A Mother's Love Turns Deadly in 'The Marlow Murder Club's “Death on the Close: Part 2”

The Marlow Murder Club has solved another murder, but this one may not feel as victorious as the others. The body found at the end of "Death on the Close: Part 1" belonged to Seb Teller, who was murdered in June 2009 when he was only 20 years old. Even though his remains were found on Grace's (Nina Sosanya) dig site, Judith's archeologist training revealed that rain erosion probably moved the body…from the Butlers' back garden. 

Two bodies in such proximity couldn't be a coincidence, right? Judith and the rest of the MMC certainly didn't believe so. After crashing another police debriefing, Judith realized that Seb and the original victim, Louis Oldham, were born in the same year, and both men were from Maidenhead. The murders took place 15 years apart, but why would two men in the same year at school, from the same place, be murdered in the same small town, they allegedly had no connection to? This couldn't be a coincidence, indeed! 

The discovery of Seb's body opened up several new lines of questioning. Still, neither the Butlers nor the Wingroves were interested in talking to the police about the ladies of the MMC. Even when the Butlers were officially brought in for questioning when it was discovered they had yardwork done shortly before Seb's murder, no one was willing to give any information that actually moved the needle in the investigation. Suzie was able to get Grace to confess that she was the one planting garbage and rotting food in the Wingrove's property to speed up their moving out, but the property developer refused to cop to murder. 

It wasn't until Tom Teller (Pete Lee Wilson), Seb's father, came creeping around Judith's house that the MMC made a break in the case. He and Judith sat down for a cup of tea just as Becks and Suzie arrived to announce they dug around Seb's old social media and discovered that he and Louis were in the same band together. Tom revealed that he hadn't seen Louis in fifteen years until the loan consultant showed up at Seb's mother's funeral a couple of weeks prior. 

Both Tom and Louis knew that Seb wouldn't have missed the funeral for anything in the world, which meant he definitely had to be dead instead of missing. Louis told Tom that he hadn't seen Seb since he blew off a gig for their band a decade and a half earlier, which reminded Tom that Seb got distracted by "a posh bird in Marlow." 

This new lead, as well as Tanika informing the MMC that Seb was killed with a blunt force object that was treated in tung oil. This led the ladies to question Cricket-loving Phil Wingrove (Patrick Robinson). They still believed that Louis' murderer had to be a man to move the body. They managed to get Phil to admit he had thrown a bloody knife he found in his garden in the lake, so the police investigation wouldn't ruin the family's move to France to be with their daughter, Evie. 

As soon as Phil mentioned that he would do anything for Evie, Judith's puzzle-oriented brain put the pieces together. The "posh bird in Marlow" that Seb Teller went to visit instead of going to his gig was Evie Wingrove, meaning that someone in the Wingrove family was the last to see Seb Teller alive – and that person was probably the same person who killed Louis Oldham when he got too close to the truth. 

Judith's theory took the trio to Caroline Wingrove (Samantha Womack), who confessed to everything. Seb was Evie's controlling and borderline abusive ex-boyfriend. The younger Wingrove dumped him, but he came by the house looking to see her when Caroline was alone, and got angry when Caroline refused to let him see her daughter. They got into an argument and Caroline shoved him, causing him to fall backwards and fatally hit his head on the Wingrove's custom staircase, treated with Tung Oil. 

Kerry Butler (Florence Keith-Roach) heard the argument next door and came to check on Caroline. She insisted they call the police when she discovered Seb's body, but Caroline refused. So the two women carried the body to the Butlers' back garden and buried Seb under the new pergola. They hadn't spoken about it in 15 years, but it was why Kerry was so upset when she discovered the Wingroves had sold out and were moving to France without telling the Butlers. They would have made a clean escape, too, if Louis hadn't come around asking questions. 

He knew that Seb had come to see Evie before he disappeared, and he was going to tell the police that Caroline Wingrove knew something about the disappearance. So she stabbed Louis, planted his wallet and other evidence in the woods to misdirect the police, but she forgot about the knife. She ditched it in her back garden, where her husband found it and disposed of it before the police could connect the couple more closely to the murder. 

Caroline Wingrove committed the first murder in self-defense and the second murder to protect her family's dreams of being together and helping Evie raise her firstborn child. However, no mystery is too tough for The Marlow Murder Club to untangle, and Caroline will instead spend a significant amount of time in prison rather than seeing her grandchild grow up. At least Grace will finally get to start her housing development. (That doesn't feel like the win that it should be, though.) 

The episode did bring answers to the other two looming, more personal mysteries, though. Judith discovered a cache of letters from Aunt Jess and her secret lover, Nathan. The letters revealed that Nathan was married, but he and Aunt Jess carried on an emotional affair for years, until he died in 1972. The final letter was a flyer from the funeral inviting Jess to come say goodbye. 

Jess never opened the letter, but Becks did some investigating of her own and discovered that Aunt Jess and Nathan were buried next to each other in the church cemetery. They weren't able to be together in life, but they were able to lie together in death. 

And Becks finally revealed what she'd been up to with all her sneaking off. No, it wasn't an affair. She had Daniel, the charming art teacher, help her design a tattoo, which took multiple sessions to complete, on her upper thigh. The audience didn't get a clear look at the new ink, but she showed it off to Judith and Suzie, who were very impressed with their friend's bold decision. 

At least the ladies got a happy ending, and next week they'll start investigating yet another case. Let's hope that one is not as depressing. 

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.