Loveday Writing

Margie and Ollie wait for Daniel on the front veranda when Zoe tells them that she saw Daniel arguing with Walsh yesterday. When Zoe lets them wait in the house, she reveals that her mother died a year earlier.

We then cut to Clara and Heidi staying at Heidi’s parent’s homestead, where Heidi tells Clara that she and Belinda used to come up here to de-stress. When Clara’s phone is finally charged, she listens to the voicemail messages that Margie left her in the previous episode about Daniel being her stalker. Clara goes upstairs to have a shower and when she hears a noise coming from the bedroom balcony door, Daniel comes out from behind a curtain, telling her that they need to leave. Daniel tells her that he thinks Walsh and Heidi are connected and that she paid him to burn down the furniture store, however when Heidi comes back into the room, Daniel is forced to leave and Clara is forced to play along. Heidi and Clara play scrabble together, where Heidi reveals that Paul was always intimidated by Belinda’s brains and success and that they met as Paul was her personal trainer.

The next morning, Margie comes back to Daniel’s house and she and Zoe confront him about knowing Walsh and his bruised knuckles. Daniel reveals to them that he has been part of a fight club since his wife died, and he has been checking on Clara since the furniture store fire as he feels responsible. He also reveals that he took a $40,000 bribe from Walsh three weeks into the trial, Walsh told him he was acting alone but now he’s not so sure. He saw the crime scene and freaked out, which is why he turned around.

Meanwhile, Clara goes to Dom’s house and demands to see the kids, taking Heidi’s advice. He agrees to bring them over for dinner one night. When she gets a call from Margie, we cut to her, Ollie and Daniel coming over to Clara’s house, with Daniel showing them the bags of money and telling Clara about the bribe. When Clara calls Daniel out for taking the bribe and putting her danger, and making it feel like it was her fault, Ollie tells her that the bribe didn’t change the outcome as they all voted not guilty, and Margie says they need to find out exactly where the bribe came from before they report it, as Walsh denied Heidi was involved.

Later, Margie and Clara meet up with the Free Heidi group founder, who tells them that Walsh became a problem for the group as he was delusional. Walsh kept saying Heidi was his fiancée, bought her a wedding dress, and even saved up money for a house deposit as he was loaded, with a cushy I.T. job. When they leave, Margie tells Clara that Walsh could have just bribed Daniel on his own.

Later, Daniel, Ollie and Margie come over to Clara’s house, as Clara made a flow chart of everything that has happened so far. Clara shows them through her flow chart that Heidi had motive and opportunity to kill Belinda, and if she ordered the bribe, she had motive to kill Walsh as well. They also discuss the fact that Walsh wasn’t short on cash so there’s a chance that Heidi didn’t pay him, with Margie pointing out that the bribe could have been a misguided romantic gesture to Heidi. Clara also suggests that the furniture store fire could have been Walsh punishing her for doubting Heidi’s innocence. This leads Ollie to ask who killed Dean, if Heidi had nothing to do with the bribe or the fire, Clara says it’s most likely the person who killed Belinda, and Paul had motive to kill them both.

Ollie and Clara go to Belinda’s office to try and see Paul, with Ollie taking a picture of Paul’s calendar from the receptionist, Astrid’s, desk. When Clara sees Megan, the accountant, walk in, Clara remembers that Megan was Belinda’s neighbour and a key witness at the trial. Later, the four of them go to Ollie’s apartment and tell Eliza, to get her to talk to the police and convince them to look into him.

When Dom brings the kids over for dinner, Heidi drops by unannounced at the house. Dom leaves immediately with the kids as he doesn’t feel that they’re safe if Heidi’s around. Heidi tells Clara that she has inspired her to open her own PR firm, taking Clara to her currently under construction office. Heidi tells her that Belinda’s clients have been begging her to take over their accounts and that Paul is a terrible boss. Clara lets it slip to Heidi that the police are now looking into Paul.

Towards the end of the episode, Heidi has her launch party. Freaked out over Heidi casually smashing one of the walls with a sledgehammer, Clara asks Ollie to go with her to the party. When they get there, they run into Belinda’s receptionist, Astrid, who tells them that Heidi rescued her. Paul shows up at the party and questions how she has everyone fooled. Moments later, he is arrested in front of everyone for Walsh’s murder as the murder weapon, a sledgehammer, was found in his apartment. Clara then goes to Daniel’s house, telling him what happened and that she’s only going to listen to her gut and no-one else.

The episode ends with Daniel telling Zoe that he’s going to turn himself in for taking the bribe.

Overall, I felt that this was a good episode for the halfway point of the season. Paul is now the prime suspect in both Belinda’s and Walsh’s murders, admittedly he is a plausible suspect, however it’s still unclear whether he’s guilty. I appreciated that we got some character development with Daniel, especially the explanation of where his money came from, why he’s in a night club, and his relationship with his daughter.

It will be interesting to see where we go from here with Daniel deciding to turn himself in and Paul’s arrest.