Challenge 02: Previously On... Death In Paradise 9x01
This review contains images and spoilers for the episode in question. Be warned!
I recently bought series 9 of Death in Paradise on DVD to continue one of my favourite shows, and it did not disappoint. I was a big fan of Richard Poole and I was devastated when he was killed, but I quickly grew to like Humphrey Goodman. And when Humphrey left, I was willing to like the new guy (Jack Mooney) based mostly on his name - a guy named Mooney? My Harry Potter loving heart skipped a beat. Add in Mooney hiding his brilliance a lot, having a genuinely nice nature, a lot of social engagement and an Irish accent - yeah, I loved Mooney from the start.
Finding out that series 9 would be his last made me incredibly sad, so I decided to review his last episodes on Death in Paradise (and the new guy's first episode). Let's hope they're everything I could wish for.
901: La Murder Le Diablé
The new series opens on New Year's Eve 2019 (haha, if only they knew what 2020 would bring) - JP and Ruby are working, which Ruby isn't too happy about. As a Northern European, it's incredibly strange to see people organizing New Year's party stuff in shorts and t-shirts, in the sunshine, outside. (It's New Year's Day today and last night, it was -2. Nobody was wearing shorts.)
In the episode, Ruby gets hit on by a guy we later find out if named Raymond. I think a lot of people don't see Ruby as a grown woman because she's goofy and accident prone and generally in such a happy mood that it seems incongruous that she's an actual adult dealing with adult problems.
Cut to another luxurious villa (they seem to be abundant on St. Marie) rented/owned by some rich Brit. Rich Brit and Rich Brit's wife are getting ready for a party, but of course the wife is barely dressed while he's ready to leave. I'm predicting that one of them will be killed within the next five minutes.
The husband leaves to go to his party (literally his; he's "the boss", so he's organized a New Year's party for his company) while the wife stays to get ready. At the beach, the party is already going strong. The boss arrives shaking hands and heads straight to the bar to order a drink. A female employee asks about his wife and he says she's still getting ready. Cut to the wife, now dressed, touching up her lipstick in the kitchen. She notices that one of the doors to the terrace is open and goes to investigate.
She looks out but doesn't see anyone - of course not. Horror Film Logic says that the murderer is already inside and she's trapping herself with him by closing the door. Aaaand that's correct - you can see a guy in a devil's mask reflected in the glass once the door is closed. Guess who gets stabbed?
The killer grabs the wife's lipstick and writes a message on the floor next to her: la vengeance... [Quick aside: I guess now I guess why the episode title references the devil. Still not sure what the accent over the e in diablé is supposed to do because that's definitely not real French. Maybe it's not supposed to be French if it can instead look like French? idk.]
Cut to the opening credits. I'm not gonna lie, hearing the Death in Paradise theme song always puts me in a good mood. It's catchy, it's cheery, it's fun - it makes you think you're on holiday in the Caribbean. Which I guess is the point.
Cut to a different New Year's Party. Madeleine Dumas is enjoying some champagne while DI Mooney is trying to learn how to dance by dancing with a young man. Or is it the other way around? Either way, it's not going too well. Ruby and JP show up just as Mooney manages to walk backwards into a table and throw everything to the floor. He replaces the drinks and heads towards the others, blaming his backside for the event: "got a mind of its own". Turns out Mooney is thinking of learning Calypso - as a resolution for the new year. The others look (rightfully, I imagine) sceptical. He mentions wanting a dance partner and Madeleine immediately finds something to look at in the exact opposite direction of Mooney. No luck, though, because he asks her but luckily gets interrupted by the Commissioner calling before Madeleine has to make up some excuse as to why she'd rather keep her feet unbroken. :D
But of course the Commissioner calling on New Year's Eve can't be good news, so off they are to the murder scene. The victim's name is Vanessa McCormack, and her husband Aaron McCormack apparently got worried when his wife hadn't show up to his party after a while and went home to fetch her, finding her stabbed in the kitchen. The Commissioner explains what the viewer already knew: McCormack is indeed a rich Brit involved in Big Business on St. Marie.
Mooney notices the security cameras outside the property, but doesn't comment. They inspect the murder scene and Madeleine notices that the lipstick used to write the message is the same colour the victim is wearing. Ruby butts in with a quick analysis of lip stick colours and skin tones which honestly had me making the same face as Madeleine, but of course the Commissioner was impressed. (For those not in the know: Commissioner Patterson is Ruby's uncle. I know it stinks of nepotism but I think by now Ruby has proved herself to be a good officer, no matter who she's related to. Still, especially JP sometimes struggles with having his boss' niece as his co-worker.)
Mooney is looking around the crime scene and he is bothered by the three little dots in la vengeance... since obviously it implies the message is incomplete. Meaning... more murder?
The team then interview the husband who says he left for the party at half eight [On a personal note: In almost every other language I know the phrase "half eight" would mean 7:30. But of course Britain has got to be different so it means 8:30. I still remember being so confused by this when I was younger and the internet wasn't there to give you instant answers to questions like this.] and didn't realize until ten that his wife surely should have been there by now. He plays the grieving widower pretty well, but going by past experience, he's definitely involved in this somehow. He reluctantly (really? I guess we'll see!) brings up his brother as a potential suspect.
Madeleine cuts in from where she's sighting the security footage that shows the man in the devil mask entering the house at nine. The Commissioner recognises the mask as that of Le Diablé (I guess, since that's how they spell it in the title), a character from St. Marie folklore. Mooney very unnecessarily asks who "le Diablé" is (the devil) which tbh I think even people who don't speak French would have figured from the, you know, devil's mask. But whatever.
Back in the villa's living room, McCormick brings in an old photo album and says he and his brother haven't spoken in fifteen years because their dad, a successful rum distillery owner, left the distillery to the older brother Donald after his death and the brother didn't want McCormick involved. Cue a big fight between the brothers who "never really got along".
In the background, fireworks go off. Happy New Year! McCormick grumbles and downs his drink.
Mooney is a little confused by the brother would be a suspect when they haven't talked in fifteen years. McCormick reveals that Donald came to his office shortly before to ask for help/money and then got mad and threatening when McCormick refused.
Cut to the brother, Donald McCormick, walking home drunk while being followed by some other guy. Other Guy wants to talk, but Donald is drunk and whining about his brother refusing to help. He unlocks his front gate and leaves his friend standing outside of it as he heads into his house. Inside, he turns on the light and sees a message written in red lipstick on the hallway mirror: ... est complète.
He looks at it and then the camera turns a bit to catch the hallway behind Donald in the reflection where - of course - the murderer in the devil's mask is approaching. Donald sees him.
