Death in Paradise season 14 episode 5 recap: who killed Ines Mercedes?

Death in Paradise season 14 episode 5 sees the team's day off at a football match swiftly interrupted by — what else? — a murder, when one of the star players from a rival side is shot in the dressing room, while all of the prime suspects are on the pitch, in full view of the police!

There's also an unexpectedly personal element to the case for Naomi when the match's referee turns out to be her ex-boyfriend from back home in Saint Barnabas, and reconnecting with him forces her to question some of her life choices.

Here's what happened in Death in Paradise season 14 episode 5...

We begin with Catherine Bordey (Élizabeth Bourgine), in her role as mayor, making an announcement to the crowd at Saint Marie Stadium where Saint Marie are playing Saint Auguste in the women's youth cup final. Officer Sebastian Rose (Shaquille Ali-Yebuah), DI Mervin Wilson (Don Gilet), Officer Darlene Curtis (Ginny Holder) and DS Naomi Thomas (Shantol Jackson) take their seats in the crowd as drummers beat out a catchy rhythm and dancers swirl their skirts on the pitch, with Naomi jokily noting to Mervin that he won't get this on "Day of the Match" (Naomi inaccurately referring to Match of the Day is my favourite running gag of this season — what can I say, I'm easily amused).

The players of Saint Auguste take to the pitch, led by goalkeeper Ines Mercedes (Nkechi Simms), accompanied by the Saint Marie team led by striker Grace Devon (Rita Bernard-Shaw). Darlene shows her enthusiasm by blowing a vuvuzela, which is delightful. Saint Auguste's coach Curtly Lewis (Patrick Regis) calls Ines over and points out two talent scouts at the side of the pitch, reminding her of the game plan: she's to play the ball long and keep her cool. Curtly's daughter Brigitte (Hijack's Chantelle Alle), who's also on the Saint Auguste team, tries to get her dad's attention, but he dismisses her.

The match gets underway but Ines is acting oddly — rather than following Curtly's instructions to play the ball long after intercepting it, she's throwing it feebly back out onto the pitch, much to his annoyance. Grace crashes into Ines during a particularly heated moment, and when Ines protests, Grace hits back with "not looking too impressive now, are you, superstar?" Ines sees red and gives Grace a shove — ironically, that means she sees red for a second time when referee Emmanuel Warner (Three Little Birds' Bobby Gordon) sends her off. Curtly is furious, and the scouts are disappointed, getting up to leave the stands. Brigitte is set on in Ines's place.

As the game continues, Darlene points out the "fine-looking referee" to Naomi, who looks alarmed when she catches sight of him. Grace scores for Saint Marie, to the delight of the home crowd, just before Emmanuel blows the whistle for halftime. As the players return to the dressing room, Brigitte stops in her tracks as she sees Ines lying on the floor with a pool of blood under her legs — dead.

Mervin and Naomi get to work investigating, and determine the cause of death as a single gunshot wound to Ines's right thigh, with a small entry wound and a larger exit wound. Mervin notices a bullet hole in the wall — but no sign of the bullet. He wonders if the killer deliberately took a souvenir. Commissioner Selwyn Patterson (Don Warrington) arrives, and Mervin and Naomi get him up to speed on the case, explaining that nobody could have got in through the windows because they're too small, and they're also too high up for the killer to have shot her through the window. Her mobile phone is still there, so it can't have been a burglary. Selwyn asks if any of them saw or heard anything suspicious while they were watching the match, and tells them that the press are outside wanting answers. He reminds them that he is due to leave his position in less than a week, so he wants Ines's killer caught before then.

Outside, Seb is taking statements — but has focused on one specific witness, Mrs Valois, who was telling him about her sick dog. Darlene encourages him to get a wiggle on so that they can search the area for the murder weapon. Mervin is frustrated that they can't find any witnesses who saw anyone entering or leaving the changing room while Ines was in there. At this point, Emmanuel recognises Naomi and comes over; she's thrown to see him, but tells Mervin that the two of them are "old friends" from back home. Emmanuel tells them that he didn't know Ines personally, but she was well-known on the circuit generally. Mervin asks him if the red card moment was normal behaviour for Ines, and Emmanuel says it wasn't, so Naomi suggests they speak to Grace to see if she can shed any light. Emmanuel tells Naomi it was good to see her again, and leaves. Mervin senses that Naomi's "just friends" story wasn't the unvarnished truth.

