Loveday Writing

This episode is all about tennis and Alexa possibly meeting her match (and competitor).

Alexa meets up with Harry to be assigned the case of the week – Griff Springfield, a tennis pro and coach at the Kingston Racquet Club, who was found dead on the court, killed by a malfunctioning ball launcher. He was found by Callum Armstrong, the Club’s Assistant Coach. Harry also tells her that his widow, Verity, hired a private investigator, Christine Knox, to spy on him.

Alexa and Madison go to see Verity, who is busy ripping out her husband’s tennis court. Verity refuses to speak to them on Christine’s advice. They then go to the Club, where Alexa informs Madison that Christine has been following them around all day. Alexa then has Madison turn on the ball launcher machine and aim it at her to determine whether it could have really killed Griff.

Afterwards, Alexa decides to introduce herself to Christine by surprising her at her car. Alexa quickly deduces that Christine doesn’t have any leads, but Christine shows her photos of Griff comforting a woman at the Club’s tennis court. When Alexa goes to see Verity again, Verity tells her that the woman is Taylor Perkins, Griff’s star player, and that she and Griff had a prenup where he’d get nothing in the divorce. Later, Madison reveals to Alexa (and the audience) that Verity is the daughter of a media magnate and is wealthy in her own right.

When Alexa goes to see Taylor, she denies an affair as she saw Griff as a father-figure. When Alexa asks Taylor about her current coaching situation, she tells her that Callum is her coach now, but Griff used to call him “Mr. Soft Serve.” Meanwhile, Madison snoops around Callum’s office and finds a billiard ball in one of his drawers. After almost getting caught and having to purchase an expensive membership at the Club, Madison tells Alexa that the trash file on Griff’s computer was emptied two days after he died.

Later, Madison shows Alexa the recovered trash file, which is a video of Griff and Callum getting into a scuffle over Griff’s abuse towards Taylor during a training session. Madison later has a lesson with Callum and discovers that he has a temper as well. Later, Alexa and Christine break into Callum’s house to find out more, only to end up stuck in a wardrobe due to Callum coming home unexpectedly. Christine also admits that she was doing a stake out for another client on the night of Griff’s death and wasn’t actually with Verity like she claimed. They are both caught by Callum when they burst out of the wardrobe and criticise the song he wrote and played on a ukulele.

Later, as Madison is re-watching the training footage, she discovers that the ball launching machine used in the footage is the murder weapon, not the machine at the Club. Alexa eventually finds the Gator, which can launch balls at over 200km/h and target people, at Verity’s house, although Verity doesn’t know how it got there.

Eventually, Madison and Alexa investigate Christine further and discover that she used to be a champion gymnast who was forced into early retirement due to an injury caused by an abusive coach pushing her too hard. When Christine was following Griff and witnessing his abuse towards Taylor, it brought her old demons back up to the surface, and she killed him using the Gator.

The episode ends with Alexa, Madison, Harry, and Reuben playing tennis together at the Club, as Madison doesn’t want the expensive membership she had to buy to avoid getting caught snooping around, going to waste.

Overall, I felt that this episode should have been the premiere, due to Christine’s involvement. The PI being the murderer was a great twist and I appreciated the running gag of Christine following Alexa around, as well as their shenanigans when they broke into Callum’s house. However, I also felt that Christine was a missed opportunity – it would have been great to see her as a recurring character that helps Alexa, yet also butts heads with her – they would have made a great pair, as well as a good running gag throughout the season.

I also felt that the episode should have been the season premiere over the previous episode as the case of the week was more interesting overall and there was a lot more comic relief, which provided a good balance to the case and was well-paced throughout the episode.

Stray Observations:

-Reuben is a Serena Williams’ fan.

–Easter Egg: There is a sign on the Club fence that advertises the Compulsion Café, this Café was a key setting in the previous episode.  

Best one liners and interactions:

• “Nothing says moving on like digging up your dead husband’s tennis court.” (Alexa to Verity)
• “You know there are easier ways to solve a crime than turning the murder weapon on yourself.” (Madison to Alexa, on Alexa telling Madison to turn the ball launcher on her)
• “With divorce you get half, with death you don’t have to share.” (Alexa to Verity on her possible motive)
• “I didn’t do anything to provoke him, only what I’ve seen you do a million times.” (Madison to Alexa on her unintentionally provoking Callum’s temper)
• “I still don’t think you’re allowed to hide in someone’s wardrobe without a warrant.” (Callum to Alexa, on her and Christine breaking into his house and hiding in his wardrobe)
• “There’s no ‘I’ in team.” “No, but there’s two in Christine.” (Alexa-Christine after Christine tells Alexa she’ll be conducting her own investigation)