Cut to outside where Donald's friend is walking away. He hears Donald call for help, turns and sees the struggle through the window. Cut to inside where Donald is holding the attacker's wrist. Outside, Donald's friend (named Charlie, unless Donald's calls for help are for random people we haven't seen yet) runs back and bursts into the house. The murderer, now facing two people, jerks back and runs, but not before slashing the knife across Donald's stomach.
Donald falls to the ground, bleeding, and his friend Charlie who until then had only stood in the corner being terrified, calls an ambulance.
The next morning (judging by the daylight, but the previous scene might have been very late at night/early in the morning) the team is in Donald's front hallway, investigating. Mooney comes in and updates them on what Donald said (not much, but the attacker was a man wearing jeans, a grey hoodie and a devil's mask). That seems like proof that this is the same guy who attacked Mrs. McCormick earlier in the night.
This is followed by probably the funniest scene in this entire episode: Mooney says that it does make sense of the sentence found at both crime scenes: la vengeance ... est complète. He very helpfully translates this French sentence... to an actual French woman and two people who grew up on an island were English and French are the official languages. Madeleine's face is perfect in this scene:
Now that is the face of a woman who just had her own mother tongue translated to her by a guy who doesn't actually speak said language.
JP gives him the side eye too:
Anyway, Mooney correctly concludes that they have two questions to answer: why did someone want to kill Mrs. McCormick and Donald, and who is the guy in the mask?
Cue ominous music and a cut to: the grey hoodie (with a few drops of blood on it) and the devil's mask, with the camera slowly panning up to show a sink in a grubby little house. A hand holding a bloody knife comes into view as the killer washes the blood off the knife. He looks... like you would expect your killer to look. kinda gruff and shabby, with an unkempt ten-day-beard and a cigarette dangling from a corner of his mouth. He impassively cleans up the blood.
Cut back to a more cheery, Caribbean scene: JP and Ruby are investigating the crime scenes. JP is dusting for finger prints while Ruby is handling a camera for photographs when Ruby's phone dings. (I call bullshit, btw. I don't know a single person under the age of 40 whose phone isn't set to vibrate or entirely silent.)
JP is annoyed: they're supposed to be working, not texting. But Ruby can't help it. It's Raymond, and Raymond is cute. JP is confused: they barely spoke, so how did Raymond even get Ruby's number? Ruby considers Raymond to be "quite the catch" since he's actually interested in her and not just talking about himself.
Meanwhile Mooney and Madeleine visit the brother's rum distillery. It looks run down and in desperate need of some money. One of the signs in front of the property is "decorated" with graffiti saying "scum" and "traitor" - as Madeleine says, Donald does not seem very popular.
For the first time this episode, the team is at the St. Marie police station, setting up their murder board. On top of the board is an image from the McCormick security cameras showing the man in the mask.
Ruby's phone dings again and they all look at it, but Mooney continues his briefing. He pins a picture of Mrs. McCormick to the board and JP gives a short overview of her. Ruby's phone dings again. Mooney is all "is that your phone, Ruby?" and she smiles, saying it's only Raymond, but she hoped he'd go away if she ignored it. The phone, of course, dings again. Ruby goes to silence it and Mooney is all, "who is Raymond anyway?"
JP heads him off and they continue the briefing with McCormick who thought the killer to be his brother Donald. Their pictures both go on the board. (It's a small detail, but I like the fact that the picture of McCormick looks like JP printed it out off the man's business website. Donald's pic look like a candid shot he gave them or that they found at his house and Mrs. McCormick's is a crime scene photo. They could have just used headshots of all of them (like they mostly did in the earlier series), but this feels a lot more organic. Like this is how you would do it IRL. You don't just have a bunch of headshots of the Important People lying around.)
The last person going on the board is Charles Crabtree, Donald's friend, who can testify that Donald can't be the guy in the mask because he was attacked by the guy himself. Charlie is, apparently, Donald's accountant and financial advisor. They all stare at the board for a moment, thinking. Mooney fiddles with his tie as he often does when he's thinking.
JP says that all the data and samples from the crime scenes are on the computer and that they have no matches to anyone with a record. There are no further leads, so all they have is the message which clearly links the two crimes.
Mooney decides they need to talk to Donald which they do in the man's house. He's out of the hospital already with a bad but not life-threatening cut. Donald can't really explain the attack of what connection there is between him and his brother's wife. They married after the brothers had their falling out and Donald never actually met the woman. There seems to be nothing to link them.
Mooney asks about the graffiti at the distillery and Donald explains that he's not exactly popular since he had to let a lot of workers go due to financial problems. I'm not sure what it is about this guy, but I don't like him. He whines a lot for someone who doesn't seem to be going all that bad.
Madeleine requests a list of everyone Donald fired. He asks why anyone he fired would want to kill his brother's wife as well. Mooney says he doesn't know, but his face says "but I'm definitely gonna find out".
JP and Ruby arrive at Charlie Crabtree's house to take his fingerprints to exclude them from the ones found at the second crime scene. Charlie is every bit the posh asshole - he's got "people coming over for his New Year's bruncheon". Ruby spots a mug by the sink with a lipstick impression on it in the exact shade Mrs. McCormick was wearing... Charlie waves it off as a coincidence, saying Mrs. McCormick hasn't been to his house. He says no about six times which isn't suspicious at all. Right.
Outside, Ruby and JP have called Mooney and Madeleine because Charlie was acting so fishy. They talked to the neighbours and found out that a woman looking very much like the first victim visited Charlie the day before, and that they argued. Guess who just got elevated to top suspect?
Cut to Mooney and Madeleine talking to Charlie. He was supposed to invest some money for Mrs. McCromick - she gave him 50.000 Pounds to invest... but he used to money to pay off some debts (club memberships and his Italian tailor and did I mention he was kind of a posh asshole?). Mooney points out that committing fraud gives Charlie a pretty good motive for murder.
Except. Charlie can't have been the killer since he was right there when the guy attacked Donald.
Mooney and Madeleine are not happy about it, but Charlie is right.
Back at the station, they're going over the details again - everyone has either no motive or an alibi. They're going back to the basics: Madeleine is going to check out the husband's alibi. Maybe he wasn't at the party after all?
Mooney sets JP to get a "list of enemies" from McCormick as well as Donald so that they can go through them to look for possible suspects.
Then the Commissioner comes in, looking displeased. We quickly learn why: the evening news have come up with a serial killer theory. Mooney is surprised. Ruby, in the background, looks a little "uh-oh".
The news are claiming a source "close to the police". They're all wondering about it and as if on cue, Ruby's phone dings.
