Loveday Writing

This episode is all about a fancy country club, a widow clique, a murder in a hyperbaric chamber, and a walk down the memory lane of Alexa’s past.

We kick off with Alexa going to meet Harry to get the details of the case of the week – Charlie Scott, 61, killed in an explosion of a hyperbaric chamber in the wellness centre of the exclusive Southern Isle Country Club. According to the coroner, the combustion was caused by a hearing aid that Charlie wore inside the chamber, as the battery in it sparked a fire, which led to the explosion. Harry has asked her to look into as he keeps getting calls from Charlie’s golf partner, Donovan Hufnagle, who told him that he and Charlie were locked in a sauna two weeks before Charlie’s death, and believes this was deliberate. Harry tells Alexa that Donovan believes that a group of “golf widows” are behind Charlie’s murder.

Alexa and Madison research the Club and the widows. The three widows are Donovan’s wife, Nadia, Iris Coddington, and Charlie’s widow, Phoebe Scott, who has a new boyfriend, Ray Jones. Alexa and Madison discover that the Club only allows men to be full members and women can only join as an associate member. This leads to Alexa taking Will with her to the Club to pose as her husband, with Madison doing the same with Reuben. They meet Ricardo Curry, the Executive Club Manager, who signs them all up.

Alexa quickly finds the “golf widows,” where she discovers that Iris lost her husband, Jakob, years ago, and apparently predicted a recent accident that Ray experienced. Meanwhile, Will gets to know Ray on the golf course and Madison snoops around the sauna, discovering that the door can’t be locked but did find pieces of rubber on the floor nearby, suggesting that the door could have been wedged shut. Alexa also realises that Ray and Phoebe had been having an affair before Charlie died as they went on a skiing holiday, and the last skiing season took place months before Charlie’s death.

Later, Alexa meets up with the golf widows for a pedicure and Madison snoops around the locker rooms at the Club. Iris tells Alexa that Charlie was an old git but Phoebe was sweet, but stuck in a loveless marriage, and that Charlie was diagnosed with prostate cancer shortly before his death. Madison later runs into Phoebe and Ray hooking up in the bathrooms, where Phoebe tells Madison that she let Ray leave his stuff in her locker. This allows Madison to dig up the info on him that she needs.

Later, Alexa and Madison meet up, where Alexa reveals Charlie’s cancer diagnosis, which means that Phoebe would have inherited everything anyway, to Madison, and in turn Madison reveals that Phoebe booked a holiday for her and Charlie, eliminating Phoebe as a suspect as she has no motive. Meanwhile back at the Club, Ray finds Will on the driving range, where Will reveals his past to Ray, and Ray tells him that he was deported after serving time for reckless driving. When Will reveals Alexa’s name to Ray, Ray is clearly spooked.

Later, Alexa goes looking for Ray after finding out that Phoebe broke up with him via email and he was just a little too reasonable about it, however he drives away from her as she tries to catch up to him. However, she does manage to run into him when she goes to Phoebe’s house for a tarot card reading from Iris and he comes home from work. When they lock eyes on each other, she also recognises him and is spooked enough to run back home. When Madison gets home, she tells him that Ray killed Charlie.

The following day, Alexa is following Ray around and calls Harry to get him to run a background check on him. When Ray finds Will on the golf course, he asks Will if Alexa ever mentioned him and that he just wants to live his life, but Will has no idea what he is talking about. When Madison gets home, Alexa abruptly leaves, mentioning Raynor Jones. Noticing Alexa’s strange behaviour, Madison looks at her laptop only to be caught in the act by Will. Madison tells Will that Alexa found evidence that Ray was nowhere near Charlie when he died and questions why Alexa would still be investigating him.

When Will tells Madison that Ray was deported after serving time for careless driving, Madison looks into the deportation records and discovers he served time because he killed someone, Alexa’s husband. As they are discovering this, Alexa is shown following Ray on the golf course, finding a broken club along the way, and eventually catches up with him, as he is trying to collect disposed but expensive golf balls off the course.

Ray tells her that he didn’t mean to kill Gary, he saw the police and he had stolen gear in his car and panicked, he didn’t see him. However, Alexa points out to Ray that he didn’t stop either and hid his car in his mate’s garage for days before he was caught. Ray asks Alexa what she wants from him, but she tells him that isn’t the right question and approaches him angrily.

We then cut to the next morning with Alexa back at home and Madison relieved to see her, as she and Will had been looking for her all night. Madison tells her she knows about Ray and what he did and asks Alexa where she was all night. Alexa tells her she wanted to talk to Ray as she felt she owed it to Gary and herself, and that she wanted him to know who Gary was and what he meant. Alexa wanted Ray to know what his actions cost her.

The episode ends with Harry going to the Club and being brought to the golf course where Ray’s dead body has been found in a bunker.

This episode is the series’ first two-parter and when I saw its title, I knew it had to be a two-parter for a reason. The reason being that a murder suspect was responsible for Alexa’s late husband’s death was a twist I certainly didn’t see coming.

It was a good twist as it was subtly built up from Ray’s backstory, to the way he reacted when he heard about Alexa, to their reactions when they finally saw each other. I appreciated that we finally got the back story on Gary’s death, which Alexa was grieving during the first season, and it was fitting that it was explored in an episode where a group of widows are murder suspects. I found the ending of the episode to be a little predictable, the only way to make the episode a smooth two-parter would be to kill off Ray and obviously Alexa didn’t kill him, it’s not in character and would be way too easy.

On a more humorous note, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Will and Reuben essentially being used as fake husbands, with Will clearly enjoying himself (with the exception of golfing). I also appreciated seeing Will and Madison working together and enjoying themselves, and Reuben again playing a part in the investigation.

While I know Alexa didn’t kill Ray and we are clearly going to find out who did in part two, it will still be interesting to see where we go from here, and how the fourth season closes.

Stray Observations:

-Reuben loves golf.

-Alexa hates having her feet touched.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “In my experience, most murderers don’t start chat groups.” (Alexa to Donovan)
• “There’s an Italian degustation at the restaurant tonight.” “We should definitely investigate that.” (Madison-Will)