The Bullet That Missed

News personality Mike Waghorn—along with a camera operator, sound man, and makeup artist—arrives at the Jigsaw Room at Coopers Chase to interview Ron Ritchie for a televised segment on his show South East Tonight. Pauline Jenkins does Ron Ritchie’s makeup after deflecting his protests. Joyce Meadowcroft arrives and flirts with Mike when he arrives. After Ibrahim arrives, Joyce invites Mike to dinner to learn about the Thursday Murder Club, and he eventually accepts. Then, Elizabeth arrives, rounding out the club’s number. Joyce has set up the interview to lure Mike to Coopers Chase in hopes he can give them information about the club’s latest case: Bethany Waites’s murder.

From prison, Connie runs a drug gang and plans revenge on Ron and Bogdan for setting her up. She decides not to kill them until after her trial. She researches Ron and discovers he was famous in the 1970s and 1980s and vows to be patient.

Mike and Pauline join the Thursday Night Murder Club for dinner. Mike has some red wine, and they engage him in small talk about his job, eating habits, and other topics. Just as Ibrahim wonders if it is time to ask about Bethany, Mike offers to tell the group about her. However, the only new information he has is that she texted a few weeks before her death that she got some information for her story about VAT fraud, but she didn’t say what it was.

Donna De Freitas, a police constable, talks with Bogdan after they have sex. He asks how she would commit the perfect murder, saying Elizabeth wanted his opinion on it for a new case, but he doesn’t say Bethany’s full name. Donna offers some ideas about poison, car wrecks, and a gunshot. They both say they want to go on another date and have sex again.

Joyce remembers why she chose Bethany’s case for the Thursday Night Murder Club. In part, it was to meet Mike, whom Joyce has watched for years on television. She admits that her flirting with Mike after the dinner didn’t really go anywhere as she had hoped it would. Ron and Pauline flirted at dinner as well, Joyce notes.

The lack of a body, the passenger in Bethany’s car before the murder, and her car going off Shakespeare Cliff also interested Joyce. Bethany had been investigating a VAT fraud perpetrated by Heather Garbutt. Joyce thinks about the questions that will drive the investigation, such as why Bethany went out that night, who her passenger was, and if she stopped somewhere. The biggest question is who killed her.

Bogdan and Joyce visit Elizabeth and her husband, Stephen. Elizabeth is getting threatening text messages but won’t tell the others about them. She looks over documents from the Heather Garbutt trial while Bogdan and Stephen play chess. Elizabeth comments on the smell of Bogdan’s new body wash and asks Joyce if her daughter will look at the documents. Joyce says she’ll ask. Elizabeth worries about Stephen’s dementia, and he doesn’t recognize Joyce.

Chris Hudson, a detective chief inspector (DCI) and Donna, his partner, look at a crime scene on the beach. He thinks about his romantic relationship with her mother, Patrice, and wonders how Donna’s date went. Ibrahim texts Chris, asking him to look into Bethany’s case. Chris thinks about both the positive and the dangerous things the Thursday Murder Club has gotten him involved in and believes they “carried a kind of magic” (40). So, he’s willing to help them, and Donna already knows about the case when he starts to ask her about it. Also, Chris considers how the chief constable was pleased they caught Connie.

Elizabeth and Stephen go on a walk that has become a routine for them. They walk past a cemetery and stop at a cow pasture where Stephen has given the cows personalities and backstories. They pause there and Stephen updates her on the imagined interpersonal drama among the cows. However, Stephen’s dementia keeps him from remembering that they take the same walk every day. The routine has allowed a stalker to find her; she only glimpses the man and hopes he doesn’t strike Stephen before she feels the blow.

Ron and Pauline have lunch at Le Pont Noir. Ron’s son, Jason, suggested the restaurant. Ron asks Pauline about Bethany and learns that she was dating a new person, a cameraman, before her death. Ron and Pauline talk about how they had a good time the previous night when he slept over, and Pauline asks him to have ice cream on the pier. He worries about the issues with his knees, and Pauline suggests they get a cane and smoke a spliff to ease his pain.

