Antagonist klaxon!
Aug. 5th, 2025 07:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessMiss Scarlet and the Duke - 2.4 Angel of Inferno
Eliza did not like the developing relationship between Ivy and Mr ‘Barnabas’ Potts. Mr P didn’t much like her either, but pointed out that a chap she’d half noticed was following her. Turned out that he worked for Nash, who introduced himself eventually to Eliza as the man in charge of a big, well-established PI firm that had been expecting ‘the lady detective’ to fail for months. But she hadn’t, and she was getting some of his clients because she was cheaper and gaining a reputation for being better than people thought.
He offered her a job. She refused – dude, she likes being her own boss! – citing his operation’s reputation for blackmail and the like. He said he’d be competing with her on her current case then, which he’d previously turned down, and he played dirty, getting her arrested for pickpocketing, only it was a reverse job, one night.
The case of the week involved one Doctor Flint, who was hawking an elixir and had received a blackmail note saying that one of his elixirs had been poisoned and this would keep happening if he didn’t pay up. As he was a skinflint, that was never going to happen.
Eliza tried investigating the poison (the angel of inferno) angle, which got her to the botanist society, run by a perv (the actor had an excellent voice) whom she outsmarted, until she got outmanoeuvred by Nash, pretending to be a police officer and getting the membership list that Eliza was after. Plain snooping got her suspecting the doctor’s assistant, a man of Indian descent going by the name of Doyle. His father’s name had been on the previous version of the elixir, but it had been removed upon his death and the son was an assistant, not a partner. When Eliza interviewed him, he acknowledged the unfairness of what had happened and revealed that his Indian father had changed his name to Doyle when he came over, but said it wasn’t him.
Another interview with the lecherous botanist gave Eliza another clue.
William was still leading a stressful life. Fitzroy’s father, making his screen debut, was disgusted to find his son singing (Gilbert and Sullivan, I think) away as he carried out admin roles. So unmanly! And not really being a detective. Because the Commissioner gets what the Commissioner wants, the Duke had to put up with his chief reassigning Fitzroy to detective duties, under Phelps, even though he knew that this was more likely to lead to hapless Fitzroy’s death than his making inspector (his father’s wish.) As the father was ready enough to beat his adult son, who had imprinted on William, the later felt twinges of guilt.
When he found out about Eliza’s case, as there was a threat to life, he wanted her to give him her case notes, and settled on a report at least. When she failed to do so by the deadline he’d set (because she was arrested), he was a seemingly oblivious third wheel to a dinner between Ivy and Barnabas, quoting all the nasty things Barnabas had said to him about Eliza (because William was angry with her). Barnabas was trying to pretend he’d never said any such things, or if he had, he now knew better in order to mollify Ivy.
Eliza had got bailed by the reporter guy, Basil Sinclaire, (whose highfaluting accent reminded me of the voiceover guy from ‘My Lady Jane’. Oh, it is he according to IMDb), so long as she let him in on her case. Not that she was getting that far along with said cade, and then William was giving her grief, some of which she deserved. Though his cynicism about the police’s use of Nash despite knowing full well about his company’s methods was disappointing. There had been a second note, and Doyle had actually been poisoned. In a twist, the miserly doctor was greatly distressed at this development, saying that young Doyle was the closest thing he had to family.
William had taken Fitzroy back under his wing after seeing Phelps harrying him to arm himself for a raid where Fitzroy probably would have got shot. He turned out to be rather good at research, and Eliza – making a point about William’s with-holding of praise – was voluble in praising him for it. William did not like Fitzroy’s crush on Eliza.
Eliza reported to Sinclaire that she’d solved the case, thanks to a dodgy typewriter’s key. The motive was Doctor Flint undercutting a hospital for the poor over some land he wanted for a factory. But when she turned up for the big arrest of the lecherous botanist, the reporter was in cahoots with Nash, who confused the botanist – proclaiming his innocence – by revealing he was no more an officer than Eliza was ‘Miss Belfry.’
But wait! Eliza had outsmarted Nash et al, because it had been a set-up, as she revealed to Dr Flint. The real blackmailer was the client doctor’s real doctor, who actually was a member of the botanic club and on the board of the charity. He’d wanted the money to reimburse the charity and give them enough over to help buying some other land. Doyle would be all right, and Doctor Flint said that his name would be back on the elixir and he’d be a partner as his father had been. Doyle immediately tested this by saying that they should donate the land to the hospital. The doc agreed, and said they’d do it in the name of Doyle snr. Aww?
William got a verbal slapdown from his chief for going against orders again.
Eliza got to gloat to Nash – his default setting is ‘smirking moustache’ – who was both impressed and all the more determined to get her to work for him. (All about dominance, that.) Nash had claimed to Eliza that being an Irishman, he knew about prejudice. This in an episode where an Indian man had changed his surname to an Irish one to get on. Lots to unpack there.
