Loveday Writing

Steed then shows up to investigate and Peregrine talks to the other competitors. Marjorie tells Peregrine that she and her dog, Pom Pom, adored Lavinia, and that she (and Steed) should talk to another competitor, Barry McBride, as he had an unhealthy obsession with Milady. Barry, who’s also the Club’s groundskeeper, tells them that he didn’t care about Milady, and that he was playing fetch with his own dog, Regency Rex, when the murder occurred. He also tells them that Lavinia was “friendly” with the judges, and in love with one bloke but it was top secret. When Peregrine notices a pink smudge on Sherri’s husband, Clifford’s, handkerchief, as he wipes sweat off his forehead, she gets a hold of it and matches it to Lavinia’s lipstick.

Later that evening at the Adventuresses’ Club, Peregrine vents about James banning her from investigating Lavinia’s murder and Birdie returns from her “hiking trip”. Meanwhile at the police station, Steed interrogates Clifford, who confirms that he and Lavinia were having an affair. When Milady steals Sparrow’s sandwich, he demands that she stay elsewhere. When Samuel shows up as Peregrine’s spy, Steed asks him to take Milady but he can’t as Birdie’s allergic to dogs and Steed’s landlady doesn’t allow pets. Samuel suggests Peregrine and Steed tells him she can’t go near the Kennel Club.

The next day, Peregrine takes Milady to the Kennel Club to sign up for the show as Milady’s new handler, only for Steed to arrive moments later to speak to Sherri. When Steed asks Sherri to tell him the truth about her alibi, she admits that she saw Lavinia and Clifford together and spent an hour in her car trying to regain her composure.

When she’s back home, Peregrine tries to provoke Milady into attacking her to no prevail, proving she’s not a dangerous dog like Sherri made out. Meanwhile, at the Adventuresses’ Club, Birdie unloads her gun just before Samuel walks in, startling her. However she doesn’t notice one of the unfired bullets landed on the floor, but Samuel does, picking it up.

The next day, Peregrine tries to feed Milady a steak, only for her to whimper and refuse to eat it. When Peregrine picks the steak up, she notices grey powder on it. She calls Samuel and asks him if he left a steak for Milady at his home, he says he didn’t. She brings the steak back to the Adventuresses’ Club so Violetta can find out what the grey powder is. Violetta eventually determines that the powder is snail bait, which would have killed Milady if she had eaten the steak. As Barry is the Kennel Club’s groundskeeper and he was caught break into Lavinia’s home, Steed brings him in for an interrogation.

Barry tells Steed that he offered to buy Milady from Lavinia but she declined, he wanted to buy Milady so he could breed her with Regency Rex, and even tried to get them to “do the deed” when he broke in, but that didn’t work. He also tells them that Marjorie actually hated Lavinia. After the interrogation, Sally interrupts Peregrine and Steed’s discussion on whether they can remain professional. Meanwhile, at the Adventuresses’ Club, Birdie notices an additional sticky substance on the steak and asks Violetta to test it. When Violetta leaves the room, Samuel confronts Birdie about the bullet and asks if she’s spying again. Birdie confirms she is, she tells Samuel that spying is the “love of her life”, and thanks him for his concern.

The next day, Peregrine has Marjorie come over for a dog handling lesson. During the lesson, Marjorie admits to loathing Lavinia. When Marjorie pats Milady, she tries to take her from Peregrine, but Peregrine fights her off.

When Peregrine and Steed go back to the Kennel Club after she tells him about her interaction with Marjorie, they see Sherri discovering Marjorie’s dead body. So the dog show can continue, Sherri lets Samuel handle Pom Pom, but also insists that Milady be groomed (with Clifford present). Sherri returns to let Peregrine know that Clifford is looking at Milady as she found a mark on her. Clifford comes out and claims Milady attacked him, Sherri tells him to put Milady down.

After Clifford takes Milady out the back of the Kennel Club to put her down, Violetta tells Peregrine that the sticky substance was a fatal toxin that is only available via prescription, which means that Clifford is the murderer. Peregrine races down the back to save Milady and after a tussle with Clifford, where he attempts to kill her with the toxin, she fights him off. Peregrine and Steed reveal to everyone that Clifford killed Lavinia because she was using him and their affair to win the dog shows, and he killed Marjorie because she discovered that Milady was desexed.

After Clifford is arrested, Sherri offers Milady to Peregrine but she politely declines. Steed also turns down Peregrine’s offer to celebrate as he’s catching up with people from his home town, Sally included. Samuel also tells Peregrine that he’s going to convert to Catholicism so he and Violetta can be together.

The episode ends with Peregrine showing off her new pet fish, Gorgeous Fishus Magnificus, to Samuel, Violetta and Birdie.

Overall this was a solid episode as it had an interesting murder mystery exploring another world, the world of dog shows. I also enjoyed the brief subplots of Birdie confirming to Samuel that she’s returned to spying, and the love triangle that seems to be forming between Steed, Peregrine and Sally. It will be interesting to see how the remaining episodes explores and plays out these subplots, as this episode marks the halfway point of the season.

Stray Observations:

-Birdie’s allergic to dogs.

-At one point Peregrine tells Steed that she can’t work out why Lavinia said that Milady was a dangerous dog. Lavinia is the first murder victim, Sherri was the one who said that Milady was a dangerous dog. This is clearly a minor error made by either the writers or Hakewill. I don’t go out of my way to nitpick for errors, however as Lavinia is one of the murder victims, this one jumped out at me.