'Grantchester' Recap: Season 10 Episode 5

Grantchester airs Sundays at 8:00 pm on WTTW is available to stream. Recap the previous and following episodes and other seasons. 
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Alphy’s friends think he’s avoiding Meg, the daughter of the bishop whom he has recently been seeing, and Geordie suspects that it’s because of the letter from Alphy’s birth mother that he only just learned about and received. Alphy has yet to open the letter, and Geordie wonders if he fears its contents – and that it’s distracting him from Meg.

Of course there are always plenty of other distractions in Grantchester. Tonight it’s Leonard getting thrown in jail after far too many drinks. Larry tried to give Leonard an out, but instead Leonard tossed his cocktail in Larry’s face. So Leonard and a young man named Micky are both brought to the police station and put in cells guarded by the cop Floyd, who knows Micky well – it’s not Micky’s first time in the drunk tank.

While Micky hyperventilates and begs Floyd to fetch his dad, Donny, for his inhaler, Floyd insults Leonard over being arrested for being gay and Leonard lunges at him. Leonard is put in a cell and quickly falls asleep, while Geordie calls Alphy to tell him Leonard is in trouble.

Alphy arrives just in time to help Geordie prevent two men in the waiting room from getting into a fight. Donny arrives with Micky’s inhaler, and Alphy and Geordie go to bring it to Micky. They hear Leonard crying for help: he has awoken in his cell to find Floyd dead next to him.

Micky is still hyperventilating, so Alphy rushes to get Donny as Geordie and Larry search for the correct key to unlock the cells – Floyd should have one on him but Leonard can’t find it. The cells are finally opened to show that Floyd has bruises from choking on his neck.

Leonard doesn’t remember anything, he says in an interrogation room. But he admits that he’s been drinking to excess because his father died and didn’t want him at the funeral. Since Floyd was found dead in a locked cell with Leonard and Leonard earlier threatened Floyd, who called him “son,” Geordie worries that rage overtook Leonard and he killed the cop.

He and Alphy return to Leonard’s cell and find Floyd’s key to the cells inside. Micky says he heard a door open and a gurgling sound but didn’t see anything.

Geordie calls Cathy, who’s at the vicarage planning out a clothing business with Mrs. C, and tells her Leonard is in trouble. She and Mrs. C immediately set off for the police station and interrupt the interrogation of Leonard. He sadly asks why Mrs. C has stopped talking to him, and she tells him that he cruelly insulted her. He doesn’t remember, and wonders if he could have killed Floyd in his drunkenness after all.

Alphy is desperate to exonerate Leonard. He notices something shoved down Floyd’s throat: a handwritten betting slip for the horse races. The horse on it won that day, with very good odds, and the bar at which Larry picked Leonard and Micky up is next door to a bookie.

Alphy and Geordie urge Leonard to recall his afternoon at the bar. He remembers hearing the horse race on the radio, and that Donny and Floyd were there along with Micky – and got into a fight.

But there’s still nothing to help Leonard, because Floyd’s body was in a locked cell with Leonard and the key inside.

Alphy at least wants to talk to Leonard about his father and his drinking, because he feels bad that Leonard didn’t feel he could talk to Geordie and him about his problems. So the men all sit down to talk about their feelings. Leonard might be grieving the loving father he never had, and admits the only respite he can find is in drink. Alphy reveals to Leonard that he was an orphan. Geordie worries that he’s being a bad father to his son, David, whom he suspects is gay. He is advised to simply tell David that he loves him more often.

There’s also some advice being dispensed elsewhere at the police station. Larry and Miss Scott have been arguing since she refused another marriage proposal – not because she doesn’t love him but because she doesn’t want to leave her job and become a housewife. Larry has called her heartless, and Cathy now comforts her. Larry eventually apologizes, and Miss Scott tells him that she does want to marry him – but she has her foibles, including that her parents are cruel and she doesn’t want them at the wedding. Plus, she wants to keep working.

The couple decides that they will work it out, and Larry proposes again right then and there. Third time’s the charm: she says yes and they kiss.

Cathy and Mrs. C also have their own issues: they’ve realized that starting a business will be too expensive for them. But Mrs. C has already set up a loan meeting at a bank under a fake man’s name – women can’t take out loans – and now they worry they’ll be found out for fraud.

Mrs. C does help Alphy in solving the crime, when he notices a newspaper with the winning horse’s name circled in the waiting room and she says it’s Donny’s paper – and that he’s been friendly all night, including with the two men who fought earlier. Alphy puts it all together after seeing that Micky’s handwriting matches that on the betting slip found in Floyd’s throat: Micky killed Floyd and Donny helped cover it up.

Micky pretended he couldn’t breathe, leading Floyd to open his cell, where Micky choked Floyd to death. Donny induced the two men in the waiting room to fight, creating a distraction while Micky dragged Floyd’s body across the hall to Leonard’s cell, which he unlocked with Floyd’s key, while Leonard slept. Micky locked Leonard’s cell and returned to his own, still with Floyd’s key. When Donny arrived to help him with his inhaler, Donny took the key and then threw it into Leonard’s cell while everyone else was distracted.

Donny was supposed to win big in the horse races, but Micky got too drunk and forgot to turn in his betting slip. Floyd saw it at the bar and placed his own bet. Donny thought those winnings should have been his, and Micky wanted to prove himself to his father, so he killed Floyd.

Geordie tries to give his own son approval the next morning, but fails to bring himself to tell David, “I love you.”

Mrs. C demonstrates her love for Leonard by waiting at the police station all night for him. When he is released, he tells her with desperation that he needs her help with his drinking, and she gives him a hug.