A Debt Of Honour – As the episode opens, Sylvia Fox (Emilia Fox) wedges something in between her door and doorframe before locking it. After visiting the market, she meets Isabel Vitale (Tara Fitzgerald) for a drink. Isabel admits to being surprised Sylvia has stayed in Panicale because she moves around a lot. Sylvia claims to have recently done freelance work to pay her bills. Pallbearers carrying a casket emerge from a nearby church. Sylvia and Isabel watch as Anna Ricini (Paola Francesca Frasca) thanks Romana Gori (Francesca Nerozzi) for giving her baby clothes. Raimondo Ballotelli (Marco Quaglia) reluctantly shakes Franco Gori’s (Gabriele Linari). Vittoria Masone (Francesca Romana De Martini) refuses to shake Franco’s hand before slapping him across the face. Raimondo pulls Vittoria away from the crowd. Antonella Vitale (Imma Piro) greets Isabel and Sylvia. She claims Vittoria’s husband, Luigi Masone was deep in gambling debt and committed suicide. Isabel tells Sylvia that Franco is the high school principal. Antonella says Franco and Romana run a gambling addiction charity.

Carabinieri Giovanni Riva (Giovanni Cirfiera) plans to prepare Sylvia a welcome home dinner when he is called away for work. A short time later, he arrives at Cibo Per Tutti in Tavernelle. Brigadier Roberta Barzini (Elena Di Cioccio) informs him of Franco’s murder. The doctor says he suffered a stab wound to the heart. Padre Giuliano and Mara discovered Franco’s body as they arrived to attend a fundraising event. Mara claims to have last seen Franco alive at Luigi’s funeral when a hysterical Romana arrives. Later, Giovanni questions Vittoria about Franco’s murder. She says hopefully he will burn in h*ll. Barzini discovers a mannequin desecrated with “GORI,” written in red, and stabbed through the heart. Elsewhere, Antonella tells Sylvia and Isabel that Giovanni has arrested Vittoria.

Carabinieri Headquarters Perugia – Sylvia is surprised to learn Hamdani resigned from the police force. He apologizes about their dinner plans. She says it was of no fault of his own and asks about Vittoria’s arrest. He tells her about the desecrated mannequin. She doubts Vittoria would kill Franco and leave evidence for the police to find. The murder weapon has been determined to be a Cibo Per Tutti kitchen knife. Vittoria visited the church in Panicale but is unsure of the exact time. Giovanni arrested her because she was noncompliant but there is no evidence to hold her. A short time later, Sylvia and Vittoria are leaving the police station. Vittoria admits to being glad Franco is dead. When Sylvia offers to call her brother, Raimondo, but she refuses because he wouldn’t sell the family business to help Luigi. Vittoria’s dream to design wedding dresses was shattered when Luigi lost his job. She claims Luigi started gambling to supplement his meager pay from the family business. Vittoria blames herself. Sylvia takes Vittoria to Antonella’s house. Antonella urges Sylvia to find Franco’s killer. Sylvia reluctantly agrees.

Perugia – Sylvia tells Raimondo that her employer, Vita Mutuale Insurance Company, has her investigating Luigi’s suicide. Raimondo attributes Luigi’s gambling addiction to his lack of faith and insists he didn’t deserve a church funeral. A short time later at Antica Gelateria, Sylvia tells Raffaella that there is something not right about Raimondo. Raffaella offers to see what she can find out about him.

Panicale – Padre Giuliano claims to have left Vittoria in the church when he left at 6pm to go to Tavernelle. He insists she didn’t kill Franco. Sylvia admires the Perugino’s Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian inside the church. He supports Sylvia’s investigating Franco’s murder and denies anyone has confessed to him. She asks if people who commit suicide are prohibited from having a church funeral. He says the rules are more lax now when Gabriel barges in and informs him that Simona Monaldo’s mother is dying. Gabriel will be a priest next year. Later at Cibo Per Tutti, Sylvia volunteers to help Isabel. She brings up Franco’s death but she refuses to talk about it. Sylvia is serving water to the patrons when Giovanni arrives to speak with Mara. After receiving a call, Allegra tells Isabel that her husband, Luca, is home before leaving. Isabel doesn’t think too highly of Luca. Later, Sylvia visits Romana’s salon to have her hair done. She tells her about volunteering at the Cibo Per Tutti. Romana and Franco have a flat above the salon. Having enough of Sylvia’s questions, Romana orders her to leave. Matteo Vitale (Matteo Carlomagno) gives Sylvia a lift home. She asks him not to tell Isabel about what happened.

