Loveday Writing

We don’t hear Harrow’s answer as the episode cuts to Fern and James in the nightclub. James tells Fern that he didn’t steal Mila Zoric’s money but he thinks Max did, and that’s why he needed a fake passport and to escape from Australia. Fern asks James if Mila is after him because of Max or her missing money, James says he doesn’t know anything about either. Fern asks him what Mila would do to him if she thinks he does know something about it, he says that she would kill him.

We then cut back to Harrow’s boat where he tells Tanya about Max, the shipping yard, the DNA results and James showing up. Harrow admits that he’s not sure he can believe a word James has told him, and that he wasn’t involved in Max’s death, which is why he believes James has stopped talking to him. Tanya tells him that James can’t avoid talking to her.

We are then brought to Nichols’ office where he and Detective Brookes are working when Steve, another police officer, comes to see them. Steve informs them that the surveillance team has just uploaded photos from Harrow’s boat, which shows Tanya on board and Nichols recognises her immediately. Brookes asks Nichol if they should be brought in, but Nichols refuses, saying they should see where this takes them. The next morning, Harrow and Tanya get into his car, and Harrow instantly notices two police officers following them. He gets a phone call which brings him into the Institute.

When Harrow arrives, he scolds Nichols for having him followed and Nichols scolds him for not informing him about Tanya. Nichols tells Harrow that he knows James is in the country, Harrow tells him he doesn’t know where James is and neither does Tanya, and to leave them alone. Harrow greets Grace, where she informs him that he stood her up last night, he apologises but Grace dismisses him.

Nichols then identifies the two dead duelists in front of Harrow and Grace as Martin Peek and George Ilic, who were members of a historical society. Harrow asks Nichols why they were dueling, Nichols tells him that Ilic said something to which Peek took offence. Harrow asks Nichols about the men’s seconds, Nichols tells him that the police are interviewing two people now but both of them are claiming that they thought Ilic and Peek were shooting blanks, and the referee has disappeared.

When Harrow and Fairley begin the autopsies, Grace asks if the men had any underlying conditions, Edwina tells her that Peek had restless leg syndrome and heartburn, but other than that both men were healthy. Edwina also informs them that both men were long-term members of the Brisbane Faro Society. Harrow explains to them (and the viewers) that Faro is a card game derived from Basset and a precursor to poker that was very popular in Europe in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. When Harrow asks if there are any other wounds, Grace points out that Peek has what looks like a faded lipstick mark on his cheek. When Harrow and Fairley inspect the guns the men used on each other, Edwina informs them that both the guns belonged to Peek.  Harrow and Fairley extract lead fishing sinkers from the men that were used as bullets.

Harrow and Nichols go to the Brisbane Faro Society headquarters and speak with the Society’s marketing manager, Emeline Mellis, and the Society’s treasurer, Ms. Yancy. According to Mellis, Ilic and Peek were Faro experts. When Nichols asks Mellis and Yancy what the argument that lead to the duel was about, Mellis reveals that Ilic insulted Peek’s wife, although Nichols points out that the insult was really just mild trash talk. Harrow asks Yancy if there have been duels at the club before, and Yancy says yes but they were usually settled by a card game or fencing bout, sometimes with pistols or paintballs but not lead bullets or fishing sinkers. Nichols asks Yancy and Mellis if they have seen Mr. Hogarth, the duel referee, and both of them say no. Harrow asks Mellis why she isn’t participating in the Faro tournament, she says that she thought she was too new to the club to play.

Harrow and Nichols then go to see Mrs. Peek at her home, where it’s revealed she was her husband’s second and handed him his pistol but didn’t load it. When Nichols sees a jet ski and a sports car in the Peek’s garage, Mrs. Peek tells them he was going through a midlife crisis, but it wasn’t like him to spend money on things like that as he was a responsible man, but the last few months he changed, becoming secretive and deceptive. Harrow asks Mrs. Peek if her husband had restless leg syndrome, she confirms he did but recently it developed to the rest of his body, and he had been gambling more. When Nichols asks Mrs. Peek where her husband kept his guns, she brings them to a safe where they find his guns and paintballs. Another officer finds Peek’s fishing kit which contains the lead fishing sinkers used as bullets that Harrow and Fairley extracted from both men.

Nichols gets a phone call and we cut to the police station where Hogarth is being interviewed. Nichols reveals that Hogarth run away from the duel as he was upset at seeing his two friends die unexpectedly in front of him. Harrow asks Nichols if Hogarth could have tampered with the guns, Nichols tells him that Hogarth didn’t have a key to the safe, he had a solid alibi, and has a severe allergy to seafood meaning, that he couldn’t touch the fishing kit without having a seizure. Nichols also tells him that Mrs. Peek has means but no motive. Nichols informs Harrow that the case appears open and shut, and he would rather continue the Zoric murder investigation.

