Loveday Writing

Her fiancé, Thom Coney, is a trust fund playboy with a net worth of $10 million. They met when Leah was delivering a floral display for his 30^th birthday party. Two months later, they were engaged, and the wedding was another two months later. He believes that his father, Roland, is responsible for Leah’s death as he hated her. Leah walked down the aisle with Roland, her bridesmaid, Cat, was the first person to try and assist Leah and the wedding planner, Nerida Jones, tried to help with an EpiPen but it was too late. Roland disappear moments later.

Back at Alexa’s apartment, Madison asks her why she’s taking the case if she thinks it’s an accident. Alexa tells her she’s looking into it as it’s rare for a suspect to throw a parent under the bus, especially one who stands to lose an enormous inheritance by doing so. The coroner couldn’t identify the sting site on Leah’s hand due to the swelling and previously existing scratches due to her floristry work. Alexa also tells Madison that the kind of reaction that Leah had can come on in seconds, but it peaks between three to 30 minutes after exposure.

Alexa goes to see Thom at his apartment. Thom tells her that Roland was walking Leah down the aisle as her own father had been in and out of prison since she was a kid, and that she left nothing to chance with her allergy, with her EpiPen being the third wheel in their relationship. Alexa notices bright pink lipstick on a wine glass as she’s talking to Thom. Back at Alexa’s apartment, Madison tells her that Nerida had the guests sign a contract agreeing not to use any phones or recording devices at the ceremony, however someone can be seen using a phone in the wedding video. Harry asked for a guest list but Nerida refused to hand it over. She also tells Alexa that Roland made the guests sign non-disclosure agreements, almost like he knew something was going to happen.

When Alexa goes to see Roland at his mansion, she finds a dead bee outside the front gates. He gives her a tour of his yard, showing her wildflowers he planted in honour of his late wife and Thom’s mother, June. Alexa also notices that he has a beekeeping hobby. When she asks him about his alleged hatred for Leah, he tells her that he thought Thom was rushing into things and that he has a habit of doing so. When Alexa asks why he didn’t notice her symptoms as they were walking down the aisle and what he’s hiding from her, a security guard quickly appears and Roland tells her to leave.

Alexa then goes to see Cat at Bloem, the florist shop. Cat tells her that Leah came up with the designs, whilst she handled the rent and budgeting, and that Roland put on an amazing rehearsal dinner before the wedding, but he was also super paranoid about Leah’s EpiPen and insisted on holding onto it. Cat’s employee, Jada, tells her that Bloem took a lot of precautions when it came to Leah’s allergy. They smoked the church, checked every flower arrangement twice, made sure no church window was open for 48 hours prior to the ceremony, and even Leah’s dress was allergy inclusive. Alexa also asks Cat if she’s afraid of Roland, it’s clear she is but she doesn’t actually answer her question.

Back at Alexa’s apartment, Madison tells her that Nerida does a lot of events work for Roland but there are no online exchanges between them, with their only contact being through landline phone calls. She also tells her that Thom was texting his ex-fiancée, Tallulah, an hour before the ceremony and that she is former fiancée number three. Madison tells Alexa this, as Alexa is trying to destroy multiple EpiPens to figure out why the labelling on the EpiPen used on the wedding day was wrinkled. She eventually figures out the EpiPen was boiled, so it was tampered with.

Madison discovers that Roland paid Nerida $200,000 after the wedding and asks Beth to help physically access Nerida’s hard drive. Madison and Beth end up posing as a bride-to-be and bridesmaid respectively, with Beth spitting out her drink when Nerida tells her that her fees start from $120,000. Whilst Beth and Nerida find cleaning supplies, Madison copies Nerida’s computer files onto a USB. Meanwhile, Alexa meets with Tallulah, who tells her that Thom was contacting her to try and get sober like she did and confirms that she visited Thom the morning Alexa talked to him. She also tells Alexa that he was worried that Leah would get cold feet as she was his fifth fiancée, and that she met Leah through Cat. Later, Madison plays a recording she found on Nerida’s laptop of a phone call between her and Roland, where Roland mentions a promise he made to June.

Alexa and Madison dress in beekeeping gear and go to Roland’s hives to get a sample of his bees’ venom, only to be caught in the act by him and Nerida. He tells her that his species of bees are stingless, they are escorted off the property and Harry is waiting for them at the front gates. Harry tells them the coroner found a high dose of venom from a different bee species in Leah’s body and can’t explain it, as it’s a much higher dose than one bee would be able to give.

