'Miss Scarlet' Recap: Season 6 Episode 6

Miss Scarlet is available to stream. Recap the previous episode and other seasons.
Keep up with your favorite dramas and mysteries by signing up for our newsletter, Dramalogue. 

As Eliza makes her way through a condemned asylum, she’s surprised to run into Alexander. They have both received an urgent note asking them to meet there. Who was the sender? 

It was Miss Scott, the British intelligence agent whom Eliza and Alexander have previously run across when a case involved Russian subterfuge against the police commissioner. She needs them to investigate the death of an undersecretary in the Foreign Office, Sir Joseph Milner. There’s no reason to believe there’s foul play in his apparent death from an infection in a wound incurred when he fell off a horse, but Miss Scott needs to make sure – discreetly, since Sir Joseph is a prominent diplomat. 

Before leaving Eliza and Alexander with their case, she warns them that, after Isabel betrayed Willows’ romantic trust in order to try to help Dylan Cooper try to escape, the police will now have to declare any romantic involvements. This will be the last case Eliza and Alexander can work on together. 

Eliza is worried about how her business will survive if she can no longer receive work from Scotland Yard through Alexander. But for now, she distracts herself with Miss Scott’s case, calling in Moses to help, along with Clarence. Alexander trusts Willows enough to inform him of the case, and has him send out men to the street under the story of recent robberies so that he and Eliza can question people without suspicion. Willows in turn asks Ivy to write up fake incident reports so that his men don’t ask questions.

Alexander visits Sir Joseph’s house and learns from his butler that Sir Joseph “enjoyed the company of ladies.” Eliza sets about acquiring the coroner’s report on Sir Joseph, sending Moses to dig up dirt on Mr. Potts’ employer Mr. Wormsley in order to blackmail him into apologizing to Mr. Potts and giving him his job back, which he does, quickly, to the delight of both Mr. Potts and Ivy.

Meanwhile, Clarence finds a man who has delivered coal to Sir Joseph’s house for years and Moses gets him drunk to learn that Sir Joseph’s other servants don’t like his butler, whom Sir Joseph had recently accused of stealing and was planning to fire. Furthermore, despite his lodgings in the servants’ quarters, the butler also rents a room in a lodging house.

Eliza and Alexander visit that room and pick the lock when there’s no answer to find the butler gasping on the floor. They rush him to the hospital, where the doctor says the symptoms are similar to tetanus, but there’s not a wound that is infected. Eliza knows from the coroner’s report that Sir Joseph’s cause of death was listed as tetanus – and it’s not infectious, so it’s extremely unlikely for both Sir Joseph and his butler to contract it at the same time. Mr. Potts said the symptoms could also be from strychnine poisoning. 

The detectives return to the butler’s room to see if there are any traces of poison. They find a number of nice watches and a silver calling card case belonging to a Countess Polchek. She’s the wife of the Russian ambassador, who admits that she has returned to Russia after he found out she was having an affair with Sir Joseph. The ambassador visited Sir Joseph a few days before his death to warn him away from his wife, but Sir Joseph was arguing in German with two men in front of his house.

Clarence has discovered a large transfer from Sir Joseph’s account to a small German bank in London a few days before his death. Clarence tracks the account that received Sir Joseph’s money to a man named Klaus Lange and gets an address. Moses scopes it out but is interrupted by the arrival of two men. They draw knives; he draws two guns from the bag he’s searching, then ties them up and brings them to Scotland Yard.

They have a photo of the Foreign Secretary, Sir Joseph’s boss, in their bag. They admit that Sir Joseph hired them to kill his boss. They didn’t know Sir Joseph was dead.

Meanwhile, Eliza and Alexander question the butler, who admits to stealing from Sir Joseph. The last thing he remembers before collapsing is smoking tobacco he stole from Sir Joseph. 

Eliza goes to update Miss Scott on their investigation and receives unwanted advice in return. Miss Scott has guessed that Eliza is in love with Alexander, and warns her that men will always put their interests above women. That’s why financial independence is so important for women like Miss Scott, who has amassed something of a fortune in her work.

Eliza has learned from Mr. Potts that strychnine is difficult to come by, but it can be extracted from rat poison. But you would need a large quantity of poison, so Eliza gets a list of businesses that receive bulk deliveries of poison from the company that supplies the morgue. One business is closed; all its deliveries are forwarded to an address Eliza recognizes. She sends Moses to tell Alexander to meet her at the address.

It’s the condemned asylum where Miss Scott first gave Eliza and Alexander the case. Miss Scott is there again, as is a lot of rat poison. Miss Scott immediately admits that she killed Sir Joseph, for the sake of her country. He believed Germany was a threat and wanted to start a war, but his boss didn’t. So he hired low-level German assassins to target his boss and convince him that Germany was a threat. Miss Scott didn’t want an unnecessary war. And she also wants everything to come to light, independently of herself, which is why she hired Eliza and Alexander.

She will now flee the country. But first she asks Eliza what she will do about Alexander. Eliza says she won’t give him up, so Miss Scott says she will pay Eliza a huge fee for this case – Eliza will need the money. Be ambitious, Miss Scott requests of Eliza.

Fortunately for Eliza, she will still be able to get work through Scotland Yard. Alexander has been promoted to superintendent, because his predecessor was himself promoted in order to keep quiet the report about Miss Scott killing Sir Joseph and his assassination plot. Alexander will not dismiss Willows after the revelation of Isabel’s duplicity, and he promotes Ivy to be the new clerical manager at Scotland Yard. 

He wants to reveal to his daughter Sophia that he and Eliza are dating – but Sophia already knows. 

Eliza uses the money from Miss Scott to hire a new employee. She’s only interviewing women – and a long line has shown up to apply.