Mervin and Naomi speak to Grace, who tries to brush the clash off as normal football business. She says it was an important match that they had trained hard for. Mervin asks her if she had a particularly deep rivalry with Ines, and Grace says Ines is a tough opponent, but she hardly knew her off the pitch. Grace's phone rings, and she tries to ignore it until Mervin asks if she's planning to answer it. As she walks off, Mervin and Naomi agree that Grace seems nervous.

Back at the police station, Naomi sums up what they know so far: Ines was 18, and was spotted by Curtly playing street football as a teenager. Mervin wonders what Brigitte, as the team's reserve goalie, thought about the fact that her own dad saw Ines as the star of the team. Seb says that he found a picture of Ines on her socials with some talent scouts from US colleges, and it looks like she was destined for big things. Mervin says that the time of Ines's death was some time between her being sent off, and half time — but Naomi points out that nobody heard a gunshot in that time. Seb's phone keeps pinging; it's Mrs Valois, sending him pictures of her shih tzu, and Darlene tells him that this is why the police usually take the witness's phone number rather than the other way around. The team work out that Grace scored at 2:35pm, which prompted the drummers to play and the crowd to cheer, and therefore seems to be the only time that a gun could have been fired without anyone hearing it. Darlene has been going through Ines's phone and found that she was receiving death threats, including one saying "play the final and die". She says she's contacted the network provider to trace the number, but they won't hear back until the morning at the earliest, so Mervin decides to call it a night.

After Mervin and Seb leave, Darlene asks Naomi about Emmanuel, and Naomi explains that he's her ex, who she broke up with when she moved to Saint Marie. They were together for four years, which she tries to play down as "no big deal", but she admits it was weird to see him again. Naomi claims she's over the relationship, but Darlene doesn't seem convinced.

The next morning, Mervin is having breakfast at the shack with Harry the lizard when Naomi arrives and notes the suspicious absence of his air conditioner from last week's episode. Mervin says that it packed up last night, and Naomi says that at least he can have his windows open to see the ocean now. She tells Mervin that she thinks he's starting to like Saint Marie, and Mervin tells her to hold her horses on that one, but admits he is taking her advice and trying to make the most of his time there — he's going to barbecue lobster night at the Flying Fish later. Naomi says she's pleased that Mervin is going back there to reconnect with his mother, and Mervin says that since he closed that case, he's been sleeping better, so he thanks Naomi for her help. He suggests Naomi join him for barbecue lobster later if she doesn't have any other plans, and Naomi agrees on one condition: that he doesn't order pudding before she's eaten her starter.

Over at Government House, Selwyn is sorting through his files as Catherine arrives. He tells her that he's getting things in order before he leaves, but she tells him that the petition to save his job now has over 10,000 signatures and that they need to go to Kingston to meet with the Chief Commissioner so that he can see the whole island supports Selwyn. Selwyn, however, doesn't like this idea as he's already appealed to the Chief Commissioner unsuccessfully, and doesn't want to be reduced to begging. Catherine tells Selwyn that she'll plead his case even if he won't. Selwyn replies that he's touched, but he thinks she's letting her emotions cloud her judgement. Catherine tells him she's doing this as the mayor of the community, not as his friend. Selwyn insists it will be embarrassing for both of them, but Catherine is resolute.

At the police station, Darlene says the network wasn't able to trace the number that the threats were sent from, but one of the threatening messages included what looks like a picture of Ines at the team's hotel, with the stalker saying that they were watching her, so Darlene suggests they go to the hotel to check the CCTV. Seb arrives, late for work — he was helping Mrs Valois with her shopping.

Naomi has been speaking to the scouts from the university in Florida: apparently Curtly was close to signing a scholarship deal for gifted players that would have brought a $1.5m investment in his football club — and Ines was supposed to be the scheme's first member. However, the scouts were already having doubts about Ines's temperament, so when she was sent off during the match, they decided there and then not to go ahead with her. Emmanuel arrives at the police station, and asks Naomi if he can talk to her about Ines.

