“The Conference” Finds ‘Professor T’ Solving His Rival’s Murder

The fifth episode of Professor T starts out wanting you to believe Jasper is once again accused of murder, but that’s false. He just won his freedom and cleared his name – legally, if not professionally – and is attempting to reclaim his place at Cambridge. Luckily, that is not what we’re subjected to this week. Instead, we get a fun caper untangling the murder of Erik Haiden, the professor who replaced Jasper. 

On the heels of embracing some humility, Jasper is dealt another blow: He won’t be the keynote speaker at the annual criminology conference for the first time in five years. In a messy bit of machinations, the Dean gave Haiden the keynote to make him appealing to another prestigious college, St. Cuthbert’s, setting Haiden up for a transfer and making way for Jasper’s return. Ms. Snares accosts Jasper outside the Dean’s office with a copy of Haiden’s speech; it’s dreadful. She convinces Jasper to go to the conference hotel where Haiden has checked in early to “prepare” – which Ms. Snares reveals is code for entertaining prostitutes. As he arrives, Jasper overhears Haiden arguing with an escort, but Haiden sneers at the offer, declaring Jasper’s career is over. 

Jasper hears the escort in the bathroom as Haiden shows him the door; he heads off to join colleague and former student Tina Morley (Jeany Spark) and her husband Alex (Roger Barclay) for dinner. While there, they see Gisele Haiden (Robin Weaver), who Tina reveals asked if she’d seen Haiden with anyone. Tina thinks Gisele is working up her nerve to confront Haiden about his affairs. In a moment that seems like a hallucination, Tina admits she had a crush on Jasper when she was his student and asks for Jasper’s room number when her husband is out of earshot. He uncomfortably declines. 

When Gisele knocks at her husband’s hotel room later that night, the door creaks open, revealing him dead on the floor. There’s blood on the carpet under his head and a bloody champagne bottle next to him. Jasper’s room is on the same floor. We can hear Gisele screaming, but Jasper can’t – he’s sound asleep and wearing headphones, having performed a crime-scene-level cleaning of his room and brought his own sheets. He sleeps through the entirety of the police proceedings in the night as Donckers and Dan arrive to “investigate a murder surrounded by a bunch of people who think they can do it better.” 

(It could have been an excellent setup for conflict between the police and the criminologists at the conference, but it sadly goes unused.)

CCTV is relied upon heavily as Dan scours the footage to see who came to and from the elevators near Haiden’s room. They admit this is limited, as there’s a back stairwell with broken cameras that could have given the killer access. Donckers interviews all the people on the 8th floor while Rabbit questions Gisele about why she and Haiden were booked in different rooms. Gisele quickly becomes a prime suspect, and later, the police discover her key card in Haiden’s room, which she booked under a false name and paid for the room in cash.

When Jasper wakes up and gets apprised by the front desk, he finds the police at their on-site HQ. When he asks why they didn’t wake him, Dan answers: “Known to the victim, professional rival, present at the crime scene.” Despite the stated conflict, Jasper can help with the investigation after reporting speaking with the victim at 6 p.m. and the presence of the argumentative escort. Dan found her, Vinette Lawson (Rebecca Blackstone), who becomes Suspect #2 after discovering she took Haiden’s credit card – which she claims was outside his room. However, more damning, she returned to the hotel around the time of his death. There are also phone records showing Haiden called her twice that night.

Jasper convinces the Dean and Gisele to allow him to give Haiden’s keynote speech, with the caveat that he will make a few changes. He also convinces Goswami about the murderer’s identity and that he wants to draw them out using the keynote. There’s a bit of theatricality to this episode, as it opens with Jasper claiming someone at the conference is a murderer, and he will unmask them by the end of the speech. Goswami is stunned that she gave the green light for such a sensationalist tactic.

Jasper begins revealing how the initial clues sent police down a rabbit hole of false inquiry at the design of the killer. Jasper notes the killer is a “she,” and the crowd gasps. He says she was passed up for the position at St. Cuthbert’s, which she felt she deserved but which Haiden received instead. Jasper continues prodding while the crowd and Gisele stare at Tina Morley, who all these clues point to as the accused. Before Jasper can besmirch Tina further, her husband Alex jumps up: “I killed Haiden, not Tina.” Jasper says he knows.

In custody, Alex explains he wanted to catch Haiden with an escort to get St. Cuthbert’s to revoke the job offer and give it to Tina instead. Alex got a picture of Haiden with Vinette, but Haiden caught him, and the two fought in Haiden’s hotel room. Haiden began ridiculing Tina, so Alex grabbed the champagne bottle and hit him with it. He admits to leaving misleading clues, including smashing Haiden’s watch to give the police a false timeline. Tina angrily confronts Jasper at the police station. Jasper says he detected misdirection and knows she was part of the cover-up: telling him she had a crush was clumsy. Tina spits fire and leaves: no one will ever love him as Alex loves her.

• In the most drawn-out subplot of the series, Adelaide and the Dean discuss Jasper’s father’s death again. We soon learn there’s some physical evidence remaining from whatever “truth” Adelaide is trying to keep buried. She attempts to retrieve it from the attic and falls, breaking her hip. At her hospital bedside, Jasper remarks that she hasn’t been up there for years and then asks the Dean what she might have been looking for.
• Donckers puts in for a transfer without telling Dan and chooses a nearby precinct. She tells him it’s their final week working together.

Professor T Season 3 airs at 8 p.m. ET on Sundays on most PBS stations, the PBS app, and the PBS Masterpiece channel through the end of July. All six episodes are available as a binge for members on PBS Passport. As always, check your local streaming service/listings.