Everyone starts closing in on Ruby, remembering that Raymond was very interested in Ruby and her life. And Ruby admits that maybe the talk of serial killers was brought up between them (by Raymond!) but she never thought he'd talk to the press! (She really does look contrite.) Everyone looks like they're expecting the Commissioner to start shouting, but he's all "well luckily I called a press conference to set the record straight; they're setting up outside right now so come on, Mooney!"
Cut to the press conference playing on a TV in a bar. Mooney looks super uncomfortable while explaining that yes, there were two victims but they were specifically targeted and there is no serial killer loose on St. Marie. As the camera pans back, we see our killer sitting at the bar, getting drunk. He looks a little alarmed when the Commissioner says they're hoping to bring this case to a "swift conclusion", but orders another drink anyway. (In French, btw.)
Our killer:
Or is he????
Cut to the end of the day. Ruby is closing up the station, on the phone to Raymond. She is angry and not-yelling at him "what? No, of course we're not still going on a date!" She's gearing up for a longer rant when a woman approaches Ruby. She saw the press conference and wants to speak to DI Mooney.
The lady is a witness: she saw the guy in the devil's mask. She's reminds me of Mooney: kinda awkward but sweet. Ruby is all "hop in" and so she and the witness are pulling up to Mooney's dance classes in the motorbike and sidecar.
Cut to the inside where Mooney is "dancing" with Madeleine - well, he's moving on the dance floor, bumping into people and things and probably stepping on Madeleine's toes a whole lot.
"It's his backside," Ruby explains. The witness is amused since Mooney's backside takes that as a cue to bump into another couple.
Ruby fetches Mooney and the witness takes Mooney to a spot near the beach where she was having a little picnic on her own to watch the fireworks. Mooney thanks her for making the effort to tell them and they get to talking. I smell a love interest in the air.
Mooney, by virtue of having had a recently dead wife at the start of his time on St. Marie, hasn't really had a love interest yet. I wonder if they're going to have him fall for this woman and then movie back to Britain with her...
Oh, the woman is recently divorced and apparently working to get things off her bucket list. Definitely a love interest.
Yup, he's asking her out. Well. I'm not sure he actually meant to ask her out as such, but he did ask her to come to the Calypso lessons to be his partner instead of Madeleine. She agrees, sort of! She is kinda cute and I feel like she and Mooney would fit together well. But I guess we'll see.
Meanwhile Madeleine is at McCormick's office to talk to people about his alibi.
Back at the station, Mooney sends Ruby to the part of the beach where the witness (Anna) saw the man in the mask to canvass the area and ask around if anyone else saw him.
Then Mooney gets a call from Madeleine - she found McCormick's assistant very suspicious. The woman immediately offered up an alibi for McCormick and was generally weird. She also pulled up in an expensive sports car and seems to live in a villa a bit above her pay grade. According to Madeleine, the woman has student debts and not much income, so how? They go an ask.
They're being kinda mean but also hilarious. They ask all sorts of "innocent" questions about the house and the car and then when the woman gets uncomfortable, they have a "whispered" conversation.
Madeleine (leans in): This is what she was like earlier.
Mooney: When you thought she was acting suspicious?
Madeleine: Yes! (looks at her) She got red in the face now.
Mooney: Now, that's a deep burgundy.
Surprise, surprise! Guess who's having an affair with the boss?
But no! They're in luuuurve. That's why she's got the nice house and the car (and the continued employment I think).
McCormick arrives and is all "I know this doesn't look good." Which, yeah, it really doesn't. Mooney asks if he was going to divorce his wife and the girlfriend answers "of course he was". From his face, I'm not so sure...
Mooney points out that having an affair was not going to help him in a divorce. It would, in fact, make sure that his wife would get a huge settlement and surely that wasn't in his favour. McCormick again points out that he has an alibi. "Ask anyone!"
Mooney certainly plans to - except it turns out tons of people saw the guy at the party so he really does have an alibi. Mooney is not happy. Mooney found out that McCormick hadn't talked to his solicitor about divorcing his wife (big surprise there) but apparently Mrs. McCormick had! She apparently knew her husband had an affair and wanted to know her chances in a divorce. It also explains why she wanted to invest 50 thousand of her own money - as security in case the divorce didn't pan out the way she wanted to. Which explains why she talked to Charlie Crabtree. But it still doesn't explain her murder.
All of their suspects are ruled out: McCormick has an alibi; Charlie had motive and opportunity to kill Mrs. McCormick, but can't have attacked Donald; and Donald can't have attacked himself and McCormick's affair Tabitha is a) a woman and b) has an alibi.
So who is it?
Cue JP with a lead: a disgruntled ex-employee who worked for both brothers and was fired by both of them recently: a man called Oscar Samuel. He's apparently someone who ends up in a cell every now and then because he gets violent when he drinks too much. JP calls up his record and it is our man with the bloody knife!
Cut to Ruby who's still making the rounds. She knocks on a door and Mr. Oscar Samuel opens.
Dun Dun Dun.
Ruby enters his house and he checks if anyone else is around before following her to the kitchen. But before we can get stuck in our fear for Ruby's life, the show cuts to the distillery where Mooney, Madeleine and JP are talking to Donald about Oscar who did not take it too great to be fired. According to Donald he was a good worker, but he'd show up late and sometimes still drunk. He was angry at Donald for being fired.
A car pulls up: it's McCormick.
Donald: What the hell is he doing here?
Mooney seems to take some pleasure inputting these two brothers who can't stand each other into the same space. Heh.
McCormick says he fired Oscar after finding him napping during work hours, reeking of booze.
Then JP approaches with Oscar's current address: it's right where Ruby is canvassing the area looking for witnesses.
Cut to Ruby who's still talking to Oscar. She admits that they don't really have a suspect yet and it makes you think that maybe she's going to get out of there intact.
Her phone rings and she turns away from Oscar to answer it. It's Mooney who obviously tells her she's chatting with the main suspect. In the background, Oscar realizes they're talking about him and that it's probably not good news for him, so he stands up and approaches. Uh-oh.
The music is very horror movie-ish and it's all very scary. Oscar is more than a head taller than Ruby and when she turns around in fear, he grabs her by the neck and pushes her down. She screams.
Cut.
Oscar is outside pulling away on a moped (no kidding). Ruby comes running out of the house yelling for him to stop. She chases after him on foot. She gives Mooney (still on the phone and racing towards that side of town) directions.
Obviously any horror elements are over and done with because the next bit is hilarious. This is slapstick humour at its best. Ruby runs into an alley, doesn't see anything.
She runs off to the side.
A second later, Oscar passes the other side of the alley on his moped.
(Seriously. A moped.)
Ruby arrives back at her bike and sees Oscar down the road. He's heading straight to the others in the Jeep. Mooney blocks the road.