Emmanuel explains that while he was checking the corner flags before the match, he saw Ines arguing with Curtly: she claimed that she had a migraine and wanted Brigitte to take her place in the match, but Curtly insisted Brigitte wasn't ready yet. Emmanuel says that Curtly has a bit of a reputation as a "barker" on the touchline, and Mervin and Naomi decide that they need to go and speak to him. As Mervin heads to the van, Naomi thanks Emmanuel for coming in and apologises if she was a bit off with him yesterday. He tells her that it's fine, and asks if she is free for a drink this evening. Naomi says she would like that, and heads over to Mervin (who Naomi has reluctantly allowed behind the wheel again, despite what happened last time), asking if she can take a rain check on their dinner plans tonight.

At the stadium, Curtly is conducting a training session, explaining to Mervin and Naomi that the team were struggling with being stuck in the hotel, and he thought a training session would help. He tells them that Ines didn't seem to realise the scholarship scheme was her big moment. Naomi asks if he was angry when she got sent off, and he says of course he was: it took a lot to persuade the coaches that his girls were disciplined enough to make it, and Ines was going to be the test case. Mervin brings up the loss of the huge investment, and Curtly curtly (heh) tells him that he wouldn't have killed Ines over a business deal. Mervin asks whether Brigitte felt overshadowed by Ines, and Curtly tells him that he has a great relationship with his daughter, and that Ines and Brigitte were close friends.

At the hotel, Seb and Darlene have struck gold on the CCTV, where they can see someone with a yellow backpack taking a picture of Ines's room — it's Brigitte. Mervin and Naomi go to speak to Brigitte, who denies sending horrible messages to her best friend. Mervin and Naomi question her about her relationship with her father, and Brigitte admits that Curtly told her she wasn't good enough for the scholarship, and that she sent the messages to scare Ines so that she would drop out of the match and give Birgitte a chance to play — but she didn't kill Ines. Mervin informs her that regardless of the outcome of the place, she'll be facing malicious communications charges, and Naomi tells her not to leave the island.

At the police station, Mrs Valois has come to see Seb, while Darlene shares the post-mortem results with Mervin and Naomi, confirming that Ines died of a major haemorrhage due to the gunshot wound to her thigh, and that the lab found double the recommended dose of a painkiller in her blood. Seb has a brainwave: after speaking with Mrs Valois and checking the pictures on her phone, he found that she'd shot some footage at the football match of laundry bags that weren't there while the police were interviewing the witnesses, so maybe whoever collected them saw something important? Mervin congratulates Seb on his outside-the-box thinking and Darlene gives him a proud maternal smile.

Later, Selwyn is getting tetchy about the lack of progress on the case just as Seb returns from the launderette with the murder weapon, which he thinks the killer stashed in the laundry bags. Mervin gets Seb to get the gun rushed off to the lab, and hopes that the washing machine hasn't cleaned off all the forensic residue. He tells everyone to go home for the night.

Naomi, of course, has big plans for the evening and heads to Catherine's Bar to meet Emmanuel, where Catherine tells her that she thinks her meeting with the Chief Commissioner went well. Emmanuel is already there waiting for Naomi. Sometime later, the two of them are reminiscing about old times and there's clearly still chemistry there. Emmanuel asks her if she's been seeing anyone else since they broke up, and Naomi says there hasn't been anything serious because she's so busy with work. Emmanuel tells her that she always knew she'd be successful.

Later still, they're enjoying a walk on the beach, where Emmanuel tells Naomi that she seems happy in Saint Marie, and she tells him that she is. Emmanuel asks Naomi why she didn't ask him to move with her, and she's surprised: she didn't think he would want to leave Saint Barnabas. He says he thought she wanted to be rid of him, and he didn't want to hold her back; Naomi insists that's not how she felt. She's on the verge of suggesting they try things again when Emmanuel cuts her off and admits he has something to tell her: he's engaged to someone else.

Having been avoiding work calls from Mervin during the previous scene, a saddened Naomi finally joins him at the Flying Fish, where a waitress said something that gave him pause: a week before she died, Dorna was talking about scattering her father's ashes on the beach near the restaurant, so why did she end up taking them out to sea instead? He asks Naomi what she thinks, and Naomi starts to cry; a situation that Mervin is completely unequipped for. He remembers what Naomi had planned that evening, and Naomi tells him that Emmanuel is engaged, apologising for crying in front of him. She says that she thinks she messed up, because Emmanuel is moving on with his life, just like everyone else she knows. She wonders if she should have stayed on Saint Barnabas, but Mervin points out that if she'd done that, she wouldn't be here now, doing the job that she loves and is very good at. Naomi sobs that she's worried she made the wrong choice, and Mervin tells her that there is no such thing: he admits that he was engaged once, but work got in the way and his fiancée got fed up of never seeing him. Naomi asks him if he thinks he could ever find a balance, and Mervin admits he's not managed it so far: it's difficult when work is the only thing he's really good at. Naomi smiles in recognition, and Mervin offers her some rum cake to cheer her up. (What a lovely scene that was — written with real warmth and perfectly played by Don Gilet and Shantol Jackson.)