Giovanni warns Sylvia against interfering with the investigation. She apologizes and asks if Luigi really took his own life. He says yes. She asks if Romana has an alibi. He says no but there is no evidence of her wanting him dead. Later in disguise, Sylvia pursues Romana from her salon to Santa Marinella. At the police station, Giovanni threatens to charge Mara if she doesn’t tell them what she knows about Franco. Mara claims to have overheard Franco and Gabriel arguing before he was murdered. In Santa Marinella, Sylvia watches Romana leave before scaling a security wall and searching around a villa. Giovanni Riva and Barzini visit Padre Giuliano (Mauro Marino) to speak with Gabriel Amadou (Malich Cisse). Seconds later, Gabriel arrives on a scooter and flees when he sees the police officers. He manages to get away. Meanwhile, Sylvia tries to pick the lock to get inside the residence. She finds a hidden compartment in a desk drawer and a book with “Mastro” on the front cover. The pages contain information about the Panicale Benevolent Society. It means that Luigi Masone is dead and a donation of 50,000 Euros. A donation of 3,000 Euros was made by Mara Silvestre. Sylvia snaps a picture of the pages using her phone.

She puts everything back to avoid drawing suspicion before a woman catches her in the house. Sylvia claims she’s a friend of Romana’s. She offers to call her. The woman tells her she won’t before getting into her personal space. Sylvia breaks a vase before throwing another into the woman’s hands to escape. The woman, Celestina Dati, tries to stop her van outside, but Sylvia manages to drive around her. At home, Sylvia looks through the donations. Next, Sylvia finds Mara Silvestre (Liliana Mele) who says she needs to be busy. Mara reveals she’s been charged with fraud. She explains she’s the treasurer of Cibo Per Tutti and she borrowed money from the account. Sylvia questions whether Franco Gori was blackmailing her. Mara admits she took the money so she could pay him. The police looked at the charity’s accounts because of the murder.

That happened before she could pay it back. Mara worries everyone will find out why she did it. Sylvia says she can plead guilty so there won’t be a trial. Mara says Rosa is 17 and a good student. She got pregnant last year and had already broken up with the boy before she found out. Gori found out and used it against Mara. He wanted her to give a donation to his special charity. Mara insists she didn’t kill Gori. Sylvia wants her to tell Capitano Riva. Mara has an alibi so Sylvia thinks she’s in the clear. Mara still doesn’t want to speak to Riva though. She worries she’s said too much and already got someone into trouble. Gabriel drives to the ruins. Riva tells Sylvia that Mara called him. They talk about Gabriel. Ravi says Gabriel made himself look more guilty. Sylvia argues they need a list of Gori’s victims. He suspects she has a list, but Sylvia says she’s not interfering.

Sylvia visits Padre Giuliano. Romana learns the authorities are at her residence with a search warrant. Padre Giuliano asks Sylvia to find Gabriel. He needs to speak to him before the carabinieri find him. Sylvia asks if he has any idea where Gabriel might’ve gone. The carabinieri do not find anything upstairs. Roberta Barzini looks through the desk nearby. She finds the book of donations although Romana claims she’s never seen it. A woman, Celestina Dati, sees the police leave. Romana is questioned at the police station. She says Franco was a good man who helped a lot of people, but she didn’t know everything about his business. Sylvia tries to find Gabriel. Isabel tells Sylvia that Mara just visited her. Sylvia says everyone except Vittoria was sure Franco Gori was a saint. That always makes her suspicious. Gori was blackmailing a lot of people and all of them will be suspects.

Isabel tells her she doesn’t have to keep looking for the killer. Panicale will be a better place without Gori. Sylvia wants to know the truth. Later, she calls Giovanni to say she’s in Perugia now. Sylvia visits Raffaella Tasso (Marianne Leoni) to ask for a drone. She is impressed with Raffaella’s workshop. Next, Sylvia speaks to Giovanni Riva who says Romana claims to know nothing about the blackmail. Riva believes she’s lying although he can’t prove it. No one on the ledger is willing to talk. Riva urges her to let them handle Gabriel. Sylvia drives to the ruins and confirms Gabriel was there. She uses a drone to search for him. Sylvia spots his bike and decides to check it out. Gabriel tries to run from her. Once she catches him, Gabriel denies killing Gori. He ran from the police because he thought they’d come to arrest him for the murder.