While Harrow is in the freezer, examining the bodies, Edwina comes in and passes on a phone message to him. We then see Tanya talking to Nichols in his office and Harrow coming in. Tanya tells Nichols that James is in Australia, and that James told her he had been accepted into computer studies at the University of Adelaide. She then got an email from the university about overdue fees, she rang the uni and apparently James didn’t attend his lectures. She made more phone calls to find out if something had happened to him, once she found out James was alive, she came out to Australia. She says she started to try and find James by contacting Harrow, and informs Nichols that Harrow told her that James was nowhere to be found. Nichols then reveals the recording of the voicemail Harrow left for Fern about James, but Harrow manages to lie his way out of this conundrum. When Harrow sees Tanya out of the police station, she tells him that their “explanations” should get the police off their backs.

We then go to Fern and James at their home, with Fern logging into the QIFM database with Harrow’s login, so James can swap the case code attached to his phone with another, so his phone can be released. When James hears the doorbell, he comes to the door to see Harrow and Tanya. After they come in, Tanya asks James why he told Harrow she was dead and he counters by asking why she told him she never knew his father’s name. Tanya tells James she didn’t want him to find Harrow, she didn’t want James falling in love with Harrow as a father and what he does for a living, and she didn’t want to lose him. Tanya also calls out James for lying to her about uni, he says he wanted to find his father, and Tanya asks him what his plans are now that he has found Harrow. James tells them that he needs his phone back as it will prove he didn’t kill Max, however Harrow tells him that the only way he’ll get his phone back is if he turns himself in, which James refuses to do. Tanya asks James what he plans are if he does get his phone back, however he refuses to answer her.

Harrow and Tanya go back to his boat and Harrow asks her why she didn’t tell James about him. Tanya tells him she didn’t want her baby being raised around the dead. When Tanya falls asleep, Harrow goes back to work and Renae, who is also working late, comes to see him. Harrow asks her about Louie, she tells him that Louie is with his father this weekend, so she came into work so she wouldn’t be sitting at home missing him. She in turn asks Harrow why he’s working late and he says that he was sitting at home missing work. Renae then asks him about the duelists, Harrow tells her that he knows what killed them but not why they were killed. He also tells her about Peek’s restless leg syndrome and he was prescribed a medication called Pramipexole, which has reported side effects of a heightened sex drive, increased recklessness and an exaggerated desire to gamble, which explains his recent behaviour. When Renae looks at the screen and asks Harrow what Phenidone is, he tells her it’s a darkroom chemical but Peek didn’t have a darkroom at his house.

With this revelation, Harrow goes back to the Society’s headquarters and finds Yancy there working late for the upcoming final and unsealing of the time capsule. Harrow finds out that Mellis is playing, Yancy informs him that there is a clause in the Society’s charter which states that if there are an insufficient number of players in the final, the treasurer can nominate a stand in. When Harrow asks her if the Society has a dark room, Yancy takes him to it and informs him that Mellis uses it all the time. Harrow finds negatives from the laying of the time capsule, with a frame missing. When Harrow asks Yancy if she has any idea where Mellis may have put the missing frame, Mellis announces her appearance by saying Yancy wouldn’t know. After a passive-aggressive exchange between them and Mellis kissing Harrow on the cheek, Harrow leaves, swabbing Mellis’ lipstick to compare it to the lipstick on Peek’s cheek.

Harrow tells Nichols about the lipstick and he asks Harrow whether he could prove that the lipstick on his cheek matches the one found on Peek, Harrow says no but that Peek had dark room chemicals on him, and there was a dark room at the Society’s headquarters. Harrow informs Nichols about the time capsule being the prize for the game and Nichols asks Harrow what he wants him to do about it. The episode then cuts to Harrow and Nichols in period costume to play in the Faro final. When they walk into the Society’s headquarters and Mellis sees them, she asks them what they’re doing here. Mellis says they’re not even members, however Harrow informs her they are members now, thanks to her establishing the website they were able to join the Society online. Harrow also informs her that there is a clause in the Society’s charter that in the event of the passing of permanent members, new members can take their place in the final. Yancy tells Mellis he is right and that they can play with her and Hogarth.

Although they initially lose to Mellis at first, Nichols wins a couple of rounds much to her chagrin. While the game is paused, Mellis gets herself and the others drinks, which includes Harrow who refused her offer. Harrow tells Nichols not to drink the beer she gave him, but he already has, and unsurprisingly it’s revealed that Mellis spiked the men’s beers. Because of this Hogarth and Nichols are out, leaving Harrow to play against Mellis.

During the final rounds, Harrow asks Mellis why she would kill over the time capsule, but she says he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Harrow tells Yancy that he believes he can bet on the order the last three cards appear and if he’s right he wins four times the bet (he read the rule book). If he’s right he’ll win the game. Harrow was right and he wins the game.