Elizabeth regains consciousness in what she guesses is a moving van. She is handcuffed, blindfolded, and forced to listen to white noise through headphones. Stephen is also in the van, so she finds his hands, holds them, and wonders when someone will notice she is missing.

Ibrahim meets with Connie at Darwell Prison. He asks her to get information from another inmate, Heather Garbutt; he wants to know if Heather killed Bethany. Connie wants to know if she’ll get anything in return. Connie asks if the people who want the information from Heather will help her in court or help her escape. A warder comes in and tells Connie her time to talk to Ibrahim has expired. After some negotiation, she promises the warder’s son an iPad for 10 more minutes with Ibrahim. The warder accepts. Connie tells Ibrahim she is planning to kill Ron and Bogdan as soon as she is free. Ibrahim asks for the opportunity to convince her otherwise, and she asks him to be her psychiatrist. She offers to pay him $200 an hour, and he agrees to meet with her on Wednesdays.

Elizabeth recalls her earlier spy days. She once had a bag pulled off her head so she could be questioned by a Russian army general. This time, the bag is pulled off in a library. After the man who removes the bags and handcuffs leaves, she talks with Stephen, who seems to be okay, cognitively and physically. A man with an accent they guess is Swedish comes in and mentions Elizabeth stealing diamonds. They call him the Viking, and he says the diamonds came from Viktor Illyich and wants Elizabeth to kill Viktor. The Viking says he will tell Viktor about the theft and thus force Elizabeth to kill Viktor in self-defense. Because Elizabeth believes Viktor will not kill her (due to their prior relationship), she refuses his proposition. The Viking threatens to kill Joyce if Elizabeth doesn’t kill Viktor within two weeks.

Donna and Bogdan see a Polish film, which she enjoys, and go back to Bogdan’s place. They talk about Bethany. After they have sex, at 2am, his phone rings.

After being dropped in the woods on the roadside, Elizabeth and Stephen talk about Viktor. She thinks about her friendship and possible romance with Viktor many years ago. They find a phone box, and she calls Bogdan. He tracks the phone’s location and agrees to pick them up. Elizabeth asks him to bring tea and a gun.

Mike watches clips of Bethany in an edit suite at the news station. He thinks about her rivalry with Fiona Clemence, his former cohost and a possible suspect, and threatening notes Bethany received. He recalls details of his work with Bethany behind the scenes, such her getting him Twix bars. Pauline comes in, offers to watch clips with him, and gives him a Twix bar.

In Darwell Prison, Connie visits Heather. Connie offers gifts in exchange for information about Bethany’s murder. Heather initially resists Connie’s friendly overtures. After a guard will not remove Connie from Heather’s cell, Heather understands Connie’s preferential treatment. Heather then agrees to meet again in exchange for some knitting supplies.

Mike and Pauline join the group during their usual Thursday Murder Club meeting in the Jigsaw Room. Joyce asks what happened to Elizabeth the previous night, but Elizabeth is evasive. Mike tells the group about the notes Bethany received and shares texts about them. He also demonstrates his ability to read the news after having several glasses of wine. Pauline doesn’t remember the notes Bethany received, but she comments about the blurry CCTV photos and the clothing scraps found in Bethany’s car. Elizabeth notes these comments as they go over the information they currently have.

While waiting for forensics from their current case, Chris and Donna look into Bethany’s case. They plot a route that will avoid the CCTV cameras and discover Bethany had to have driven through the underground lot of Juniper Court, an apartment building. They wonder if Bethany took this route to avoid the cameras, or if she met someone in the building. Terry Hallet, their colleague, gives them some information they want to act on immediately.

Chris and Donna join the others in the Jigsaw Room. Mike compliments Chris’s features, saying they are good for television. Chris tells the group that Heather was found dead in her cell with a note saying someone is planning to murder her and Connie is the only one who can help her.