As the second episode of Whitstable Pearl begins, we see a man dead in his home. A kitty walks up and begins eating food near the man’s head while police knock at the door. After the intro, Ruby Williams (Isobelle Molloy) serves a couple of guests at Pearl’s restaurant. She encounters a few creeps and tells Pearl Nolan (Kerry Godliman) about them seconds later. Pearl tells them about the Salty Dog and gives them directions. When the night ends, she tells Charlie that she made it up. Ruby apologizes for letting them get to her. When Ruby steps away, Dolly (Frances Barber) questions whether it is a good idea for Ruby to return to work so quickly. Pearl believes it is since Ruby needs a distraction but Dolly suggests it is denial.

Dolly warns her that she could’ve died and that it’ll catch up with her at some point. Meanwhile, investigators scour through the new crime scene while Mike (Howard Charles) and Nikki (Sophia Del Pizzo) watch. Nikki explains they received an anonymous 999 call from someone who thought it was odd that the lights were on. The house is on the market and the owners, Mr. and Mrs. Jackson, are abroad. She tells Mike that he missed Marcus Devlin who is at A&E. She says uniforms found him tied up but he is in a diabetic coma after being force-fed marmalade. Since he is an estate agent, Mike believes there will be a long list of suspects. He soon learns that there was no forced entry and nothing was stolen. Although the house had CCTV cameras, they were shut off. Next, Pearl tells her mother that another client is coming.

Pearl shows her mother the keyring charm that she found at Vinnie’s place and says there is a key for theirs and one for somewhere else. When asked why there was another key at Vinnie’s, Dolly claims it is just a spare in case they get locked out. Jinty arrives at the door and says she is there to see Pearl. Jinty (Su Elliot) shows her a bunch of money in an envelope that was put through the letterbox with no name or anything. Jinty wonders if they should take it to the police. Dolly says no but Pearl isn’t sure since it might be a scam. Dolly recalls someone telling her that Donny Morgan was given a load of money to purchase a fishing boat. Jinty wants Pearl to find out who gave her the money so she can give it back to them or say thank you. Dolly asks Jinty about Sidney who isn’t doing good since his lungs are shot and he can’t breathe well.

At the restaurant, Mike visits Pearl to see how she is doing. Pearl says she is doing fine but she thanks Mike for checking on her. Then, she asks him about Marcus Devlin and suggests he choked on his inflated ego. She knows all about it and Mike says he can’t talk about it since it is an ongoing investigation. Pearl theorizes that it might’ve been a sex game gone wrong but Mike says it is a serious matter. She tells him that Marcus was a Down From London estate agent. Mike says stress led to a heart attack in the ambulance and they’ve put him in a medically induced coma. Pearl thought it was a prank but Mike says it was attempted murder. She recommends talking to the builder named Joseph Conroy since they’ve been flipping houses and pricing out locals for years. Next, Pearl visits Fi Martson (Catherine Bailey) who complains it took her a long time to answer her email.

Fi explains that the recycling bin is always on the left and the main bin on the right. When they arrived on Friday afternoon, they were swapped. Fi believes it was some kind of intimidation tact from a disgruntled local so she wants Pearl to look into it. She wants her to take on the case on a no-win-no-fee basis. Kane Bishop (Victor Oshin) greets Pearl before she leaves. Nikki tells Mike that Devlin has only received visits from his mother and father. Plus, she has been looking into Joseph Conroy who built the house where Devlin was found. He might’ve kept a key and he has won every tender that Devlin put his way. Mike realizes he had the opportunity but they don’t have a motive yet. Devlin just gave a full million pound contract to a new firm in Broadstairs. They agree to talk to him after interviewing Emily Hurst (Clea Martin).

Phone records show that Emily exchanged two phone calls with Marcus last night before the attack. Emily admits it. She explains she was on a viewing and Marcus was showing her a house. They notice that she seems very concerned before asking her about being a student at Canterbury University and working part-time at a takeaway in Tankerton. They don’t understand why she was viewing such an expensive house so she says she is studying interior architecture and gets inspiration by visiting high-end properties. She went to look at the house around 5 and went home. When asked about the volume of calls, she says Marcus likes to show off and especially to young women. Emily says she never met him on other occasions and always feels threatened because she is a woman.

