This episode of Moonflower Murders begins eight years prior. Cecily (Amy Griffiths) frantically searches for her father’s pen. Aiden (Will Tudor) tells her to calm down. He hopes she isn’t having second thoughts. Aiden wants to have a quiet drink together. Cecily thinks her dad should’ve closed the hotel for the wedding. They continue talking until Frank Parris (Mark Gatiss) interrupts. Frank gives him a card that is no longer working. He tells them he’s going out since there’s an opera at Snape Malting. The Marriage of Figaro is one of his favorites. Once he leaves, Cecily says Frank is wasting his time because the play is not on. After the intro, Susan Ryeland (Lesley Manville) visits Craig Andrews (Daniel Lapaine). She brought flowers for Louise only to learn Craig is no longer with her.

Susan insists she doesn’t feel uncomfortable staying there. They go outside and talk about the breakdown of Craig’s relationship. Susan tells him she has an interview with Parker Chance today. Craig invites her for supper at the bistro to catch up on things. He confirms he managed to track down Stefan Leonida who is being held in HMP Weystone in Norfolk. Craig explains how he can get her into the prison. Stefan (Alec Secareanu) will have to agree to meet her. Andreas Patakis (Alexandros Logothetis) tells Yannis (Vasilis Xenikakis) that he is thinking about selling the motel to him. He wants Yannis to find the money to buy his share. Andreas admits he’d be miserable without Susan. He’s going to England to ask Susan to return. If she refuses, he’s going to stay with her. Susan meets Nathan Parker (Olivier Huband).

They talk about the motel and what happened. Susan says it was horrible. She misses publishing and knows they’re looking for a senior editor. Nathan admits he feels awkward interviewing her because she gave him his first job in publishing. He’d love to have her, but he’ll have to speak to his partners. Nathan reminds her that she doesn’t have social media so she might be out of touch. Susan knows things have changed, but she doesn’t think social media sells books. Nathan reveals they’re publishing a crime novel by Lucy Foley. Susan doesn’t like the image on the cover because it’s crass and clichéd. When Nathan admits it was his idea, Susan still doesn’t think it’s a good one. Susan leaves moments later. Next, Susan meets with James Taylor (Matthew Beard). James knows he shouldn’t be drinking so early because Richard will be mad at him.

They’re thinking about getting married. James says Alan Conway did well for him. He got two million for the house. They agree it’s still difficult to believe Alan was murdered. Susan tells him about Cecily’s case. James knew Alan and Frank Parris. He reveals that Frank took him to bed multiple times and he liked to have all the control. Frank introduced him to Alan before Alan came out. Frank was a sort of mentor to Alan and he encouraged him to explore his sexuality. James explains he was part of Alan’s therapy. He liked Alan when he met him, but he became a monster when his book sales exploded. In a flashback, Frank talks to Alan Conway (Conleth Hill) about his sexuality. Alan says he works at the school. Frank reminds him that there are many gay teachers. Frank tells James he’s a commodity and he should look after his friend.

James tells Susan that was the last time he saw Frank. Alan became a regular client before they became an item. Alan eventually came out of the closet and no one cared. James never met Frank’s friend Leo. Alan met Leo and said he was much sexier than James. James has a feeling Leo was Australian because Alan once made a joke about Leo just getting back from Melbourne. Alan’s third book was dedicated to Frank and Leo. James suggests Leo died because AIDs was still a big issue. Leo disappeared from the scene though. James gives Susan the notes Alan made when he was writing Atticus Pund Takes The Case. He also has the interviews Alan did when he visited the motel. They’re on memory sticks. Later, Susan looks through the evidence and reads about Liam Corby (Wade Briggs). Susan begins listening to the interviews.

Alan speaks to Lawrence Treherne (Adrian Rawlins) and introduces himself. Alan explains he writes detective stories and he was a close friend of Frank Parris. Susan switches to Cecily’s interview. Alan tells Cecily that Frank was a very good friend. He didn’t know Frank was coming back from Australia. It was sad to hear about the collapse of his business because he was so generous. Cecily asks if he had a habit of making things up. First, Frank said his key wasn’t working. It was fine. Second, he told everyone he was going to the opera but it was nonsense. The play wasn’t actually on. Alan asks about Stefan Leonida. Cecily reveals he’s on remand with his trial coming up in a few months. She thinks everything is irrelevant since Stefan gave a confession. Her father was running a program so Stefan wasn’t the only young offender in the motel.

Aiden joins them. Alan says they’ve met. Aiden tells him he knows what he writes. He doesn’t think the motel needs any more publicity. When Alan is alone, he begins writing about Algernon Marsh who has no decency.

Seeing Algernon holding Clarissa Marsh’s will, Collins scolds him for going through his desk. Algernon claims to have found it while looking for the bus schedule. Collins says Clarissa left Samantha 980,000 pounds. Collins reminds him that Clarissa was his aunt as well. Collins claims knew he was trying to sell her worthless shares. Algernon threatens to tell Samantha what Melissa said about Collins if he doesn’t convince her to split the inheritance with him. He says the church is as good a place as any to speak with her before leaving. Collins returns the will to his desk and slams the drawer shut.

