Loveday Writing

We then go back five hours earlier as people are arriving for the Adventuresses’ Club’s New Year’s Eve party, which Peregrine is hosting. The band, The Magentas, arrive and lead singer, Pat, immediately flirts with Peregrine. She also meets another Adventuress, Oona, from Ireland who’s not a fan of the band.

Steed and Sally show up at the party, to Peregrine’s surprise and chagrin as she didn’t invite them. She also meets Darryl Daley, the band’s double bass player, who notices Steed staring at Peregrine and tells him she’s out of his league, in front of Sally. Peregrine finds out that Violetta invited Steed hoping they would reconcile, but she didn’t invite Sally. Sally tells Steed that she’s thinking of buying a unit in Kew or Hawthorn and asks him about his land, clearly trying to get him to commit and move in with her.

Tensions are clearly high with the band, as Steed witnesses Pat fighting with Darryl and Peregrine sees Pat take a piece of paper away from George as he’s writing song on it. Peregrine also sees one of the waitresses, Iris, squash a pickled onion into the floor, to her chagrin. Before the band starts playing, Pat asks Peregrine out, she tells him that if the band put on a good show that she’ll think about it. Darryl comes back through the front door into the Club, and the band start playing.

While Sally and Steed initially start dancing, with Sally well and truly drunk by this point, Sally steps away, and it doesn’t take long for Steed and Peregrine to run into each other and start dancing together. This upsets Sally to the point where she loudly says ‘Happy New Year!’ before collapsing. This is where the episode catches up with itself, we see Steed and Peregrine carrying Sally into another room again, only this time we see them interacting. Steed asks Sally if she’s alright, Sally says to Steed that she knows she’s not as exciting as Peregrine, then proceeds to ask Peregrine whether she really wants to be a policeman’s wife, going back to telling Steed that she’s the one that can make him happy, before passing out again.

When they leave Sally, Peregrine and Steed’s argument that was vaguely heard in the episode’s opening moments is shown in full. Peregrine tells Steed he should have taken care of Sally as she was clearly nervous. When Steed condescendingly and sarcastically asks her, ‘I wonder why?’, Peregrine responds by pointing out that her feelings on the situation are irrelevant as he dumped her. Steed tells Peregrine that she threw his marriage proposal in his face, but she points out that she wanted to slow things down not break-up altogether. Steed tells Peregrine that she assumed he moved on entirely, but she points out that he and Sally are together. Moments later, everyone is celebrating the New Year and the door behind Peregrine slams shut, they then hear screaming.

Steed and Peregrine find Pat and this time it’s quickly revealed Pat was shot in the head. When they guess it was a close-range shot, Violetta dismisses this theory as there was no gunpowder on the wound, the shot came from at least four-to-six feet away, which is where the speakers were placed. Peregrine moves one of the stage curtains and finds the gun there. When Peregrine realises that the door slam she felt was the murderer trying to leave, and there is only one way out of the ballroom, she and Steed conclude that the murderer is still inside the building. They conclude that Darryl, George and Oona are the main suspects as they were the only people with motive, in the right position at the time of the murder. Birdie dismisses Oona as the shooter as her skills are in ninjutsu (knife combat).

Iris tells Peregrine that she asked Pat for a kiss, he said yes, she heard party poppers going off, then a loud bang, then the lights went out and when they came back on, Pat was dead on the floor. Later, Steed interviews Darryl, who tells him he was fixing a loose speaker cable and that he was arguing with Pat about the set list before the murder. After Peregrine re-examines Pat’s body and finds the piece of paper that he took off George, she then asks George if he’s the real songwriter of the band, he confirms this. He tells Peregrine he was looking for his lucky drumstick at the time of the murder, and that Pat was looking for new bass guitarists to replace Darryl. When Steed questions Darryl on why he was outside before the murder, he mentions Pat having had a girlfriend and organising an abortion for her. He identifies Iris as Pat’s girlfriend.

Steed and Peregrine talks to Iris, she confirms what Darryl said about her. Afterwards, Peregrine tells Steed that Iris has the most compelling motive but he points out she wasn’t in the spot where the fatal shot came from. Birdie then asks them if they are going to question Oona anytime soon as she wants to go home as she’s distraught. Peregrine asks if Oona’s devastated because of the murder or her son. When Steed asks about Oona’s son, Feargal, Birdie explains that he was killed in a car accident five years ago on New Year’s Eve as a drunk friend was driving. As Pat didn’t drink, this makes Peregrine realise that he killed Feargal. Oona confirms this and Birdie realises the brooch she was wearing was actually a throwing star in disguise.

Meanwhile, Violetta tells Samuel the gun is clean when he sees her working in the lab. When he asks her what she’s working on, she says that she’s catching up on work. Later, Violetta tells him that she was testing her urine and she found increased levels of human chorionic gonadotropin…she’s pregnant.

