'The Marlow Murder Club' Wraps Up “Death Comes To Marlow” with a Bit of Hijinx

The Marlow Murder Club Season 2 investigation has officially gone covert. The police have put the case on the "back burner" because the evidence points to Sir Peter's death being an accident. DS Tanika Malik (Natalie Dew) agrees with our central trio that something suspicious definitely happened in that study, though, and she's working with the MMC to find out more about who had it out for Sir Peter. His eldest son, Tristram (Tom Stourton), is still the primary suspect, even though he was in the garden at the time of Sir Peter's "accident". 

Clearly, he was working with someone, and the ladies had his potential accomplice in their crosshairs. Sarah Fitzherbert (Mogali Masuku) serves coffee at the Marlow train station. Judith (Samantha Bond) and Becks (Cara Horgan) stopped by for a drink with the clever ruse of baiting Sarah into conversation with a fake story about Becks' alleged hot-and-cold boyfriend. Sarah takes the bait and reveals that she and Tristam are high school sweethearts who can't stay away from each other. Judith doesn't seem to understand the point of a covert mission because after Sarah's confession, she point-blank asks where Sarah was at the time of Sir Peter's murder. It's safe to say that Sarah will report the two ladies getting into her business to Tristram. 

Unfortunately for Sarah, telling Tristram about the encounter leads to a devastating end that no one expected. 

Sarah does tell Tristram about meeting Judith and Becks at her coffee cart, and he immediately responds in anger. The next time we see Sarah, her dead body is being examined by the police after her neighbors find her. She overdosed on rat poison that's found all over Tristram's glove compartment. That makes it easy for officers to bring him in for questioning, but the obvious evidence doesn't sit right with Judith. Sir Peter's death was meticulously planned. Why would Tristram get messy when he knows he'd be the first suspect if anything happened to Sarah? 

Those are big questions Judith doesn't have time to answer because she's actually juggling two mysteries. She hasn't been able to let the crossword puzzle clues she solves daily go, and she follows them to the next big break in the case. The clues lead her to a coffee shop, where she meets a married couple who reveal how the puzzle has brought spice back into their long-married relationship. It's a lovely story, but more importantly, a well-timed glass of water helps Judith piece together an important piece of timing when it comes to Sir Peter's murder. 

The trio previously figured out that Lady Bailey (Caroline Langrishe) was the woman in posh hunting boots standing in the flower bed outside of Sir Peter's office. When confronted about her sneaky attendance at the garden party, Lady Bailey says she was walking away from the party at 3 p.m. when the bookcase fell on Sir Peter, and she remembers that because the sun shining in the window made it impossible for her to see into the study. When Judith sees the sun pour through the water carafe at the cafe, she realizes that Lady Bailey lied about the timing because the sun wasn't properly positioned at 3 p.m. to shine into the study from where Lady Bailey claims she was at the time the bookcase fell on Sir Peter. 

Confused? Don't worry, so are Becks and Suzie (Jo Martin) when Judith tries to explain it to them. She insists that the most important thing is they warn Jenny (Yuna Shin) that Tristram will be coming for her when the police let him out of questioning. 

True to Judith's word, Tristram does return to the estate to take out Jenny, but there's a lot more to Judith's theory than she lets on. Tristram is arrested by the police again after his attack, leaving Becks and Suzie allegedly cross with Judith for putting Jenny in such danger. They storm out, leaving Judith and Jenny alone, allowing Judith to present her full findings to Sir Peter's ex-fiancée. She turns on Jenny and reveals that Tristram was responsible for Sir Peter's death and had an accomplice, but it wasn't Sarah. It was Jenny. 

The pair met when she was working in France and fell in love. They hatched the entire scheme for Jenny to come to the U.K., be Sir Peter's nurse, make him fall in love, and then kill him to allow Tristram to inherit the entire estate. After the dust settled, they would announce their romance and enjoy Sir Peter's riches together. 

Jenny led Sir Peter to the study after her freak-out in the garden, bashed him over the head, and left him in the wrecked study. She went upstairs and lit a fuse of magnesium tape that ran from Sir Peter's bedroom fireplace to the hook holding the bookcase in place. Rosanna mistook Jenny lighting the fuse for her lighting a cigarette, and the flame from the tape is the flare of light that Lady Bailey saw from the stables. When the fuse ran out, the bookcase fell on Sir Peter's body, making everyone believe that it was the source of the lethal blunt force trauma. 

Everything would have gone to plan if it weren't for Sir Peter's new will, which Jenny only discovered when the lawyer showed up. She stole it from the safe in the bedroom because it gave her a motive for the murder. She would have destroyed it if she hadn't found out that Tristram was still seeing Sarah, and the barista was a threat to Jenny's plan to become the next Lady Bailey. She tore up the will and left it on the compost pile for the gardener to find. She poured rat poison into Sarah's water and framed Tristram for the crime. 

Jenny confesses all of this to Judith, thinking they are alone. But the fight between the MMC girls wasn't real. It was a ruse to make Jenny believe she was safe and to allow Tanika time to sneak back into the house after Tristram's arrest. The DS recorded Jenny's confession on her phone. 

That's another mystery solved for the trio. They should get honorary police status at this point – and it means we're looking at a whole new mystery in the upcoming episodes. How many dead bodies can show up in this small town before people realize that it's not actually a safe place to live?

The Marlow Murder Club Season 2 continues Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on most local PBS stations, the PBS app, and the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel. All six episodes of Season 2 are available for members via PBS Passport. Season 1 is also available for PBS Passport members; Season 3 has already been greenlit. Check your local listings.