'Miss Scarlet' Needs More Help Than "The Guild" Can Offer

Two episodes into the newly revamped Miss Scarlet, and it's evident the show is still finding its feet in this new era. But in a season that's only six episodes long, it's unfortunate that its first third has been so...dull. If nothing else, most of us probably expected that Stuart Martin's departure would at least shake things up on the show's canvas. However, other than Tom Durant Pritchard's arrival, almost nothing has changed outside of the location of the Scotland Yard office where Eliza spends her time.  

But then again, it's unclear what we should have expected. The show's formula is what it is, and, to its credit, it has been remarkably successful. But five seasons in, starting with the same beats we've seen all over again — Eliza must convince a man to take her seriously and prove her professional skills to those (men!) who doubt them — starts to feel downright Sisyphean. What are we even doing here at this point?

Because the fact of the matter is this: "The Guild" is a serviceable, if almost wholly unremarkable, hour, one you probably won't remember much of after the season ends. It features another dull mystery (that, once again, actually isn't even a murder!), a subplot for Ivy that seems to come out of nowhere, and the generally pointless return of a random D-lister from a Season 3 installment that most of us probably wouldn't have recognized if they hadn't included a flashback to his role in the episode itself.

Other than a brief reference to William's exit in the previouslies, we are offered no further insight into Eliza's feelings about his departure or, barring that, any follow-up regarding her sad girl mope over her lack of work-life balance. (She sees it as generally acceptable, for what it's worth!) In many ways, this episode feels more like a reboot than the season premiere did, and maybe that's the reason for its severe and very noticeable lack of spark. 

Eliza is approached by the head of the Guild of Private Detectives while out with Ivy, Potts, and Clarence to celebrate Barnabus' promotion. Despite having never been mentioned on this show before, this group is suddenly open to admitting Eliza... if she accuses Blake of sexual impropriety. This supposedly will give the Guild leverage to force Blake to use their union members (or at least take regular meetings with their leadership). While our heroine rightly throws a glass of wine in chairman Edmund Fletcher's (Paul Lacoux) face, the prospect of falsely accusing a man of sexual harassment is still a lot for the second episode of this Miss Scarlet incarnation! Honestly, the joke's on the guild guys because getting access to Blake is shockingly easy. Eliza's always in his office! Just walk in; no one will stop you! Hang out! Heck, show up at his house; he's cool with it!

To Eliza's credit, she immediately takes this plot to destroy his reputation to Blake, who's so annoyed by the guild's presumption that he informs Fletcher he'll be hiring "the lady detective" as a gesture of what he insists is goodwill but is more like spite. Hilariously, he assigns Eliza to interview candidates for the Yard's new clerical pool because the organization has suddenly gotten really cool about working with women in a professional capacity. Since she assumed his patronage meant she'd be working cases alongside him, Eliza is none too pleased with her new job.

She's also a complete pill about it. Every minute she's working, she's not subtle that doing background checks and paperwork is beneath her. So much of this show has historically been about Elia trying to prove herself as a woman in men's professional spaces; it's a bit offputting that Eliza suddenly seems so disinclined to "lift as she climbs,"** so to speak. Throughout this hour, we see tons of women looking for work, chasing careers, and trying to do the thing Eliza has always insisted she's remarkable for attempting, and she couldn't be less interested in listening to any of them. She ultimately gives Ivy a job (more on that moment), but that's nepotism, not sisterhood.

(*Yes, this is an anti-union plot point.)
(**To be fair, intersectional feminism didn't occur to white ladies back then.)

Whether Miss Scarlet has decided for some unfathomable reason that it's a better story if its heroine is the most obnoxious version of herself at all times or if it was just that William was so equally obstinate and bullheaded that he and Eliza canceled each other's worst behavior out is unclear. But whatever it is, it's getting tiresome, really quick. When Guild Chair Fletcher turns up dead, Eliza immediately does her best to insert herself into the case, turning up in Blake's office, at his home, and crime scenes with suggestions, insight, and even offers of free crime-solving. Blake is reluctant, but he allows her to keep helping for no reason other than the show's general premise, which basically requires that he let her do so. 

We all know these two are destined to become coworkers, if not something more intimate (long exasperated sigh), so the fact that we have to pretend that Blake's insistence he'll never hire her agency or work with her on cases is a genuine possibility is a particularly pointless waste of time. There must be some way we could be using our (admittedly limited!) time this season to do something more worthwhile than this.

This episode's case of the week is another Miss Scarlet case that doesn't turn out to be a murder so much as an accident, even if that accident was in service of trying to commit a different crime. It's unlikely any of us care all that much about the internal squabbling for power within the detectives guild that gave rise to all this, as basically, the organization's entire membership is insufferable. (The reappearance of Malone — one of the suspects kidnapped back in "Hotel St. Marc" — adds nothing to proceedings, either.) 

The subplot involving Ivy moping about her life, Eliza-style, also feels like it came out of nowhere. The show seems to have forgotten Ivy worked with/for Eliza last season. We may be meant to assume the business situation at the agency was so dire that Ivy had to return to housework instead of reading case files. (But it's likely Eliza wasn't paying her anyway!) Ivy working for Scotland Yard means she'll interact with Eliza beyond breakfast or cleaning, which is nice. But what happened to Eliza's other cases? She had extra opportunities and access thanks to her relationship with William, but she wasn't always this dependent on the Yard. The show is looking for a reason to put her in Blake's path as much as possible, but it almost feels insulting. 

In other "Miss Scarlet couldn't be less subtle if it tried" news, Eliza meets Blake's daughter this week, a precocious girl named Sophia who lost her mother young and is struggling to fit in at school. (Sound like anyone we know?) Maybe this wouldn't all feel so deliberately telegraphed if the show hadn't spent the past four years doing the absolute most to keep its leads apart, but here we are. (To Blake's credit, however, his kid is adorable, and we always stan a dad that encourages reading.)

As the season's second episode concludes, Ivy has a new job at the Yard, and Eliza has helped to solve another case despite Blake's insisting he doesn't need her assistance. However, her overall professional situation remains unclear. As episodes go, "The Guild" is...fine? Mostly? There's not much that's special about it, and it's the sort of hour most of us won't remember in a few weeks. It is a shame because out of the many things we all suspected Miss Scarlet without the Duke might be, boring was undoubtedly not one of them. 

Miss Scarlet Season 5 airs on most local PBS stations and streams on the PBS app weekly on Sundays at 8 p.m. ET. All episodes are available for PBS Passport members and the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel to binge before their on-air broadcast.