The next day, at the police station, Mervin is back at the crime board going over everything they know so far. The one thing that's still puzzling everyone is that all of their suspects were visible on the pitch at the moment they believe Ines was shot. The lab report comes back from the gun, with the unsurprising news that there were no prints on it; however, the serial number connects it to a seller called Warwick Edwards. Darlene says that name rings a bell: Dwayne knew him back in the day, so she offers to track him down and see if he remembers who he sold the gun to.

While Darlene and Seb are making inquiries, Naomi approaches Mervin and apologises for last night, saying she's very embarrassed. Mervin tells her not to be, but not to do it again. Naomi asks if he's going to look into what the waitress said about his mother's plans for the ashes, but Mervin says he's decided it probably isn't important, and he's just going to leave it be. He's been going through Ines's phone records, and discovered that she booked a cab from the hotel the night before she died, so Naomi offers to go down to the cab office and see if she can find out where Ines went.

Catherine catches up with Selwyn, who tells her he has already heard from the Chief Commissioner that the decision won't be reversed. Catherine is outraged, because the Chief Commissioner "sat there, eating his prawn cocktail" (what a fabulous image) and told her the petition would definitely make a difference. She says she feels like an idiot, and Selwyn says that's not what she is. Catherine apologises for ignoring Selwyn's wishes, and he tells her that he's very grateful that she tried to save his job, even if she ultimately wasn't successful. He suggests they both accept the situation as it is.

While Darlene and Seb are waiting for Warwick to return from the shops, Darlene offers up an apology to Seb for previously giving him a hard time about Mrs Valois: she tells him that community policing is all about going the extra mile for the public, and it's good to be reminded of that sometimes. Seb says that his mother is a pastor at St Vincent's, and one of her favourite quotes from the Bible is "do unto others as you would like done unto you". Darlene says his mother must be so proud, but Seb says he thinks his mum is just waiting for him to ruin this opportunity like he ruins everything else. (There's more lovely character work going on in this scene; Ginny Holder and Shaquille Ali-Yebuah really making the most of the chance to let their characters breathe outside of the investigation.) Warwick approaches, and Seb goes to speak to him.

Back at the police station, Mervin has been brushing up on his football stats: apparently Saint Auguste have won the cup final six times in the last 10 years, compared to just two for Saint Marie. Naomi says that the cab driver told her that he drove Ines to Grace's house; Ines asked him to wait outside, and when she emerged, Grace was chasing her down the street and they had a big argument that ended with them both crying. Darlene calls, with the news of who Warwick sold the gun to.

Darlene and Seb are waiting outside Grace's house when she attempts to sneak out with a backpack. Seeing them waiting, she drops the bag and breaks into a run, so Seb gives chase — and Darlene uses the motorbike to get ahead of Grace and cut her off. At the police station, Grace admits that she and Ines were a couple, but Curtly banned all the girls from dating during the season, so they had to keep their relationship quiet. She says that Ines made her delete all of their messages, and she doesn't even have a photo with her. Grace says that Ines came over that night to end things between them; she had been planning to go with Ines to Florida if she got the scholarship, but Ines said she didn't want Grace distracting her during such an important opportunity. Mervin suggests that Ines ditched Grace because she didn't love her enough, and Naomi — definitely not overidentifying with this scenario at all — says that isn't necessarily true, that maybe Ines had the chance to follow the dream that she'd had since she was a little girl, and would never have forgiven herself if she hadn't devoted herself to it fully, that maybe it wasn't about Grace at all. Grace says she only wanted the best for Ines, and Naomi softens. Mervin asks her what she bought the gun for, and Grace says she bought it to protect Ines because she knew she'd been getting death threats. Apparently Ines was convinced someone was going to attack her at the match, but now Grace realises that if she hadn't given Ines the gun, she might not have died.