Susan says after Conway met Aiden, Lawrence, Derek, Derek’s mother, and Cecily eight years ago at Branlow Hall, he turned them into caricatures. Craig orders more wine. She believes Conway knew Frank Parris’ murderer. He suggests the killer was Stefan. She argues that if it was Stefan, the case would have easily been solved and Alan wouldn’t have been drawn to it. He urges her to delay her return to Suffolk. She stresses the need to see Katie. While walking home, Susan admits to partially envying Katie because she has a family of her own and a sensible job. A short time later, Craig asks Susan if she has plans to return to Crete. She says no. He vows to switch to Parker Chance if they hire her. He reaches over to kiss her. Shocked, she pulls away and reminds him that she and Andreas are still together. He touches her leg. She pushes his hand away and assures him that she still enjoys Andreas. He accuses her of leading him on. She denies the allegations. He tries to kiss her again. Grabbing her bags, she races out the door and hails a taxi. At the hotel, she is booking a room when she realizes her phone is missing. Upon entering her room, she throws her bags on the bed and drops down next to them. The next morning, Susan reads from chapter 11 “Darkness Falls.”

Pund boasts of his many benefits as a PI over dinner. Madeline promises to send the bill to Melissa’s former American agent, Mr. Schultz. Pund says Schultz hired him. Chubb says the case is a puzzle and he is glad to have Pund there to help. Pund disagrees before explaining his theory. He says seven people wanted to kill Melissa. Madeline adds that Melissa was onto Maureen Gardner and Lance stealing from the hotel. Phyllis, Eric, Algernon, and Oscar Berlin, who was irate when Melissa declined to take a role in his movie, wanted her dead. Chubb insists the murderer is John Spencer. Pund questions if Melissa knew about Spencer’s affair. They discuss the details of what led up to her murder. Madeline says hopefully the killer hangs. Chubb informs her that judges rarely sentence criminals to death. Pund doesn’t support the death penalty, unlike Chubb and Madeline. Chubb hands Pund a newspaper clipping about a hit-and-run that severely injured an opera singer, Henry Dickson. He says the “Marriage of Figaro” show was canceled which proves Spencer lied about being there.

Susan doesn’t get it. She can’t understand what is so important about The Marriage of Figaro. Pund asks if she doesn’t like operas. Susan admits she doesn’t understand them. As for Atticus, he often went to the Vienna State Opera House before it was destroyed in the war. Susan doesn’t think she should’ve come to England. She believes she’s blown her one chance of returning to publishing. Pund suggests she’s one step closer to discovering the truth. Susan wonders why Frank went to the hotel and lied about so many things. John did the same in the book. Susan asks where he went if he didn’t go to the opera. Andreas gets ready to leave Crete. He tries calling Susan. Craig finds her phone on the couch and answers it. Craig tells him Susan was there last night but she left her phone. Susan drives to Katie’s house and notices it has a sale sign out front. She decides to stop and speak to her.

Chubb (Daniel Mays), Atticus Pund (Tim McMullan), and Madeline Cain (Pippa Bennett-Warner) visit Spencer. Chubb tells John (Rupert Evans) that they’re about to make an arrest. Pund asks Spencer if he was affair his wife was having an affair. Eric Chandler (Thomas Coombes) and Phyllis Chandler (Joanna Bacon) listen to their conversation. Phyllis believes they are there about Eric. Chubb tells John about the letter. The letter, which was written by Melissa, says she cannot go on living this lie. John claims not to know who she wrote the letter for. Chubb says the opera was canceled on the night in question so John couldn’t have been there. John admits he was there. He drove as far as the village, but he was in no mood for the opera. When he came back, he had a terrible argument with his wife who said she was leaving him.

John admits he strangled her in the bedroom. He asks if he can go upstairs to get his shoes and a jacket before going to the station. Atticus doesn’t seem to mind. Chubb says they’ll wait for him downstairs. John says he couldn’t have lived with this for any longer. Cain questions whether it’s smart for John to go up alone. Atticus says there’s so much that isn’t right about the argument. He wonders why Melissa didn’t lock the door or leave the house. Chubb believes they have enough. They see someone outside. Chubb and Atticus run outside to see who it is. Chubb tells the officers outside that there is an intruder. Cain begins screaming. They run over and find out that John has been stabbed.

 

Moonflower Murders Review

The fourth episode of Moonflower Murders once again proved that the series is at least three episodes too long. The writing has deteriorated a lot since the beginning of the season. For starters, the detectives have been turned into imbeciles just to give Madeline Cain some significance. Atticus might as well not even be here anymore.

He stands around looking dumbfounded while Cain gives him clues, answers questions, and always does the right thing. As an example, it was incredibly stupid to allow John to go upstairs alone. The man just confessed to murder so he could flee or harm himself. Chubb was too stupid to say otherwise. Atticus looked around like there was a fly buzzing and he was simultaneously daydreaming.

Of course, Cain was the only one who knew it was a bad idea. Susan’s personal life is tedious and unnecessary. Again, the scenes in the novel are easily the worst part of the series. In the real world, Alan Conway would’ve sold few books because the writing in his novels is dismal. Forcing the performers to differentiate themselves using ungodly awful accents also doesn’t help.

It’s also dumb to think Susan could go without her phone and other items for so long. Surely, she would realize they were missing much sooner. It’s also corny for Craig to answer the phone and allude to a relationship between himself and Susan.

With so many British crime dramas out there, it’d be hard to recommend this one. Everything about it is weaker or just on par with the alternatives. The very thing that sets it apart is the worst thing about it. The episode scores a 4 out of 10.

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