Oscar sees that and turns straight back around (and back towards Ruby). Ruby, clever as she is, looks around and sees a guy with a coconut (are they coconuts? fresh coconuts? I think) stand. She grabs his machete and stands in the middle of the road.
Before Oscar reaches her, Ruby swings the machete... at the truck loaded with more coconuts. The tailgate falls open and a truckload of coconuts spills out on the road straight towards Oscar.
Oscar is brought down and falls straight into a convenient stream. Ruby is right there to arrest him.
The others arrive and are impressed. Well, Madeleine is anyways.
They're all relieved Ruby is okay though.
In Oscar's house, Mooney has found the potential murder weapon. They bag it and a bunch of other stuff, but Mooney doesn't seem convinced that they have their guy. By past experience, this means that Oscar is not, in fact, their guy. He sends Madeleine ahead to interview Oscar while he keeps looking around. He particularly notices a cassette collection of books on tape and nods to himself in Oscar's dirty mirror. Then he gets one of his brilliant thoughts, looks around again and says "scooter license" which he then searches for. He finds it in a bottom drawer, looks at it and says "Oscar didn't do it."
Cut to Oscar's cell. Mooney enters it while the rest of the team stands outside. He questions Oscar. Oscar says he started drinking early on New Year's Eve ("half a bottle of rum") and barely remembers anything. He blacked out and woke up with the bloody knife on his bedside table and a fuzzy head. He knows he gets violent when he drinks so he guesses he killed that woman. *shrugs*
Mooney shows him photos of the sentence left at the crime scene. Oscar looks at them blankly and shrugs. Mooney asks him to tell him what they say, but Oscar says he can't. Mooney lists his evidence - Oscar can't read or write. His license is signed with an X.
Oscar takes it as an attack and tries to justify it ("we were poor, I helped my dad with his work instead of going to school") and Mooney is all "no, no" because that actually saves him from jail. How could he be the killer and leave that sentence for the police when he can't write?
Madeleine points out that it was still Oscar's clothes and mask that the killer wore. Obviously to frame him. JP points out that this puts them back to square one: it could be anyone.
Mooney has another brilliant idea. "If it was anyone, that would mean it couldn't be just someone."
The others: huh???
We see a series of flashbacks for the episode as Mooney mentally reviews the case because it can only mean "one thing". He asks Oscar if the bottle of rum he had was a gift.
Oscar: Yes. How did you guess?
Mooney: Oscar Samuel, I could kiss you!
He sends Ruby and JP to get Oscar's blood tested and Madeleine to gather the suspects. And then he realises he needs one of them to come back and open the cell. /o\
Brilliant, yes, but not very organised, our DI Mooney.
They all end up at the distillery for the big reveal at the end. I have to say, I love that they all kept this feature that Poole started. It feels very Agatha Christie-ish and I love it. (I love that when Humphrey had his first case and Fidel got everyone together Humphrey was all "uh, what is this?" but then just went with it when Fidel explained that this is how Poole used to do it. And Mooney didn't even question it.)
Mooney and Madeleine sum up the case.
Madeleine. ...leaving across both crime scenes a message. La vengeance est complète.
Mooney: The revenge is complete. One single message in two parts written with the same lipstick by the same person. (Pause) Except it wasn't.
Everyone squirms as Mooney explains how the murder happened. Think of a variant of Strangers on a Train - two brothers, estranged and by all appearances hating each other's guts, plan a murder together. Donald killed his brother's wife (hey, divorce is expensive!) in return for financial aid with the distillery. Then McCormick "attacked" Donald so no suspicious could fall on him and to give the police an easy suspect: a man who they both fired.
Everyone is confused. The brothers hate each other, don't they?
Mooney isn't saying they don't - but they managed to work together. Both to save their father's distillery business and to get rid of Aaron's wife in return for the money. They staged a public argument about the financial support and after Donald stabbed his sister-in-law, he stashed the clothes, mask and knife nearby for his brother to find and take to commit the second part of the crime. Donald was hurt, yes, but very superficially. It threw suspicious off both of them and pointed the finger at Oscar.
Oscar says that Donald brought him a bottle of rum as an apology for firing him. Except the rum was laced with a sedative to keep Oscar down for the night. Donald stole the clothes, mask and knife from Oscar's place, went to his brother's house and stabbed his sister-in-law. He hid the mask, clothes and knife nearby and went to meet up with Charlie for drinks who was then a convenient witness when McCormick, after the police left his place for the night, put on the killer disguise and attacked Donald. Afterwards, he put everything back in Oscar's house. The message would guarantee that the police would link the crimes and make them search for one killer.
Then Mooney reveals that Oscar can't read or write and McCormick and his brother definitely give themselves away.
Donald then attacks his brother, well, he tries, and then breaks down crying... but honestly, he should have thought of that before committing murder. Still, it's kinda sad.
Cut to the station, later that day. Madeleine reminds Mooney of his dance class which brings up the topic of his new dance partner. Ruby: "ooh, so you're going on a date?!"
Mooney denies it's a date - it's just dancing, with a woman - but none of the others seem convinced.
Mooney invites the others to join the class. Ruby agrees (she loves Calypso), JP is in if Ruby is in and Madeleine agrees as long as she doesn't have to dance with Mooney... :p
Then Ruby's phone dings again, but it's not Raymond. It's the Commissioner, wanting a word about the "coconut incident" (ah, so they were coconuts! I only know the brown hairy version you find in supermarkets). So while the others go on ahead, Ruby stays to talk to her uncle. Who... is actually pretty proud of her. This is actually one of the cutes scenes in this episode. He reminds her not to make stupid mistakes (like Raymond) but also to show initiative and do her job (the coconut incident).
Commissioner: You're a police officer now. And as the old Caribbean saying goes: With great power comes--
Ruby (grinning): --great responsibility!
Commissioner: *nods gravely*
*snorts* Those nerds!
Just as the Commissioner is about to leave, Ruby invites him to Calypso class with her.
Cut to the Calypso class where the Commissioner (in civilian clothes - like, really civilian) is dancing with Madeleine. Also on the dance floor are Ruby and JP and Mooney and Anna. Mooney managed to run into every single person on the dance floor. Commissioner included:
Mooney and Anna seem to be having a good time (well, they all do). Afterwards Anna and Mooney are outside saying goodbye and they flirt a little awkwardly and then Anna leans in and kisses Mooney. Awww. He's not really... uh. Participating? He just kind of stares because he really thought that wasn't a date. As Anna says, "awkward!" She says goodbye, but asks to text Mooney - because that how people do dating these days, apparently. Going away, Mooney is all "huh, that might have been a date after all!"
Good to see he's finally getting there. But it's honestly adorable. I really hope those two work out.
