'Grantchester' Recap: Season 9 Episode 7

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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A woman has disappeared – and Alphy may be the last person to have seen her. The student who boldly approached him at a bar and brought him to spend the night in her dorm with her has been reported missing by her father, a wealthy plastics magnate. He says he hasn’t heard from her in a fortnight, but Alphy slept with her last week.

Her real name is Caroline Stanisham, and she’s a classics major. She also wrote for a satirical student newspaper run by Nigel Rivers and Innes Clark. Their “editor” is a professor named Eric Delgado, who helped them set up the paper. Caroline wrote spoofs for the paper, but recently wanted to try more serious reporting. Nigel and Innes sent her off to find a story a month ago and haven’t seen her since.

Geordie and Alphy go to the bar where Alphy met Caroline, but she wasn’t a regular, so there’s no new information. Geordie gives up for now – they’ve only run into dead ends.

He’s also preoccupied by Cathy’s odd moods. He finds her mood stabilizers. She says that they’re causing them to fight less – but Geordie says they’re making her less like herself. She’s afraid that she will end up in an institution like her mother; Geordie promises not to let that happen. But he’s not optimistic, not that he admits that to Cathy. He goes to Mrs. C and asks her to help out around the house again – and help Cathy. He tells her about the pills, and argues that they’re simply masking the problem.

Mrs. C understands what’s going on with Cathy. She’s not suffering a mental decline; she’s going through menopause. That’s why she has been angry and having mood swings. Mrs. C tells Cathy that she doesn’t need pills; she has Mrs. C and Geordie. And smashing some teacups to let out the anger always helps.

Geordie tells Cathy he will take a sabbatical to be with her through this difficult period – but she tells him he doesn’t have to. Mrs. C has helped her understand that she’s not going to end up like her mom; she’s just going through menopause. She’s going to stop taking the pills.

A sudden outburst of violence has occurred at the student newspaper: Innes has been found with his throat cut. There are some sheets of printing letters on the ground with footprints on them, and a roll of film that has been exposed to destroy its images. But three photos remain.

Geordie and Alphy go to Leonard’s halfway house to ask Daniel to develop them, but he’s not there. Leonard joins them to go find Daniel, as Leonard has recently learned that Daniel is not only asking Jack for money for the street preacher Sam’s projects but also now investing himself both financially and personally.

Leonard is upset to find that Daniel is selling his house and argues with him while Daniel develops the film. It reveals Delgado canoodling with a man. Daniel refuses to print the photos for Geordie, upset that he has been party to the revelation of a man’s homosexuality.

Delgado reluctantly admits that he has an alibi for when Innes was killed, but it’s the man in the photos. Geordie promises to keep their relationship a secret and confirms the alibi. He also gives Delgado the developed film to do with it what he will.

Caroline is still missing, and Delgado tells the detectives that he last saw her a month ago. He used to see her everywhere, but after seeing her with Sam once he hasn’t spotted her since.

Alphy and Geordie return to the halfway house – and Alphy is startled to see Caroline, walking arm-in-arm with Sam. Given the personal conflict, Geordie interviews Caroline without Alphy present. She explains that she has been with Sam since her disappearance; they’ve been dating for about a month, and she’s both helping and funding him and his work.

Alphy asks to speak to Caroline privately. She tells him that she’s in love with Sam. She came across Sam while looking for a serious story for the paper and found herself inspired by him. She points Alphy towards Nigel as a possible murderer – he and Innes often argued.

That is confirmed by the tapes the two young men made of themselves pitching comedy sketches. One of them contains a jealous argument and cutting comments.

Before Nigel is brought in for questioning, he publishes his latest edition, featuring a story mocking Larry as “Defective Constable.” Ms. Scott can’t stifle a laugh at the headline. Nigel admits that the Larry story was filler to make up for whatever Innes was working on. Nigel couldn’t find the story and also didn’t know what it was about. He also doesn’t know about the photos of Delgado – he and Innes received submissions separately, often anonymously.

After being released from questioning, Nigel offers Ms. Scott work at the paper. She points out his numerous typos and defends Larry before dismissing Nigel.

Sam has a party at the halfway house for his group, which has now been dubbed the Way Finders. They’ve taken over Leonard’s house, to the extent that Leonard has to turn away the ex-convicts he wants to help. After another argument with Daniel, Leonard tells Sam that he and his group can no longer use the house. Sam gets in Leonard’s face and calls him a “pathetic little traitor” before threatening him. Back amongst the crowd, he smiles and puts an arm around Leonard, commending him to Alphy. Leonard leaves to stay the night with Mrs. C and Jack.

Caroline thanks Alphy for looking for her and asks him to dance. He spills beer on her shoes, which she has removed. Trying to clean them, he notices letters on the sole – like those from the printing sets in the newspaper office.

She says she was with Sam the night of Innes’ murder, and Sam confirms it. But Geordie and Alphy realize that she was the one who took the photos of Delgado – she has a camera in her bag. That’s why Delgado saw her everywhere – she was following him. She admits that Innes wanted a story to hold over Delgado because he was getting rattled by complaints against the paper’s libelous satire, so he assigned Caroline to find something on him.

She then used the photos as well as the bitterness between Nigel and Innes to mislead the detectives to other culprits for Innes’ murder. But she’s responsible, as she admits in rage: she killed Innes for Sam. Innes was working on a biting piece about Sam and the Way Finders, so she killed him and destroyed the story to protect Sam.

Sam claims innocence about the story or any of this – he welcomes criticism. He says he gave Caroline an alibi so the detectives wouldn’t think badly of her.

The next day, Leonard tells Alphy about Sam’s threat. They go to the halfway house and find it empty. A note on the table from Sam says that he and his group “won’t be a hindrance to you anymore.” Daniel is gone, too, and Leonard worries that Sam is a dangerous man.