Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries S02E02 - Death Comes Knocking

Warning contains spoilers!

Last night was the second episode in the series of Miss Fishers Murder Mysteries entitled Death Comes Knocking. 

The episode kicks off with a seance at Phryne house. Her cousin Rowley is contacted by the medium. As she does so Freddie remembers their battle together at Poitiers and how all the battalion were killed by enemy fire. Aunt Prudence asks Rowley what happened and if Freddie deserves the bravery medal he will receive as she says he can't recall his 'brave deeds'. The medium tells Freddie that Basil is there too and Freddie recalls a youngman who got trapped in barbed wire and killed by enemy fire. He sees Rowley calling for the stretcher but the stretcher-bearer cannot go to him as there is still enemy fire. We see someone roll Rowley over and shoot him but do not see who it is.

Credits roll

At this point Freddie starts to suffer an attack and Mr Butler comes with the valet comes to administer medicine. Freddie says he heard a gunshot after the enemy firing had finished and he doesn't deserve the award. The psychic states that the circle is still open and everyone must return to the table but they are all looking after Freddie. Phryne offers to let Freddie and Maud stay the night. Dot and Mr Butler are in the kitchen and Dot calls the psychic a charlatan and says she can't believe Aunt Prudence is a spiritualist Mr Butler says its natural after losing her godson.

In the grave yard at night the groundskeeper sees someone entering a tomb so follows them. He is attacked with a crowbar and falls onto one of the graves impaling himself on a spike. The next morning Jack and Hugh are there investigating when Phryne turns up to pay her respects to Rowley. Phryne asks if the groundskeeper would have disturbed a grave robber that attacked him but Jack tells her the door was locked and the tomb was not disturbed.

Freddie becomes distressed seeing the scene as he expects it was Rowley. Jack asks what the connection to is and Phryne says Maud was Rowley's widow and Freddie his best friend who fought under him at Pozieres but when Rowley died Freddie married his widow. 

Jack goes to Phryne's house to question everyone. He starts with Aunt Prudence who tells him about the seance with the psychic.She says she thought Rowley would persuade Freddie to take the award. Phryne then introduces Jack to the psychic and her manager Mr Warrick Hamilton. The psychic tells Jack that as the seance was interrupted last night the spiritual energy may linger and enter a living person driving them to violence. 

Jack then asks to speak to Freddie but he is still resting. So Jack questions his valet Larry. The psychic then takes a funny turn and complains of her heart. Phryne ask the manager about her health and he says she has heart problems. The manager asks if Phryne is a skeptic or a believer.  The manager tells Phryne that he was a customer of the psychic as he lost his brother at the Somme.

Mr Butler talks to Larry the valet about Freddie and he says he worries about Maud as she gets very stressed about Freddie's health. He says he worked for Maud's family when she was a girl. 

The next morning Larry tries to give Freddie his laudanum but Freddie refuses as it makes him foggy. Phryne sees Larry slip it into Freddie's drink. Phryne catches up with Freddie outside the house. He tells her he can't escape the war and the doctors say he has battle neurosis. He says he feels his mind is covering a hideous truth. Freddie shows Phryne the dispatches report from the day Rowley died. It says Freddie carried him off the field but Freddie says he doesn't remember. 

Phyrne goes to Jack and asks him to acquire Rowley's war records. At that moment Hugh appears with the records. The report says that he was wounded in battle and died on route to hospital. The report is signed Percy Bishop. 

Back at the house Cec and Bert are reading a book entitled 'Tricks of the Spiritualist Trade'. Miss Fisher returns and Phryne asks them to round up Percy Bishop. They find him and Bert calls him a conscie. Percy punches Bert in the nose.  Percy tells Phryne that Rowley had sent the battalion to there death and got shot in the leg. Percy said he tried to go collect him but couldn't as there was a lot of enemy fire. He said he was just about to get Rowley when he say Freddie carrying him. Phryne asks how he died and Percy said he thinks he got shot by a German solider. Phryne ask him about the final pistol shot that Freddie heard. Percy agrees but Phryne says that only officers carried pistols and they were close range weapons. Percy says perhaps it was a German officer finishing Rowley off. Phryne asks if this was the case why did Percy's report say Rowley died on the way to hospital. Percy says it was a long time ago.

Phryne tells Jack that either Freddie was avenging the deaths of the battalion by shooting Rowley or he was putting Rowley out of his misery. Hugh brings Phryne photos of the murder scene at the graveyard and Phryne notices a splash of blood on the inside of the door of the tomb which means the door must have been ajar. 

