Bloodline – As this episode begins, DS Phelps (Tim Chipping) hangs out with Oliver Fitzroy (Evan McCabe) and other officers at the pub. Oliver says he is calculating his moves, but Phelps accuses him of trying to steal their money. Oliver argues they can’t be playing for money because the pub isn’t licensed for that. Phelps says no one is going to arrest them because they’re officers of the law. When Oliver gets distracted, he notices that one of Phelps’s pieces has gone missing. Oliver suggests it fell onto the floor or in his pocket so Phelps challenges him to a fight.

Oliver warns him he has been training, but Phelps refuses to listen to him. Phelps ends up on the ground with a bloody nose. The following day, Phelps tells the others that the Duke has been sent up north for a few days. While he is away, DS Phelps is going to be in charge. He asks Fitzroy to stay behind because he is Phelps’s now. After the intro, Eliza Scarlet (Kate Phillips) opens the door to Mr. Potts (Simon Ludders). She tells him that Ivy (Cathy Belton) isn’t home because she is nursing her sick mother. Once he leaves, Eliza asks Ivy if she is going to tell her what that was about.

Ivy doesn’t want to talk about it and suggests some things are best left alone. Eliza thought she would like to talk even though she isn’t an expert on matters of the heart. Ivy argues she’d have a ring on her finger if she were. Ivy apologizes and admits she isn’t in the best of moods. Eliza goes to the police station to look for Wellington (Stuart Martin) only to learn from DS Phelps that he is gone. They argue about the case Eliza was supposed to work with Wellington. Eliza walks outside and complains about Phelps to Fitzroy. She learns what he is doing and how he has to take food to the prisoners later.

Eliza urges him to stand up for himself before Phelps comes outside and takes Fitzroy elsewhere. Potts stops Eliza to talk to her about Ivy because they’re having difficulties in their courtship. Once they sit down, Potts says she is reluctant to be in his presence as of late. Eliza thinks he should discuss that with Ivy. She mentions that he seems to have a set routine. She suggests taking Ivy to the music hall on a Saturday, taking her to dinner, or going for a walk. In other words, he should do something unexpected to surprise her. Potts thanks her for the ideas. When he asks if there is anything he can do, Eliza says he can change his mind about letting women in the morgue.

He agrees to think about it. Meanwhile, Phelps and Detective Fitzroy wait for Michael Galanis (Alex Bhat) who might be involved in the recent robberies. Phelps knows he’ll be there because he comes every day. Once Phelps manages to grab him, Fitzroy sees him plant evidence on Michael. Galanis quickly denies it and accuses Phelps of sticking the watch in his pocket. Fitzroy claims he didn’t see him stick anything in his pocket. Later, Fitzroy checks on Michael in the cell. Again, Michael denies taking the watch. Michael thinks Fitzroy saw Phelps plant the watch on him. Fitzroy goes to Eliza to tell her about what he saw and how he can’t stay quiet.

It happened so fast that he could be mistaken and that is why he came to Eliza. He wants to pay her to investigate the matter. When Eliza talks to Moses (Ansu Kabia) about it, he tells her to leave it alone. She admits she can’t because Fitzroy paid her in advance. Moses goes on to say Michael might not have done that crime, but he has done others since he belongs to a crime family. He tells her how the family makes their money from gambling and all types of thieving. Michael’s uncle Nikos runs the crew. Moses hears that his nephew is a disappointment because he is young, foolish, and makes a lot of mistakes.

Eliza suggests Phelps would target Michael because he is a weak link, but Moses encourages her to walk away. Eliza decides to drag him to the stores to investigate the theft. They talk to Miss Tinsdale (Grace Boyle) who tells them the thieves took everything and her health declined. She turned up to work last week and found that the place had been ransacked. The thieves took watches and clocks. They dropped one similar to what her father wore. As they leave, Eliza says they didn’t escape on foot with two grandfather clocks. She looks for scruff marks on the curb before they’re approached by three men saying the boss wants to speak with them.

