'Grantchester' Recap: Season 9 Episode 6

Grantchester airs Sundays at 8:00 pm and is available to stream. Recap the previous and following episodes and other seasons. 
Keep up with your favorite dramas and mysteries by signing up for our newsletter, Dramalogue.

As is so often the case in Grantchester, a body turns up. But this one is ancient: it’s a Roman soldier, and the Romans came to Cambridge around 70 AD, as Jack explains. He worked some archaeological digs when he was younger and has plenty of knowledge to share.

So he’s eager to attend a talk held by the three archaeologists who come from Oxford to excavate the skeleton and search the nearby area for more artifacts. Alphy also wants to attend, because Kate Earnshaw, one of the archaeologists, has taken an interest in him. And there’s already one exciting relic to show off: a cross found in the soldier’s hand.

At the talk, the eager young archaeologist Billy Randall says the cross is Byzantine, but Jack questions him: a Byzantine cross in the hand of a Roman soldier doesn’t make sense in terms of historical timing. Professor Henry Waddingham quickly corrects Billy, saying it’s not Byzantine. He then asks the assembled villagers for donations to fund the archaeological dig.

David, Alphy’s soon-to-be replacement as vicar when Grantchester merges with David’s church, shows up at the talk to begin meeting his new congregation. Mrs. C is furious. But Alphy has become resigned to his impending dismissal, and is simply waiting for a sign to confirm that it’s God’s will, to Geordie’s frustration.

The detective doesn’t understand why Alphy is so calm – or why Cathy has been so even-keeled lately, either. She barely batted an eye when their daughter broke one of her vases, to Geordie’s astonishment. She hasn’t told him that she has begun taking mood stabilizers. When Geordie buys her a new dress and wants to take her on a fancy dinner date, she says she’s too tired. He asks what’s going on with her; she responds that she thought he wanted her to be like this.

The next morning, a contemporary body appears next to the skeleton of the Roman soldier: it’s Henry, the archaeology professor. Billy adored him and considered him a father figure. Kate is less shaken up – until she realizes that the cross has gone missing. She accuses Billy of leaving it out to be stolen. And then he notices that his rock hammer is gone.

Alphy saw Henry arguing with Della Blakely, the owner of the farm on which the skeleton was found, at the talk the previous night. She explains that, while her husband Marcus is excited about the dig, she is skeptical and thinks that the archaeologists are profiting off her by taking the cross and raising money from the villagers. Although the Blakelys were promised a percentage of that money, Della doesn’t think they’ll ever see it – so she took the cross.

She argues with Billy and Kate over who owns the cross, so Alphy takes it and says he’ll keep it safe until ownership is decided.

Henry’s diary shows an appointment with an antiquities dealer labeled “NQA.” Geordie and Alphy ask Jack what the letters mean, and he explains: “no questions asked.” Henry must have been selling goods such as the cross on the black market. Jack says the line between an archaeologist and a thief is thin.

Meanwhile, Daniel tries to get more money from Jack to support Sam, the street preacher to whom Daniel has lately grown close. Jack demurs that he just donated to Sam, and Daniel points out that his generosity to Leonard is endless, getting upset that Jack is treating Daniel and Leonard differently.

Jack brings this up to Leonard when Mrs. C organizes a “committee” of the three of them to prevent Alphy from being removed from Grantchester. Jack apologizes to Leonard for offending Daniel – but it’s the first Leonard has heard of it. Leonard later chastises Daniel for trying to wheedle donations out of Jack, and he and Daniel argue. Daniel feels like he’s always in Leonard’s shadow. When Leonard walks away, Daniel says that Sam told him that’s exactly what Leonard would do. 

Geordie decides to look into the background of the surviving archaeologists. Kate claims to be a curator at an Oxford museum, but when the museum is contacted, they reveal that she was fired for stealing artifacts from it. The museum director also says that Henry was a grave robber. Henry had a substantial amount of money in his bank account and seemingly already had a black market buyer for the cross, so he must have been double-crossing his colleagues, planning to sell the cross without their knowledge.

When Geordie and Alphy confront Kate and Billy with this knowledge, the detectives search Kate’s bag – and find Billy’s rock hammer, stained with blood. But when she is brought in for questioning, she is defiant and interrogates Alphy more than he or Geordie does her.

Alphy is finding himself in doubt. He goes to gamble at a seedy bar and is approached by a young woman who introduces herself as Petra. She’s a student, and sneaks him into her dorm to spend the night with her.

When Alphy returns to the vicarage in the morning, he’s startled to find the door ajar and his office ransacked. Luckily, the cross is still there. But Alphy interprets the break-in as a sign that he should accept the decision to remove him from Grantchester.

Geordie spots Billy meeting with Marcus Blakely at the pub and handing over an envelope. Geordie thinks back to Billy’s assertion that the cross was Byzantine and brings it to Jack for verification. Jack says that the relic is indeed Byzantine – which means it couldn’t have been the soldier’s, since his skeleton is centuries older than the cross.

Geordie and Alphy ask Marcus about the envelope, and he explains that it’s money. Billy says it’s what Henry owed the Blakelys. And Billy and Kate are now packing up to leave.

Geordie and Alphy put it all together. Kate stole the cross from her museum and gave it to the professor to plant with the skeleton, in order to convince the Blakelys and the village that there were more artifacts to be found, thus allowing them to dig more and scam donations from the villagers. Henry was then going to sell the cross behind Kate’s back. But Billy realized what Henry was doing when the professor asserted to Jack that the cross wasn’t Byzantine, and his idol crumbled before his eyes. Billy confronted Henry and killed him, then put the murderous hammer in Kate’s bag to frame her.

Despite all this, Marcus still has hope there’s more to be found in his field, and keeps digging – to Della’s disappointment. Geordie glues Cathy’s broken vase back together for her, and gets only a mild response. And Mrs. C writes letters on behalf of Alphy to keep him in Grantchester.

But Alphy seems to have decided to accept the decision and leave when the time comes.