Moments later, Pearl asks Dolly about all of the pensioners in the restaurant including Donny Morgan. Dolly says she put a post on the community Facebook page and learned about others getting anonymous money too. They attempt to figure out who dropped off the money. Edith, Donny, and other locals talk about getting money from an anonymous source. Next, the detectives visit a construction site and talk to Joseph Conroy (Alastair Parker). Nikki has to force a man to turn off a piece of heavy equipment before Conroy calls Devlin a piece of work because he tried to shaft him. Although Nikki says it was a big contract to lose, Conroy claims he has plenty of work and that she shouldn’t worry about him. He claims they’re sniffing up the wrong tree and that he was in the golf club drinking his winnings last night. He tells them to check the CCTV footage there before telling Robbie to return to work.

Seconds later, Kane and Dimitri visit Pearl’s restaurant. Kane is there to pick up her nan. Pearl tells him that Fi is a bit fierce. Pearl asks about his nan’s care home costs since she thinks a stranger is paying for it. Kane says she can’t find out who it is before admitting it is him. He takes her away. Mike tells Nikki they need to speak to Emily again. Dolly tells Pearl that Jinty’s husband has asbestosis and doctors have given him a few months. He used to work for Conroy and likely got exposed to asbestos when tearing down the old factory to build new houses. The detectives find Emily and ask why she didn’t tell them she was in a relationship with Devlin. She says they had no right to look at the emails and pictures on his computer but Mike suggests others. Emily claims she didn’t know it was relevant before admitting their relationship has been going on for a few months.

She claims it was a bit of fun but they soon learn that Marcus paid for her place and her car. Mike asks if he starting to cut back on his generosity and she was trying to scare him. She denies everything and says Marcus was just fine when she left him. Outside, Mike says something isn’t right about this and it is doing his head in. That night, Mike visits Pearl’s restaurant because the petrol station was out of sausage rolls. He eats a stake before talking to Pearl about Dolly taking off and being busier than usual. They discuss Ruby and her condition after everything that has happened. When asked about it, Mike admits he hasn’t made progress on Devlin’s case. She tells him about Fi and the fact that her bins have been messed with. Then, she tells him that someone is going around Whitstable secretly giving away thousands. She claims those who benefited were hurt by the city’s gentrification so Mike wonders if someone is trying to make amends.

Some are linked to Joseph but others aren’t. Mike looks through the evidence and doesn’t think it is a friendly local millionaire. Instead, he believes it is someone playing Robin Hood. He shows her the picture of the robin and says he owns a boat called Marion. He looks at the newspaper with the other papers and notices the girl on the front. When Pearl is asked about her, she confirms it is Conroy’s daughter Emily Hurst. Mike says they spoke to Conroy and he understands why Emily would take her mother’s name. He tells Pearl she has a nice place before admitting he isn’t much of a cook. She asks about his wife and he admits she liked to cook but she died. She agrees to give him the dinner and drinks for free. Mike returns home and looks at pictures of himself with his wife on his phone. In the morning, Pearl works on the computer while Dolly grabs the spare keys without her noticing.

Before Dolly departs, she tells her daughter she is going to the hairdressers. Mike tells Nikki that Conroy won’t like his daughter seeing someone like Devlin. Nikki confirms that Conroy has a solid alibi, but Mike suggests he might’ve got one of the boys to do it. He gets a call from Pearl asking if anything was taken from the Devlin scene and Mike says no. Pearl has been thinking about the Robin Hood theory but Mike doesn’t want to hear about it. Fi spots Pearl outside and asks if she got the email about her friend Abigail’s scratched surfboard. She believes it is a hate campaign and wants Pearl to speed up the investigation. Conroy tells the detectives he found out his daughter was seeing Devlin and it ticked him off. Joseph admits his ex won’t speak to him and Emily won’t either. He will need to stop judging her for living her life if he ever wants her to speak to him again.

He confesses he took it for granted and didn’t spend enough time with the family. He says it is her choice but he is done judging. When they step outside, Mike admits to Nikki that he believes Conroy. He isn’t sure why Conroy would kill in such an intimate way. Although Emily and Devlin were intimate, she doesn’t have a motive. They’re not sure he was intimate with anyone else. Mike wonders if the crime and motive aren’t directly linked. He says they should go back to the scene because he wants to check something. Once they arrive, Mike says there was something Pearl said. Nikki finds it funny that he is taking advice from amateurs now. He wonders if it was a robbery. Mike looks at a picture of the house before the murder and notices that a painting is missing. He calls Pearl and meets up with her moments later to confirm she was right.

