'Ridley' Recap: Episode 4

Ridley airs Sundays at 7:00 pm on WTTW and is available to stream. Recap the previous and following episodes.
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The police still don’t know the real identity of the murdered Gabriela Baldoni, since she was working in the country under forged documents. Businessman Harry Graylish is currently the top suspect, since he was having an affair with Baldoni, but his wife Debs and house guests all vouch for his whereabouts when Baldoni was killed, and there’s nothing to conclusively tie him to the murder. Still, he has a checkered past of fast cars, drunk driving, and flings with women.

So Ridley questions James Mallors, the manager of the hotel where Baldoni was a chambermaid and an acquaintance of Graylish. He learns that Mallors allowed pretty workers like Baldoni to make some extra money by meeting and having drinks with men in the hotel bar. Mallors introduced Graylish to Baldoni and they began an affair, with Graylish even renting a flat as a meeting place. Baldoni had her own key. Mallors doesn’t think Graylish killed her, however; he believes Graylish was in love with Baldoni. He warned Graylish that Baldoni was dead after the police came to the hotel to ask about her.

Meanwhile, the amateur sleuth Kit McKellen shares on a true crime internet forum that Graylish has been questioned by the police. Chief inspector Goodwin angrily calls Ridley and Farman in to chastise them for letting the information leak. Ridley defends McKellen as harmless and refuses to apologize to Goodwin. Ridley even suggests bringing in McKellen as an informal consultant to help make progress on the case and find Baldoni’s real identity.

Farman is ready to apologize and talk to her wife, Geri, but Geri has gone to stay with her parents for a bit. Their son Jack explains the whole situation to Ridley while they restore a boat together, telling Ridley that Farman sometimes takes Geri for granted.

After Farman agrees to speak to McKellen, he explains his method of data analysis to the detectives and hands over a file of missing Albanian women for them to search through, in case one is Baldoni. Farman is gruff and skeptical with McKellen, who dismisses the police’s own records and missing persons files.

New information comes in: a cab driver picked Baldoni up the night she was fired from the hotel and took her to Graylish’s house. The detectives acquire a warrant to search the flat Graylish rented for his rendezvouses with Baldoni, and find her phone, a hoodie that matches the fibers found on her corpse, and a trace of cleaned blood on the floor. But the amount of blood found in the flat is inconsistent with the wound that killed Baldoni.

Graylish insists that he had just visited the flat and none of that was there. He says that he loved Baldoni and couldn’t have hurt her.

Under questioning, Graylish’s wife Debs admits that she knew about the affair, but also that Graylish would never leave her. When Baldoni arrived at the Graylish home in the taxi after being fired, Debs saw the headlights and went out and met Baldoni at the gate, turning her away. She didn’t tell Graylish. She also confesses that Graylish went out for an hour or so that weekend before their guests were awake.

Farman believes that Graylish is guilty, but Ridley is hesitant. He goes to prison to visit Michael Flannery, the man who killed his wife and daughter in a fire meant for Ridley, for some advice about the kind of person who would kill Baldoni. Flannery says that sociopaths tend to have mundane lives, dead-end jobs, a previous trauma, and will want to watch the investigation—but eventually they’ll slip up.

He has essentially described McKellen. And Ridley realizes that McKellen has already made a mistake: McKellen knew that flowers had been found near Baldoni’s body, information that was never released publicly.

Ridley goes to the coroner’s office where McKellen works and finds out that he’s a lowly filing clerk, not a data analyst, as he claimed. Ridley gets McKellen’s home address, and calls Farman on the way to explain things and ask for backup.

But Farman has taken Ridley’s advice and decided to ignore her job for an evening in order to spend time with Jack. She comes home early to make dinner for the two of them and have a conversation about a possible additional sibling. Jack says he’s okay with a baby sibling if it means that Farman will be home more. Only once Farman goes to call Geri after a pleasant evening with her son does she see all of Ridley’s missed calls.

Ridley finds McKellen’s isolated home open but empty. News stories about Baldoni and the death of Ridley’s wife and daughter are pinned to the walls. When McKellen arrives, Ridley flatters him, telling him that his passport forgeries, which are laid out on a table, are very good. McKellen was the person who forged documents for Stewart Daley, although Daley dismissed him as a joke. So McKellen was the one who “created” Baldoni—i.e., her new identity—and, in doing so, fell in love with her.

When Baldoni was turned away from the Graylish home by Debs, she called Daley for help, having nowhere to stay since she had been fired from the hotel. McKellen was in Daley’s office doing forgeries and answered the phone instead. He picked Baldoni up and brought her to his house, talking to her during the drive. I’m the only one who listened to her, he claims.

But when she arrived at his house, he hid her phone—and then she saw all the photos he had of her and freaked out. In trying to quiet and “calm” her, McKellen bashed her head in. He then set about framing Graylish for the murder, since he believed Graylish didn’t deserve her. He deposited her body near a Graylish wind turbine and used her key to leave blood, Baldoni’s phone, and the hoodie he was wearing when he killed her in Graylish’s flat.

As Ridley talks through everything with McKellen, the young man plays with a box cutter. Ridley tells him that he can help McKellen with his psychological issues, bringing up the trauma of McKellen’s mother’s death at a young age. But McKellen has to put the knife down and surrender to Ridley first. He does, just as more police finally arrive.

At the station, McKellen finally reveals Baldoni’s real name: Mina Albescu. It turns out that she left Albania fifteen years ago and has been on the missing persons list ever since. The police inform her family of her death. A memorial sign is erected for her at the spot where her body was found.

Ridley is disappointed that he didn’t realize McKellen was the killer earlier, but Goodwin is impressed by his work once again. He agrees to let Ridley continue to consult on cases.

He also asks Farman to go over some work with him, but she refuses. She has to get home to her family. When she arrives, Geri is back, watching TV with Jack.