And thus ends the first episode of series 9. With an unusual and clever murder, a love interest and a lot of fun.
I recently bought series 9 of Death in Paradise on DVD to continue one of my favourite shows, and it did not disappoint. I was a big fan of Richard Poole and I was devastated when he was killed, but I quickly grew to like Humphrey Goodman. And when Humphrey left, I was willing to like the new guy (Jack Mooney) based mostly on his name - a guy named Mooney? My Harry Potter loving heart skipped a beat. Add in Mooney hiding his brilliance a lot, having a genuinely nice nature, a lot of social engagement and an Irish accent - yeah, I loved Mooney from the start.
Finding out that series 9 would be his last made me incredibly sad, so I decided to review his last episodes on Death in Paradise (and the new guy's first episode). Let's hope they're everything I could wish for.
901: La Murder Le Diablé
The new series opens on New Year's Eve 2019 (haha, if only they knew what 2020 would bring) - JP and Ruby are working, which Ruby isn't too happy about. As a Northern European, it's incredibly strange to see people organizing New Year's party stuff in shorts and t-shirts, in the sunshine, outside. (It's New Year's Day today and last night, it was -2. Nobody was wearing shorts.)
In the episode, Ruby gets hit on by a guy we later find out if named Raymond. I think a lot of people don't see Ruby as a grown woman because she's goofy and accident prone and generally in such a happy mood that it seems incongruous that she's an actual adult dealing with adult problems.
Cut to another luxurious villa (they seem to be abundant on St. Marie) rented/owned by some rich Brit. Rich Brit and Rich Brit's wife are getting ready for a party, but of course the wife is barely dressed while he's ready to leave. I'm predicting that one of them will be killed within the next five minutes.
The husband leaves to go to his party (literally his; he's "the boss", so he's organized a New Year's party for his company) while the wife stays to get ready. At the beach, the party is already going strong. The boss arrives shaking hands and heads straight to the bar to order a drink. A female employee asks about his wife and he says she's still getting ready. Cut to the wife, now dressed, touching up her lipstick in the kitchen. She notices that one of the doors to the terrace is open and goes to investigate.
She looks out but doesn't see anyone - of course not. Horror Film Logic says that the murderer is already inside and she's trapping herself with him by closing the door. Aaaand that's correct - you can see a guy in a devil's mask reflected in the glass once the door is closed. Guess who gets stabbed?
The killer grabs the wife's lipstick and writes a message on the floor next to her: la vengeance... [Quick aside: I guess now I guess why the episode title references the devil. Still not sure what the accent over the e in diablé is supposed to do because that's definitely not real French. Maybe it's not supposed to be French if it can instead look like French? idk.]
Cut to the opening credits. I'm not gonna lie, hearing the Death in Paradise theme song always puts me in a good mood. It's catchy, it's cheery, it's fun - it makes you think you're on holiday in the Caribbean. Which I guess is the point.
Cut to a different New Year's Party. Madeleine Dumas is enjoying some champagne while DI Mooney is trying to learn how to dance by dancing with a young man. Or is it the other way around? Either way, it's not going too well. Ruby and JP show up just as Mooney manages to walk backwards into a table and throw everything to the floor. He replaces the drinks and heads towards the others, blaming his backside for the event: "got a mind of its own". Turns out Mooney is thinking of learning Calypso - as a resolution for the new year. The others look (rightfully, I imagine) sceptical. He mentions wanting a dance partner and Madeleine immediately finds something to look at in the exact opposite direction of Mooney. No luck, though, because he asks her but luckily gets interrupted by the Commissioner calling before Madeleine has to make up some excuse as to why she'd rather keep her feet unbroken. :D
But of course the Commissioner calling on New Year's Eve can't be good news, so off they are to the murder scene. The victim's name is Vanessa McCormack, and her husband Aaron McCormack apparently got worried when his wife hadn't show up to his party after a while and went home to fetch her, finding her stabbed in the kitchen. The Commissioner explains what the viewer already knew: McCormack is indeed a rich Brit involved in Big Business on St. Marie.
Mooney notices the security cameras outside the property, but doesn't comment. They inspect the murder scene and Madeleine notices that the lipstick used to write the message is the same colour the victim is wearing. Ruby butts in with a quick analysis of lip stick colours and skin tones which honestly had me making the same face as Madeleine, but of course the Commissioner was impressed. (For those not in the know: Commissioner Patterson is Ruby's uncle. I know it stinks of nepotism but I think by now Ruby has proved herself to be a good officer, no matter who she's related to. Still, especially JP sometimes struggles with having his boss' niece as his co-worker.)
Mooney is looking around the crime scene and he is bothered by the three little dots in la vengeance... since obviously it implies the message is incomplete. Meaning... more murder?
The team then interview the husband who says he left for the party at half eight [On a personal note: In almost every other language I know the phrase "half eight" would mean 7:30. But of course Britain has got to be different so it means 8:30. I still remember being so confused by this when I was younger and the internet wasn't there to give you instant answers to questions like this.] and didn't realize until ten that his wife surely should have been there by now. He plays the grieving widower pretty well, but going by past experience, he's definitely involved in this somehow. He reluctantly (really? I guess we'll see!) brings up his brother as a potential suspect.
Madeleine cuts in from where she's sighting the security footage that shows the man in the devil mask entering the house at nine. The Commissioner recognises the mask as that of Le Diablé (I guess, since that's how they spell it in the title), a character from St. Marie folklore. Mooney very unnecessarily asks who "le Diablé" is (the devil) which tbh I think even people who don't speak French would have figured from the, you know, devil's mask. But whatever.
Back in the villa's living room, McCormick brings in an old photo album and says he and his brother haven't spoken in fifteen years because their dad, a successful rum distillery owner, left the distillery to the older brother Donald after his death and the brother didn't want McCormick involved. Cue a big fight between the brothers who "never really got along".
In the background, fireworks go off. Happy New Year! McCormick grumbles and downs his drink.
Mooney is a little confused by the brother would be a suspect when they haven't talked in fifteen years. McCormick reveals that Donald came to his office shortly before to ask for help/money and then got mad and threatening when McCormick refused.
Cut to the brother, Donald McCormick, walking home drunk while being followed by some other guy. Other Guy wants to talk, but Donald is drunk and whining about his brother refusing to help. He unlocks his front gate and leaves his friend standing outside of it as he heads into his house. Inside, he turns on the light and sees a message written in red lipstick on the hallway mirror: ... est complète.
He looks at it and then the camera turns a bit to catch the hallway behind Donald in the reflection where - of course - the murderer in the devil's mask is approaching. Donald sees him.