Moses tells them they’re working for Inspector Wellington from Scotland Yard. He informs Eliza that they work for Galanis who wants to talk to them. They meet with Nikos (Stavros Demetraki) and his father Andreas (Svetozar Cvetkovic). They want to know who is paying Eliza to ask questions about their family. She only says her client. As for Moses, he explains that he is Eliza’s translator. Nikos ends up coughing up blood before saying his nephew didn’t rob that store. He has little faith in the police. However, he thinks there are a few at Scotland Yard that could help and Eliza may have their ear. Nikos wants her to give them the name of the real thief.

He gives her a picture of the suspect before leaving with his father. Once they leave, Moses tells Eliza that Scotland Yard has been looking for Logan Cooper (Matt Concannon) for a while. He believes it is too convenient since Cooper’s gang is in a war with the Galanis family. She asks him to ask around to see what he can find out. Eliza is going to visit the nephew to see what he has to say. Moses refuses to tell her why he was in Athens. Fitzroy lets Eliza into the cell, but urges her to be quick since he doesn’t know how long Phelps will be gone. She tries to find out where Michael was at around the time of the robbery, but he doesn’t want to say anything.

Eliza asks if he wants to go to prison because she doesn’t think jail would suit him. After he tells her where he went, Eliza decides to go there to speak to Sasha (Maja Susa) who says Eliza isn’t her usual type. After paying her, Eliza asks about Michael being with her all night on the Friday before last. Sasha says he visits her every Friday. They go to her place nearby where they just sit, drink, and talk. Sasha reveals they talked about how the others from Michael’s gang don’t like him. The only one who seemed to like him died because someone cut his throat and Michael was very upset.

Eliza learns that he died last week. Then, she goes to Potts to see what he can tell her about the murder. He isn’t going to let her come into the morgue because he did what she advised and it wasn’t well received. Fitzroy gets the files for her and explains that Potts seemed out of sorts. Once he leaves, Ivy comes in to tell Eliza that Potts proposed to her. Eliza insists she didn’t tell him to do that. Ivy admits he was broken so she doesn’t understand why Eliza couldn’t have just left things alone. Ivy tells her she can cook for herself and do her own laundry tonight. Once Fitzroy gives Phelps the files, he thinks he is about to start night duty. Phelps tells him not to bother and get home.

He explains that he couldn’t let people think he punched him without consequences. Fitzroy is allowed to go back to normal duties. Phelps asks why he got the key to Michael’s cell earlier. Fitzroy claims he was bringing him food as he asked. Moses learns that the watch Phelps planted on Michael was one of the watches that was stolen. He also found out that the Galanis family put a price on Cooper’s head because of trouble between Cooper and one of his men. Cooper also has a cousin in Scotland Yard. Eliza thinks it has to be Phelps. The following day, Moses follows him while Eliza visits Solomon.

She asks Solomon (Brian Bovell) where someone would go to sell the watches and clocks. He tries to sell her one of his potions. He says he knows more about weapons so she asks him about the recent murder. Solomon looks at the wound and says it was caused by a long, curved knife. He knows two men who wield such a weapon. One is dead and the other is a piece of work. Solomon eventually says that the man’s name is Logan Cooper. He might have a few addresses to safe houses the Cooper gang uses, but he recommends staying away from them because they’re dangerous. Once she gets the addresses, she checks the first one.

Eliza sees a man who looks like Logan so she begins following him. He eventually confronts her with a gun and demands to know why she is following him. When she mentions Phelps, Logan says he hasn’t seen Charlie Phelps in years and can’t stand him. He claims the robbery was an inside job before a gunfight breaks out and he has to run. Eliza returns to Moses and admits she was lucky. She is convinced it was Galanis’s men who were shooting at Logan. Moses believes Phelps is up to something since he followed him to an abandoned bar. He was having things delivered there in boxes although Moses isn’t sure what it was. Eliza says she was supposed to be working on another case, but Phelps stopped that.

She gathered information about similar crimes and the same name pops up more than once. They visit Miss Tinsdale again. Eliza explains that there were several other robberies and the goods were likely never sold on the black market. Instead, they were most likely stolen to order. Out of the six shops that were robbed, Miss Tinsdale worked in five of them. They question how she can afford her apartment on her salary. Tinsdale confesses that Galanis pays her. She tells him when the shop gets a new delivery and he arranges the theft soon after. She doesn’t know who robbed this shop, but the policeman told her to keep her mouth shut.

