The Offer – As this episode of Whitstable Pearl begins, someone drags a bag along the street. Someone rings the doorbell and leaves before Molly (Bobby Rainsbury) can answer it. She panics when she sees a dead animal below her. After the intro, Kat Bergman (Emily Head) talks to Pearl Nolan (Kerry Godliman) about sharks at the pub while they participate in trivia night. Tom Grant (Robert Webb) manages to get one of the questions right about fencing referees since he is a fencer. DCI Mike McGuire (Howard Charles) goes for drinks and watches Pearl and Tom laugh from the bar. Later, Dolly (Frances Barber) thinks Pearl is lying when she says Kat is very nice. Dolly proves her point by showing Pearl how Ruby (Isobelle Molloy) and Charlie (Rohan Nedd) fight all the time and pretend not to.

Pearl tells her mom to drop it because it is over between her and Mike before Molly enters. Dolly reveals she is public enemy number one since she is going to sell her mom’s pub and put it on the open market. Pearl takes Molly into her office where she learns that she has been receiving messages. Initially, Pearl doesn’t want to help so Molly explains that the notes are starting to get more threatening. Molly tells her about the dead seagull that was left on her doorstep. Although a few people are upset, it is mostly the Save The Dolphin Pub action group. Molly goes on to say they’re the Doodys and own the bookshop. When they visited her mom near the end, they all agreed they’d sell the pub back to the town. Since the property market has gone mad, Molly thinks it is best to put the pub on the open market.

She believes her mother would understand because this is her future and she’d finally be able to move on. Molly shows her a large stack of notes and admits she hasn’t talked to the police about it. The estate agent is bringing in the prospective buyers today for best and final offers. Pearl agrees to come since whoever is doing this might be there. Dolly doesn’t like hearing that Pearl has agreed to work with her. Pearl argues with her about it before meeting with Molly at The Dolphin. She sees the action group members before being introduced to Lauren (Hannah Rae) who thinks they’ll have offers by the end of the day depending on how far they push people. Elliot Lloyd (Alexander Cobb) hopes they don’t push too far since he needs to see some profit. He tells them how they buy an old boot, break it up, and turn it into lots of little glass slippers. Elliot tells Molly that this will be a landmark development with stunning apartments, a gym, an owner’s lounge, and more.

The protestors complain that they’re wiping away every last crumb of Old Whitstable. Tony (Dominic Coleman) is told that Elliot doesn’t care. Elliot thinks he can get the planning committee on his side, but he doesn’t think that’ll be difficult. Freya (Juliet Aubrey) questions if it is all about money. Elliot admits it is and he isn’t going to lie about it. Lauren reminds Freya that the community can still raise its offer. As they step away, Freya and Tony learn that Pearl is there with Molly. They deny sending threatening letters to Molly although Tony wishes he’d thought of it. Pearl says hello to Winnie Sparks (June Watson) who is usually there. Winnie says she is there to show her support since they’d do anything to save the pub. Then, Pearl talks to Sammy Grady (Ben Bishop) about putting in an offer. He has to take a call. Lauren confirms all offers are now in. Elliot soon learns that the pub will be his.

Pearl notices that Sammy is arguing with someone on the phone outside. In the morning, Elliot’s body is found down by the water. Dolly tells Pearl who it is. Pearl learns from Mike that they’re not ruling out murder. She tells him about Elliot and how he was buying the Dolphin pub. DS Nikki Martel (Sophia Del Pizzo) tells her that Elliot had a head wound, a broken leg, and likely even more injuries. His phone hasn’t been found, but his wallet was located. They believe he has only been dead for a few hours. Pearl thinks Mike needs her around because she knows all the possible murder suspects. In private, Pearl shows Mike the messages and insists this had to be about the clip. She goes on to tell him why she’d start by talking to the Doody couple and Sammy. Pearl also tells him about the unique current formation of the stream where Elliot was found. Mike isn’t eager to take her assistance. She tells him that she’ll meet him at the Doody’s place in an hour.

Freya tells them that Molly has blood on her hands because none of this would’ve happened if she hadn’t sold the pub. She claims she is sad and not angry, but insists she didn’t kill him. She tells them that they had a book group there last night and had been reading Stephen King’s It. Then, they did a stock-take into the night. When asked about the CCTV cameras, Freya claims they’re not working at the moment. Pearl finds out that they’ve written reviews of all the recent releases and it was Tony’s idea. Freya steps away when a customer enters the bookshop. Pearl steals the evidence even though Mike tells her she can’t do that. Nikki tells Mike that Elliot was out celebrating late and the owners at The Hotel Continental had to ask him to leave the bar. They have video of him stumbling out at 1:05 AM. He headed toward Tankerton where he was staying before they lose him.

Pearl visits Lauren to tell her about Elliot’s murder. Lauren claims she had never met Elliot before. She takes a call from her father and ends it quickly. Lauren tells Pearl that Elliot was based in London and buys properties in tourist towns. The second-highest bidder was Sammy Grady. Lauren agrees to give her Sammy’s mobile number even though she shouldn’t. Molly enters to see if Lauren has heard about Elliot. She is eager to know what is going to happen with the sale. As Pearl leaves, she runs into Kat and Mike because they’re finally getting their own place. Later, Pearl calls Sammy to leave a message asking him to call her back. Dolly learns that she is going to have a night in with Tom. She tells her that she is happy for her. She reveals she found out that Sammy works at The Neptune. Pearl calls Tom to get him to meet her at The Neptune instead. Once she gets there, Tom offers to cook for her twice a week since she works so hard.