Beth and Madison go to see Nerida to apologise and kindly ask for the guest list so they can find out what really happened. They figure out that the guest filming Leah’s death on his phone was Thom’s 13-year-old cousin. Beth manages to figure out by lip reading that Cat knew Leah was experiencing symptoms before walking down the aisle.

When Alexa goes back to Bloem, she finds out from Cat that she had to invest her life savings to start the business and get through the first month, and the arrival of Thom didn’t affect it, as Leah didn’t want the Coneys involved. When Cat leaves the room, Jada tells her that suppliers have been threatening them on social media and she is about to quit as she hasn’t been paid in two months. She also mentions that a chemical company supplies injectables for them to make the roses blue, which is what Bloem is known for.

Later, Alexa goes to the chemical company posing as Jada to get a copy of the accounts and discovers the accounts have been paid in full. Madison tells her that she did some digging on Cat and her real name is Katharine Jones and that she is a high school dropout with a petty crime record, changing her name around the time she met Leah. Alexa realises that Thom paid Cat and calls to find out why, only for Roland to answer his phone. When Alexa goes back to Roland’s mansion, it’s revealed that Thom tried to kill himself. Roland expresses his remorse over his behaviour to Alexa, revealing that he wants Thom to find true love like he did. When Alexa asks Thom why he gave Cat the money, but his answer isn’t revealed onscreen.

Alexa goes back to Bloem to speak with Cat, where she reveals to the audience that Cat couldn’t get a business loan due to her criminal record and that she ran into Tallulah, who told her about the pay off she got from Roland to walk away from Thom. Cat set up Leah and Thom, knowing that he had a type and tried to convince Leah to ask him for the money they needed, but she refused as she had fallen in love with him. As she ruined her plan, Cat painted her bouquet, specifically the thorns, with bee venom, and asked Thom to invest as it would keep the dream alive.

The episode ends with Beth, Madison, Harry, Reuben, and Alexa having drinks at Reuben’s Café after closing time, with Alexa thinking about her own wedding. When she gets home, she takes her wedding photo out of a drawer and places it on her bedroom window sill.

Overall, I felt that this was a good but not great episode. While I appreciated that the writers didn’t go with the cliché of a bee killing Leah, I felt that the motive for her murder, the murder itself, and the exploration of rich guy clichés and stereotypes with Roland and Thom, to be a little over-the-top. I felt that this episode and the case were a little less realistic than others.

On a positive note, I appreciated the running gag of Reuben’s Café becoming a popular venue for hen’s lunches, and the little bit of back story on Alexa’s wedding.

Stray Observations:

Running gag – the hen’s lunches at Reuben’s Café.

-Lucy Lawless and Stephen Lovatt (Roland) previously worked together on Xena: Warrior Princess.

-According to Madison, Alexa needs to take her B6 level seriously.

-This episode marks the first time that Beth and Madison have physically appeared together in a scene.

-Beth has a deaf cousin who taught her how to lip read.

-Alexa reveals that there were four people at her wedding: her and her husband, Gary, and two friends from Police College. The friends were the witnesses and her dress was purple, because she didn’t own white and she couldn’t afford one. The reception was takeaway Chinese food. Their first dance was in a car park while a Datsun car stereo played Crowded House.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “Summer is the most criminal season of all, did you know that?” “Really? Then what’s the safest time of year?” “Spring, by a country mile.” (Alexa-Harry-Alexa)
• “You mean you didn’t invite me here for an ice-cream date?” “I didn’t know you wanted me to.” (Alexa-Harry)
• “You smooth talking devil!” (Alexa, jokingly, to Harry)
• “What in the H, E, double hockey sticks (hell), Reuben?” “I take it you didn’t do a hen’s lunch before your wedding?” “This interest in the bridal market better be a fad because that crowd looks very anti-carb.” “Trust me, these will be gone by midday, these hens are like wolves once the champagne starts.” (Alexa-Reuben going back and forth when Alexa sees a hen’s lunch at the café when she delivers her bread)
• “Rich bullies, they’re not very original.” (Alexa to Tallulah)
• “Are you taking off your shirt Reuben?” “No, they come for the excellent coffee and the nice view.” “Oh, you mean the Harbour, right?” (Alexa-Reuben-Alexa on the café becoming a popular hen’s lunch venue)