Later, Eliza sees Phelps receive an envelope from Andreas. She sits down with him to ask what his business with Phelps is. Andreas says everyone knows this is not the business for Michael, but his son Nikos won’t accept that. Michael told him about stealing the clock so Andreas told the dead man to do it. His son still doesn’t know that Michael carried out the robbery. The man was murdered because he was in the wrong part of town drunk and looking for a fight. Nikos put a price on Logan’s head the next day so he was likely responsible for the murder. If Michael is freed, he will be forced to kill Cooper once he is caught.

Andreas paid Phelps to arrest Michael because he doesn’t want him hanged or killed as an act of revenge. Nikos will be dead by the time Michael is released. If Scarlet proves his innocence, he will be released now and forced to take a life. Eliza isn’t sure she can let an innocent man go down. Later, she goes home and tries to patch her bag. Ivy finally tells her that she has been avoiding Potts because she has grown fond of him. She is afraid of where it might lead since she loves living in the house with Eliza and seeing her every day. Ivy isn’t sure she even wants to get married. When she was a kid, she was always told she’d grow up, get married, and have kids.

Eliza urges her to do whatever is best for her and she’ll support her no matter what that is. While Ivy works on her bag, Eliza tells her about her problem. Ivy reminds her of being little and having two choices that she didn’t want to do. Eliza would always find a third. Eliza gets the bullet fragment fired by Logan and compares it to the one used in the robbery. She tells Fitzroy she thinks it is the same gun. Eliza takes him with her to meet with Nikos. She wants Nikos to listen to her proposal since she can prove that Michael is innocent. Eliza tells him that Logan was a suspect in a bank robbery earlier this year. The case against him collapsed, but she has concrete proof that it was him.

The ballistics evidence shows that the gun discharged during the robbery was Logan’s gun. Eliza wants Logan turned over to her so she can give him to Scotland Yard. Once Nikos says he wants Cooper to suffer, Eliza says he will since he’ll get 15 years or more of hard labor. Then, they confront Phelps to accuse him of being paid to arrest Michael. Eliza warns him that he could be dismissed for failing to disclose his relationship to a wanted man. They won’t say anything about his cousin if he agrees to drop the charges against Michael. Phelps denies being a bent cop and explains Michael needed to be put away for his own good. He says this is the first time he took money although he would’ve done it for free.

He put the money to good use since he is going to turn the building into a gymnasium where kids can come to get off the street. Kids like he was can come and learn self-respect if they need guidance. Logan is brought to the jail while Michael is released. Eliza and Fitzroy discuss their career choices. Back at home, Ivy and Potts let Eliza know that they’re engaged. It’ll be a long engagement according to Ivy. Phelps visits Scarlet later at her business to tell her Duke has returned. He wanted to see her face when he told her who Duke is with. Eliza watches as William kisses Arabella (Sophie Robertson).

 

Miss Scarlet & The Duke Review

Even through three seasons, Miss Scarlet and the Duke has managed to produce original episodes without needing to rehash the same topics. The performances remain excellent with Kate Phillips, Evan McCabe, Tim Chipping, and others being great in their respective roles. The episode tackled a string of robberies linked to a possible bend cop, DS Phelps. Michael Galanis was arrested after Phelps planted a stolen watch on him, but that didn’t sit right with Oliver Fitzroy.

Eliza, Moses, and Oliver managed to find out the truth about the robbery and collect enough evidence to set Michael free although doing so could’ve ruined his life. As a member of the Galanis crime family, Michael may have been forced to kill rival Logan Cooper upon his release. Instead, Eliza worked out a deal with Nikos to free Michael and send Logan to prison.

The episode revealed more about DS Phelps and his rough upbringing as well as Duke’s relationship with Arabella. Finally, Ivy and Mr. Potts are engaged, but it could be a long engagement if Ivy has anything to say about it. Bloodline was a vast improvement over the previous episode before it because it explored some of the personal dramas of the characters.

The episode managed to make DS Phelps not seem so bad after all while finally letting Fitzroy stand up for himself so there was plenty of character development and growth. The investigation and reasoning behind Michael’s imprisonment were also good. The only issue is that the pace was a bit slow at times, but that is to be expected from such detective dramas. The episode scores a 7 out of 10. Recaps of Miss Scarlet and the Duke are available on Reel Mockery here.

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