The Marlow Murder Club Season 1 Episode 4 Review
How twisty do the cases get on The Marlow Murder Club Season 1 Episode 4? Enough for three killers all inspired by an even more complex version of “Strangers on a Train”.
Judith quickly puts things together as the episode begins. She’s also being haunted by memories of her husband stealing artifacts and making her cover for him. Pretending to be angered by discussing it, she sends Susie and Becks away.
When she’s confronted by a masked man, we see she’s trying to protect them. This is Danny, husband to the recently departed Liz. But he didn’t kill her. He only killed one man—Stephan, who he didn’t even know.
The murder is part of a pact with old friends. Iqbal was killed by Elliot and Liz by Giles. The motives get a bit missy, involving stolen art and Danny’s resentment of his wife for being the only one celebrated for their shared love of rowing.
It all culminates in Judith spending the better part of the episode at gunpoint with literal obstacles keeping the others from rescuing her. But of course she’s saved in the end. All three men are arrested and the ladies celebrate on a boat down the river.
I’ll be honest; I doubt I could have ever predicted where this story winds up going. It does feel a little bit like the goal was simply to come up with the most convoluted answers possible to the questions of the first three episodes.
Yet somehow the writing manages to make all of this work. Trying to keep track of it all might make your head spin, but it also immediately invites you to watch everything back, looking for clues you might have missed along the way.
Courtesy of MASTERPIECE, Monumental Television, and UKTV.
I would prefer to have everything laid out a bit more clearly– a tall ask for the speed it rushes by at– but that pace also means we’re left guessing until the final act, itself filled with effective tension and ladies who think on their feet.
There’s more emotional impact, too. All our main characters are handling their personal struggles with varying degrees of success, and Tanika is carrying the weight of being unable to solve the murders as she comes home to her husband and young daughter.
When justice does come, we feel the weight for the officers who worked hard to make it happen, for the people who were connected to killers and victims alike, and for the women who defied expectation to make it all happen.
With the few minutes left at the end of the hour, we might expect time to be devoted to hinting at the next case to come. The show has already been renewed, after all. Instead we get to see everyone enjoying a few moments of happiness.
Though I would be excited to see such clues, this approach turns out to be the better one. We may want to know what a team will do next, but we also want to know that they are a team. These three are a great one, and they’re great friends now, too.
What will happen in the next installment of The Marlow Murder Club? We’ll know a lot when we learn which book in the series will be adapted next. From this first outing, I think whichever is chosen will be worth tuning back in for.
What did you think of this episode of The Marlow Murder Club? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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The Marlow Murder Club airs Sundays at 9/8c on PBS.
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Caitlin Wyneken
Caitlin is an elder millennial with an only slightly unhealthy dedication to a random selection of TV shows, from PBS Masterpiece dramas to some of the less popular series on popular networks. Outside of screen time, she's dedicated to the public sector and worthy nonprofits, working to make a difference in the world outside of media.