The Marlow Murder Club Season 3 Episode 6 Review: Solving Murders and Love Woes Alike

Cal is found dead in a freezer on The Marlow Murder Club Season 3 Episode 5, “An Appetite for Murder, Part 2.” With Omari in custody as gas was pumped in, the suspect list remains wide open.

Amateur and professional detectives alike begin to circle around the idea that multiple people were involved, and any number of pairings seems possible. Meanwhile, Cal’s seemingly devastated wife, Nikki, describes trying to call him.

A backpack full of money suggests that the collaboration angle is solidifying, and the ladies, with Darius’s help, begin to track them down. But when Judith is predictably locked underground with the killer, it’s revealed to be Nikki.

Though she almost escapes at knifepoint, Nikki soon confesses. Cal used her, stealing money they’d both earned. She stabbed Ferdy when he interrupted her first attempt on her husband’s life and she was determined not to fail again.

Outside the case, Judith tells Suzie and Becks of her woes with Darius and how Matthew, once a nice man, is now just full of himself. Yet that turns out to make him a great match for Beck’s mother-in-law, Marion.

Sure enough, by the end of the hour, a spark has caught as Matthew and Marion head for France together. Judith finally gets to begin something real with Darius and everyone sits down for tea together in the final scenes.

Turns out I needn’t be worried about all the potential loose ends we’d be leaving off the season with. In professional and personal words alike, things almost wrap up a little too neatly for all the characters of Marlow.

It does at least take quite a bit more muddle before we stumble upon Nikki and her decidedly human motive. With how she’s been treated, it’s yet another instance of almost having more empathy for killer than victim.

Of course, her stabbing Ferdy just for catching her in the act pushes the limit of sympathy, just as Cal not seeing a murder literally behind his back (admittedly with his back to her and headphones on) pushes the limit of believability.

If that—with Nikki immediately giving up and admitting everything when caught by Tamika—seems to wrap up a bit too neatly, it’s nothing to how we give Judith’s love story a positive spin in about ten total minutes of screentime.

I’m certainly not complaining about her smoothing things with Darius so quickly and I even think that Matthew and Marion work surprisingly well together. But “hook up with a friend’s mother-in-law” is still a very weird plan B.

Also, much as I’d like to fully embrace this happy ending, Darius is still shortly headed overseas, and we know Judith will never leave Marlow. Unless he changes his mind, there may still be some painful complications in season 4.

None of that dampens the closing shots. I welcome dismissing cliffhangers in lieu of everyone having a good time together. As for what the fourth book could change about those dynamics next season…you’ll just have to wait and see.

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The Marlow Murder Club airs Sundays at 8/7c on PBS.

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