'Moonflower Murders' Recap: Episode 5

Moonflower Murders airs Sundays at 8:00 pm and is available to stream. Recap the previous episode. 
Recap and stream the previous series, Magpie Murders.
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Madeline Cain is eager to leave behind the grisly murder of Melissa James now that Melissa’s husband John Spencer has confessed and himself died. Chubb and Madeline believe John died by suicide. But Pünd thinks John was murdered. After all, the Turkish dagger with which he was stabbed was at the bottom of the stairs, while he was at the top. And why stab himself in the first place, when there are other methods? Plus, John had said he was going upstairs to get dressed, and he did – why would he don a coat before killing himself?

Samantha Collins also has questions when her husband Leonard suggests splitting a recent inheritance with her brother Algernon after all, despite his earlier resistance. (He is being blackmailed by Algernon.)

The police have realized Algernon has committed other crimes, identifying him as the driver who hit an opera star and didn’t stop to help. (A witness recognized his car, which is dented, and a cigarette of the brand Algernon likes was found at the scene of the crash.) Algernon is unconcerned, and also admits that a love letter from Melissa found by the hotel managers was meant for him.

Meanwhile, Pünd goes to visit Samantha at her nearby church – she is deeply religious. She tells Pünd about the inheritance, and that she won’t share it with Algernon. She’s shocked when Pünd tells her that Algernon was having an affair with Melissa, and says she could never forgive adultery. But she’s also surprised that Melissa would stoop so low in her choice of partner.

Having seen a for sale sign on her sister’s home, Susan drives to the garden center where Katie works to ask some questions. She finds only her nephew Jack, who says he can’t talk about it. Susan has accidentally left her phone in London, so she asks Jack to tell Katie that she’ll meet her at 4:00.

In the meantime, she visits Derek Endicott, the night manager at the Branlow hotel, and his mother Gwyneth, who works part time – she had a heart attack two years ago – watching Aiden and Cecily’s daughter Roxana. Susan wonders why Alan Conway recorded his research conversations with everyone from the Branlow whom he caricatured in Atticus Pünd Takes the Case except the Endicotts. Gwyneth refused to let him, so Derek turned Alan away – which is why the Endicotts both ended up with unflattering portraits in the book.

But they do reveal a possible lead for Susan when she asks about the Websters, who lived down the street and whom Frank Parris visited before being murdered. Martin, Frank’s brother-in-law, used to do laundry for the hotel but fell out with Cecily and lost the business.

When Susan visits the Websters again despite their warning to stay away, Martin shuts the door in her face.

Susan is still perplexed by the events of the night Frank was killed, as related by Derek. What made Cecily’s dog bark to draw Derek upstairs? Whomever Derek saw in the hallway must have gone into one of the hotel rooms, because he would have otherwise seen them in the short time it took him to check the hallway. Then why wasn’t there a scream from the guest in the room? And if Frank was sleeping and so didn’t notice the intruder, supposedly Stefan, why did Stefan kill him when his apparent motive was for Frank’s money, which was out and easy to grab?

Stefan was working at the hotel via a program where the Trehernes hired people with criminal records, so Susan asks Lawrence who else was part of the program. He reluctantly directs her to Liam, the bar manager and a personal trainer.

Liam admits that he served time in Australia for giving clients steroids. He says the supposedly selfless convict program is actually a way for the Trehernes to save money; they pay below rate, but people like Liam can’t find other jobs.

And the Trehernes took advantage in other ways: Lisa used her position as Stefan’s boss to get him to have sex with her. Liam saw them in the forest outside the hotel one night a few weeks before Frank’s murder. At first he thought the man was Aiden, but Aiden has a big tattoo on his shoulder and this man didn’t. Furthermore, Liam accidentally stepped on a branch, and when the man turned at the sound, it was Stefan. Liam knows that Lisa’s not above such a thing; she’s doing the same thing to him, and he acquiesces because he gets paid a bit more in exchange.

Susan leaves Liam as quickly as she can to make her appointment with her sister Katie. She learns that Katie’s husband Gordon left her six months ago for his secretary, who’s 20 years younger than him. Even worse, he maxed out his company credit card treating her with trips to Paris and gifts, then was found out and fired. Now he can’t afford to pay for his half of the house, so Katie has to sell it. Their daughter is furious, but Jack has been devastated by the news and had to drop out of college.

Katie can’t believe that Susan is considering leaving Andreas to try to rebuild her old life in England. Hold on to him, she advises her sister. You don’t know how lucky you are.

As Susan drives back to the hotel, an aggressive driver forces her off the road. It’s Martin Webster – not that Susan knows that.

She runs into Locke at the hotel. He has just informed the family that a woman’s body has been found in the forest, with Cecily’s necklace. She was strangled.

Lisa immediately accosts Susan and tells her it’s time for her to leave – she failed to find Cecily. Checkout is tomorrow at noon.

Andreas is waiting in the lobby, and asks Susan where she was the previous night – she left her phone at Craig Andrews’ house, and Craig implied that Susan had spent the night with him when Andreas tried calling. Susan tells Andreas that there’s no one she would rather see in that moment than Andreas.

Pünd calls everyone together in Melissa James’ house to reveal her killer – and it’s not her late husband, John Spencer. The married couple’s argument must have taken place after the Chandlers left at 6:10 because Eric and Phyllis didn’t hear it and didn’t see John return from his trip to the opera after he decided not to go. In the 18 minutes before Melissa called Leonard for help, Melissa and John argued violently in the bedroom because she told him she was leaving him. They caused the chaotic scene found there.

John tore the phone out of the wall and choked Melissa with its cord, giving her the first of two sets of abrasions on her neck. He fled, thinking he had killed his wife. But she was just unconscious. When she woke up, she had to go downstairs to use the phone to call Leonard, since her phone had been pulled out of the wall – hence the tear-soaked tissues there. She then returned upstairs to her bedroom, where Leonard found her and killed her, giving the second abrasions.

Why? Leonard was Melissa’s lover, not Algernon. Melissa wanted to go public with their relationship, which Leonard had started because he was bored of his provincial life and she was a movie star. But when his wife inherited a fortune, Leonard decided to stay with Samantha – and knew that, as a religious woman, she could never forgive adultery. So he had to silence Melissa in order to have access to Samantha’s inheritance, and took advantage of John’s attack on Melissa to deflect blame onto John.

Melissa told Algernon about the affair – that’s how Algernon was blackmailing Leonard to get his sister’s inheritance. Algernon claimed to be the one having the affair to the police in order to protect that blackmailing power.

Chubb arrests both Algernon and Leonard. But he still wonders: who killed John Spencer?

Pünd answers. “The person who killed John Spencer was me.”