Loveday Writing

At the Adventuresses’ Club, Birdie is about to eat a sandwich when her phone rings, Aleksander is on the other end and tells her that they’re getting close as someone has been murdered. Peregrine overhears this phone call and follows Birdie to the crime scene. When they arrive and Birdie sees her, she tells her this isn’t her mission.

Peregrine and Birdie introduce themselves to Thelma. It’s revealed that Birdie and Thelma have mutual admiration for each other’s work, and Thelma tells Peregrine that the murder case is too complex for the police, believing that Steed isn’t up to the task.

When Steed, Peregrine and Birdie inspect Virgil’s body, Birdie tells them that Virgil was left in this state because his murderer set out to humiliate him. Birdie also finds a stray Peregrine Falcon feather near Virgil’s body. They also discover that the feathers were glued, not tarred to Virgil’s body.

When Steed and Peregrine talk to everyone at the Club, they discover that Virgil wanted to get Melvin out of the Club and thought Dimitri was cheating in a race, threatening to poison his bird. They also find out that Dimitri and Nick were on a training run during the murder, Nick and Virgil were a team, and it was Virgil’s birthday the day before. Nick also sets the pigeons free for the race, and tells them that he drove straight home after releasing them. Steed tells Peregrine that his father used to race pigeons, informing her (and us, the audience) that the races work by having a stamped number ring placed on the pigeon’s leg, the clocks are synced and locked, must be tamper-proof and accurate to the second. The rubber ring is removed, put into the clock, and the clocks stamp out the exact time, the winner is the bird with the fastest average flying speed, as the birds fly to different coops – it’s a sport with one start gate and thousands of finish lines.

Steed and Peregrine interview Gladis, whilst Dimitri makes her tea, going to the trouble of timing how long her teabag sits in the cup of water. Gladis feels guilty because she fought with Virgil and tells them that Virgil and Melvin hated each other. As Steed and Peregrine leave the Pigeon Club, they make digs at each other using birds as a metaphor, Steed makes a dig at Peregrine for not staying with one person, where Peregrine in turn, points out that she hasn’t gone anywhere, he’s the one that’s moved on. Later, Birdie is in the dark room at the Adventuresses’ Club developing a photo she took, she looks at it and says “gotcha!”

Later, Steed interrogates Melvin at the station, as Melvin went to prison in Sydney for 18 months for tarring and feathering a former coworker. Melvin tells him he did this as the coworker was skimming off shipments and was trying to frame him for it. When Steed and Sparrow tell him that he tried to choke Virgil with bird seed and show it to him, he tells them that’s not his bird seed but it is Thelma’s. When Steed and Peregrine ask Thelma about the bird seed, she tells them that Virgil wanted to make the Club men-only, so she set her Peregrine Falcon on him, but didn’t kill him. This explains why the Peregrine Falcon feather was found on his body.

Meanwhile, Birdie meets with Aleksander and they talk about their target, showing him the photo. They make it clear their target is male, so it’s either Dimitri, Nick or Melvin. Back at the station, Nick brings in his clock and time stamp to corroborate his alibi. Peregrine asks Steed for the clock so Samuel can look at it. Just as Peregrine and Steed have a moment of sexual tension, Sally walks in and sees it. Sally invites Peregrine to dinner, but she politely declines.

Later, when Peregrine goes back to the Club to look around, she runs into Birdie. Birdie tells her to go home, Peregrine asks why she’s interested in the investigation. Birdie tells her that she got what she came here for, and that she is out of her depth. When Peregrine asks what she means by this and drops her torch, she picks up her torch but by the time she gets back up, Birdie has vanished. Despite her run-in with Birdie, Peregrine continues looking around and finds a note in the coop, ‘the cage is gone, now we are free, G.’

The next day, Birdie and Aleksander meet up again, where Birdie gives him a copy of a magazine from 15 years ago that she found at the Club. Meanwhile, Steed interrogates Dimitri on the love note from Gladis that Peregrine found. When Steed brings up the timestamp of the training run, Dimitri questions why anyone would bother timestamping a training run when you only need a timestamp for a race. Steed and Peregrine go to see Samuel, who reveals to them that the clock has been tampered with, which means Nick fabricated his alibi. When Steed thinks Nick killed Virgil out of jealousy, Peregrine doesn’t think it’s the right motive.

Meanwhile, Birdie and Aleksander are watching Nick, revealed to be Hans Einrich. Nick is liberating the pigeons, and Steed and Peregrine come to see him. Nick runs off, but Aleksander shoots one of his truck’s tyres. Nick runs and Aleksander chases after him, with Birdie, Steed and Peregrine following. They hear a man scream, only to find a knife in Aleksander. Birdie tries to save him but he dies moments later.

Steed and Nick struggle, but Steed manages to overpower him. Birdie arrives moments later and tells them that his real name is Hans Einrich, a Nazi captain who tortured Aleksander. Birdie questions how he slipped up with keeping his secret, Peregrine realises it would have been the birthday drinks. Nick/Hans admits that Virgil found out that he was German, not Swiss. Nick drove to the Pigeon Club and killed Virgil. Birdie goes to shoot him, but Peregrine moves her arm, and subsequently the gun, away from Nick/Hans.

Back at the Adventuresses’ Club, Thelma pays Peregrine and asks her out, but she politely turns her down, Thelma graciously accepts, knowing that she likes Steed. After Thelma leaves, Peregrine sits outside with a devastated Birdie. Birdie tells her that one time her and Aleksander were trapped behind enemy lines and Hans had tortured him for four days. Every carrier pigeon they released were shot dead by a Nazi soldier, except for one, Mata Hari, and despite her injuries, she still delivered their message. Birdie tells her that if love is there for her taking, she should seize the opportunity.

The episode ends with Peregrine going to the station to see Steed and declare her love for him, only to find Sally there with him, and leaves.

Overall I felt that this was a solid episode with a great twist at the end, I honestly wasn’t expecting Birdie’s mission subplot to cross over into the mystery of the week, but it crossed over seamlessly, with a great but tragic ending, which ultimately provided more character development for Birdie. It also made the mystery of the week more interesting as it provided the murderer with a motive.

While, thankfully, the Steed-Peregrine-Sally love triangle wasn’t given too much of a spotlight, I did find the ending of the episode, where Peregrine stops herself from declaring her love for Steed due to seeing Sally with him, cliché.

Stray Observations:

-We see information provided about the Pigeon Club members/suspects at the beginning of the episode when it is typed up on the screen. The information provided was:

• Dimitri Privalov, pigeon: Anna Karenina, rank: 3^rd
• Thelma Beasley, pigeon: The Duchess, rank: 4^th
• Melvin Delaine, pigeon: Boss Knocker, rank: 2^nd
• Gladis Beasley, pigeon: None, rank: President’s Wife
• Nick Hoffman, pigeon: Norma Jean, rank: Unranked
• Virgil Beasley, pigeon: Sweet Adeline, rank: 1^st

-Apparently, a pigeon once saved Birdie’s life.

-Apparently Samuel has a rule that you never apologise for a pun.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “A little birdy mentioned that there may have been some fowl play at the Pigeon Club.” (Peregrine to Birdie when she arrives after her at the Pigeon Club)