Cut to outside where Donald's friend is walking away. He hears Donald call for help, turns and sees the struggle through the window. Cut to inside where Donald is holding the attacker's wrist. Outside, Donald's friend (named Charlie, unless Donald's calls for help are for random people we haven't seen yet) runs back and bursts into the house. The murderer, now facing two people, jerks back and runs, but not before slashing the knife across Donald's stomach.
Donald falls to the ground, bleeding, and his friend Charlie who until then had only stood in the corner being terrified, calls an ambulance.
The next morning (judging by the daylight, but the previous scene might have been very late at night/early in the morning) the team is in Donald's front hallway, investigating. Mooney comes in and updates them on what Donald said (not much, but the attacker was a man wearing jeans, a grey hoodie and a devil's mask). That seems like proof that this is the same guy who attacked Mrs. McCormick earlier in the night.
This is followed by probably the funniest scene in this entire episode: Mooney says that it does make sense of the sentence found at both crime scenes: la vengeance ... est complète. He very helpfully translates this French sentence... to an actual French woman and two people who grew up on an island were English and French are the official languages. Madeleine's face is perfect in this scene:
Now that is the face of a woman who just had her own mother tongue translated to her by a guy who doesn't actually speak said language.
JP gives him the side eye too:
Anyway, Mooney correctly concludes that they have two questions to answer: why did someone want to kill Mrs. McCormick and Donald, and who is the guy in the mask?
Cue ominous music and a cut to: the grey hoodie (with a few drops of blood on it) and the devil's mask, with the camera slowly panning up to show a sink in a grubby little house. A hand holding a bloody knife comes into view as the killer washes the blood off the knife. He looks... like you would expect your killer to look. kinda gruff and shabby, with an unkempt ten-day-beard and a cigarette dangling from a corner of his mouth. He impassively cleans up the blood.
Cut back to a more cheery, Caribbean scene: JP and Ruby are investigating the crime scenes. JP is dusting for finger prints while Ruby is handling a camera for photographs when Ruby's phone dings. (I call bullshit, btw. I don't know a single person under the age of 40 whose phone isn't set to vibrate or entirely silent.)
JP is annoyed: they're supposed to be working, not texting. But Ruby can't help it. It's Raymond, and Raymond is cute. JP is confused: they barely spoke, so how did Raymond even get Ruby's number? Ruby considers Raymond to be "quite the catch" since he's actually interested in her and not just talking about himself.
Meanwhile Mooney and Madeleine visit the brother's rum distillery. It looks run down and in desperate need of some money. One of the signs in front of the property is "decorated" with graffiti saying "scum" and "traitor" - as Madeleine says, Donald does not seem very popular.
For the first time this episode, the team is at the St. Marie police station, setting up their murder board. On top of the board is an image from the McCormick security cameras showing the man in the mask.
Ruby's phone dings again and they all look at it, but Mooney continues his briefing. He pins a picture of Mrs. McCormick to the board and JP gives a short overview of her. Ruby's phone dings again. Mooney is all "is that your phone, Ruby?" and she smiles, saying it's only Raymond, but she hoped he'd go away if she ignored it. The phone, of course, dings again. Ruby goes to silence it and Mooney is all, "who is Raymond anyway?"
JP heads him off and they continue the briefing with McCormick who thought the killer to be his brother Donald. Their pictures both go on the board. (It's a small detail, but I like the fact that the picture of McCormick looks like JP printed it out off the man's business website. Donald's pic look like a candid shot he gave them or that they found at his house and Mrs. McCormick's is a crime scene photo. They could have just used headshots of all of them (like they mostly did in the earlier series), but this feels a lot more organic. Like this is how you would do it IRL. You don't just have a bunch of headshots of the Important People lying around.)
The last person going on the board is Charles Crabtree, Donald's friend, who can testify that Donald can't be the guy in the mask because he was attacked by the guy himself. Charlie is, apparently, Donald's accountant and financial advisor. They all stare at the board for a moment, thinking. Mooney fiddles with his tie as he often does when he's thinking.
JP says that all the data and samples from the crime scenes are on the computer and that they have no matches to anyone with a record. There are no further leads, so all they have is the message which clearly links the two crimes.
Mooney decides they need to talk to Donald which they do in the man's house. He's out of the hospital already with a bad but not life-threatening cut. Donald can't really explain the attack of what connection there is between him and his brother's wife. They married after the brothers had their falling out and Donald never actually met the woman. There seems to be nothing to link them.
Mooney asks about the graffiti at the distillery and Donald explains that he's not exactly popular since he had to let a lot of workers go due to financial problems. I'm not sure what it is about this guy, but I don't like him. He whines a lot for someone who doesn't seem to be going all that bad.
Madeleine requests a list of everyone Donald fired. He asks why anyone he fired would want to kill his brother's wife as well. Mooney says he doesn't know, but his face says "but I'm definitely gonna find out".
JP and Ruby arrive at Charlie Crabtree's house to take his fingerprints to exclude them from the ones found at the second crime scene. Charlie is every bit the posh asshole - he's got "people coming over for his New Year's bruncheon". Ruby spots a mug by the sink with a lipstick impression on it in the exact shade Mrs. McCormick was wearing... Charlie waves it off as a coincidence, saying Mrs. McCormick hasn't been to his house. He says no about six times which isn't suspicious at all. Right.
Outside, Ruby and JP have called Mooney and Madeleine because Charlie was acting so fishy. They talked to the neighbours and found out that a woman looking very much like the first victim visited Charlie the day before, and that they argued. Guess who just got elevated to top suspect?
Cut to Mooney and Madeleine talking to Charlie. He was supposed to invest some money for Mrs. McCromick - she gave him 50.000 Pounds to invest... but he used to money to pay off some debts (club memberships and his Italian tailor and did I mention he was kind of a posh asshole?). Mooney points out that committing fraud gives Charlie a pretty good motive for murder.
Except. Charlie can't have been the killer since he was right there when the guy attacked Donald.
Mooney and Madeleine are not happy about it, but Charlie is right.
Back at the station, they're going over the details again - everyone has either no motive or an alibi. They're going back to the basics: Madeleine is going to check out the husband's alibi. Maybe he wasn't at the party after all?
Mooney sets JP to get a "list of enemies" from McCormick as well as Donald so that they can go through them to look for possible suspects.
Then the Commissioner comes in, looking displeased. We quickly learn why: the evening news have come up with a serial killer theory. Mooney is surprised. Ruby, in the background, looks a little "uh-oh".
The news are claiming a source "close to the police". They're all wondering about it and as if on cue, Ruby's phone dings.
Everyone starts closing in on Ruby, remembering that Raymond was very interested in Ruby and her life. And Ruby admits that maybe the talk of serial killers was brought up between them (by Raymond!) but she never thought he'd talk to the press! (She really does look contrite.) Everyone looks like they're expecting the Commissioner to start shouting, but he's all "well luckily I called a press conference to set the record straight; they're setting up outside right now so come on, Mooney!"
