Every season, GBH Drama prepares to bring you coverage of the latest and greatest in British dramas. This month, we're getting a brand new show from MASTERPIECE: Magpie Murders. Featuring a mystery within a mystery and some truly delightful acting, this series is sure to be your new favorite whodunit. GBH Drama contributor Amanda-Rae Prescott is here to recap the magic as it happens.
This week on Magpie Murders, Saxby-On-Avon residents attend Sir Magnus Pye’s funeral while in the real world, everyone gathers for Alan Conway’s funeral. Both Susan and Pünd believe someone at the funeral may be the killer. What new details do we find out?
Nice Alan Conway??!?!
Before the credits roll, we see Alan bumping into Kate, Susan’s sister. He thanks her for introducing him to Susan and there’s some benign chit-chat. Previous flashbacks have shown Alan to be much meaner and more stressed out. He seems normal here, which is really weird. He offers to pay for coffee and they talk about how much Alan hated teaching and other matters. This is clearly a clue, but what is it in reference to?
Sir Magnus’ Funeral
Pünd is slow to get ready to start the day. He hasn’t slept and he has a headache. Pünd ends up fainting instead of eating breakfast with James. The village physician Dr. Kemal figures out that Pünd has a tumor before he can even say anything. While Pünd gets looked over by Dr. Kemal, he asks about Dr. Kemal’s thoughts on examining Mary Blakiston’s body. Dr. Kemal believes she tripped on the vacuum cords and does not suspect foul play. Once again Mary is described as a busybody. Dr. Kemal also confirms that the gardener let him in through the back door because he noticed Mary didn’t answer the phone. Dr. Kemal says there’s nothing he can really do for Pünd’s symptoms. James is still unaware of what’s really going on. Just as Pünd and James are ready to leave the doctor’s office, Joy tells both of them to meet her back at the garage as she and Robert want to reveal more details about Robert’s younger brother. Pünd tells Joy he already saw Sam’s gravestone but did not know the full details.
At the church we see the vicar ask Clarissa if she would have wanted Sir Magnus to die to stop the Dingle Dell development. She scoffs that this isn’t the time to discuss the dispute. Lady Pye and her son, in one of the pews, don’t appear very grief-stricken. The funeral rituals are interspersed with the modern-day version of the funeral rites for Alan. At the end of the service, the vicar mentions that there will be a reception at Pye Hall to follow.
Inspector Chubb catches a ride with Pünd and James to the reception. He admits he’s not making much progress on the case. Chubb does share that the piece of paper with blood on it from the fireplace had no fingerprint but whoever left it is the same blood type as Sir Magnus. The sheet of paper clearly has information someone wanted to hide. The reception is filled with polite chit chat but the more important information is obtained from the detectives’ meeting with Robert and Joy.
Robert’s little brother Sam died in 1943. Robert asks Pünd where he was at that point, since this was the middle of World War II and he’s German. Pünd says he was in a prison camp because he was too loud about criticizing the Nazi regime. Robert then feels more comfortable talking about what happened after his dad joined the RAF. The Blakiston's moved into a cottage on the Pye property. Robert grew close to Sir Magnus, since many people were away fighting. The gardener wasn’t too happy about this. After one of the hunts, the brothers got separated. Sam was convinced a coin was in the bulrushes by the lake, and ended up drowning. Brett the gardener found Sam’s body. Robert tells Pünd he blames everyone, including himself, for the accident. At the end of the funeral it’s clear that Pünd and James have a bit more work to do to establish a motive for Sir Magnus’ murder and to also possibly connect Mary’s death and Robert’s accident.
Alan Conway’s Funeral
Susan’s journey to the funeral starts with telling the incoming board that she still hasn’t decided if she wants to be CEO. The pressure is on, as the press is already circling, and the missing chapter still hasn’t surfaced. On the way to Suffolk, Susan and her boss discuss possibly getting a ghostwriter to finish the novel.
During the service, Susan sees Pünd lurking in the distance during the ceremony. This time, James is the one to offer a reception right after the funeral service. Scenes from the manuscript are blended in. At the reception, Sajid Khan asks Susan if he’s in the book, and she tells him he is the village doctor. We finally meet Alan’s ex-wife Melissa and their son Freddie. Freddie tells Susan that Alan’s coming out ruined his life. Kids mercilessly bullied him, which is clearly why Freddie keyed Alan’s car. He questions if Alan was pushed off the roof. Melissa admits that the Pünd novels were her idea after Alan’s previous literary fiction novels failed. Alan was not happy about achieving fame through these formulaic mystery novels; he wanted to be the next Salman Rushdie. Melissa also reveals that she used to date Andreas before she met Alan. Susan lies to her about how well she knows Andreas, because it’s always awkward to talk to your partner’s ex.
James’ toast at the reception highlights how, despite everything, he was quite fond of Alan and that he’s selling the house to the neighbor Jack White. He’s in no mood to exchange pleasantries with everyone so he tells them all to leave. Susan finally introduces herself to White, and he shares that Alan fought with him over anything and everything about the property line. He’s mostly interested in buying so that he can sell or sublet to nicer people.
A Change Of Heart
Susan suddenly decides to make the turn to go see her Dad in the hospital. He’s still alive but he is on life support. He apologizes for leaving her and Kate with the nanny but he says he can’t forgive Susan for not talking to him because he had a good second marriage. Her dad then claims it’s his fault that Susan is childless and unmarried. Susan is angered by his continued insensitivity and selfishness and regrets coming to see him. She leaves without gaining any real closure.
Outside the hospital, Susan sees Pünd while she smokes. Susan admits she blames her dad for how her Mom died. We find out her mother died after a random trip to the Lake District. She drowned, but Susan never believed it was accidental. Pünd listens to Susan but it’s clear he already knew all of those details. After Susan’s inability to get a proper apology from her dad, she drives to Katie’s home. Susan begins to figure out that the pregnant Ms. Darney's name is an anagram of Ryeland (Susan’s last name). Obviously, that time Alan bumped into Kate, he managed to get a lot of personal information out of her. Kate doesn’t remember telling Alan the details about their mother but it is clear Alan mined all of that material for the manuscript. We should have known “nice Alan” wasn’t going to last long!
Just as Susan is settling into bed she gets an email from a source. Inside the email is a picture that appears to be someone choking Alan at the top of the tower. Was that person at the funeral? What was their motive? We’ll just have to watch next week on Magpie Murders.
