Loveday Writing

We then cut to Alexa watching a video of Samantha at the vineyard and Madison using Alexa’s kitchen to make pasta. Alexa informs her that she’s going on an overnight trip to Waiheke Island, where the Estate is based.

When Alexa and Madison get there, Alexa finds Samantha’s mother, Martha, staring at her from the house. They meet Joe, who informs them that he was attending an online, international wine conference when Samantha died. Afterwards, Alexa goes to see Francisco, the foreman seen in Samantha’s video of the winery. Francisco tells her that most of the seasonal workers are gone, and he didn’t hear the crusher operating that night as he went to bed early in the foreman’s quarters.

Afterwards, Alexa goes to see Martha, who tells her she also doesn’t believe it was an accident, as Sam was too sensible to end up in the crusher. Martha also mentions that a month ago the vineyard workers wanted more money but refused as they were already being paid at a competitive rate.

Alexa tells Madison that she finds it weird that no-one heard the crusher going as the sound would have carried in the night. Alexa has Madison turn the crusher on, while she stands near the foreman’s quarters. She discovers that she can hear the crusher and Francisco, who’s inside the quarters, can hear it too. Joe also discovers Madison at the crusher and asks her why she is there. Meanwhile, Alexa also discovers someone in the vineyards trying to steal grapes.

The next day Alexa confronts Francisco about his lies, he tells Alexa that he thought he would be blamed as the workers are always blamed for things going wrong. He also tells her that Samantha was helping them with their contract, mainly for them to get better working conditions and pay, and that he told Joe about a grape thief that was around six weeks ago.

Alexa and Madison watch a video of the online international wine conference, which confirms Joe’s alibi. When Alexa and Madison ask Harry to run the number plate of the man Alexa saw stealing the grapes, Harry offers Madison a job as a data analyst with the Auckland Police, which she happily accepts. The number plate traces back to Alistair Hanley, who owns Hanley Estate, one of the Bird of Paradise Estate’s competitors.

Alexa confronts Alistair about the grape stealing but he denies it, saying that he was on a video call to his daughter in the UK, which his daughter backs up. They also discover that after Alexa told Joe about the grape stealing, he called Alistair instead of the police. It turns out that Joe and Alistair worked together over a decade earlier and Joe switched the grapes in his wine back then with Alistair’s and became successful because of it, meaning that Alistair possibly stole the grapes as revenge.

Alexa FaceTimes Joe to notify him that Alistair was the grape thief and he acts surprised. The next day, Joe arrives with boxes of Bird of Paradise wine for Reuben, which Alexa ordered. Alexa, Madison, Harry and Reuben try some of the wine, with Reuben asking questions about the complexities of its flavours. This leads to Alexa realising that Sam figured out that Joe picked the grapes too early and therefore the wine shouldn’t have had those complex flavours.

Alexa and Madison do a Google search on what would make wine more complex and find Glycol listed as one of the reasons. When Alexa looks at Sam’s search history on her computer and finds the same thing, she goes snooping around Joe’s office and finds a bottle of glycol solution, only for Joe to catch her in the act.

Later that evening when Kieran video calls her, he makes a remark about a Melbourne tram knick-knack on her bookshelf, which leads her to having an epiphany and solving the case.

Alexa video calls Joe, ostensibly to apologise, only to sneak up behind him in his office to tell him (and the audience) how he killed Samantha. Alexa tells him that Samantha figured out that Joe was picking the grapes too early and he was adding glycol solution to give it complex flavours. He set up his office to look like his home by bringing in a painting from his house to put in the background of the conference video call, recorded himself making gestures to make it look like he was there the whole time, snuck out and killed Samantha, then put her in the crusher to get rid of the evidence. She then tricks him about Francisco witnessing him by the crusher, and then admits to recording the video call she initiated minutes earlier, to record his confession. When Alexa asks why Samantha brought up the workers in her final text, Joe tells her she was blackmailing him to get the workers better pay and conditions. Joe is then arrested.

Overall this was an interesting episode, providing an interesting insight into wine and how it’s made. While Joe being the perp was obvious early on, I appreciated the comedic moments that the wine motif provided in the episode.

Stray Observations:

-Kieran is looking after the stray cat Alexa adopted in Melbourne in the first season. He also made his first appearance since the first season, as Harry asked him for a reference for Madison.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “Oh breakfast wine.” “It’s brunch so it’s okay.” “Are you on duty?” (Alexa-Harry-Alexa)