Jack goes to question Freddie and Maud and they say they don't know what a grave digger would be after. They tell Jack that the key to the tomb is left at the graveyard office as they don't live close by. Jack asks if there was anyone with a grudge against Rowley but they say no one. Freddie says except him. He says he is still angry about Rowley sending the battalion out to their deaths. Freddie says he could have done something to Rowley in the heat of battle but doesn't remember. Freddie says he want to get the psychic back as he needs to speak to Rowley again. 

Hugh goes back the graveyard and there has been another break in a Rowley's tomb. Meanwhile the group hold another seance. Freddie asks for the truth. The psychic says Basil is there too. Freddie gets upset and remembers Basil a young boy stuck on barbed wire. Rowley tells Freddie he did not die by Freddie's hand but Freddie says he wanted Rowley dead and could have done it if he wasn't so terrified. The psychic then quotes one of Rowley's poems. The psychic tells Freddie to go to Rowley's grave when the moon is full and drink the virgins tears (a small vial she gives him) Freddie says it is a full moon that night.

Jack tells Aunt Prudence that no one should go near the grave least of all Freddie. He says he has permission to exhume Rowley's body as the grave has been emptied of valuables. Phryne confronts the manager about the poem and asks if he stole it out of Aunt Prudence's bag but he says no. Phryne flirts with the manager and they end up in bed together. Phryne asks the manager about his shrapnel wounds and if he was with his brother at his death but he says no they were in different battalions. He says he sought out the psychic for answers.  He says his brother Basil's death was tragic and unjust.

Dot is up in the night when the front door open and banging scares her she shuts the door and climbs the stairs where a net descends on her when she pulled the light cord and her scream brings Phryne and Mr Butler. Maud then says that Freddie has gone.

Jack and Hugh are called to the graveyard as the groundskeeper heard noises. At the same time Phryne and the manager break into the graveyard to find Freddie. They find him drinking the 'virgins tears' which kill him. Jack takes the manager in as he suspects the virgins tears were poison. the manager says what motive would he have. Phryne tells Jack about the managers brother who was also in the battalion. Jack asks if the seances were rigged but the manager says no. The manager says he wanted Freddie to remember and face the truth not to kill him. Phryne says she thinks it wasn't the manager. 

The groundskeeper arrives to give a statement and Phryne notices his very nice watch and asks where he got it. He says he found it in the bin at the cemetery but Phryne recognizes it as Rowley's. Hugh checks the bin and finds everything Rowley was buried with except his pistol. Phryne inspects Rowley's body and finds a bullet wound in the back of the skull and finds a bullet inside the skull.  They suspect Rowley was shot with his own gun in the back of the head. 

Phryne questions Percy again who says he heard a shot and then say Freddie carry Rowley back to the trenches.  He said he didn't actually see Freddie shoot Rowley just assumed he did. Phryne asks why Percy would paint Freddie as a hero and Percy said that wasn't him. Jack asks if not him then who as everyone else was killed. Percy says to ask Rowley batman. The toxicology report comes for Freddie and it shows he was given a heart stimulant. Phryne says that Freddie was on hear medication that was administered by his valet and perhaps the valet had gone to war with him. 

Phryne ask Aunt Prudence if Maud had a copy of the poem that the psychic had recited. Prudence says possibly but she knew the poem by heart. Phryne asks if Maud and Larry were having an affair but Prudence says of course not Larry had looked after Maud since she was a little girl. 

Larry is arrested and Phryne find Rowley's pistol in Maud's luggage. Larry confesses to killing Rowley Larry says that Maud was scared of Rowley as he was a brute. Larry said Maud tried to retrieve the gun after the seance but wasn't strong enough to open the tomb. Maud admits to killing the groundsman in a moment of panic. Larry says he went back with Maud to retrieve the gun and mad it look like a robbery but could not find the bullet that killed Rowley. 

Larry and Maud said they didn't kill Freddie. Jack accuses Maud saying she pushed for the second seance but she said that the psychic pushed for it as she could see Freddie was a tortured soul. Jack accuses her of adding a large dose of Freddie's heart medication to the vial of 'virgins tears' but Maud says Freddie was just on cod liver oil.

Phryne remembers that the psychic had heart problems and the virgins tears were her idea. Jack goes to the psychic and gets his cards read. Jack asks for a confession and the psychic attempts to poison herself with the heart medicine but is stopped and arrested. The manager asks why she did it and she says she did it for Basil. The manager said he didn't want Freddie dead and the psychic says his brother did. 

The episode ends with Phryne and Jack enjoying martinis and Phryne reading Jack's palm.