'Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries' Season 1, Episode 8 Recap: "Away With The Fairies"

The Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries' cold open begins with a lady dunking her paintbrushes in water as she finishes work for the day. She starts up a music box to keep her bird company as she gets ready to leave. But the bird dies, and then she does too. The next morning, Dot is full of news of the woman's death. She was Marcella Lavender (Heather Bolton), the editor-in-chief at the Women's Choice Magazine, and the writer behind the serial Blue Fairies, starring Marvin the Malevolent Monitor Lizard. (Dot is a fan.) Lavender was Miss Fisher's teacher at school, as was the assistant editor, Georgina Charlesworth (Deborah Kennedy), so she heads over to give her condolences.

Charlesworth: (Approvingly) You're a shameless opportunist.

At the magazine's headquarters, she walks in on an extensive crime scene. There's not just a body, the window's broken, and "BITCH" was left scrawled on the wall. Collins and Robinson are on site, trying to keep the murder scene clear. Charlesworth and Fisher head to the breakroom, where Miss Lavender's coworkers are catty over her passing. They are Helen Opie (Roz Hammond), the food editor, Letitia Prout (Anna McGahan), fashion and social editor, and John Bell (Peter Stefanou), the token male, writes about gardening under a women's pseudonym, though he's an Italian charmer whose real name is Giovanni. Steven (Jim Russell), the facilities manager who found the body, is Helen's husband. He says he found Miss Lavender in the morning when he came to fix the pipes, and let himself in with the master key.