'The Marlow Murder Club' Recap: Season 2 Episode 4

The Marlow Murder Club airs Sundays at 8:00 pm and is available to stream via the PBS app and wttw.com. Recap the previous and following episodes.
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Grace Wellingborough has turned up a human body while excavating right near the final stubborn household that has resisted selling to her, preventing her from moving forward with a new development. The skeleton is that of a male teenager or young adult killed by blunt force to the head. It’s been in the ground for at least ten years. Given soil erosion and rain, it could have shifted from the backyard of the nearby house in that timespan. The house belongs to the Butlers.

Kerry Butler slams her door on the amateur detectives when they try to speak to her, so they hide behind some bushes to hear the real police question Phil Wingrove about a witness reporting him throwing something into the river. Phil denies it.

Grace is also not forthcoming, until Suzie threatens to report her for putting rotting trash on the Wingrove property, something that has driven a wedge between Phil and Dean Butler, since Phil blames Dean. (Suzie saw a can of rotting trash outside Grace’s office and put two and two together.) Grace is trying to drive out the Butlers so she can move forward with her development, by any means necessary – or almost any means. She draws the line at murder, and says she only moved to Marlow five years ago. 

The skeleton is identified as that of Seb Teller, who disappeared 15 years ago. His bank activity stopped and his father reported him missing. He was a troublesome kid, having been arrested a number of times for robbery – just like his father.

The amateur detectives turn to the collection of newspapers kept by Judith’s late great-aunt, in whose house she now lives. They find a photo of Grace in a story about construction from 15 years ago – she lied. When they confront her, she admits that she did so because she didn’t want to be associated with the body she found; she can’t afford any more delays. But she’s never even heard of Seb Teller. And her alibi for the time of Louis Oldham’s killing has been confirmed.

Suzie and Becks are equally interested in some of Judith’s great-aunt’s letters, which detail a romance between her and a married man named Nathan Edwards. He is the man Judith has just discovered hidden in a photo with her aunt. There was no physical relationship, but the letters carried on for years. One is unopened. Suzie and Becks urge Judith to look inside, and she finds a program for Nathan’s funeral enclosed, with a note: “He’d want you there.” Great-aunt Jess lived another 46 years after Nathan died, and never married or dated.

Becks has been rushing off to secretive meetings lately, and, having observed her with a handsome art teacher, Judith and Suzie wonder if she’s having her own affair. She brushes them off. While she’s off on one of her jaunts, she runs into Caroline Wingrove sitting by the church and speaks to her. Caroline is feeling unmoored and guilty, as the Wingroves are selling to Grace and moving to France to be with their pregnant daughter, despite Caroline’s promise to stand against Grace’s development with Kerry Butler.

When Judith and Suzie visit Dean Butler to question him, he simply gets angry.

The Butlers applied for a permit to build a pergola in their backyard, right near where Seb’s body was found, a month before Seb disappeared. The detectives don’t think it’s a coincidence, nor the fact that Seb and Louis were born the same year. Becks and Suzie discover a connection between the two dead men by searching through defunct forms of social media: they were in a band together as kids.

They bring this information to Judith at her house and are startled to find her with a man. He’s John Teller, Seb’s father, and has come to Judith for help – as an ex-con, he doesn’t trust the police. Seb’s mother recently died, and Louis came to her funeral. John hadn’t seen him for 15 years, but they chatted about Seb’s disappearance. When John mentioned that Seb was trying to get back together with some “posh bird” from Marlow when he disappeared, Louis had an idea. Later, he contacted John and said he had a lead on Seb’s disappearance and to meet him in Marlow. But by the time John arrived, Louis was dead. John is the man who took a photo of Judith at the crime scene and searched for her online, hoping for her help.

The forensic report shows that Seb was killed by something wooden that had been coated with tung oil, which is used to protect boats, sheds, and more. And he died 15 years ago, when he disappeared.

The trio go to one of Phil’s cricket games, thinking a cricket bat could have been used to kill Seb. Caroline gets upset when they ask her if she had an affair with Seb Teller – they’re wondering if she could have been the “posh bird” John mentioned. Phil intervenes and tells them he uses linseed oil, not tung, on his cricket bat. They press him on the witness seeing him throw something into the river and he admits that he found a knife in his backyard and disposed of it out of fear. He just wants to protect his family and get to France to be with his daughter.

The trio have been discounting Caroline and Kerry as suspects because they wouldn’t have been able to move Louis’ body from the forest where his bloody wallet was found to the cul-de-sac. But Becks suggests that he could have actually been killed in the cul-de-sac, and then his bloody belongings were planted in the forest to make it seem like he was stabbed there.

Judith solves the case. She and her friends go to church, where Becks figured that they would find Caroline. The “posh bird” Seb wanted back was Caroline’s daughter Evie, not Caroline or Kerry. Seb was horrible to Evie, so the Wingroves were relieved when she finally broke up with him. But Seb visited the house while Phil and Evie were out of town and forced his way in. He was drunk and tried to grab Caroline as she fled upstairs. She pushed him and he fell backwards, hitting his back on the reclaimed boat wood bannister the Wingroves had, and died.

Kerry came over, having heard the commotion. She wanted to call the police but Caroline worried that she would lose Evie. So the two women covered everything up. The Butlers were having their backyard redone, so they buried Seb in the mud there. 

Everything stayed buried until Louis showed up at the Wingroves’, asking Caroline questions and threatening her with the police. As he left, she followed him and grabbed him; he drew a knife; she pushed him; and then she grabbed the dropped knife and stabbed him. Since it was broad daylight, she tried to cover things up by bringing his possessions to the forest, wiping pollen on his pants to make it even more believable. But she forgot about the knife, and had to dump it in her backyard at the last minute. 

She asks that Kerry not be sent to prison, regretting everything.

Case solved, Becks reveals her own secret: she got a tattoo, designed by the art teacher. And she has found out something else: Judith’s great-aunt is buried next to her great love, Nathan.