'Grantchester' Season 9's Penultimate Episode Finally Begins to Tie Its Stories Together

Much like most of the episodes that preceded it, the penultimate installment of Grantchester Season 9 is a mixed bag. An hour that finally sees several of the season's seemingly disparate story threads come together in a way that indicates its most annoying subplots were meant to be irritating on purpose, it certainly sets the table for a finale with unusually high personal stakes for several characters. 

To the likely surprise of no one, the mysterious girl who called herself "Petra" that Alphy slept with last week plays a big part here. As the episode opens, she's gone missing, which is slightly concerning for many reasons, not the least of which is that Alphy is probably the last person who saw her before she vanished. Her real name is Caroline Stansham, and she's the daughter of a wealthy plastics manufacturer who spends her time slumming in dive bars and writing for a mean-spirited satirical college paper called The Honest Duck. 

The twist here, of course, is that there's nothing at all wrong with Petra/Caroline. She's fine and has spent the last two weeks on a romantic bender with her boy toy, ignoring her father's frantic attempts to find her and paying zero attention to the hubbub surrounding her disappearance. It's all very typical bougie rich girl problems, save for the fact that her boyfriend is someone we're reasonably familiar with: The infamous street preacher Sam White. (Unfortunately, he's not the dead body in the episode's second act. We should be so lucky.)

That honor goes to Innes, one of the scuzzy guys in charge of The Honest Duck. The paper, which seems to do very little more than publish crass innuendo, rude jokes, and campus scandal in the name of being "edgy," is constantly at odds with the school establishment, likely because its pages keep implying various students and faculty members are engaged in salacious sexual escapades (often with one another). Innes and his co-editor, a slimeball named Nigel, are both classist and misogynistic, cruel purely for the sake of it, and generally give off a vibe that screams future sex offender. That one of them turns up dead after taking racy blackmail pictures of their faculty advisor and his gay lover is maybe the least surprising thing that happens during this episode. 

Alphy, setting what must surely be some sort of Grantchester record for hooking up with both a potential victim and the episode's surprise murderer (who is technically the same person), ultimately figures out what's going on. Petra/Caroline was not only the photographer behind the sketchy photos of Delgado; she also killed Innes, but not for the reasons you might expect. No, the paper was planning on running some sort of salacious hit piece on Sam, and in order to protect him, she prevented it from running in the most drastic way possible.

What's particularly galling is how utterly nonchalant Caroline is about it all. It's unclear whether her laissez-faire attitude toward murder is due to Sam's influence — he's convinced her that his work is so important nothing else matters — or just because she generally feels untouchable since she's rich and her family's influential. Either way, Alphy definitely dodged a bullet. 

In other things I was 100% right about: Sam sucks, a gospel that yours truly has been preaching since this season's second episode. Technically, he more than sucks; he's a bully and a narcissist who's this close to being a cult leader. How this is true is perhaps Season 9's greatest mystery — Sam really isn't charming, interesting, or handsome enough to explain why everyone in the village aside from Leonard is so obsessed with him. 

Sam's initial group of do-gooders has expanded to a Manson-like circle of partiers that have dubbed themselves the Way Finders. They've taken over poor Leonard's halfway house to the point that he can no longer admit any of the struggling homeless folks he designed the service around. And despite their constant references to their "movement" and its "important" work, none of the Way Finders seem to be doing all that much to help people. 

Since we are living in a golden age of scammers right now, Sam's success probably shouldn't feel as surprising as it does. He's sleeping with Petra while using her to access her father's money, even as he's busy flirting with/emotionally manipulating Daniel into selling his own home in the name of...whatever it is they claim they're doing. To be fair, we probably didn't need to see him explicitly threatening Leonard and calling him names to know that Sam was bad news, but it's certainly effective from a narrative standpoint. (I mean, let's put it this way: I didn't like him before this moment. Now I want him to get run over by a car. Leave Leonard alone!)

(Given what a creep Sam has turned out to be, does anyone else feel a little extra gross that he's also pretty much the reason Will left? I mean....this is the guy you thought you needed to emulate?)

Like many things in Season 9, the pacing of this plot has not done it any favors. While it is a relief to know that Daniel's awful behavior is at least partially due to him being brainwashed and/or manipulated by a talented grifter, Grantchester has done a pretty poor job explaining why he would fall for Sam's spiel in the first place. 

Is he unhappy with Leonard? If so, why? Is he genuinely missing his family? When did that start, exactly? And is he truly as jealous of his boyfriend as he suddenly seems to be? The show hasn't really bothered to explore or explain any of these aspects of the story, content for Daniel's behavior to simply be whatever the plot requires it to be, whether his actions make sense or not.

Grantchester Season 9 continues with new episodes every Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on most PBS stations, the PBS app, and the PBS Masterpiece channel, and will air and stream weekly through August 4, 2024. All eight episodes are available as a binge for members on PBS Passport. As always, check your local streaming service/listings.

What makes it all doubly frustrating is that Daniel seems so taken with Sam's ministry, when it's Leonard's we're watching change lives in real-time. The most surprising moment of this episode has nothing to do with murder, Alphy's sex life, or the fact that the Way Finders (including Daniel) appear to have suddenly disappeared from Grantchester en masse. 

No, it's how kind Geordie is toward Delgado when he witnesses his very real fear about his sexuality being exposed. He handles a difficult moment with gentleness and unexpected grace, purposefully sparing a stranger's suffering for no other reason other than he can. It's so clearly an example of Leonard's influence at work in the world of the village, a satisfying real-life reminder of the good he's doing (and the change he's bringing about) simply by being himself and living his truth. No donations required.

Stupid Sam could never. 

Grantchester Season 9 continues with new episodes every Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on most PBS stations, the PBS app, and the PBS Masterpiece channel, and will air and stream weekly through August 4, 2024. All eight episodes are available as a binge for members on PBS Passport. As always, check your local streaming service/listings.