Cut to the press conference playing on a TV in a bar. Mooney looks super uncomfortable while explaining that yes, there were two victims but they were specifically targeted and there is no serial killer loose on St. Marie. As the camera pans back, we see our killer sitting at the bar, getting drunk. He looks a little alarmed when the Commissioner says they're hoping to bring this case to a "swift conclusion", but orders another drink anyway. (In French, btw.)
Our killer:
Or is he????
Cut to the end of the day. Ruby is closing up the station, on the phone to Raymond. She is angry and not-yelling at him "what? No, of course we're not still going on a date!" She's gearing up for a longer rant when a woman approaches Ruby. She saw the press conference and wants to speak to DI Mooney.
The lady is a witness: she saw the guy in the devil's mask. She's reminds me of Mooney: kinda awkward but sweet. Ruby is all "hop in" and so she and the witness are pulling up to Mooney's dance classes in the motorbike and sidecar.
Cut to the inside where Mooney is "dancing" with Madeleine - well, he's moving on the dance floor, bumping into people and things and probably stepping on Madeleine's toes a whole lot.
"It's his backside," Ruby explains. The witness is amused since Mooney's backside takes that as a cue to bump into another couple.
Ruby fetches Mooney and the witness takes Mooney to a spot near the beach where she was having a little picnic on her own to watch the fireworks. Mooney thanks her for making the effort to tell them and they get to talking. I smell a love interest in the air.
Mooney, by virtue of having had a recently dead wife at the start of his time on St. Marie, hasn't really had a love interest yet. I wonder if they're going to have him fall for this woman and then movie back to Britain with her...
Oh, the woman is recently divorced and apparently working to get things off her bucket list. Definitely a love interest.
Yup, he's asking her out. Well. I'm not sure he actually meant to ask her out as such, but he did ask her to come to the Calypso lessons to be his partner instead of Madeleine. She agrees, sort of! She is kinda cute and I feel like she and Mooney would fit together well. But I guess we'll see.
Meanwhile Madeleine is at McCormick's office to talk to people about his alibi.
Back at the station, Mooney sends Ruby to the part of the beach where the witness (Anna) saw the man in the mask to canvass the area and ask around if anyone else saw him.
Then Mooney gets a call from Madeleine - she found McCormick's assistant very suspicious. The woman immediately offered up an alibi for McCormick and was generally weird. She also pulled up in an expensive sports car and seems to live in a villa a bit above her pay grade. According to Madeleine, the woman has student debts and not much income, so how? They go an ask.
They're being kinda mean but also hilarious. They ask all sorts of "innocent" questions about the house and the car and then when the woman gets uncomfortable, they have a "whispered" conversation.
Madeleine (leans in): This is what she was like earlier.
Mooney: When you thought she was acting suspicious?
Madeleine: Yes! (looks at her) She got red in the face now.
Mooney: Now, that's a deep burgundy.
Surprise, surprise! Guess who's having an affair with the boss?
But no! They're in luuuurve. That's why she's got the nice house and the car (and the continued employment I think).
McCormick arrives and is all "I know this doesn't look good." Which, yeah, it really doesn't. Mooney asks if he was going to divorce his wife and the girlfriend answers "of course he was". From his face, I'm not so sure...
Mooney points out that having an affair was not going to help him in a divorce. It would, in fact, make sure that his wife would get a huge settlement and surely that wasn't in his favour. McCormick again points out that he has an alibi. "Ask anyone!"
Mooney certainly plans to - except it turns out tons of people saw the guy at the party so he really does have an alibi. Mooney is not happy. Mooney found out that McCormick hadn't talked to his solicitor about divorcing his wife (big surprise there) but apparently Mrs. McCormick had! She apparently knew her husband had an affair and wanted to know her chances in a divorce. It also explains why she wanted to invest 50 thousand of her own money - as security in case the divorce didn't pan out the way she wanted to. Which explains why she talked to Charlie Crabtree. But it still doesn't explain her murder.
All of their suspects are ruled out: McCormick has an alibi; Charlie had motive and opportunity to kill Mrs. McCormick, but can't have attacked Donald; and Donald can't have attacked himself and McCormick's affair Tabitha is a) a woman and b) has an alibi.
So who is it?
Cue JP with a lead: a disgruntled ex-employee who worked for both brothers and was fired by both of them recently: a man called Oscar Samuel. He's apparently someone who ends up in a cell every now and then because he gets violent when he drinks too much. JP calls up his record and it is our man with the bloody knife!
Cut to Ruby who's still making the rounds. She knocks on a door and Mr. Oscar Samuel opens.
Dun Dun Dun.
Ruby enters his house and he checks if anyone else is around before following her to the kitchen. But before we can get stuck in our fear for Ruby's life, the show cuts to the distillery where Mooney, Madeleine and JP are talking to Donald about Oscar who did not take it too great to be fired. According to Donald he was a good worker, but he'd show up late and sometimes still drunk. He was angry at Donald for being fired.
A car pulls up: it's McCormick.
Donald: What the hell is he doing here?
Mooney seems to take some pleasure inputting these two brothers who can't stand each other into the same space. Heh.
McCormick says he fired Oscar after finding him napping during work hours, reeking of booze.
Then JP approaches with Oscar's current address: it's right where Ruby is canvassing the area looking for witnesses.
Cut to Ruby who's still talking to Oscar. She admits that they don't really have a suspect yet and it makes you think that maybe she's going to get out of there intact.
Her phone rings and she turns away from Oscar to answer it. It's Mooney who obviously tells her she's chatting with the main suspect. In the background, Oscar realizes they're talking about him and that it's probably not good news for him, so he stands up and approaches. Uh-oh.
The music is very horror movie-ish and it's all very scary. Oscar is more than a head taller than Ruby and when she turns around in fear, he grabs her by the neck and pushes her down. She screams.
Cut.
Oscar is outside pulling away on a moped (no kidding). Ruby comes running out of the house yelling for him to stop. She chases after him on foot. She gives Mooney (still on the phone and racing towards that side of town) directions.
Obviously any horror elements are over and done with because the next bit is hilarious. This is slapstick humour at its best. Ruby runs into an alley, doesn't see anything.
She runs off to the side.
A second later, Oscar passes the other side of the alley on his moped.
(Seriously. A moped.)
Ruby arrives back at her bike and sees Oscar down the road. He's heading straight to the others in the Jeep. Mooney blocks the road.
Oscar sees that and turns straight back around (and back towards Ruby). Ruby, clever as she is, looks around and sees a guy with a coconut (are they coconuts? fresh coconuts? I think) stand. She grabs his machete and stands in the middle of the road.
