Loveday Writing

This episode is all about chemistry.

The episode kicks off with Alexa on her way to see Harry and running into a man in boxers tied to a pole by his groomsmen during his buck’s party. Once she frees the soon-to-be groom, she meets up with Harry to be briefed on the case of the week – Margo Booth, a promising young scientist who was found dead six weeks ago due to carbon dioxide poisoning, as an unattended Bunsen burner set off the fire sprinklers, as she was working with dry ice an in enclosed space. WorkSafe investigated and ruled her death an accident, but her best friend, Keri-Anne, is unconvinced due to Margo’s attention to detail and safety consciousness. Harry also reveals that he can’t be involved in the investigation as one of Margo’s supervisors, Virginia, is his wife.

Alexa and Madison go to see Keri-Anne, who was also Margo’s housemate. Keri-Anne tells them that Margo didn’t make mistakes or ignore protocol. Keri-Anne also mentions that she herself is an English PhD student, and that Virginia was cracking the whip with Margo on her research.

Alexa goes to see Virginia after sending Madison off to find out whether Virginia working students too hard is a common experience. Alexa also meets Margo’s other supervisor, Duncan Lovell, who tells her that Margo threw herself into her research, but was impatient and that might have been why she accidentally didn’t follow safety protocols.

Later, Alexa brings dry ice back to her apartment and tests how long it would take for a gas cloud to form when she pours water over it, much to Madison’s concerns, which are justified when the cloud forms quicker than expected, and they have to leave the apartment for at least 45 minutes. Whilst they wait, Harry arrives, and he and Alexa talk about Virginia and Duncan. Harry makes it clear that he wants Alexa to focus on Duncan, as he also treated Virginia like a minion when she was a student.

When Alexa and Madison return to the apartment, they watch one of Margo’s videos which shows a shy research student in the background as her “safety buddy”. Later, when Alexa goes to see Duncan at the beach where he was surfing, he tells her that Margo had a strong work ethic and meticulous attention to detail, which is why she won the doctoral fellowship. He also mentions that another student, Caleb Moore, lost the fellowship but he and Virginia managed to find a part-time role for him, and the fellowship transferred to him after Margo died. Alexa and Madison look up Caleb and discover he was the other student in Margo’s video.

Alexa goes to Caleb’s office to speak with him and finds he didn’t like Margo, and believes her death nearly lost the research team all of their research. Later, Alexa goes to Caleb’s apartment and confronts him over the fact that he swiped his access card into the lab on Friday but never swiped out. He is clearly rattled by this and tells Alexa he is going to grab something and to wait for him. Whilst she waits, she notices blood on his fridge door and looks inside, surprised by what she sees, she takes a photo and leaves, just before Caleb comes back, dropping a pair of bloody medical gloves on his kitchen counter.

Later, Madison finds Keri-Anne running an ice-cream van, where she tells her that Caleb wouldn’t leave Margo alone at a party they attended and that she was going to report him for taking credit for her work. Meanwhile, Alexa sits with Duncan at the university, where he shares a muffin with her when Caleb rushes over to see her. When they speak in his office, Alexa tells him that she saw animal parts in his fridge and he shows her videos of himself fainting at the sight of the animal parts, and Margo helping him try to overcome his vasovagal response. Caleb also tells her that Keri-Anne wasn’t Margo’s friend. When Alexa calls Madison to relay this news, Madison notices that Keri-Anne has dry ice in her ice-cream cart.

When Alexa and Madison look into Keri-Anne, they discover that she has had several extensions to her PhD deadlines, and applied for a bereavement extension the day after Margo died. They go to Keri-Anne’s house where they witness her give a reading of her newly published novella. As Keri-Anne gives the reading, Alexa sneaks into Margo’s bedroom and notices that her notebooks are missing from her bookshelf, that were previously seen in her videos.

When Alexa and Madison rewatch more of Margo’s videos, they notice her mentioning Archimedes, this makes Alexa think of how Archimedes was known for having a breakthrough moment by shouting “Eureka!”, which makes them wonder if Margo went into the lab on her day off because she had a breakthrough and wanted to put it to the test.

When Alexa discusses her findings with Harry, he tells her that he and Virginia were best mates since high school and got married to help Virginia secure a student allowance so she could get through uni, and their friendship fell apart due to him pointing out that Virginia was Duncan’s minion.

Meanwhile, Madison sneaks into Duncan’s office and finds something in one of his cupboards. Alexa goes back to the beach where Duncan surfs and accuses him of riding on his student’s coattails. Madison later shows Alexa that she found Margo’s notebooks, and Alexa takes them to Caleb for him to decipher what her notes showed and what she discovered.

Alexa and Madison go to see Virginia and Duncan at the university lab, where Alexa reveals to them (and the audience) that Margo brought her discovery to Duncan, which made him jealous at the fact that a younger, female scientist was going to be a star, and take all the glory and research funds. He swapped his swipe card for Caleb’s and slept in the office, with Madison finding his sleeping bag in his office cupboard and Alexa finding it in his car later. Madison tells them that Caleb is writing up Margo’s research and discovery as they speak. When Margo discovered that Duncan wrote about her work without giving her credit, she threatened to go public. He then told her to meet him at the lab, locked her in and lit the Bunsen burner to set off the sprinklers. The police (sans Harry due to his conflict of interest) arrive to arrest Duncan.

The episode ends with Alexa witnessing Harry and Virginia making amends, with Harry telling her that they’ve signed divorce papers, and Virginia has established the Margo Booth Scholarship to provide financial support for young women studying chemical science.

Overall, I felt that this was a solid episode with a likeable murder victim, and a good variety of possible suspects, although a cliché motive. The reveal of Harry being married and apparently a commitment phobe was a bit of a surprise and some nice character development, however I don’t believe it really affected the outcome of the investigation and the episode, as Alexa and Madison follow their own rules and aren’t required to report to him.

Stray Observations:

-Madison has Alexa listed in her phone as “Work Wife”.