'Grantchester' Recap: Season 9 Episode 1

Grantchester airs Sundays at 8:00 pm and is available to stream. Recap the previous and following episodes and other seasons. 
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The circus is in town! Geordie reluctantly joins Will, Mrs. C, and their families, and ends up being dragged into an act when Feathers, the magician Errol’s assistant, escapes a locked box but is still handcuffed. She calls for a policeman – and then surreptitiously transfers the handcuffs from her own wrists to Geordie’s, to the delight of the crowd.

Another trick in which she is seemingly pierced by an arrow shot from a gun is equally impressive – until it kills someone. Errol is found dead the next day in Feathers’ position for the trick, shot with an actual projectile.

Errol had gone to practice his tricks in the performance tent after dinner following the show Geordie saw. The whole troupe was present at dinner – they do everything together – other than the clown and ringmaster, Jerry, who was entertaining some children, and Feathers, who says she was in her own tent but doesn’t have anyone to corroborate that.

Jerry reported the murder, and insists that no one in the troupe killed Errol: the circus is built on trust. He and Nana Carson, the owner of the circus, don’t want to cancel any performances.

Nana is the grandma of the talented Feathers, who has lived her whole life in the circus. Feathers was a trapeze artist before Errol pulled her to be his assistant, and she has learned well from him – even as he has lost his edge, thanks to drink. That explains why she ended up still handcuffed when she wasn’t supposed to be, but she was able to pick the lock and play it off as part of the show. Errol’s aim in the shooting trick that killed him had also recently been off. As Feathers demonstrates the trick to Geordie and Will, she explains that the gun is plugged. But Geordie finds that it’s not – it fired a real shot that killed Errol.

The police receive another report related to the circus: a local boy, Nick, who was working there, has not come home since the show the previous day. Will finds him sleeping in the pews of his church with remnants of clown paint on his face. Nick explains to Geordie and Will that he had auditioned for the circus. Errol asked him to help rehearse some tricks, since Feathers had complained about Errol’s missteps. Errol told Nick the tricks were totally safe, but when he fired the gun at Errol it killed him. Nick fled.

Was Errol the true target then? Someone removed the plug from the gun and put in a real bullet, and if Errol hadn’t rehearsed it would have next been fired during a show – at Feathers.

While investigating this case, Will is wrestling with the feeling that he has become complacent and is “coasting.” His congregation is shrinking, with even Leonard missing church. The bishop says that’s the case everywhere, and thus wants to try shaking things up with some new faces in bigger parishes. He therefore offers Will a position in Newcastle, where there are greater challenges and more needy people. He needs an answer within a week.

Will says no, not wanting to uproot his family, but the idea that he could do more good rather than coast in Grantchester continues to needle him. It grows when he checks in on Leonard and finds him in thrall to a charismatic street preacher whom Leonard has partnered with at his halfway house to feed the needy. The young preacher went to the same seminary as Will, and has admired him from afar, which further leads Will to want to do more.

When he tells Bonnie he refused the bishop’s offer, in part because he didn’t want to introduce too much change for her and the kids, she’s upset that he didn’t consult her. She and Ernie have moved a lot, and she’s feeling a bit cloistered in Grantchester, so Will shouldn’t let them stop him from accepting the position.

Will is worried what Geordie will do if Will leaves, however. The policeman is contending with his own big change, as his daughter Esme has applied to and gotten a job without asking her parents. Geordie congratulates her initiative, but Cathy feels betrayed – so much so that she nearly refuses the job on behalf of Esme, until Geordie stops her. Geordie explains to Will that, while he’s sad that Esme has made a life decision without him, he’s more proud of her.

Feathers was also planning to move on from her family without their knowledge. The police found two bus tickets to London in Errol’s tent, and she eventually admits that she and Errol were planning to go there to audition for a new job. Everything in the circus requires the permission of Nana, even using money, which is pooled and collected by her, but they hadn’t told her. Errol somehow got the tickets behind Nana’s back.

He was good at procuring things. Geordie and Will find Jerry rifling through Errol’s tent, and the clown admits that Errol supplied him with opium. Jerry was a champion gymnast who narrowly missed the Olympics, but the long life of performing has taken a toll. Now he can only do so with a painkiller, but he doesn’t have any other skills and is middle-aged and can’t imagine starting a new profession.

Nana is more aware of the secrets of the circus than people think, but she has her own secret: she’s retiring and selling the circus for parts.

A new wrinkle appears when a woman reports that a piece of jewelry was stolen from her house while she was at the circus – and she’s not the only one who was robbed. In fact, the previous few towns the circus visited also had some robberies. Someone from the circus has been slipping out to steal things before attendees return home.

Geordie sets Ms. Scott and Larry to stake out the next circus performance while he and Will search the tents for the stolen goods. They find a bag of money and a pawn shop receipt hidden under a false bottom in a crate.

The next morning, the vibe between Ms. Scott and Larry is awkward, and Geordie surmises that they spent the night together – Larry brought flowers to the circus, after all. Ms. Scott tells Geordie that it was a mistake and she’s going to tell Larry it won’t happen again.

Will is curious why Feathers wanted to audition for a new job now, and she admits that she knew Nana was selling. If she knew, perhaps others did, too.

Jerry did, and worried about what he would do for a living after the circus closed. And his alibi has a hole: a person that was wearing his clown make-up performed for children during dinner, the only time someone could have tampered with Errol’s gun – not necessarily Jerry himself. Indeed, Nick explains that Jerry let him borrow his clown look and entertain the kids as part of his audition for the circus.

Faced with the sale of the circus and resentful of Feathers’ success and job prospects, Jerry messed with her handcuffs before her act, leading to the mishap that Geordie and Will witnessed – which she turned into a triumph. That made Jerry even angrier, so he messed with Errol’s gun to kill Feathers, but Errol used it to practice first.

And the robberies? Turns out the money and pawn shop receipt Geordie and Will found are forgeries. Feathers has disappeared with the real jewelry to go start her own career.

Will is going to pull his own disappearing act: he goes to the bishop and accepts the job in Newcastle. Geordie has just asked Will to make this summer the best one they have spent together yet.