On the other hand, it could’ve been sold after the pictures were taken. They visit the gallery that is named Houlihans Hardware. They go inside and talk to Dimitri about the Gregory Wolfe print. Dimitri tells them that it sold for 8,000 pounds. Mike wonders if it was worth stealing. Dimitri says the Jacksons own a lot of art. If it was him, he would steal the 30k Lynn Chadwick Maquette or the 90k Bruno Munari painting. Before he leaves, Mike notices an old picture of Dolly in the back and Pearl admits it is her dad too. His name was Harry but he was also called Flash. When they step outside, they wonder if their cases are linked. Later that night, Pearl notices that Dolly didn’t go to the hairdressers. Charlie agrees to help Ruby or Rubes set the table and it seems their relationship is deepening. Mike visits the restaurant to tell Pearl that they’ve found the Gregory Wolf print.

He says it was found wrapped up at the house. She pours him a drink while he admits they’re getting nowhere on the Devlin case. They chat about Mike nicking alcohol from his mother and Charlie doing the same. Something comes to Pearl. She says it looks like vodka but you won’t know until you drink it. She says it is like the print since it was lost and found wrapped up. She wonders if there have been no reported burglaries because nobody knows anything is missing. They agree that the Wolf print might be a forgery. They take it to Dimitri to make sure it isn’t a forgery. He believes it is legit so Mike asks about the numbers and signature in pencil. Dimitri tries to stop Mike but he erases the signature. It doesn’t remove the signature though. This confirms it is a copy. They leave and visit the property of Pearl’s bin woman. They take their shoes off and join Fi inside.

They check her painting and try to erase the signature. When it stays, they realize it is a copy. She tells them that only the gardeners Yvonne and Magda had the key but they’re coming this week. Tommy Grainger does maintenance and does as well. The last person she mentions is Kane Bishop who does all of the second homers’ floors so he can case them. Kane’s boyfriend knows which prints to take. They agree to follow the couple. They follow them to a van and Mike says they should let it play out. They follow Kane and Dimitri in their van. Nikki calls and tells Mike that Devlin has woken and he told her that he had a hypoglycemic attack. He caught the two guys. Mike tells her to send backup since they’re pursuing them now.

They follow the suspects to the pier and believe they have the prints on a boat somewhere. Mike and Pearl track the two guys and split up. Pearl runs into them and says she only needs to yell. She tells Kane she knows about the prints and everything else. Kane says they come down from London and do what they like. If he stops paying, his nan will get moved to a council home and he doesn’t want that to happen. Kane explains Sid Stevens is doing an honest day’s work for Conroy and it is killing him. Pearl says someone got hurt but Kane says he wasn’t supposed to be there. They tied up Devlin and he started mumbling that he needed sugar. They called the ambulance and stayed with him until they got there. When it arrived, they ran. Mike notices them while Kane says they were trying to do something good.

Dimitri and Kane try to flee and Pearl doesn’t attempt to stop them. Mike arrives and tells them to get off of the boat. That night, Mike meets Pearl and brings her a gift. She invites him in but he says he needs to clear his head. Mike asks her if she was going to let them go. They agree to go out on a date later before Mike leaves and the episode ends.

 

Whitstable Pearl Review

Although Whitstable Pearl has its moments, there are too few and far in between. It is only 45 minutes or so but it feels a lot longer because it isn’t the most interesting show in the world. It seems these episodes don’t have a lot of filler but the pacing is just too slow. I tend to begin losing interest midway through.

It isn’t helping that the characters are generally flat and lack charisma. The episode had a good, slightly emotional moment when Mike was thinking of his wife but that is it. I’ll also say that some of the dialogue is incredibly difficult to understand. The way the show is edited in which the dialogue is just quickly cut off makes the story confusing at times.

I noticed that this happened a few times this episode and I had to guess to figure out what it actually meant. That shouldn’t happen. Overall, the show is okay but a bit below average. The episode scores a 6 out of 10. Previous and future recaps of Whitstable Pearl can be found on Reel Mockery here.