Loveday Writing

Alexa goes to the kitchen to have a look at the freezer, only for Ivan to catch her in the act. Ivan tells her that they’ve replaced the handle and paid the fine for the health and safety violation, and that he and their family want to grieve and move on. Later, Alexa checks the guest book at the front desk and finds that a guest by the name of Barton Wallwock has visited several times over the last six months.

Alexa has to cut her visit short as she has to meet up with Will, who has an impending parole hearing. When Alexa visits him, he asks her if she’ll support his parole application and she says she’s still thinking about it. While Madison is back at the Resort, she sees and hears what she thinks is a ghost outside but Alexa tells her it’s the native Ruru owl. Alexa then video calls Barton (surprising guest star, William Shatner). Barton tells her he had a “handshake deal” with Tony to buy the Resort, he never met Ivan, and after Tony died, his wife, Petra, told him the sale was off.

The next day, Alexa finds out that Will’s parole hearing was cancelled. Madison has a massage done by Ivan’s wife, Sophie. Sophie tells her that Ivan’s great-grandmother had the Resort built and Tony was keen to sell. Sophie also tells Madison that Petra was in the UK visiting a cousin when the sales talks were happening. Meanwhile Alexa is at a yoga session run by Ivan, and tells him it’s a shame that Tony wanted to sell the place. Alexa and Madison later discover that while Petra was in the UK, she wasn’t visiting her cousin.

The next day Petra confronts Alexa about belittling the tragedy of Tony’s death. Later, Alexa snoops in Petra’s bedroom and finds a bottle of sleeping pills in her bathroom. When Alexa and Madison see the “ghost” again, they discover Petra roaming in the garden. Petra tells Alexa that she’s had insomnia for about two years, the sleeping pills don’t work and she went to London to go to a sleep clinic. When they do a bit more digging, Alexa and Madison discover that Petra was being treated for Fatal Familial Insomnia.

The next day, Harry gives Alexa a letter written by Petra, outlining that she was planning on leaving Tony.  Alexa goes back to the Resort and asks Petra if she killed Tony, she doesn’t actually confess, but she doesn’t deny it either, she asks Alexa for time to talk with Ivan, as he doesn’t know she’s unwell. Alexa gives her the time as she has no authority to arrest her. Alexa asks Petra’s granddaughter, Evie, for one of her crayons on the way out. Alexa uses the crayon on Petra’s notepad (which she stole) and discovers that the letter was written on the top of the notepad, indicating it was written the day before, not before Tony died.

Later, Alexa attends Will’s parole hearing and gives a statement in support of his release. Afterwards when Will talks about his life in prison, which includes finding messages from cell mates in their own body fluids on the cell walls, this gives Alexa an epiphany on solving the case.

Alexa goes back to the Resort and walk-in freezer, spraying luminol. Ivan catches her, and she tells him (and the audience) how Tony was killed. Tony was selling the Resort to fund Petra’s treatment for her illness. Ivan turned the temperature up on the beef so it would burn and Tony would have to remake it. Ivan gave him a drink with a few sleeping pills thrown in, when Tony went into the freezer to get the replacement beef, Ivan kicked the bucket out and the door closed. Tony screamed at Ivan to let him out, and in desperation, Tony cut his finger and wrote Ivan’s name in his blood, on the freezer floor. Ivan admits to Alexa that he thought Tony was selling for money.

The episode ends with Alexa visiting Will, who reveals that his parole application was rejected, however he doesn’t know it’s because Alexa retracted her statement when Will didn’t show any signs of changing his ways.

Overall this was a solid episode, while it was obvious it was going to be one of the family members, there were enough twists and turns that I wasn’t sure who it was going to be. I appreciated another appearance by Will, I’m glad that he’s not a one-off character, it will be interesting to see what happens when he finds out Alexa retracted her statement. William Shatner’s appearance was unexpected but very entertaining.

Stray Observations:

-Tony’s case number is CY573/09.

-Alexa eats a red capsicum like an apple.

-As of this episode, Alexa moved to New Zealand from Australia 18 months ago.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “You know what makes art jump up in value? It’s when the artist dies. So if I was like to, uh, buy this, and then kill ya, well this would be worth a fortune.” (Alexa to Brett, an “artist” harassing her in the street)
• “I have the disease you’re looking for…no that did not sound right.” “Oh yeah, give it to me…no that didn’t sound right either.” (Madison-Alexa going back-and-forth on the phone)