'The Marlow Murder Club' Recap: Season 3 Episode 3

The Marlow Murder Club airs Sundays at 7:00 pm and is available to stream via the PBS app and wttw.com. Recap the previous episodes.
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Becks and five university friends have gathered at a spooky estate for a weekend reunion featuring games like “Murder in the Dark,” in which a “killer” is designated and given 20 seconds to flee their victim and convince the others they’re innocent. When Becks is the “murderer,” she finds the grump Freddie in the darkened library on his phone and taps him before fleeing downstairs, where she sees Jessica before Freddie screams to inform the others he is “dead.” 

The two women head upstairs, where they see Oskar on the top floor, Una come out of the parlor, and Ryan. They all head to the library, where they’re shocked to see Freddie on the ground – actually dead, with a knife in his back.

When the police arrive, Tanika asks Becks and her friends to all stay in the house overnight so they’re nearby to answer questions. The six friends were the only ones in the house, and the windows to the library are all locked. Motion sensor lights were last triggered around 5:00 pm, when the friends say they returned to the house from lunch. 

Una organized the reunion and found the house. She explains that the friends chose rooms upon arrival then walked through a forest to lunch. Ryan returned first to set up some games – he was famous for treasure hunts at college – and the rest returned together. Una had arranged cocktails on the terrace. 

Freddie got away with a lot because he was charming, Becks tells the police. He stole one of Oskar’s girlfriends and had a rivalry with Ryan over who was the leader of the group. Ryan struggled with his studies in college but worked hard afterwards and now runs a foundation, for which Oskar works. Oskar always worshiped Ryan. He was expelled before exams at college for plagiarism in his dissertation. And Becks was surprised that Jessica came: Now a London lawyer, she was the most distant from the group.

Oskar and Ryan both mention possibly seeing a shadowy figure outside the library after Freddie’s scream.

Judith and Suzie, who have arrived to support Becks, look around. Judith notices that Freddie was wearing a bespoke jacket, but his pants are much less nice and don’t match. In his bedroom, they find the jacket’s matching pants hanging, muddy, in the shower. There’s also a burned book in his fireplace. 

Confronted with the pants, the friends explain that Oskar accidentally splashed mud on Freddie on the way back from lunch, and Freddie had one of his habitual explosions. He insulted Oskar, who threatened him in return, eliciting an apology for once. 

Tanika is upset that they – especially Becks – didn’t tell her about this incident. She tells Judith and Suzie to stay away from Becks during the investigation. 

Overnight, Una calls for help from the officers stationed in the house. She thought she heard footsteps in the attic. The officers break the lock on a door that had previously been unlocked and take a cursory look, but dismiss it as the creaking of an old house. The owner of the house is away on a tour of the Highlands. 

Suzie discerns a few words on the burned book in Freddie’s fireplace and determines from them that it was Dracula. She and Judith ask Becks if there’s a connection. Freddie has a PhD in Gothic literature. Becks also explains the presence of copies of Ryan’s book: He brought signed advance copies for everyone. But Freddie’s is missing.

The police find that Una called Freddie 12 times 10 days before the reunion. She’s shocked it was that many calls; she just wanted the reunion to be perfect, and he hadn’t responded yet. Her life is in tumult, so she conceived the reunion as a safe harbor. She praises Freddie, although she didn’t keep much in touch with him other than a lunch some five years ago. She also notes that, per the burned book in his room, Freddie asked for matches before lunch.

Una then tells Becks that Jessica is lying: Jessica says she hadn’t seen Freddie for years, but photos on social media show they were both at a recent alumni event. Becks, obeying Tanika’s injunction to stay away from Judith and Suzie, calls her husband and has him relate this to her friends. 

But Jessica points out that there are no photos of her and Freddie together at the event when confronted about it, and says she simply hid information that didn’t look good. She also realizes that Una and Becks ratted her out and gets defensive around everyone.

Then a photo emerges of Becks hugging Freddie, even though she said she didn’t know him well. She admits that she went on two dates with him a long time ago but quickly realized she didn’t want to spend more time with him. Still, Tanika is disappointed Becks didn’t tell her this. 

Freddie’s credit card shows he paid for a hotel room the night of the alumni event despite living on campus. (He has a job there.) A second person later requested a copy of the receipt from the hotel: Jessica. 

Suzie is dating again. She tries speed-dating and is amused to run into Brendan, who is embarrassed to be there. 

Judith is trying to get a contractor to work on her house, but they’re difficult to book in Marlow these days. When one finally stops by, he tells her that her home is full of damp, but she dismisses him.

He does give her an idea, however. She goes back to the house Becks and her friends are in and notices that there are more windows on the outside than inside: There’s a hidden room somewhere. She enlists Becks to help her find it. Becks notices scrapes on the hallway floor and they find a hidden door that leads to a bedroom with a suite of monitors showing live feeds of the interior of the house. A mug by the monitors is still warm. A person appears behind them.