'Miss Scarlet' Recap: Season 5 Episode 5

Miss Scarlet airs Sundays at 7:00 pm on WTTW and is available to stream. Recap the previous and following episodes.
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Talk about drama: the composer half of a popular operetta team has been found shot dead in his office backstage immediately after the final performance of his latest work. Abraham Barratt was seen arguing with his librettist Amil Kapoor after the show, and a gunshot was heard 20 minutes later. A white glove flecked with blood is in the office and a safe disguised as a mirror is open and empty.

The matching glove is found at Kapoor’s house, as is his revolver, which was recently fired and has the same bullets as the one that killed Barratt. Kapoor tells the police that he and Barratt simply argued over the performance of Kapoor’s actress wife, Violet, whom Barratt always denigrated. Kapoor insists he’s not the killer. But Blake charges him and sends him to prison.

The fame of Barratt draws numerous people to the case. Fitzroy was a fan, and Phelps offered to help investigate even though he’s on leave. Eliza also shows up at Scotland Yard, ostensibly to collect payment for her work on a previous case. At least while she is there she receives some praise from Fitzroy in front of Blake, for doing most of the work in finding and arresting a criminal whom Scotland Yard has been chasing for a while. But Blake refuses to involve her in the Barratt murder.

Another opportunity soon appears for Eliza, however: Barratt’s widow, Matilda, wants to hire her on behalf of Kapoor, who was her lover. Kapoor asked Matilda to approach the city’s two largest detective firms, but both refused, so she came to Eliza. Matilda doesn’t know whether she believes Kapoor is innocent, but he will hang if convicted. Of course, her involvement must be kept secret.

Unfortunately, Kapoor is not allowed visitors in prison, and women aren’t allowed in regardless. But Eliza approaches the guard with whom Nash had an arrangement that allowed Eliza to visit him in prison and threatens to reveal said arrangement, thus gaining access to Kapoor.

The accused reveals that the real reason for his argument with Barratt was that Barratt was dissolving their partnership. While Kapoor and Barratt started off as equals, Barratt started taking on more of the writing of the libretto and had finally finished his first solo production, about an enchanted mirror. The manuscript should have been in Barratt’s safe. Kapoor’s career would have been over without Barratt, so he didn’t tell the police any of this, fearing that it gave him too much of a motive to kill Barratt in their eyes.

As Eliza leaves the prison, Phelps spots her and guesses what she’s doing there – in investigating the case, he tried to visit Matilda Barratt and learned from her driver that she had visited Eliza.

Eliza goes to speak to Kapoor’s wife, Violet. Eliza witnesses her arguing with Julius Barratt, Abraham’s brother. Violet didn’t know about Abraham’s new production, but is immediately eager to be cast in it. She says that Julius is untalented but thought he was as good a composer as his brother, who got him a job as a violinist for his shows.

Julius Barratt is waiting to speak to Eliza. He tells her that Violet hated both his brother and her husband; all she cares about is fame.

Eliza tries to get information from Blake about the case but he refuses. He knows that Eliza is working for Kapoor – not from Phelps, who is on leave and not assigned to the case, but from another policeman who saw Eliza at the prison.

Matilda summons Eliza to inform her that a man was taking photos of her house that morning. Eliza recognizes him as Phelps from Matilda’s description, and tracks him down to a dingy boardinghouse. She asks him why he’s investigating independently, and he breaks down. He explains that his wife has taken the children and left him, which led him to drink, which led him to lose his flat. He blames Blake for everything, since he took the job Phelps wanted. He’s now trying to prove himself, especially since there’s another job opening, so he took a camera from Scotland Yard and snapped some photos for the Barratt case. But someone broke into his room and took both the camera and the photographic plates.

Eliza’s own independent investigation is soon joined to Scotland Yard’s, when Julius Barratt is found dead in the street, stabbed in the back – and Blake discovers Eliza’s card in his wallet. Blake visits Eliza to ask about the card and has his most casual interaction with her yet, asking for a drink and opening up about his daughter, Sophia, who has asked about Eliza because her name is in the copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland that Eliza gave to Blake for Sophia. Like Eliza, Sophia is being raised by a single father and struggling at school, but Eliza assures Blake that Sophia has a great father.

Talk then turns back to the case, and, in light of a second murder, Eliza reveals the possible existence of a new operetta manuscript by Abraham Barratt. She suggests Violet Kapoor as a suspect, given her insatiable desire for fame. But Violet points Eliza and Blake to the producer Maximillian Cinelli – she saw Julius waiting to meet with him when she was leaving her own meeting with Cinelli.

The producer explains that Julius thought – wrongly – that he was as talented a composer as his brother. So he was surprised when Julius brought him a manuscript for a new operetta that was much better than any of his previous work. It was about an enchanted mirror. Julius must have gotten a hold of his brother’s manuscript.

Despite the useful information Cinelli provides, Blake hates the interview: Cinelli keeps commenting on Eliza’s beauty, wanting to cast her in a production, and guesses that Blake has feelings for Eliza.

Eliza and Blake search Julius’ rooms and find the Scotland Yard camera and photographic plates taken from Phelps’ room. (To protect Phelps, Eliza lies and says he was helping her with her investigation.) Phelps must have inadvertently photographed something so important to the case that Julius felt the need to steal the evidence.

Indeed, the photos show Julius arguing with Matilda outside her house, then later her entering her house with Julius’ violin case, identifiable by his embossed initials. Cinelli said Julius was keeping the manuscript in his case.

Eliza and Blake go to Matilda’s house, where Eliza notes a mirror that wasn’t there when she first visited. It’s Abraham’s disguised safe, and his manuscript is hidden inside. Matilda killed her husband and planned to steal his manuscript, holding it for a time before producing it on her own for her own fame. She had also tired of her lover Kapoor’s pomposity, so she framed him for the murder. When Kapoor asked her to hire a detective she approached Eliza, thinking Eliza wouldn’t be successful. Eliza and Blake have already talked to the two detective firms Matilda said wouldn’t take her case; she never even spoke to them.

But Julius also knew about Abraham’s new work and happened to enter his office right after Matilda killed Abraham. (She hid.) Julius took the manuscript for himself and left his brother’s corpse. So Matilda stole Julius’ violin case containing the manuscript from him and then killed him to keep him quiet.

Blake is impressed by Eliza’s work on the case. And he has a special request: he wants her to meet his daughter.