After the game ends, Mellis runs off and Harrow runs after her. He asks her again what was in the time capsule that was worth killing for. She tells him that she only wanted to win for the attention and to get the antique playing cards from the time capsule as they are collector’s items. She also tells him that she agreed that Yancy could have everything else in the time capsule and she didn’t kiss Peek. When Harrow looks at the photo of the time capsule he realises who the killer is.

He goes back into the Society’s headquarters to find Yancy staring at the time capsule. He tells her that it was her that recognised what Mellis found in the photo – an old envelope stamped with a plate 77 penny red. Harrow asks her what it’s worth, Yancy says over half-a-million. Yancy then takes a sabre from the wall and forces Harrow into a duel.

Yancy tells him that Ilic and Peek were the best players of the club so they had to go, so she baited them into a duel. She went to Peek’s basement and put the sinkers in the pistols, and all she had to worry about was Hogarth but Harrow and Nichols ruined her plans. When Harrow points out that he’s the only loose end, she tries to kill him and almost succeeds, only for Nichols to wake up and tackle her to the ground.

Yancy is arrested and before an ambulance takes Nichols to the hospital, Harrow has the time capsule unsealed, only to find the contents destroyed as the area under the concrete slab where the time capsule was placed wasn’t properly waterproofed. Nichols tells Harrow that he’s glad he didn’t lie about James, as it meant he would have had to look into other cases involving him, such as Quinn (Season 1) and Chester (Season 2).

Later, Callan catches James looking through Harrow’s work emails. After a brief and verbally aggressive confrontation, Callan goes through James’ backpack and finds an access card for a company called, SWM, with the name ‘John Rann’ on it. Meanwhile Harrow finds Tanya on his boat, Tanya somewhat apologises for keeping James from him and they kiss.

The episode ends with Callan using the SWM access card to sneak into the SWM office, where he finds a call centre of ‘employees’ remotely accessing customer computers and transferring data. Mila Zoric gets a phone call from one of her employees saying that there’s a problem, she goes onto her laptop and watches the surveillance footage of Callan sneaking into the office, slamming her laptop screen down in frustration and anger.

Overall I felt that the case of the week was interesting, with another look and lesson into a subculture, in this case, Faro. I felt that the time capsule motive and an allergy being the reason why a suspect was eliminated was brilliant writing and personally elements I’ve never seen before in a crime drama.

In regards to the James story arc, I did appreciate the explanation of Tanya being alive and well, and the interactions between her and Harrow with the exception of their kiss, which I felt was out of character for Harrow, as he hasn’t seen her for 20 years and wasn’t too far away from hooking up with Grace in the previous episode. That being said, the writers have been inconsistent with the progression of a romance between Grace and Harrow this season, to the point that I have lost interest in the possibility of a relationship between them. I also felt that Callan going to the SWM office was stupid, he should have gone to the police, especially as he was caught. Interestingly the reveal of the SWM office and what’s going on there, as well as Mila’s reaction to seeing Callan on the surveillance footage, shows that Mila isn’t innocent in this whole situation either, but whether she is the lesser of two evils remains to be seen.

On a smaller note, I wasn’t too sure what to make of Renae and Harrow briefly bonding when they were working late. As mentioned in a previous review, Renae’s appearances seem to be diminishing as the season goes on, and considering that she has been antagonistic towards Harrow in her previous interactions with him, this bonding moment seems forced, and it seems that the writers don’t know what to do with her anymore.

Overall this was a good episode, but not the season’s best.

Stray Observations:

Episode title translation: Alea lacta Est – The Die Has Been Cast

-Apparently Grace nearly “killed” a woman called Abigail Stock (in a verbal duel) – they were both running for debate captain.

-Apparently the autopsies of Ilic and Peek make it the first duel-related autopsies that Harrow has conducted.

-Both Harrow and Fairley know a lot about duels.

-Fairley was known as ‘Crack Shot Fairley’ in the Aldenham Secondary Air Rifle Brigade, but Harrow reminds him that was because he was shot in the arse.

-Nichols is the police precinct’s poker champion.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “You’re like a failing Instagrammer, you need better followers.” (Harrow to Nichols on getting police to follow him and Tanya)
• “You had a phone call earlier.” “You answered my phone?” “Your office has good Wi-Fi.” (Edwina-Harrow-Edwina)
• “I feel like a chook in an oven bag.” (Nichols to Harrow on Faro attire)
• “Well, well, the Marquis de Nichols.” (Harrow to Nichols)
• “We’re interviewing two people at CIB now but both claim they thought they were shooting blanks. Like my ex-wife just before we had a daughter.” (Nichols on the dueling men’s’ seconds)
• “I see satisfaction was had.” (Fairley on the duelists)
• “I could shoot you at dawn if you like, or any time really.” (Harrow to Fairley)