Loveday Writing

The job of a season premiere is to establish story arcs for this season. My Life is Murder generally has self-contained episodes, so it doesn’t have this job.

The episode and season kicks off with Alexa running into a walking group before meeting up with Harry to get the first case of the season – Wyatt Rutherford, a retired pro rugby player turned fitness influencer, who died in his home gym’s ice bath during his fitness routine, which he livestreamed. A lethal amount of fentanyl was found in his system. When Alexa asks Harry why he’s entertaining the possibility that his death was a murder, he tells her that a hashtag and blog, #StayceeDeservesAnswers has gone viral, with its audience playing “online detective”, however their theories do hold water.

Harry tells her that his agent, Terrence Scott, is a prime suspect, who represents both Wyatt, Wyatt’s cheerleader girlfriend, Staycee, and the Air Attack Cheer Squad, Wyatt’s team’s cheer squad.

Alexa speaks with Terrence in his office. Terrence tells her that Wyatt was obsessed with fitness and clean living, and that he is more interesting dead than he was alive. When Alexa points out this makes him a prime suspect as he benefitted hugely from Wyatt’s career, he is quick to kick Alexa out.

Alexa then goes to speak with the Air Attack Squad, meeting the coach, Greer Reid, who also has a daughter in the squad. She also meets Laurel, one of the cheerleaders, who is one of the online detectives and keen to help Alexa, unlike Greer and the rest of the squad. Meanwhile, Madison is at Reuben’s, checking out Wyatt’s and Staycee’s online profiles, admiring their gorgeous bathroom and bedroom.

Later; Alexa, Harry and Madison go to Wyatt’s house to see where he would stash opioids. Madison doesn’t find the bathroom and bedroom that she saw online, instead they find the wallpaper and bed linen seen online in a box in Wyatt’s garage. Alexa and Madison realise that Wyatt lived in the house without Staycee because they weren’t a couple at all.

Alexa goes back to Terrence’s office to confirm hers and Madison’s theory, which he does, and tells her that them pretending to be a couple benefitted both of their careers, but he also provided them with an exit strategy in their contracts. When Alexa talks to Staycee about it, she reveals that she and Wyatt rarely hung out, and that the bathroom and bedroom Madison saw online is in Terrence’s house. Alexa then speaks with another cheerleader, Mindy, who is also Greer’s daughter, but she is reluctant to speak with her.

The cheerleaders’ reluctance to speak with Alexa leads to Maddie going undercover as a sports blogger to speak with them. Laurel approaches Maddie, knowing that she is working with Alexa, and shows Maddie her locker, where Maddie figures out that she is the #StayceeDeservesAnswers site administrator. When they hear the locker room door open, they hide in the stall, Staycee and Mindy walk in, and they overhear Staycee refer to Wyatt as a “weak link”. When Staycee sees shadows in the bathroom stall, she signals to Mindy that they should leave.

Later, Alexa meets Terrence at Wyatt’s house, she tells him that she figured out that Wyatt absorbed the fentanyl through his skin, but as he started the livestream and ice baths from scratch, the murderer couldn’t have poisoned the water, but the ice cubes. To poison the ice cubes with fentanyl and for it to be effective, the murderer would have had to have done it days before, which means none of the cheer squad actually have an alibi.

Back at Alexa’s apartment, Alexa tells Madison that as Wyatt died on a Wednesday, and he livestreamed a previous ice bath two days earlier, the murderer would have had to poison the ice in-between the livestreams. Alexa tells her that Terrence claimed that he was watching swimming time trials in Wellington, which Madison points out that they can easily verify. When they speak with the cheerleaders, they all give Alexa and Madison the same alibi about being at a slumber party. Greer also mentions to Alexa that she wasn’t at the party as her father recently passed away and she goes to his house once a week to pack it up.

Later, Alexa, Madison and Laurel go to the locker room to make a copy of Mindy’s hard drive, where they discover that she and Wyatt were dating. Alexa talks to Terrence about the messages between Mindy and Wyatt. He tells her that Mindy was pressuring Wyatt to give up on the showmance between him and Staycee, but he talked him out of it, due to how he would be perceived if he and Mindy went public with their relationship. During the cheerleaders’ training session, which Alexa and Terrence witness, Mindy drops Laurel and runs off.

Alexa goes after Mindy and asks her where she was when Wyatt died. She tells Alexa that she came to his house earlier that day to say goodbye to him, Alexa figures out from her that someone else was there, but she won’t say who. Harry later tells Alexa that Mindy quit the squad and has run off to Australia.

Alexa and Madison go to see Laurel at her home. Laurel tells her that Greer brought her painkillers and Terrence drops by to bring her flowers. When Alexa later goes to see Greer and questions Mindy’s departure from the squad and her relationship with Wyatt, Greer confides in Alexa her frustrations when women with opportunities throw them away for mediocrity.

Alexa eventually figures out that Greer was Wyatt’s murderer, telling her and the audience that she was trying to make positive changes for her daughter and young women in the cheerleading industry, only to have to put up with the showmance taking away the attention from the squad’s talents. Mindy falling in love with Wyatt only increased tensions in the squad, as well as between them as Mindy was ignored her advice to not let a man get between them. The last straw was her finding Mindy at Wyatt’s place and forcing her out of there, she then poisoned his ice for the ice bath with the liquid fentanyl that belonged to her father on the way out. Greer is then arrested.

The episode ends with Alexa, Harry, Reuben and Madison going on the Coast to Coast Walk together.

Overall, I felt that this was a weak start to the season, as the cause of death and the way the murder was conducted was predictable. However, I appreciated that the motive wasn’t cliché, as well as Laurel’s appearance as comic relief.

Stray Observations:

Running narrative thread: Alexa trying to get the gang to walk the Coast to Coast Walkway with her.

-According to Madison, navy sheets are a red flag when it comes to dating.

-Alexa can pick a lock with a credit card and a broken bit of plastic.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “Crimes against interior design aren’t exactly evidence.” (Harry to Madison)