The More Things Change, the More Things Stay the Same as 'Miss Scarlet & The Duke' Season 4 Begins

As the popular mystery series Miss Scarlet & The Duke enters its fourth season, it's time to ask some difficult questions. The Season 4 premiere, an hour that sees William and Eliza team up to investigate a burglary in an elite brothel that caters to the powerful and influential, is a solid enough episode. But as a follow-up to the big events of the third season finale, it's difficult to see it as anything other than a letdown. And as the show appears to revert to its proverbial mean once again, isn't it fair to ask how long this cycle can reasonably be expected to continue?

The larger mystery of "Elysium" is a serviceable one. It's not the most compelling story the show's ever told, but it boasts an interesting new setting that we'll almost certainly revisit at some point in the weeks to come. There's a lot of table setting: reminding us where we last left particular characters, introducing new faces, and updating us on what's changed — and what hasn't — since last we saw all these people. It's hardly the worst episode of Miss Scarlet to date. But it's a far cry from what many of us (read: me) came into this hour expecting. 

Because, at its heart, much of "Elysium" feels like something we've seen before. Sure some of the circumstances have changed — both William and Eliza are more successful professionally than they've ever been, at least on paper — but the larger beats are well-trod ones. Yes, there's something comforting and familiar about watching these two workaholic dummies who can't seem to communicate their way out of a paper bag doing the same will they / won't they dance they always do. Kate Phillips and Stuart Martin have the kind of chemistry that makes virtually anything fun to watch and the writing remains as crackling and entertaining as it has ever been. But while some things have changed at the periphery of this story, its center remains very much the same, for both good and ill.

Part of the reason this all feels so disappointing is that the end of Miss Scarlet Season 3 promised some significant changes. Eliza, a female private investigator determined to make her own way in the world and continue the legacy of her dead father's detective agency had decided to go work for Patrick Nash. Hanging up her small business shingle to take over the London office of his investigative empire, Eliza's finally going to get access to the kind of staff, funding, and other resources she longed for, but never quite managed to achieve on her own. 

Elsewhere, William got dumped by his girlfriend Arabella, complete with a speech about how she wasn't all that interested in competing for the affection of a man who was so clearly in love with someone else. While most of us watching at home were well aware of the Duke's feelings, this news seemed to come as something of a shock to the man himself, in a way that suggested perhaps the new season might finally try to address the messy emotional tangle of what its two leads mean to one another.

But, sadly, the Season 4 premiere seems more interested in re-establishing the series' status quo than exploring how Miss Scarlet might shake things up or push its boundaries toward something new. Because despite all the changes last season's finale promised, not many of them have materialized (at least not yet). Yes, Eliza has taken over Nash's business, but she's as alone and broke as she's ever been. The men who worked there have all quit en masse and most of Nash's former clients have decamped, all refusing to work with or for a woman. (Are that many other firms out there hiring detectives??) It's so desperate that Eliza's paying actors to pretend to be her staff in the hopes that she can get a local police newspaper to write a puff piece on her that might drum up some new business. 

As for William, life at Scotland Yard is busier than ever. He and his detectives are overworked and overstressed, assigned an ever-increasing area to patrol and trying to juggle a seemingly unending new caseload, all under the watchful eye of a commissioner who basically hates his guts. He and Eliza have both been so busy that they haven't seen much of one another since his break-up with Arabella. And although Miss Scarlet hints that things are awkward between them because of the break-up and the unresolved emotions between them that relationship gave rise to, it never comes right out and says so. (William's behavior, at least thus far, doesn't really read as that of a man who has suddenly understood that he's in love with his best friend, either.)

In short, almost everything has changed for them, and somehow also nothing at all is any different. 

The bulk of the episode follows the show's normal pattern: The pair avoid and keep things from each other before finally seeing that they're better off solving the case together. And they ultimately realize how much they've missed one another's company and suddenly their monthly dinners together are back on. Yay? I mean, yes, of course, yay, this show doesn't work if William and Eliza aren't finding some way to be in each others' lives, but how many times have we watched some version of this same exact scene play out? At what point does. or should, the show try something different? William telling Eliza she looks beautiful is a surprisingly delightful little moment, but...really, that's it? (To be fair, I initially was so shocked by that moment I immediately assumed it was about to be a dream sequence, so clearly it's a a rare thing.) 

Plenty of shows before Miss Scarlet have bent over backward trying to keep their will they / won't they leads apart, so this move isn't exactly surprising from a larger genre perspective. But so much about this show has been about breaking the mold of what has come before, and so much of last season's final episode was about pushing its story in a new direction, that it's...well, it's disappointing to be faced with yet another status quo ante.

There is an awful lot to like about "Elysium," though, if only from a set-up perspective. We've almost certainly not seen the last of brothel madam Hera, who is another great example of Miss Scarlet's dedication to telling stories about nontraditional female characters. Yes, she's a high-end madam, but the show doesn't judge her for the choices she has to make as a woman trying to survive in a man's world. (Instead, the show saves its quiet ire for the men who take advantage of her services and expect to hide their clandestine behavior from their wives at home.)

The show has finally found a way to organically draw Ivy into the story, deploying her voracious new love of reading as a tool to help Eliza plow through files and evidence at her suddenly very empty and understaffed office. Fitzroy, who's still adorable, and Phelps, who's still awful but at least slightly less irritating than before, are firmly installed as the Duke's right hands at Scotland Yard. Felix Scott's Nash doesn't appear onscreen during this hour, but still maintains a presence, if only because he'll undoubtedly have something to say once he finds out that 98% of his employees have quit. Eliza has even managed to acquire a new shady former criminal to work alongside Nash & Sons while Moses is off in Jamaica. (Don't get me wrong, Clarence is actually kind of awesome, but it's clear which role he's destined to fill on this canvas, and Moses is a figure I'm sorry to lose.) 

There's plenty of promise in this hour, even as sitting through what feels like yet another reset of the Eliza/William relationship is frustrating for its own sake. As for whether anything on that front will actually change now that so much around the show's central pair has...well, we'll have to wait and see.