Miss Scarlet and The Duke got a title change for the fifth season. With the departure of The Duke, we now have just Miss Scarlet starting with the season 5 premiere.
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS from the Miss Scarlet season 5 premiere
Don’t worry; the series explains where William is, and why Miss Scarlet isn’t going with him. We also get a chance to meet Detective Inspector Alexander Blake, the new detective inspector at Scotland Yard. This is setting up to be an exciting season with some very different dynamics.
Opening weeks after Alexander Blake’s arrival in the Miss Scarlet season 5 premiere
The episode opens with us seeing Phelps and Fitzroy getting to the door of a house. They’re discussing Blake, and it’s clear that Phelps is angry that his job as interim detective inspector has been taken off him. Blake is there, and we get to see him think with his head. As there is no answer at the door, Phelps wants to barge in with a battering ram. Blake literally just tries the door handle.
He also finds the secret door to the attic, which is where he comes across a dead body and Miss Scarlet. It’s clear that the two have met, and that’s when we realize that we’re picking up a couple of weeks after his arrival. This is a story that will be told to us as Miss Scarlet explains why she was in the room—and who the dead body is.
Finding out where The Duke is
Of course, we had to learn what happened to William. He wrote to Eliza to share that he was staying in New York after being offered a permanent position and a promotion. It was an opportunity he wouldn’t get in London, so he had to take it.
He did want Eliza to go with him. They would marry, but it would mean that Eliza would have to give up being a private detective, and that wasn’t something she could do. This comes up later in the episode!
The problem is Alexander Blake doesn’t like working with private detectives. He has had too many bad experiences with them, and he proved in Bristol that he didn’t need them. In fact, this case alone proves why he doesn’t actually need private detectives.
Who is the dead body in the Miss Scarlet season 5 premiere?
The only thing Blake doesn’t seem to know is who the dead body is. Miss Scarlet has that answer. This is Jonathan Harborne, who was the valet to Lord Boden.
Lord Boden’s case was the one Eliza was initially on thanks to Phelps. Boden had been missing for around 12 years, after he was accused of murdering the housemaid. Amelia Boden, his daughter, shared that she saw her father and that opened a new investigation to find the man.
Eliza was just partway through the case when Blake came in. He agreed to pay her for the work already done, but that he would no longer need her services. He would take on the Lord Boden case, and sure enough, he was there every step of the way that Eliza was. He infiltrated a black market auction, which was where Eliza had spotted Harborne and recognized him.
As Eliza shared that her employee, Clarence Pettigrew, followed Harborne and found out that Harborne and Amelia were in cahoots—even faking a robbery at the house to sell valuables for money—she updated Blake on who the murderer was. It was Amelia. She’d found out that Harborne was going to sell the items and keep all the money, so she killed him.
Blake already knew this, though. Amelia’s housemaid had shared that Amelia came home the night before in a bit of a state. Blake had also managed to get the auctioneer to talk, learning that Harborne and Amelia were in cahoots with each other. A simple search of the house led to bloodied gloves, and so Amelia was arrested.
Blake proved that he didn’t need Eliza’s help to solve the case, which left Eliza feeling defeated and questioning her life choices. Her decision to stay in London and do her work means that she may forever be alone. Now she doesn’t just want to get by in her chosen profession. She needs to succeed so that it’s all worth it.
Getting a little bit of information about Alexander Blake in Miss Scarlet
The end of the episode takes us to Alexander Blake at his home. He’s ex-Army and he speaks multiple languages, including mandarin. It’s clear that he is cultured and he reads to expand his knowledge, but there is a secret that he is keeping.
Eliza pointed out that Tresure Island was the only book read multiple times. He reacted strongly against that, and we found out why at the end. It looks like he has a daughter, and she is the one he reads Tresure Island with. What else do we still need to learn about Blake’s home life?
Miss Scarlet airs Sundays at 9/8c on PBS.
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