Loveday Writing

Back in her apartment, Alexa is on a Zoom call with Madison when she hears a knock at the door, Madison tells her to answer it as she sent a friend of hers, Beth, to help out. Beth is a cryptologist with the Royal New Zealand Navy Intelligence. Alexa and Beth eventually discover that Adele was the only beneficiary in Sebastian’s will and inherited his house, and that billionaire and doomsday prepper, Jack Sallinger, had drinks with Sebastian before he disappeared.

When Alexa and Beth speak to Adele, she tells them that she was at a concert the night he died as he gave her the ticket, although she went alone. She also gives them a list of people Sebastian ever had falling out with, although Ngaire isn’t on the list due to being a tree-hugging vegan.

When Alexa and Beth go to see Ngaire, she denies killing Sebastian. Alexa asks her for her expert opinion on why the concrete sculpture Sebastian was encased in would fall apart at the first fall of rain. Ngaire explains to her that when you work with concrete, you have to make sure the shape inside is solid and if you skimp on coating, it leads to thin concrete, which can easily crack. Ngaire also tells them that you wouldn’t necessarily need a huge space to make said sculpture, it could be done in a garage.

Later, Alexa and Beth go to the site where the body was found and discuss possible suspects, such as a fan who stalked him for a year, a reviewer who sued him, and a local butcher he slandered, however Alexa tells Beth that Harry ruled out the stalker. Alexa also points out that the killer was clever enough to hide the body in plain view but not clever enough to consider that the flood would make the sculpture unstable. Beth then points out that the killer would have to be strong to get the sculpture to the site.

Later, Beth discovers that Adele made $9,000 selling Sebastian Kent memorabilia online and Alexa tries to see Jack Sallinger at his house, only to be told by his maid that he’s out of the country and she doesn’t know when he’ll return, although Alexa knows that she’s lying, when she runs into her after climbing the gate to enter the property. Alexa suggests that Sebastian Kent’s work being worth more now that he’s dead, is a possible motive for Adele to murder him.

When Alexa and Beth go to see Adele, she reveals that Sebastian was stingy and sold his stuff as she felt he owed her. She tells them that she has to leave for an exercise class, however when Alexa notices she’s wearing hiking boots, she and Beth follow her to the site where Sebastian was found. They see Adele meeting with Ngaire, who lay a wreath out of respect, or possibly remorse. Later, Jack calls Alexa as he heard she was looking for him.

Alexa meets Jack at his property, where he tells her that he initially got into trouble with the locals as he was trying to build a vertical garden and accidentally cleared native bush in the process. They also talk about his difficulties in building his underground bunker, although Alexa finds vents and a bobcat nearby.

Later, Alexa runs into Adele at a local General Store and asks her why she didn’t mention being friends with Ngaire. She reveals to Alexa that she knew Sebastian wouldn’t stand it and Ngaire was his ex-girlfriend. When Ngaire discovered that Sebastian became drinking buddies with Jack and supported his building ambitions, she dumped him. Adele also tells her that Jack offered Sebastian a place in his bunker. Later, Alexa visits Jack at his property again and he tells her that he wrote a crime novel, which Sebastian said showed promise.

Later, Alexa and Beth go to see Adele at Sebastian’s house and asks her if Sebastian said anything to her about the bunker. However, Alexa gets distracted by a book that’s sitting upside down on Sebastian’s bookshelf. Adele tells her that Ngaire gave him the book, with Alexa telling her the book is about a rich man, who is also referred to as a knave, and a knave is also known as the jack in a deck of cards, and questions whether this is a warning to Sebastian from Ngaire to stay away from Jack. Whilst Alexa is discussing this with Adele, Beth is copying the contents of Adele’s laptop onto a USB drive.

Back at Alexa’s apartment, Beth finds an email that Adele sent to Sebastian, asking him if she should read Jack’s book as well, but he responded by telling her not to waste her time, contradicting Jack telling Alexa that Sebastian thought it showed promise. The next day, Alexa goes to visit Jack at his property again, this time with Beth hiding in the backseat, as she has disabled his CCTV system. Alexa teaches Jack how to make a sourdough starter whilst Beth takes a picture of the vents and bobcat, and a video revealing that the vents are functioning, proving that Jack has already built an underground bunker, despite not having local Council approval. As Jack takes a phone call, Alexa snoops around, steals a copy of his book, and leaves.

Alexa eventually figures out how Sebastian was killed and goes back to confront Jack. She reveals to him (and the audience) that he drugged Sebastian whilst he was at his house, which led to Sebastian pulling the book off the shelf, drove Sebastian back to his place so he could remove the footage from his CCTV system so he could confidently hand it over to the police. He then took Sebastian to the underground bunker to encase Sebastian within a sculpture as the police wouldn’t be able to find the evidence as they didn’t know it existed. He then took the sculpture to the site in the middle of the night, however he didn’t count on the flood and how it would affect it. Alexa unlocks the bunker and leaves with her sourdough starter, and Harry and the police arrest Jack.

The episode ends with Alexa, Beth, and Madison (via Zoom call) watching a zombie movie together.

Overall, I felt that this was a solid episode. I felt the introduction of Beth (Tatum Warren-Ngata) was seamless and is a welcome addition. She’s similar to Madison, but different enough that she doesn’t feel like a clone of her. It will be interesting to see how she will be used over the rest of the season, and whether she and Madison will work together, as the offscreen reason for Beth’s introduction was Ebony Vagulans contracting COVID and subsequently having to isolate.

I felt that the case of the week was compelling, unique and well played out, however I did find it odd that Jack was written as an American character but was played by a native New Zealand actor (Craig Hall). I could write this off as COVID having a major impact on the show and this season’s production, however I don’t feel that his character being American really added anything. His character would have had the same impact if he was a New Zealand native.

Stray Observations:

Episode title – Alexa’s and Beth’s pun on how Sebastian’s dead body was found.

-Apparently Beth’s security clearance is higher than Madison’s.

-Madison and Beth met through online gaming.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “I don’t really know what Beth does, I just found her actually.” (Alexa to Ngaire, introducing herself and Beth)
• “You’re kind of like my Gen Z grandma.” (Alexa to Beth on Beth making a packed lunch for herself and Alexa)