Sparrow arrives and Steed tells him that he’s baffled as the three main suspects don’t seem to be the murderer and he doesn’t know how the murderer escaped the room. When Peregrine comes into the room and tells him that she was outside the ballroom door, and he makes disparaging remarks about her, Steed stands up for her, pointing out how highly skilled she is as an investigator. He leaves to solve the murder himself. Peregrine shows Steed the throwing star, but he still believes he needs to question Oona. Peregrine starts to break down about her failure in solving the case, but he reassures her by reminding her they’re a team and they’ll solve it like they always do.

Meanwhile, Oona and Birdie are talking in Birdie’s office, Oona talks about her need for revenge and that she doesn’t expect Birdie to understand, but Birdie in turn tells her about Aleksander and how he wouldn’t want her to spend her life in jail and she believes Feargal wouldn’t have wanted that for her either. Sparrow walks in and annoys them, once Oona leaves, Birdie reluctantly pours him a whiskey. Later, Birdie kisses him and propositions him, which startles him and he leaves, much to her happiness and relief.

Meanwhile, Steed tells Sally not to sell her house in Hartford and not to move to Melbourne, Sally takes the break-up with grace and leaves. Peregrine goes back into the ballroom and finds the spot marked by the pickled onion Iris stomped on earlier. When she remembers seeing Iris’ watch appear on different arms, she makes her way to the corner of the ballroom, where she puts the throwing star down and opens the double bass case. She finds Iris there, armed with a fireplace poker. They struggle and just as Peregrine overpowers her, Iris’ twin, Lily holds the throwing star to her neck.

Peregrine explains to the audience that they had the perfect plan, Iris stomped the pickled onion on the floor to mark the perfect spot for Pat to be shot when the lights went out and the New Years’ fireworks went off, Lily shot Pat as she hid behind the curtain by the stage, but their plan was ruined because they couldn’t get away due to Steed and Peregrine standing by the door. Iris accuses Peregrine of going after Pat, Peregrine says she doesn’t want him and talks about screwing things up with Steed. Steed is walking by, overhears this, comes in and puts the gun used to kill Pat to Lily’s back, which gives Peregrine the chance to overpower Iris.

After Iris and Lily are arrested, Violetta proposes to Samuel in front of everyone, asking that they marry at a registry office as soon as possible. He asks her about his conversion, she tells him that she will probably struggle with her faith for a long time, but she wants them to be a family, announcing her pregnancy to everyone else. Peregrine suggests they start the New Year all over again, counting down and singing Auld Lang Syne. The episode and season ends with Steed and Peregrine kissing, getting back together.

Overall I felt that this was a solid finale. The setting of the New Year’s Eve party and New Year’s itself was the perfect way to mark the end of the season and start of a new one (if it’s renewed). Peregrine unintentionally keeping the murderers inside the Club was a classic murder mystery trope that was ultimately used well with an unpredictable but also not entirely surprising ending, once she put two-and-two together. While it was predictable that Peregrine and Steed would eventually get back together, I liked that it was facilitated by Peregrine being held hostage and having to be honest with herself and Steed overhearing the conversation. I was happily surprised by Violetta’s pregnancy and marriage proposal, despite her traditionalism and Catholicism, she is empowered enough to make these decisions for herself, which I loved.

In terms of the season as a whole, the doubling of its size from the first season, having eight instead of four episodes was the right call. This larger season allowed for more character development and story arcs. Each mystery of the week was compelling and while it was easy enough once the clues were gathered to figure out who the murderer was, it wasn’t entirely predictable either, there was a good balance between twists, cliches, predictability and plausibility. The season’s story arcs of Steed and Peregrine’s romance, Samuel and Violetta’s romance, and Birdie’s secret mission were wrapped up perfectly.

Overall, I’ve enjoyed reviewing this season and I hope there is another one to come.

Stray Observations:

-According to Samuel, another Adventuress, Adventuress Adekunle was demanding that they play charades at the party this year. Apparently there was a ban on it of some kind and Phryne assured her it would only last for three years.

-According to Birdie, Phryne was always forgiving on New Years and she used to sing at the parties, Birdie would join her by playing the cowbell. Birdie played the cowbell to celebrate the New Year at the end of the episode.

-Violetta discovers at the party that she likes pickled onions.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “He’s rather attractive and if you overlook the complete lack of subtlety, be a very pleasant way to forget about James.” (Birdie to Peregrine on Pat)
• “Is that your fourth?” “Fifth, actually!” (Steed then Sally on the amount of drinks Sally has consumed)
• “You’re supposed to leave your weapons at the door!” (Birdie to Oona when she discovers Oona’s brooch is actually a throwing star in disguise)
• “Birdie, do you think Oona is capable of murder?” “Not with a gun.” (Steed-Birdie)