Loveday Writing

Alexa and Madison go to a fringe festival where Tom’s show is being held to investigate. They watch the show, with Tom’s understudy, Jason, stepping in as the wolf. Alexa and Madison speak with Sonya backstage, who tells them that they are now using shadow play due to the incident, and she and Tom were together for a few months but she loved him. Afterwards, Alexa and Madison speak with Jason, who tells them that Tom was diligent in checking the retractable knife was working properly prior to each performance. Jason also tells them that everyone knew about Tom and Sonya’s affair.

Alexa then goes to see Eleanor, who turns out to be a childhood friend of Alexa’s and is still living in the home she grew up in. Eleanor tells Alexa that she financially supported Tom’s theatre until recently. Later, while Alexa is trying to make miche bread with a noisy Mixmaster Reuben has lent her, Madison informs her that she managed to do some digging in Tom’s metadata and found that he paid $18,000 for hair plugs, and the money was given to him by Sonya, she also found that he was looking for divorce lawyers.

Alexa goes to see Sonya about the money, where it’s revealed that Sonya’s money comes from her wealthy father. Sonya gave Tom the money for the theatre, she didn’t know about the hair plugs. Afterwards, Alexa goes to see Eleanor again and asks if she knew that Tom was looking for divorce lawyers, Eleanor says she didn’t know. When Alexa tells her that he also took money from Sonya for hair plugs, Eleanor laughs and lets Alexa look in Tom’s office. When Alexa goes in, she finds steroids, which Eleanor says he was taking to treat his Crohn’s Disease.

Later, Alexa and Eleanor get drunk on wine, and dig up an old time capsule in the neighbour’s backyard that they buried when they were kids. When Alexa uses the bathroom to wash her hands, she finds two toothbrushes on the sink. The police arrive, having been called by the neighbour.

Later, when Alexa and Madison are viewing the mobile phone footage of the show Tom was killed in, they come up with the theory that Sonya jammed and unjammed the knife whilst performing. However the theory doesn’t play out as Sonya wouldn’t have the time or forearm strength to do so. When the footage shows Jason on stage helping Tom, they question whether he might have swapped the knife out for another one. After Alexa talks with Jason again, who tells her that he knows Tom’s acting well enough to know that something was wrong the night he was killed, she asks Madison to look into communications between Sonya and Jason.

Alexa goes to see Eleanor again and discovers Jason running away outside. Alexa’s cop instincts kick in as she chases him, but only manages to grab one of his shoes. Alexa and Madison then discover that the money Sonya gave Tom paid for hair plugs for Jason, whilst Harry thinks Eleanor might be in on the murder with Jason. Later, when Alexa goes through the metadata history that Madison found on Eleanor, she finds a search for Prussian blue.

Alexa goes to see Eleanor again, bringing coffees and pastries with her. Alexa, staring at one of Eleanor’s paintings, questions her about the shade of blue it is. Alexa points out it’s Prussian blue, which leads to her telling Eleanor (and the audience) how Tom was killed. Eleanor laced Tom’s stage make-up with Thallium (although she bought Prussian blue as it’s the only antidote to Thallium, in case she changed her mind). Although Jason stabbed Tom, essentially committing the murder for her, when Tom died, she buried his stage make-up with him to get rid of the evidence, and she would have gotten away with the murder, had Jason not used the make-up when he was filling in for Tom and been poisoned as well. After Eleanor is arrested and taken away by the police, Alexa digs up the time capsule tin and takes it home with her.

The episode ends with Alexa in her apartment about to have a bath when she runs into Raf, a poet from the fringe festival, standing naked in front of her. Raf goes back to Madison’s bedroom and Alexa tells Madison to “keep the poetry to a dull roar.”

Overall I felt that this was a solid episode. The murder was very old school with the use of Thallium poisoning and the stabbing reminded me of an episode of Monk, where an actor was seemingly stabbed onstage only to be poisoned, not to mention dramatic, like the victim. I also appreciated the insight into Alexa’s past with the murderer being a childhood friend of hers. I also enjoyed the more comedic scenes of Alexa and Eleanor getting drunk and digging up the time capsule, Madison trying to be a slam poet, and Madison bringing one of the slam poets home with her.

Stray Observations:

-On one occasion, Alexa was 18 hours early for an ABBA concert.

-Eleanor, Will and Alexa used to make lemonade from Eleanor’s backyard lemon tree when they were kids, selling it was Will’s idea, true to his character.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “Are we on a date? If you told me I would’ve brought my pepper spray.” (Alexa to Harry)
• “Gluten free?” “It’s delicious, so no.” (Reuben-Madison on Alexa’s miche bread)
• “Reuben, do you know why I bake bread?” “Because you can’t make cakes?” (Alexa-Reuben)
• “It’s not you honey, it’s her.” (Reuben to his Mixmaster when Alexa returns it)
• “This little baby sounds like a chainsaw hacking up a body every time I turn it on.” “How do you know what hacking up a body with a chainsaw sounds like?” “Oh, I just close my eyes and imagine.” (Alexa-Reuben-Alexa on Reuben’s Mixmaster)
• “Code, I love code. Writing it, breaking it, whilst I’m computing or commuting…A Colossus. Something that rhymes with Colossus. I’m chic, I’m a freak, I’m a geek, I’m g…” (Madison reading her draft slam poem aloud to herself in front of a mirror)
• “What on earth rhymes with Colossus?” (Madison to herself)
• “Jason is an over-attached stress ball.” (Eleanor to Alexa)
• “Reuben told you didn’t he?” “Yeah.” “Next murder you solve will be his.” (Madison-Alexa-Madison about Madison’s slam poetry performance)
• “Try to keep the poetry to a dull roar.” (Alexa to Madison when Alexa runs into a naked Raf in the apartment)