Ludwig Solves a Murder Close to Home in the Season Finale

It’s always the ones you least suspect, as the season finale of Ludwig kicks off with a shocking plot twist. The previous episode ended with Holly calling Lucy, saying she needed to speak to her about her husband. But if you thought we would see that meeting, you were wrong. Instead, the opening shot is of Holly’s dead body. It gets worse: Lucy is in front of a police car holding a bloody knife. EEEEK! 

Ludwig is bringing Lucy coffee in the morning (or so he thinks!) when the doorbell rings. DCS Shaw is at his doorstep to tell him that not only is Holly dead, but that his wife has been arrested on suspicion of murder. At the station, Carter thinks it must be a mistake. All Ludwig wants to do is see Lucy, but you can’t really let a Detective see his wife, who is also the main suspect. “That can’t be right. This can’t be real,” Ludwig says.

Carter is interrogating Lucy, who only wants to talk to her husband. “I have been arrested for the murder of your colleague... I just need to speak to somebody I know, please,” she begs. Carter says that can’t happen, but goes to get a drink of water, leaving behind his phone on the table. Lucy phones Ludwig and tells him it has to be deliberate that someone framed her.

The coroner’s report is Not Great, Bob! It ties the knife that killed Holly to the one from Lucy’s kitchen. Simon is conflicted. After all, he overheard the conversation between Holly and Ludwig, where she mentioned that she and James had kissed at the Christmas party. He finally tells Carter what he knows. Carter begins to question Ludwig. “What was the nature of your relationship with Holly Pinder?” Carter asks. When Ludwig says he doesn’t know, Carter wonders, “How can you not know whether or not you had an affair?” he demands. 

The jig, as the saying goes, is up. Ludwig can no longer maintain the ruse. “I’m not DCI James Taylor. I’m his brother John,” he finally confesses. Carter updates the rest of the team. The always sweet Simon is excited—his mom is a fan of Ludwig’s puzzles. Simon puts it together. Holly and James weren’t having an affair. Her question was a way to test if James was really James. A test that Ludwig failed miserably. 

Shawl goes to Holly’s apartment with Simon and Alice. They find Holly’s Wall of Tracking John and James, along with the file folders she kept on each of them. “I think this goes a bit beyond stalking,” Shaw says. “There are files here that are so restricted that even I don’t have access to them. Holly’s murder is not the only crime that’s been committed here.” Holly’s boyfriend, Adam, is also at the scene, wondering where she is and if she’s okay. (But Holly never talked about having a boyfriend!) Police have brought Henry to the station. “She didn’t do it,” Ludwig assures his nephew. “I’ll prove it.” Henry isn’t so sure that’s possible. Even though he knows it could cost him his job, Carter gives Ludwig all the evidence on Holly’s murder. The case is a puzzle only Ludwig can solve. 

After staying up all night and running different scenarios in his head, he tells Carter he wants to go to Holly’s apartment with Adam, the boyfriend, Lucy, and DCS Shaw. He has figured out how Lucy didn’t do it despite being in possession of the murder weapon. Carter wants him to tell him what he’s figured out. Somehow, Carter hasn’t learned that Ludwig prefers a big, dramatic reveal. 

Since the primary suspect can’t go to the scene of the crime, they recreate Holly’s kitchen at the station with a bunch of paper boxes. “They’re going to let me solve one more murder before I go to prison,” Ludwig cheerfully tells Lucy. He has figured out that the killer swapped knives while Lucy was on the floor, tending to Holly. The proof is that the knife in the knife block is off by a millimeter - that’s the knife Lucy brought with her. Turns out the jig is up for Adam, too. Ludwig tells Adam it would save everyone a great deal of time if he would just confess, which Adam promptly does. 

He was not, in fact, Holly’s boyfriend. Instead, he was someone Holly employed to help her acquire and sell sensitive police information to the highest bidder. She’s been the source of every leak. Holly was going to blackmail and extort Ludwig and Lucy. Adam killed her when he realized she wasn’t splitting the profits with him evenly. Roger Sinclair, the murder case James was taken off of, was one of Holly’s clients. 

But what to do about the fact that someone who is not a police detective has solved so many cases? If this gets out, every one of those cases will be reopened. Shaw has a plan. She has Ludwig sign James’ resignation letter. That way, they have proof that they had a detective, not an impostor, doing the investigations. “Outside of the whole lying to me about everything stuff. It’s been a pleasure working with you,” Carter tells him. But every time Ludwig thinks he’s out, they pull him back in. Carter comes to Lucy’s house with an offer to be a consultant with the police department. “We don’t want to lose the best detective we’ve never had,” he says. 

James leaves Ludwig a voicemail telling him he takes after their father. “I’m the bowerbird John. I’m the bowerbird,” James tells his brother. It’s a reference to a bird that leaves the nest and never comes back after its mate lays the eggs. Ludwig almost believes James abandoned his family before he realizes that the book about the bowerbird is the key to the cipher James left behind. He cracks the code, which leads them to the address of a storage unit. In the unit, they locate all the missing files from the Sinclair case that were allegedly stolen from the back of a police van. Ludwig realizes that in those files, there is probably a story that was true and important enough to kill over. As they load some of the files into their car, James watches his family from a distance.

In the final scene, we are once again at a crime scene with Ludwig solving his next murder puzzle while Carter, Simon, and Alice look on. The series, which has already been renewed for a second season, is ready for its next chapter.