'Professor T' Recap: Season 5 Episode 4

Professor T airs Sundays at 7:00 pm and is available to stream via the PBS app and wttw.com. Recap the previous episode.
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The professor has begun using exposure therapy to treat his resurgent compulsive behaviors, everything from crossing a crosswalk to touching Dr. Goldberg, whom he kissed 13 days ago. He’s even using an app to help him. 

He has already lost his mother; then a mentor dies. Hamish Maclean was a criminologist who, along with his wife Emily, was supportive of the professor in his first year as a lecturer. After Hamish left academia to become a successful mystery writer, they lost touch. Now Hamish, soon after winning an award for his latest novel, Unhappy Birthday, has been killed in front of his own house, run down by a car. There is no CCTV footage, because Hamish campaigned to remove all CCTV from his street.

But there is an obvious suspect. Tom Evans was removed from the awards ceremony that night for heckling Hamish after he won. Tom did time for a burglary before being released after it came out that evidence that supported his alibi hadn’t been made available to him. Hamish published a novel based on Tom’s case – his first successful book – and Tom has been mad ever since that he didn’t receive any credit or money. 

Tom says he went home after the ceremony and his car was missing. 

Upon a suggestion from Dr. Goldberg, the professor visits Hamish’s widow, Emily. He notices that their daughter Grace has been painted out of a family portrait and replaced by a dog; Emily explains that Grace dated Tom for a time to spite her father, whom Grace blames for aggravating her mother’s severe agoraphobia. Hamish’s publisher recently sold the film rights to the novel based on Tom’s case, which resurfaced Tom, who has been threatening Hamish for months and demanding money. Emily asks the professor to ensure that Tom is convicted for good this time. 

Dan’s life is also being complicated by the murkiness of past crimes. Maiya has suggested that Leonie is part of a plan by her father Chester to gain access to a policeman, so Dan asks Leonie point-blank why she was at a pub frequented by old men like Dan’s father when they first met. She says it has a good happy hour, and bristles at Maiya’s continued suspicion of her family. Her grandmother walked out on the family when her father was 6, leaving him to be separated from his brother for 9 years by social services. 

Maiya is still suspicious, and visits Chester during a probation meeting to ask about Dan. Chester still claims that his brother was killed by police in custody, saying witnesses heard him say, “I can’t breathe.” Maiya, who was there, says those witnesses are lying. 

But then she goes to chastise Dan, having learned that Dan made a throwaway comment to Leonie that Chester should drive a less noticeable car and lose his personalized plates in order to stop getting pulled over – Chester told her to thank Dan for the advice. Leonie says her dad is trying to get Dan in trouble on purpose and says she’ll stop him when Dan confronts her. Dan worries their relationship won’t be able to continue.

CCTV around Hamish’s neighborhood shows him departing a bus home late at night after the awards ceremony. But whatever car hit him is not seen leaving his street, so it must still be there. Chloe goes to look for it and finds Tom’s car in the unlocked garage of a house that has been empty for some time. A dent is consistent with a collision with a pedestrian, and fibers match the type of jacket Hamish was wearing. 

But the police fear Tom will sue them again, and the professor tells Maiya unequivocally that Tom didn’t kill Hamish: he’s not a violent person. Maiya reluctantly releases Tom, and the investigation directs its attention to Hamish’s daughter Grace, given her break with her dad. Hamish wrote her out of his will, and she had driven Tom’s car in the past – she was pulled over in it and her license was suspended for driving drunk two years ago. 

When she is brought in for questioning, Grace has keys to Tom’s car in her purse. She says they’ve probably been buried in it for months. The house in which Tom’s car was found belonged to an old woman for whom Grace used to do the shopping. She also says her dad was a drunken bully who exacerbated her mother’s agoraphobia. 

Meanwhile, the professor goes to his customary spot on the roof of his college and finds Tom there, somewhat stunned and on the phone. Tom is standing on the parapet. The professor rushes towards him to stop him from jumping. Tom falls backwards to his death.

The professor is arrested: camera footage appears to show him pushing Tom. Maiya and her team are recused from the investigation, and an outside detective brought in. The professor could have been avenging the death of his mentor; plus, he has fired a gun in a police station before and gone to prison, even if he was eventually cleared. 

Maiya sneaks the professor into her office with a cot for the evening so he doesn’t have to spend the night in a cell. He calls Dr. Goldberg, who sneaks Hamish’s books into him. Her book club has read them, and she recalls that the victim in Unhappy Birthday was put in a stupor similar to Tom’s before he died. 

After a night spent reading Hamish’s books, the professor is granted bail: witnesses in another building say he was trying to prevent Tom from jumping, not push him. 

He visits Emily at home and has tea with her. After he leaves, he takes a phone call. He is led to the roof and the parapet where Tom jumped. Maiya grabs him from behind, shouting, “You said that wouldn’t happen!” Emily is arrested from her car, where she is sitting on the other end of the professor’s phone call.

The professor noticed a pressure mark on a jacket of Emily’s that she said she has never worn, given her agoraphobia. He figured it could be from a seatbelt during an impact, like running someone – Hamish – over. His analysis of Hamish’s books has revealed that someone different started writing them beginning with the successful novel based on Tom’s case: Emily. 

Hamish promised Emily that he would finally give her credit for the books if he won the award – and then he didn’t follow through, so she killed him. He had made clear that he would paint her as a mentally unstable shut-in if she tried to claim credit herself. 

She then decided to kill Tom, who had been threatening the family, using the method used to kill the victim in Unhappy Birthday: a drug that makes people especially suggestible. The professor guessed she would try the same thing on him to prevent him from discovering she was the killer and took an antidote before visiting her – but clearly it didn’t work. He did, however, get evidence of her involvement. 

Dr. Goldberg has learned that the professor nearly died and is furious at his risk-taking. His work always seems to come before her. But he gives her credit for solving the case, by guessing that Tom had been under the influence of the suggestible drug. He tells her that the board at his school has suspended him – his “exploits” are drawing too much negative attention. He can defend himself, but Dr. Goldberg suggests a fresh start in the U.S., where they have both been offered teaching positions before. With his mother dead, his reasons for staying in Cambridge are gone, he says. Dr. Goldberg is excited by this big, new plan.