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'Miss Scarlet and the Duke' Recap: Season 3 Episode 4

Daniel Hautzinger
Fitzroy and Phelps in Miss Scarlet and the Duke
Fitzroy turns to Eliza for help when he sees Phelps plant a stolen watch on someone. Photo: Element 8 Entertainment and Masterpiece/Sergej Radovic

Miss Scarlet and the Duke airs Sundays at 7:00 pm and is available to stream. Recap the previous and following episodes.
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Fitzroy’s boxing lessons with Moses finally pay off. When Phelps cheats at dominos at the bar and swings at Fitzroy for calling him out, the younger detective dodges and knocks Phelps to the floor with his own punch. When Phelps leaves, embarrassed and bloody-nosed, the rest of the bar cheers.

Unfortunately, Phelps has other power over Fitzroy. William is out of London working a case, so Phelps, the longest-serving detective, is in charge until he returns. Phelps immediately assigns Fitzroy menial tasks like feeding the prisoners in jail.

Phelps also prevents Eliza from working on a case of clock store burglaries that William had promised her. Instead, he takes Fitzroy with him as he goes to apprehend Michael Galanis, a member of a Greek crime family suspected of the crimes. When Michael spots Phelps and Fitzroy, he flees. Phelps catches up to him first, and Fitzroy sees him plant a watch in Michael’s pocket after tackling him to the ground.

When Fitzroy brings Michael food in his cell later, Michael asks him to help, knowing that Fitzroy saw Phelps plant evidence. In the absence of William, Fitzroy goes to Eliza for help, who warns him that the police might close ranks if he tries to report Phelps. Instead, he wants to hire Eliza to investigate.

Moses advises Eliza to leave the investigation alone, given the involvement of both the police and a powerful crime family. She refuses, and learns from Moses that the Galanis family are involved in thieving and gambling. Michael is the nephew of the family boss, Nikos, and consistently makes mistakes. Maybe that’s why Phelps chose to frame him.

Eliza starts her investigation by questioning Miss Tinsdale, the clerk of the store that was robbed. Tinsdale is shaken up and has little information to share. Outside the store, three men surround Eliza and begin speaking Greek. Moses has spent time in Athens and knows the language, and explains that the men’s boss is waiting to meet them.

Moses and Eliza arrive at Eliza’s office to find Nikos and his father Andreas at Eliza’s desk. Nikos insists that Michael isn’t responsible for the burglary. He wants Eliza to find the actual culprit and name him to the police. And he knows who it is: Logan Cooper.

Cooper is wanted by Scotland Yard for numerous crimes, Moses explains to Eliza after the Galanises leave. His gang is in a turf war with the Galanises. Nikos has a price on Cooper’s head.

Eliza tries to get information from Michael himself, sneaking into his cell with Fitzroy while Phelps is away—but Michael refuses to talk except to say that he was with a prostitute at the time when the store was burgled.

Phelps later hears that Fitzroy got Michael’s cell key and asks why. Fitzroy lies, saying he was feeding Michael. Phelps takes Fitzroy off such menial tasks, explaining that he had to be seen punishing Fitzroy after he punched him, but now they are on good terms.

The prostitute confirms Michael’s story and says that Michael hires her to talk and drink with him every Friday. She explains that the rest of the Galanis family doesn’t like Michael, who’s inept. His only friend in the family was Tasos, who was killed just a week ago.

Eliza tries to get a look at Tasos’ autopsy records, but Potts slams the door in her face when she asks to enter the mortuary. Earlier, Potts had asked Eliza for advice on Ivy, to Eliza’s great reluctance. Ivy has been making excuses and avoiding Potts lately, so Eliza suggests doing something unexpected—Potts is very stuck in a routine.

But Potts took that advice and decided to propose, in public. Ivy said no—and is angry that Eliza got involved. She eventually explains that she’s avoiding Potts even though she likes him a lot because she’s happy with her life and is afraid of changing it. Eliza has shown her she doesn’t necessarily have to marry.

Eliza has to get autopsy records from Fitzroy instead of Potts. She brings photos of Tasos’ corpse to the antiquities trader Solomon, a weapons expert, who identifies the killing wound as coming from a curved Nepalese knife that only two men he knows of use. One is dead; the other is Logan Cooper. He shares the addresses of a few safehouses that Cooper might be using.

Moses also shares useful information: the watch found on Michael matches one of the stolen ones. Phelps must have access to the stolen goods—and Logan Cooper is his cousin.

Eliza follows Cooper from a safehouse. He notices, and points a gun at her in an alley, asking what she’s doing. She brings up his relation to Phelps and possibly to the burglary, and he says that had nothing to do with the burglary and hasn’t seen Phelps in years. He hates his cousin.

Galanis’ men show up and begin firing at Cooper. Everyone escapes unscathed.

Eliza has another lead, however: she has looked at similar burglaries of watch shops in the past few years, and noticed that the clerk Miss Tinsdale worked at five out of six of them. Tinsdale also has a fancier apartment than she should be able to afford. She admits that Nikos pays her to inform on the timing of deliveries.

Is Phelps working with the Galanises? Moses follows him to an abandoned bar, where he receives a shipment of boxes. Eliza watches him later and sees Andreas Galanis hand off an envelope.

Andreas explains to Eliza that Michael is not meant for a life of crime, but Nikos won’t admit it. Nikos told Michael to steal the clocks and watches, and Michael approached Andreas for help. Andreas got Tasos to do it for Michael. Later, Tasos got drunk and was spoiling for a fight; Cooper took him up on it and killed him. Nikos now wants Cooper caught—and once he is, he wants Michael to kill him.

So Andreas paid off Phelps to frame Michael. If he’s in jail, he won’t have to kill Cooper, and by the time he’s out Nikos will be dead of tuberculosis. Don’t prove Michael’s innocence, Andreas asks Eliza: it’s the only way to save him.

Eliza finds another way. She examines a bullet fired by Cooper when she was in the alley with him and matches it to evidence from another robbery. She goes to see Nikos and tells him that Michael is innocent, and Tasos did the burglary. She wants Nikos to hand over Cooper when he captures him, and she’ll hand him off to the police, to be arrested for that robbery.

Eliza and Fitzroy then approach Phelps and tell him to drop the charges against Michael—if he does, they won’t report his familial relationship to Cooper. He says he hates Cooper, and that he’s not crooked. This is the first time he’s taken money to frame someone, and it’s because Michael needed to be put away for his own safety. Phelps is using the money to open a gym in the abandoned bar, to redirect kids on the streets from crime to boxing—just like him.

Michael is freed and Cooper is arrested. Phelps, Fitzroy, and Eliza will all stay out of each other’s business. Except Phelps does come visit Eliza to gleefully tell her that William has returned to London—and Eliza needs to see with whom he’s spending the day. It’s Arabella, and Eliza observes William kiss her after a meal at her restaurant.

A happier—perhaps—love story is that of Ivy and Potts. They are excitedly engaged, even if they disagree on the length of the engagement.