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shallownessMiss Scarlet and the Duke - 3.1 The Vanishing
Striking enough opening, with Mr Potts, Ivy and Eliza posing for mock Victorian prison shots, because Eliza had got into trouble investigating a too complex case. William had to get her out of it, and I was reminded that this show might as well be called Miss Scarlet and the Duke’s Blood Pressure. Eliza took the wrong lesson out of this, and decided to advertise in that hack that’s appeared before’s rag. William had just banned his officers from talking to the press, as they’d tipped off a wanted man in one of his cases by doing so.
The journalist offered Eliza a case instead, with the proviso that he’d be able to publish the details. It was a missing magician, Alonso, who had, seemingly, really vanished while doing a vanishing trick on stage. Eliza headed off to the theatre, met two assistants who were somewhat alike in that they had brown curls and wore the same sort of generic pseudo Victorian’s magician assistant costume, only one was of Chinese descent and the other white. The first had been Alonso’s assistant, and showed Eliza around, the second was the daughter of the other magician in the act, Slevin the Sorcerer.
I clocked that as part of his act Alonso wore a mask and thought ‘That’s significant. How do you know it was him disappearing?’
But whatever, when Alonso’s dead body was found in the Thames, it was also William and the force’s case, and he and Eliza were soon fighting rather than co-operating, leading to Eliza breaking in to the morgue, because Mr Potts was still angry with her, along with Moses, finding a key the heel of Alonso’s boot, breaking into the changing room, finding a safe and a magician’s wand, which Alonso had been supposed to be selling to a somewhat annoying magic shopkeeper. Except he’d never turned up. Eliza started to realise that this was because he was dead, and presumably the killer had been the one on stage.
Of course, her ‘client’ betrayed her, publishing an exaggerated version of what she’d told him, spoiling her access to the theatre and its people even more than William had.
It took her and William pooling what they knew, and examining two ‘magic’ wands to realise that Slavin’s assistant and daughter, who we knew had a hand in building things for her father, and had been friendly with Alonso, needed to be questioned again. She said Alonso had been her mentor, but getting depressed about his impending retirement and drinking too much. Basically it turned out to have been suicide, the assistant had gone on as Alonso, but done the trick that he’d intended to do as his last act before retirement instead of the ordinary version of the act, and confused matters. William decided not to arrest her for perverting the cause of justice, but pointed out to Eliza that there was a lesson in getting too caught up in your line of work in Alonso’s suicide. She had stood him up for dinner for a second time at the start of the episode. She made up for it at the end.
Also, Mr Potts seemed to have got over his hump during the episode to turn up at the Scarlet household for a meal, Ivy was pleased, Eliza less so, though she can’t have been surprised. Fitzroy innocently dobbed in his bully superior officer for carrying on briefing the press for free beer, and got beaten up for it, which led William to take him to Moses (who’d been shirtless in half his scenes) and pay him to teach operetta-loving Fitzroy to box.
The show’s favourite colour continues to be teal, and the production design (so many era-referencing posters! The magic shop and backstage paraphernalia!) is a pleasure. This wasn’t one of the nastiest cases, but was mainly meant to remind us of who’s who and what’s what. The continually battling sexism Eliza was very impetuous and reckless when she wasn’t being smart and capable at her line of work.
Striking enough opening, with Mr Potts, Ivy and Eliza posing for mock Victorian prison shots, because Eliza had got into trouble investigating a too complex case. William had to get her out of it, and I was reminded that this show might as well be called Miss Scarlet and the Duke’s Blood Pressure. Eliza took the wrong lesson out of this, and decided to advertise in that hack that’s appeared before’s rag. William had just banned his officers from talking to the press, as they’d tipped off a wanted man in one of his cases by doing so.
The journalist offered Eliza a case instead, with the proviso that he’d be able to publish the details. It was a missing magician, Alonso, who had, seemingly, really vanished while doing a vanishing trick on stage. Eliza headed off to the theatre, met two assistants who were somewhat alike in that they had brown curls and wore the same sort of generic pseudo Victorian’s magician assistant costume, only one was of Chinese descent and the other white. The first had been Alonso’s assistant, and showed Eliza around, the second was the daughter of the other magician in the act, Slevin the Sorcerer.
I clocked that as part of his act Alonso wore a mask and thought ‘That’s significant. How do you know it was him disappearing?’
But whatever, when Alonso’s dead body was found in the Thames, it was also William and the force’s case, and he and Eliza were soon fighting rather than co-operating, leading to Eliza breaking in to the morgue, because Mr Potts was still angry with her, along with Moses, finding a key the heel of Alonso’s boot, breaking into the changing room, finding a safe and a magician’s wand, which Alonso had been supposed to be selling to a somewhat annoying magic shopkeeper. Except he’d never turned up. Eliza started to realise that this was because he was dead, and presumably the killer had been the one on stage.
Of course, her ‘client’ betrayed her, publishing an exaggerated version of what she’d told him, spoiling her access to the theatre and its people even more than William had.
It took her and William pooling what they knew, and examining two ‘magic’ wands to realise that Slavin’s assistant and daughter, who we knew had a hand in building things for her father, and had been friendly with Alonso, needed to be questioned again. She said Alonso had been her mentor, but getting depressed about his impending retirement and drinking too much. Basically it turned out to have been suicide, the assistant had gone on as Alonso, but done the trick that he’d intended to do as his last act before retirement instead of the ordinary version of the act, and confused matters. William decided not to arrest her for perverting the cause of justice, but pointed out to Eliza that there was a lesson in getting too caught up in your line of work in Alonso’s suicide. She had stood him up for dinner for a second time at the start of the episode. She made up for it at the end.
Also, Mr Potts seemed to have got over his hump during the episode to turn up at the Scarlet household for a meal, Ivy was pleased, Eliza less so, though she can’t have been surprised. Fitzroy innocently dobbed in his bully superior officer for carrying on briefing the press for free beer, and got beaten up for it, which led William to take him to Moses (who’d been shirtless in half his scenes) and pay him to teach operetta-loving Fitzroy to box.
The show’s favourite colour continues to be teal, and the production design (so many era-referencing posters! The magic shop and backstage paraphernalia!) is a pleasure. This wasn’t one of the nastiest cases, but was mainly meant to remind us of who’s who and what’s what. The continually battling sexism Eliza was very impetuous and reckless when she wasn’t being smart and capable at her line of work.