Eliza did not like the developing relationship between Ivy and Mr ‘Barnabas’ Potts. Mr P didn’t much like her either, but pointed out that a chap she’d half noticed was following her. Turned out that he worked for Nash, who introduced himself eventually to Eliza as the man in charge of a big, well-established PI firm that had been expecting ‘the lady detective’ to fail for months. But she hadn’t, and she was getting some of his clients because she was cheaper and gaining a reputation for being better than people thought.
He offered her a job. She refused – dude, she likes being her own boss! – citing his operation’s reputation for blackmail and the like. He said he’d be competing with her on her current case then, which he’d previously turned down, and he played dirty, getting her arrested for pickpocketing, only it was a reverse job, one night.
The case of the week involved one Doctor Flint, who was hawking an elixir and had received a blackmail note saying that one of his elixirs had been poisoned and this would keep happening if he didn’t pay up. As he was a skinflint, that was never going to happen.
Eliza tried investigating the poison (the angel of inferno) angle, which got her to the botanist society, run by a perv (the actor had an excellent voice) whom she outsmarted, until she got outmanoeuvred by Nash, pretending to be a police officer and getting the membership list that Eliza was after. Plain snooping got her suspecting the doctor’s assistant, a man of Indian descent going by the name of Doyle. His father’s name had been on the previous version of the elixir, but it had been removed upon his death and the son was an assistant, not a partner. When Eliza interviewed him, he acknowledged the unfairness of what had happened and revealed that his Indian father had changed his name to Doyle when he came over, but said it wasn’t him.
Another interview with the lecherous botanist gave Eliza another clue.
William was still leading a stressful life. Fitzroy’s father, making his screen debut, was disgusted to find his son singing (Gilbert and Sullivan, I think) away as he carried out admin roles. So unmanly! And not really being a detective. Because the Commissioner gets what the Commissioner wants, the Duke had to put up with his chief reassigning Fitzroy to detective duties, under Phelps, even though he knew that this was more likely to lead to hapless Fitzroy’s death than his making inspector (his father’s wish.) As the father was ready enough to beat his adult son, who had imprinted on William, the later felt twinges of guilt.
When he found out about Eliza’s case, as there was a threat to life, he wanted her to give him her case notes, and settled on a report at least. When she failed to do so by the deadline he’d set (because she was arrested), he was a seemingly oblivious third wheel to a dinner between Ivy and Barnabas, quoting all the nasty things Barnabas had said to him about Eliza (because William was angry with her). Barnabas was trying to pretend he’d never said any such things, or if he had, he now knew better in order to mollify Ivy.
Eliza had got bailed by the reporter guy, Basil Sinclaire, (whose highfaluting accent reminded me of the voiceover guy from ‘My Lady Jane’. Oh, it is he according to IMDb), so long as she let him in on her case. Not that she was getting that far along with said cade, and then William was giving her grief, some of which she deserved. Though his cynicism about the police’s use of Nash despite knowing full well about his company’s methods was disappointing. There had been a second note, and Doyle had actually been poisoned. In a twist, the miserly doctor was greatly distressed at this development, saying that young Doyle was the closest thing he had to family.
William had taken Fitzroy back under his wing after seeing Phelps harrying him to arm himself for a raid where Fitzroy probably would have got shot. He turned out to be rather good at research, and Eliza – making a point about William’s with-holding of praise – was voluble in praising him for it. William did not like Fitzroy’s crush on Eliza.
Eliza reported to Sinclaire that she’d solved the case, thanks to a dodgy typewriter’s key. The motive was Doctor Flint undercutting a hospital for the poor over some land he wanted for a factory. But when she turned up for the big arrest of the lecherous botanist, the reporter was in cahoots with Nash, who confused the botanist – proclaiming his innocence – by revealing he was no more an officer than Eliza was ‘Miss Belfry.’
But wait! Eliza had outsmarted Nash et al, because it had been a set-up, as she revealed to Dr Flint. The real blackmailer was the client doctor’s real doctor, who actually was a member of the botanic club and on the board of the charity. He’d wanted the money to reimburse the charity and give them enough over to help buying some other land. Doyle would be all right, and Doctor Flint said that his name would be back on the elixir and he’d be a partner as his father had been. Doyle immediately tested this by saying that they should donate the land to the hospital. The doc agreed, and said they’d do it in the name of Doyle snr. Aww?
William got a verbal slapdown from his chief for going against orders again.
Eliza got to gloat to Nash – his default setting is ‘smirking moustache’ – who was both impressed and all the more determined to get her to work for him. (All about dominance, that.) Nash had claimed to Eliza that being an Irishman, he knew about prejudice. This in an episode where an Indian man had changed his surname to an Irish one to get on. Lots to unpack there.
