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

Miss Scarlet and the Duke airs Sundays at 7:00 pm on WTTW and is available to stream. Recap the previous and following episodes.
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Eliza and William are finally living together – but not as a couple. William has been released from the hospital after waking from his coma and requires rest, so he is convalescing at Eliza’s home, where Ivy is an attentive – too attentive, in William’s opinion – nurse. After two weeks of being overfed and fussed over, he is ready to go home.

Surprisingly, he’s even considering a future in which he doesn’t return to Scotland Yard. Ivy realizes that the reason is because he’s in love with Eliza and is trying to figure out a future with her, so she advises him to tell Eliza; life is short, as he knows.

But Eliza is busy: Nash has returned from Paris to rescue the London office that no longer has employees or clients under Eliza. He has been corresponding with Clarence and the other men who used to work there, and so has followed Eliza’s progress – or lack thereof.

He arrives just as Eliza finally does have a prospective client, and thus joins her as she goes to meet with him. Jack Carter is a wealthy businessman who made his money in textiles in Leeds and has now moved to London with his wife Maisie. They’re both finding London’s elite unwelcoming to outsiders with new money, and thus have done things like host charity fundraisers.

At a recent fundraiser at their home, they were robbed of a precious jewel: Admiral Nelson’s diamond feather, which Jack bought at auction. Jack hasn’t gone to the police, lest he alienate all of London society by having every attendee questioned. He insists that an attendee is the culprit, however; his staff wouldn’t steal from him. He will pay Eliza and Nash double their usual fee to recover the diamond and tell him who stole it.

However, when Nash looks into Jack, he realizes that he is a member of a notorious crime family in the north who has only recently gone legitimate. His servants wouldn’t steal from him because they are terrified of him. Nash telegrammed Jack to cancel their contract.

But Jack won’t let him. He visits and threatens Nash and Eliza, telling them that he once would have dealt with the theft on his own, but promised his wife he would deal with it in a civilized manner. The detectives will take on the case, and they’ll do it for free. After Jack leaves, Clarence points out one more wrinkle: what will Jack do to the thief when they are identified?

Eliza scans the list of guests at Jack’s fundraiser and finds a Lord Fallon, who is a cousin of Admiral Nelson. The Nelson family auctioned off the diamond because they had fallen on hard times; perhaps Fallon wanted the heirloom back. Eliza and Nash pretend to be a married couple and meet with Fallon and his wife. He is rude to his wife; Eliza notices bruises on her neck. Lord Fallon dismisses any interest in his distant cousin’s jewel, and says the Baroness Weichmann must have stolen it. She wants to return to Prussia but is overwhelmed with debts.

Eliza and Nash keep up their married couple ruse and visit the Baroness, but are interrupted in their visit by another guest. Eliza recognizes him as Mr. Gibson, a second-rate dealer in stolen goods. But before they look into him, they find an anonymous note at their office saying that Nelson’s diamond feather is in Lord Fallon’s desk.

Nash bribes one of Fallon’s maids and learns that the house will be empty that evening. He and Eliza sneak in and hide at the sound of footsteps. When the noise recedes, they find the desk ransacked. The diamond feather isn’t there – and the next day, Jack Carter arrives to say that his family are laughing at him over the theft. The detectives have one more day – or else.

Fitzroy has been visiting William every day, and asks him for advice as he prepares to apply for a yearlong position with New York City’s police. He is rejected because of a lack of experience – he notes they’re looking for someone more like William – and William consoles him.

When William fails to get a word in edgewise with Eliza, he decides to write a letter telling her he loves her. But when he visits her office to give it to her, she once again has to leave, and promises a dinner with him that evening. He leaves the letter on her desk – and then recalls Arabella’s warning that Eliza’s ambitions will always come before anything else, and takes the letter back.

Eliza is rushing off to a meeting at a hotel. She has met the dealer Gibson and threatened to sic William on him to learn that he pays the Baroness to provide him with lady clients who are discreetly trying to make money by selling jewelry without their husbands knowing. One of those women is Lady Fallon. After meeting with her, Gibson tells Eliza that Lady Fallon is raising money for a divorce, and wants to sell Nelson’s diamond feather. He has a meeting to buy it from her at a hotel later.

Clarence and Nash learn that Lady Fallon regularly visits the hotel suite where they are to meet – but it is paid for by Jack Carter.

When Lady Fallon arrives at the hotel, she finds Eliza and Nash waiting. They have already found the feather in the suite. And then Maisie Carter appears.

The two women became friends after finding out both had unhappy marriages. Lord Fallon beats Lady Fallon; Maisie didn’t want to move to London. Maisie stole the diamond feather herself, to punish Jack and fund Lady Fallon’s divorce. She then put the jewel in Lord Fallon’s desk and sent the note to the detectives, hoping that they would tell Jack, who would then kill Lord Fallon, thus saving Lady Fallon from the stigma of divorce. But Lady Fallon didn’t want her husband murdered, so she stole the feather back.

Eliza and Nash have a dilemma: if they tell Jack who stole his jewel, he’ll hurt the women; if they don’t, he’ll hurt the detectives. But Eliza realizes that Jack’s greatest desire is to belong to London society, and so devises a plan. She and Nash return the jewel but refuse to reveal the thief. They have compiled a file of all the crimes associated with Jack’s past life, and have made arrangements for copies to be sent to all of London’s high society if anything happens to them. They also demand the previously promised double fee for solving the case – and Jack relents.

Nash, Clarence, and Eliza celebrate. Nash says it’s a shame his men didn’t see in Eliza what he does: a remarkable detective. She admits that she was a bit high-handed and dismissed many of them; they didn’t leave on their own. Nash says he should have stayed in London to help her get on her feet; they’ll start over and get the office in good shape before he returns to Paris.

The celebration makes Eliza miss her dinner with William. She rushes home to find him packed: he’s going to New York City on the yearlong job Fitzroy wanted. He has also left his letter for Eliza, but tells her in person: I love you. However, something has to change, and they need time to consider options. He can’t be a policeman if she is a private detective, because he can’t be around her without being with her.

They kiss, in the same room where they first did all those years ago, and he leaves.