Sylvia asks about the fight he had with Gori before he died. Gabriel says there’s a woman. Gori threatened to get him thrown out of the church if he didn’t pay. He was with his friend, but he can’t use her as an alibi because she’s married. Gabriel confirms it’s Allegra. He thinks Padre Giuliano suspects. Sylvia wants Gabriel to come back to Panicale with her. She was hoping Gabriel would know something important about the murder. Gabriel says Padre Giuliano told the police that Vittoria Masone couldn’t have killed Gori because he left her in the church in Panicale at six. Gabriel saw him in Tavernelle at least ten minutes before six. Vittoria would’ve had time to kill Gori. Gabriel wouldn’t want Vittoria to go to prison for killing that monster. He returns to Padre with Sylvia. Allegra Fantoni (Marie Colosimo Sakamoto) is there as well.

She told Padre everything. Sylvia confronts Vittoria to ask if Giro was blackmailing her husband. Vittoria reveals he gave him a loan to pay off Luigi’s debts. Luigi used it to bet again. Gori gave him another loan and another. The interest was 50%. Gori told them to sell their house. He told her she’d still have to pay even though Luigi was dead. Vittoria admits she was going to kill him and she had planned, but someone got to it before she did. Vittoria is late for work for Raimondo and she has to get paid. Sylvia calls Rafaella to see if she found anything about Raimondo Ballotelli. Rafaella says his accounts are interesting. Sylvia asks her to look into Gori’s finances. She finds Ballotelli next. He threatens to call the police on her. Sylvia tells him that an audit showed he made a good profit last year. The business is doing better than he realizes.

The dividends he pays Vittoria are lower than they should be. Sylvia urges her to pay Vittoria what she’s owed for the last ten years. Once she steps outside, Sylvia receives a call from Rafaella who says Franco Gori was born in Milan. He has a sister and no other living relatives. Romana was born Romana Dati in 1983 in Santa Marinella. Her mother, Celestina Dati, lives in Santa Marinella and owns a bar on the Via Longhena. It turned over half a million euros last year. Sylvia goes to the bar where she’s confronted by the woman she thought was a housekeeper. Celestina Dati (Alessandra Borgia) ends up chasing her out of the bar. Sylvia avoids her. She calls Giovanni to say she believes she knows how the Gori family has been laundering their money. He is told about Celestina’s bar.

Celestina is arrested seconds later. Romana hasn’t been found. Sylvia goes to Isabel to ask if Antonella will forgive her if she doesn’t find Gori’s killer. She doesn’t think Romana killed her husband. Isabel suspects Sylvia knows and wishes she didn’t. Isabel believes Antonella will forgive her. Later, Sylvia speaks to Padre at the church about there being more than one type of martyrdom. Padre admits he won’t receive absolution because he doesn’t repent. Sylvia believes Vittoria told him she was going to kill Gori. He couldn’t talk her out of it so he killed Gori himself. Padre claims Franco Gori was the only evil man he ever met. He spoke to some of Gori’s victims but they would not go to the police. Sylvia tells him that Gabriel thought Padre lied to give Vittoria an alibi. Padre says it was one last thing he could do for a member of his flock since he’s dying.

She won’t do anything unless someone else is charged with the murder. Padre was going to give Matteo a letter to be opened after his death. He wants to give it to Sylvia to pass to the Capitano in case anyone else is accused. Sylvia visits Antonella, Matteo, and the others. Isabel says Vittoria got the money for her bridal business. They want Sylvia to be the first customer. Antonella says the Capitano has waited long enough. He arrives seconds later and gets a drink.

 

Signora Volpe Review

Series two of Signora Volpe started with a decent episode that was well made. The episodes are clearly too long considering how little the episode achieved in the end, but that’s a common issue with any series like this. Emilia Fox remains superb in the role of Sylvia Fox and the scenery is great.

The basics are very strong from the camerawork to the lightning and so on. On the other hand, the episode could’ve improved a lot by being a little less corny. The Raffaella character simplifies everything too much leaving a believability problem. For instance, Raffaella did so much although none of it was ever shown.

She provided a drone, obtained accounts, and so on. Not to mention, her operations were hidden in a café. Truthfully, the series could’ve done without such a silly addition. Furthermore, the ending didn’t really achieve anything. Sylvia disclosed the killer but it went nowhere and he just happened to be dying anyway.

Recently, these detective dramas have been justifying the killers and failing to see justice done. While that’s understandable here, it’s becoming too common and cliché at this point. The potential of a relationship with Sylvia and Giovanni doesn’t really work considering the characters have no chemistry.

If the episode had been 40 minutes, it would’ve been far better and much easier to overlook some of these issues. Nevertheless, the episode was worth watching for its charm, Fox’s charisma, and the beautiful scenery. The episode scores a 5.5 out of 10.

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