says he is not going to kill Scarlet. He only wants to hire her. Moses wants Eliza to find a snuff box that belonged to his father who was taken from Jamaica in the slave ships to London.

The box was given to his father as a parting gift with the abolition. Moses had Ridley keep the box in his safe but nobody had a key. Someone came last night and cleared everything out and Moses believes it was Tabitha. Moses says he hid from her and watched her leave with a green carpet bag full of items. Eliza says it would be unethical for her to investigate her client but Moses says he’ll kill her otherwise. Eliza immediately returns to Tabitha who no longer wants to use her services. Eliza tries to find out why Tabitha has changed her mind and she curses her husband. Eliza uses an excuse to stay after Tabitha leaves. The maid Annie (Megan McDonnell) says she can snoop around as much as she wants for a fee. Eliza looks around and finds the bag Moses was talking about. She looks through it quickly and finds a small box and a letter.

The letter appears to be a love letter to Sebastian and it is from TB. Meanwhile, Duke and Frank Jenkins argue about their responsibilities. Duke orders Frank to clear out the cells so Frank takes his frustrations out on Honeychurch. Eliza is waiting for William in his office so she can tell him about Tabitha having an affair with Sebastian. William reveals that his prime suspect plead guilty this morning and Eliza doesn’t understand that. Eliza believes something is up but William just wants to close the case and move on. William goes to the morgue so he can sign the paperwork. William learns that his wife or Eliza is there looking at the body. Eliza says that the perpetrator was right handed but the others are only worried about getting rid of her.

Once again, Eliza is charged and taken to court. This time, she is charged 60 shillings and it is quickly increased to 70. Eliza is released and she thanks William for speaking to Magistrate Wilkes for her. He encourages her to stop pursuing the Ridley case. Eliza returns to her office and remembers something her father said to her. She draws a rose before visiting Rupert and finding the same rose in his vase. She recalls Moorhouse has a rose like that in his suit pocket as well. She tells Rupert that Ridley had the dark blue rose tattooed on his arm. Eliza tries to get Rupert to tell her what is going on so he begins telling her about the roses. He says the roses are meant to tell other about their sexuality. He is worried because he knows men like him are damned by law. Eliza promises to keep that a secret from everyone else.

She learns that Ridley did not have an appetite for women. Each Wednesday, he ran a special night at his saloon and it was their safe haven. He doesn’t understand that the man he loved the most, Teddy, would be the one to murder him. Rupert explains that Edward was known as Teddy at the saloon. Eliza realizes that the letter was written by Edward and not Tabitha. She decides to return to Ridley’s saloon. She finds two men who are up to no good. She claims they might’ve killed the Jamaican. One man grabs Eliza and the box falls out of her pocket so Albert picks it up quickly. Albert smells of it and passes out. The other man gets distracted and that gives Eliza time to grab the gun under the desk. She takes care of the men before checking on Moses. She lets him know that she dealt with the men. She wants to know about the box which is holding opium.

She wonders if Moses is involved in drug traffic but he says it isn’t him. He admits the box didn’t belong to his father either. The box belonged to Sebastian and Moses thought it would be a good time to steal it since he had no money. Moses tells her that a regular supplied the opium and she soon finds out that it was Dr. Moorhouse so she tracks him down immediately. He admits he was Sebastian’s doctor and he was dying because of a tumor in his stomach. The opium helped him deal with the pain. Sebastian wanted to keep it a secret between them. The doctor explains he went to visit Sebastian on the day of his death and found Tabitha sobbing in the room where her husband was killed. She told him that she hoped Sebastian suffered to the last with his tumor.

She was reading the letter and said her husband should join him soon. Eliza goes to William once again and tells her that Edward did not kill Sebastian. She tells William everything she has found out. They visit Tabitha only to find out that she is leaving town for America. William is given the receipt for her train ticket before heading to the train station while Edward is set to be executed. Eliza tells him that he should bring in Tabitha but Eliza finds Tabitha outside waiting for Edward to die. Eliza pleads with Tabitha to give her the letter and do something to stop the execution. She gets the letter and tells everyone she has evidence to prove Edward is innocent. Moments later, Edward confesses everything to William and Eliza.

He tells them that Sebastian committed suicide. He tried to stop him but was knocked out. He confesses that he wanted to die and says that he’ll never be free because his reputation and marriage have been destroyed. After that, William tells Eliza that she did good work. Tabitha is arrested for theft but Eliza doesn’t understand that because she only wanted to burn the letter to hide the affair. William realizes that Eliza knew Tabitha was on the train. He tells her to stay out of trouble for his sake. Eliza returns home and finds Rupert and Mrs. Parker waiting on her. Rupert tells her that she came about the lease and that he couldn’t talk her out of it. She promises she won’t tell anyone about Rupert’s secret. Eliza pays Mrs. Parker the money so she can’t evict her. She tells Ivy about it and pays her as well.

She says she has decided to add a debt collector to her roster. Moses visits the little girl and asks to speak with her father.

 

Miss Scarlet And The Duke Review

I don’t think Miss Scarlet and The Duke is bad but it hasn’t blown me away just yet. I find it interesting but a bit too long sometimes. I enjoy the main characters and the actors and actresses who portray those characters though. Then again, I have been a bit distracted lately and can’t really focus on anything I’ve been watching so I won’t go on too long about that. I’ll keep watching and recapping the show either way. This episode scores a 7 out of 10. Previous recaps of Miss Scarlet and The Duke can be found on Reel Mockery.