'Whitstable Pearl' Recap: Episode 2

Whitstable Pearl airs Saturdays at 8:00 pm and is available to stream. Recap the previous and following episodes.

It’s a deceptively tranquil evening in Whitstable. But no – inside an opulent home, Marcus Devlin lies unconscious on the floor next to an upended open jar of orange marmalade. A similarly hued cat begins lapping at the mess as an ambulance siren grows progressively louder.

Elsewhere, it’s a busy night at Pearl’s restaurant, and at last call, she directs a table full of boorish male customers to a fictional bar down the street to get them to leave (and to stop harassing their server, the still fragile Ruby).

Mike is at the crime scene where Devlin and the puddle of marmalade were found. He and local policewoman Nikki Martel learn that it isn’t Devlin’s house – it’s on the market, he’s the real estate agent, and the owners are currently abroad. Mike learns that Devlin suffered a heart attack and is in a diabetic coma from being force-fed the marmalade. They note that there was no forced entry, nothing stolen, and the security cameras had been switched off. For some reason, Devlin didn’t want anyone knowing he was in the house that night.

The next morning, Pearl is at home awaiting the arrival of a client, Jinty Stevens. She asks her mother Dolly about a spare set of keys that were found inside fisherman Vinnie Lowe’s house after he was murdered, wondering why one of the keys is to their own home. Dolly is clearly uncomfortable with the question, and Jinty’s arrival puts the discussion on hold.

The elderly, addled, and mostly deaf Jinty has found a mysterious cache of money – £5,000 left anonymously in her mailbox. Pearl muses it could be either a gift or a scam. Dolly recalls, apropos of nothing, that another townsperson, Donnie Morgan, recently came into a large sum of money with a written directive to buy a new fishing boat. Jinty wants Pearl to find out who left the cash so she can either give it back or thank them.

Later, Mike pays a visit to Pearl at the restaurant, ostensibly to see how she is (after the whole attempted drowning thing). She insists she’s fine and asks Mike about the “mouthful of marmalade” incident, suggesting – with her intimate knowledge of the town – a possible suspect in the attempted murder: builder Joseph Conroy, who has been flipping properties with Devlin for years and “pricing out locals,” making them angry.

The next day, Pearl pays a visit to a high-strung wealthy resident, Fi Marsden, who frets that her outdoor garbage bins have been rearranged; she suspects an intimidation tactic by “a disgruntled local” and wants Pearl to look into it on a “no win-no fee” basis. Pearl is nonplussed, already regretting taking this on. She and Kane Bishop, the young man installing Fi’s new floors, exchange sympathetic glances.

Mike and Nikki learn that Conroy built the house where Devlin was attacked. Devlin had awarded every contract to Conroy until recently, when he gave a £4 million job to someone else. They question Emily Hurst, an attractive young girl who, despite her series of low-paying jobs, has been attending viewings of very high-end properties, several of which were arranged by Devlin. She explains that she has been studying interior architecture and goes to viewings for inspiration. She had been to the house where Devlin was found earlier that day, and seems overly concerned about the man’s condition.

Back at the restaurant, Pearl and Dolly watch as Jinty Stevens compares notes with a group of other elderly people, all of whom have also been gifted with large sums of money. One of the other recipients is Monica, who suspects this person is paying her nursing home costs.

Mike and Nikki visit the building site of an elaborate house and speak to Joseph Conroy, who freely admits that Devlin cut him out of the latest deal, but claims he is unbothered because he has plenty of other work. Mike isn’t buying it, but Conroy implies that Devlin was involved with organized crime and any number of “dodgy” people could have tried to kill him. Conroy’s alibi? He was drinking at a bar.

As Pearl is clearing up after the elderly group, Kane Bishop and his boyfriend Dimitri arrive; Kane is Monica’s son. He and Pearl commiserate further about Fi’s obnoxiousness, and Kane reveals to Pearl that it is he who is paying for his mom’s nursing home with the proceeds of his flooring work. He asks Pearl not to reveal this to his mother.

Mike and Nikki pay another visit to Emily Hurst and confront her: why didn’t she tell them she was in a relationship with Devlin? They found emails between them with photos, and Devlin paid for her apartment and car – is it a quid pro quo? Maybe Devlin had lately been cutting back on his generosity and she retaliated, knowing he was a diabetic? Angrily, Emily insists Devlin was fine when she left the house.

That evening, Mike returns to Pearl’s restaurant for dinner. Pearl shares about the mystery of the anonymous benefactor, and shows him the statements she collected from the recipients. Pearl says there’s a connection between some of the recipients, the negative effects of Whitstable’s recent gentrification, and Joseph Conroy. But some have no connection. Mike thinks it’s not a “friendly local millionaire” and opines that the donor is leaving “Robin Hood” clues: stealing from the rich. Mike is startled by a photo among Pearl’s papers: Emily with Joseph Conroy. It turns out that Emily is Conroy’s daughter, who took her mother’s name after their marriage split up.

Mike and Nikki go back to Joseph Conroy – he did not approve of Emily seeing Devlin, but he swears that he has been trying to respect her choices. Mike and Nikki think his argument is convincing, but remain baffled by the “weird” way the perpetrator attempted the murder. They return to the scene of the crime, and as Mike scrutinizes before-and-after photos of the scene, he discovers that a painting is missing. Maybe the perpetrator took it?

Pearl and Mike visit the gallery where the painting was purchased. The proprietor is Dimitri, Kane Bishop’s boyfriend. Later at the restaurant, Mike tells Pearl that they found the painting at the house, wrapped and just back from the framers, so that’s a dead end. But Pearl has a brainstorm: maybe the painting is a copy. They go back to the gallery with the wrapped painting they found and, over Dimitri’s vociferous protests, try to rub off the artist’s penciled signature. They can’t. Pearl was right: the painting is a fake.

On a hunch, Mike and Pearl go to see Fi. It turns out that she too has been robbed in the same way: her original painting has been replaced with a copy, and the only outsider with a key to the house was Kane Bishop, working on her floors. Pearl deduces that Kane and Dimitri have been working together. Dimitri tells Kane which paintings to steal and then helps him replace them with copies. Pearl and Mike watch as Kane and Dimitri furtively get into a van and drive away, and they follow in Mike’s car. Enroute, they get a call from Nikki from the hospital – Devlin has regained consciousness and identified Kane and Dimitri as his attackers.

Pearl and Mike tail Kane and Dimitri to a marina. Mike thinks they stashed the latest batch of stolen paintings on a boat and will be attempting a getaway. As they search the marina for the two men, Pearl stumbles upon them, alone. She tells them she knows they stole the art, and how. Kane’s excuse? He has no other way to pay for his mother’s exorbitant nursing home costs. He feels justified in doing what he’s doing to these rich people, and he’s also the town’s mysterious benefactor. “I’m just trying to help some folks, that’s all,” he tells Pearl, claiming that he isn’t hurting anyone. Pearl is sympathetic to a degree, but insists that someone did get hurt: Devlin. Kane and Dimitri tell her they were just trying to help Devlin – they gave him the marmalade because he was having a diabetic seizure, and they called the ambulance before they ran. As Mike approaches, fast, Pearl seems to acquiesce, but Mike orders them to turn off the boat’s engine. “You’re nicked.”

That night, Mike turns up at Pearl’s house with a thank-you gift: a bottle of wine. She invites him in for a drink. “Another time,” he says. Then he asks, “Earlier at the marina, were you going to let them go?”

Pearl smiles enigmatically. Mike asks if she’s free Thursday. Like a date, she asks? He shrugs, unsure. But she agrees.