Pearl is distracted because she is too caught up in the investigation. She talks to the host and discovers that Sammy called in sick. The worker thought it might be the breakfast at The Bramford so Pearl knows where Sammy is staying. Later, Pearl meets with Mike in front of the Bramford and tells him he’d have to be pretty desperate or broke to stay there. Once they go inside, they are told that Sammy is staying in room 510. He tells them that he has been working double shifts at the pub and his money is borrowed. He denies killing Elliot before his wife Bella (Cordelia Bugeja) enters with their daughter. Sammy claims he went back to work after he left the Dolphin and was back by 12:30. When Pearl asks who he was arguing with on the phone, Sammy admits it was Bella because they couldn’t agree on how much to offer. Pearl notices the pills on the bed so Bella says they’re for her bad back.

As they leave, Pearl tells Mike they need to check the CCTV. The pills are amitriptyline and they knock you out at night. If Bella was on those painkillers, she wouldn’t have known whether Sammy was home or not. When they check the camera footage, they see that Sammy didn’t come home when he said he did. This time, he tells them he went for a walk because he had been arguing with Bella about losing the club. Mike wants him to stay in town until they get this sorted out. Mike tells Pearl and Nikki that Sammy had time to kill Elliot. He suggests they just ran into each other and it kicked off. Elliot was texting a lot that night and the burner phone still hasn’t been found. Pearl reveals she stole some notes from Sammy and Bella’s room. When Mike takes a call, Pearl and Nikki laugh at the fact that he is laughing.

CCTV video shows that Sammy went straight back to his motel so that leaves them with nothing. Pearl visits Lauren and finds out that she and Molly have keys to the Dolphin. Pearl is interested because CCTV footage showed the light in the pub come on just after 1:30 in the morning. Once Lauren denies that it was her, Pearl asks if she can borrow her key since she wants to make sure everything is okay. Pearl goes to the pub to look around before calling Mike. She hangs up abruptly without saying anything when a panel of glass is broken behind her. It turns out to be Molly who explains she has lost her keys. She also lost the deeds to the property. Pearl wonders who has been playing darts there. Molly says it was the Doody couple. The next day, Pearl and Mike visit Tony and Freya to ask them about Molly’s key.

Freya insists it wasn’t stealing before explaining everyone in the Save the Dolphin action group was sworn to secrecy. She says they just wanted to give everyone a chance to come back to the club to meet up, play cards, and hang out. About eight of them met around 1:30 AM. Winnie kept score while they played darts. Outside, Pearl gets permission to speak to Winnie first as long as she records the conversation. Winnie confesses to leaving the notes because she had to do something, but she didn’t kill Elliot. Winnie says she’d need a truck to kill him. She insists that this is about saving something that helped them get through tough times. She thinks the place might’ve saved lives. Pearl meets with Mike to say she thinks the notes are a massive distraction and the people who wrote them didn’t kill Elliot. Nikki gets a call confirming Elliot had a lot of alcohol in his system.

No water was found in his lungs so he was dead before he went in. He had major trauma to the head, fractured skull, six cracked ribs, and internal bleeding. It wasn’t a simple fight and instead something likely hit him. Pearl finds that odd since it is almost identical to what Winnie said. When Pearl returns Lauren’s keys, she causes her to miss the bus. She goes inside with her and asks if the sale is on hold now that all the buyers are suspects. Pearl asks questions about her heels and her vehicle which is supposedly in for service. Lauren claims she came back to her office around one while Elliot kept drinking. Pearl wonders if she driving when she was so tired she couldn’t see. Lauren admits that she shouldn’t keep her eyes open and the noise was awful.

When she got out, she saw a heap in the road. Since his eyes were open, she tried to get him to wake up. She didn’t call the police or an ambulance and her dad was the very last person she could’ve called. Instead, she just put Elliot’s body in the car and drove to the beach where she dropped off his body. As Lauren is taken away in a police car, Pearl tells Mike that it is terrible since she was trying to keep it together and make her dad proud. Mike admits that she solved the case again before agreeing that they make a good team. At the pub, Pearl learns that Charlie and Ruby are happier because they were treated to a marriage guidance session thanks to Dolly. When Mike enters, Dolly says he needs his head examined because he moved in with one woman and can’t stay away from another.

Mike reveals none of the homes feel like home so they haven’t found a suitable place yet. Molly comes to ask who she should sell the pub to since the second and third offers are so much lower than Elliot’s offer. Pearl suggests selling it to both of them. Sammy can manage the kitchen and his family can live upstairs. Then, the community group can manage the pub. Molly doesn’t think that’ll ever work. Dolly offers her a drink so she can sort it out. Tom comes in with tentacles and gives Pearl a kiss. Mike gets up and leaves.

 

Whitstable Pearl Review

This episode of Whitstable Pearl was a bit messy although the ending was effective and somewhat different. It had a good twist and a sympathetic murderer which isn’t always the case in other crime dramas. The relationship triangle between the main characters isn’t great though since this cliché has been used so much recently.

It is hard to say how good it’ll be if Pearl and Mike get back together since they’re going to impact other people this time around. Personally, I’d prefer to see the characters remain friends but I doubt that’ll happen. The scenery and drone footage were great in this episode and really showcased the natural beauty of the setting.

Whitstable Pearl’s second season has been okay making it a great binge even if it isn’t more than cookie-cutter police drama. This episode followed that trend, but the suspect choice was a better choice than previous episodes. It scores a 6.5 out of 10. Recaps of Whitstable Pearl are available on Reel Mockery here. Have you found our recaps and news beneficial? Consider supporting our independent website. Find out how to do so here.