Before Oscar reaches her, Ruby swings the machete... at the truck loaded with more coconuts. The tailgate falls open and a truckload of coconuts spills out on the road straight towards Oscar.
Oscar is brought down and falls straight into a convenient stream. Ruby is right there to arrest him.
The others arrive and are impressed. Well, Madeleine is anyways.
They're all relieved Ruby is okay though.
In Oscar's house, Mooney has found the potential murder weapon. They bag it and a bunch of other stuff, but Mooney doesn't seem convinced that they have their guy. By past experience, this means that Oscar is not, in fact, their guy. He sends Madeleine ahead to interview Oscar while he keeps looking around. He particularly notices a cassette collection of books on tape and nods to himself in Oscar's dirty mirror. Then he gets one of his brilliant thoughts, looks around again and says "scooter license" which he then searches for. He finds it in a bottom drawer, looks at it and says "Oscar didn't do it."
Cut to Oscar's cell. Mooney enters it while the rest of the team stands outside. He questions Oscar. Oscar says he started drinking early on New Year's Eve ("half a bottle of rum") and barely remembers anything. He blacked out and woke up with the bloody knife on his bedside table and a fuzzy head. He knows he gets violent when he drinks so he guesses he killed that woman. *shrugs*
Mooney shows him photos of the sentence left at the crime scene. Oscar looks at them blankly and shrugs. Mooney asks him to tell him what they say, but Oscar says he can't. Mooney lists his evidence - Oscar can't read or write. His license is signed with an X.
Oscar takes it as an attack and tries to justify it ("we were poor, I helped my dad with his work instead of going to school") and Mooney is all "no, no" because that actually saves him from jail. How could he be the killer and leave that sentence for the police when he can't write?
Madeleine points out that it was still Oscar's clothes and mask that the killer wore. Obviously to frame him. JP points out that this puts them back to square one: it could be anyone.
Mooney has another brilliant idea. "If it was anyone, that would mean it couldn't be just someone."
The others: huh???
We see a series of flashbacks for the episode as Mooney mentally reviews the case because it can only mean "one thing". He asks Oscar if the bottle of rum he had was a gift.
Oscar: Yes. How did you guess?
Mooney: Oscar Samuel, I could kiss you!
He sends Ruby and JP to get Oscar's blood tested and Madeleine to gather the suspects. And then he realises he needs one of them to come back and open the cell. /o\
Brilliant, yes, but not very organised, our DI Mooney.
They all end up at the distillery for the big reveal at the end. I have to say, I love that they all kept this feature that Poole started. It feels very Agatha Christie-ish and I love it. (I love that when Humphrey had his first case and Fidel got everyone together Humphrey was all "uh, what is this?" but then just went with it when Fidel explained that this is how Poole used to do it. And Mooney didn't even question it.)
Mooney and Madeleine sum up the case.
Madeleine. ...leaving across both crime scenes a message. La vengeance est complète.
Mooney: The revenge is complete. One single message in two parts written with the same lipstick by the same person. (Pause) Except it wasn't.
Everyone squirms as Mooney explains how the murder happened. Think of a variant of Strangers on a Train - two brothers, estranged and by all appearances hating each other's guts, plan a murder together. Donald killed his brother's wife (hey, divorce is expensive!) in return for financial aid with the distillery. Then McCormick "attacked" Donald so no suspicious could fall on him and to give the police an easy suspect: a man who they both fired.
Everyone is confused. The brothers hate each other, don't they?
Mooney isn't saying they don't - but they managed to work together. Both to save their father's distillery business and to get rid of Aaron's wife in return for the money. They staged a public argument about the financial support and after Donald stabbed his sister-in-law, he stashed the clothes, mask and knife nearby for his brother to find and take to commit the second part of the crime. Donald was hurt, yes, but very superficially. It threw suspicious off both of them and pointed the finger at Oscar.
Oscar says that Donald brought him a bottle of rum as an apology for firing him. Except the rum was laced with a sedative to keep Oscar down for the night. Donald stole the clothes, mask and knife from Oscar's place, went to his brother's house and stabbed his sister-in-law. He hid the mask, clothes and knife nearby and went to meet up with Charlie for drinks who was then a convenient witness when McCormick, after the police left his place for the night, put on the killer disguise and attacked Donald. Afterwards, he put everything back in Oscar's house. The message would guarantee that the police would link the crimes and make them search for one killer.
Then Mooney reveals that Oscar can't read or write and McCormick and his brother definitely give themselves away.
Donald then attacks his brother, well, he tries, and then breaks down crying... but honestly, he should have thought of that before committing murder. Still, it's kinda sad.
Cut to the station, later that day. Madeleine reminds Mooney of his dance class which brings up the topic of his new dance partner. Ruby: "ooh, so you're going on a date?!"
Mooney denies it's a date - it's just dancing, with a woman - but none of the others seem convinced.
Mooney invites the others to join the class. Ruby agrees (she loves Calypso), JP is in if Ruby is in and Madeleine agrees as long as she doesn't have to dance with Mooney... :p
Then Ruby's phone dings again, but it's not Raymond. It's the Commissioner, wanting a word about the "coconut incident" (ah, so they were coconuts! I only know the brown hairy version you find in supermarkets). So while the others go on ahead, Ruby stays to talk to her uncle. Who... is actually pretty proud of her. This is actually one of the cutes scenes in this episode. He reminds her not to make stupid mistakes (like Raymond) but also to show initiative and do her job (the coconut incident).
Commissioner: You're a police officer now. And as the old Caribbean saying goes: With great power comes--
Ruby (grinning): --great responsibility!
Commissioner: *nods gravely*
*snorts* Those nerds!
Just as the Commissioner is about to leave, Ruby invites him to Calypso class with her.
Cut to the Calypso class where the Commissioner (in civilian clothes - like, really civilian) is dancing with Madeleine. Also on the dance floor are Ruby and JP and Mooney and Anna. Mooney managed to run into every single person on the dance floor. Commissioner included:
Mooney and Anna seem to be having a good time (well, they all do). Afterwards Anna and Mooney are outside saying goodbye and they flirt a little awkwardly and then Anna leans in and kisses Mooney. Awww. He's not really... uh. Participating? He just kind of stares because he really thought that wasn't a date. As Anna says, "awkward!" She says goodbye, but asks to text Mooney - because that how people do dating these days, apparently. Going away, Mooney is all "huh, that might have been a date after all!"
Good to see he's finally getting there. But it's honestly adorable. I really hope those two work out.
And thus ends the first episode of series 9. With an unusual and clever murder, a love interest and a lot of fun.