Outside, Naomi apologises to Mervin for getting carried away, and the two of them feel fairly certain that Grace isn't Ines's killer. As Seb and Darlene return, Mervin gets them all to throw around a football while they throw around a hypothetical: Ines didn't want to play in the match because of the death threats, but ultimately did end up taking part, so what made her change her mind? Naomi suggests she decided the risk was worth it — but Mervin wonders, if that's the case, why did Ines ignore all of Curtly's game plans? He reminds that Ines's future depended on this match, and she let her temper get the better of her. He chucks the ball to Seb, who misses it, saying that he's "not so good with [his] left" — which gives Mervin an idea. He asks Naomi to get that news article from his desk that he read the stats in earlier, and the photo of the Saint Auguste team, because he's ready to gather the suspects.

So here's what happened: Brigitte shot Ines — before the match. Looking through some old team photos, Mervin noticed that Ines would always be kneeling on her right knee, but in the picture taken at the cup final, she's kneeling on her left because doing anything with her right leg at the time would have been immensely painful. Ines wanted to pull out of the match, because she'd received a text from Brigitte telling her that she'd die if she played in it. She made the fateful decision to bring the gun that Grace had bought her for protection. As for what made Ines change her mind about playing, Brigitte admits that she overhead Ines and Curtly arguing, and that Ines was sticking up for Brigitte because she believed she was good enough to play. Racked with guilt, Brigitte went into the changing room with Ines and confessed to being the person who had sent the threatening texts. Ines took the gun out of her bag to show Brigitte the lengths she had gone to protect herself. Brigitte tried to take the gun away from her, but Ines wouldn't let it go, and in the struggle, the gun went off, firing a bullet straight through Ines's thigh and into the wall behind them. The gunshot went unheard by the supporters outside, because the band were rehearsing loudly at the time.

Brigitte says that the bullet wound was small and there was hardly any blood, so they thought Ines would be all right. Naomi theorises that if people found out about the shooting, all three of them would be in trouble: Ines for carrying an unlicensed firearm, Grace for supplying it, and Brigitte for sending threatening messages. It would not only ruin Ines's future, but Grace's and Brigitte's too. Ines didn't want that to happen, so they tried to cover up the shooting: they bandaged up Ines's thigh using the first aid kit, and Brigitte took the bullet out of the wall. Brigitte explains that she put the gun in her locker at first so she could get rid of it after the game, at which point the plan was also to get Ines some proper treatment. Ines took some painkillers and decided to play the game, but she was still in so much pain that she couldn't kick: hence her throwing the ball rather than kicking it long as Curtly had planned. The pain and frustration was what triggered Ines's clash with Grace and led to the red card, then when Ines went back to the changing room and took off the dressing to check her wound, she haemorrhaged because the exertion of playing the match had loosened a blood clot. She tried to phone for an ambulance, but bled out before she could make the call.

Brigitte explains that she took the bandages off the floor and threw them away, and then took the gun out of her locker when her father was getting the rest of the team out of the changing room — but when she saw the police, she panicked and threw the gun into the laundry basket. She'd planned to move it later, but the laundry had already been collected by the time she came back. Curtly speaks up to say that Brigitte didn't deliberately kill Ines, and Mervin agrees that it was a tragic accident, but says that Brigitte will still be charged with manslaughter. Grace is also arrested for illegally supplying a firearm. As she's being cuffed, Brigitte tearfully apologises to Grace. (Is it just me, or is the most heartbreaking part of all of this that Ines was trying to protect Grace and Brigitte when she played in the match that killed her, so she ultimately died for nothing?)

Afterwards, Naomi catches up with Emmanuel, who congratulates her on solving a tough case. He asks if this is goodbye for them, and Naomi in turn congratulates him on his engagement. He tells her to make sure she comes to say hi to him next time she's back on Saint Barnabas, and they part as friends — though Naomi is clearly still pretty heartbroken.

She goes for a consoling drink with Darlene at Catherine's Bar, and Catherine reveals that she's recently started seeing someone — all very casual — and his son is a doctor who might be a good match for Naomi. Naomi thanks her, but says that she's not ready to date anyone else right now. Seb and Mervin arrive with drinks, as well as a thank you cake from Mrs Valois, and Selwyn joins them to apologise for being grumpy over the past few days. He thanks them all for working so hard, and says he appreciates them all, even if he doesn't always show it.

Later in the evening, Mervin is sitting on the beach enjoying the view, and Naomi brings him a drink, teasing him that he really is starting to like it in Saint Marie. She's clutching a piece of paper, and admits that what he said about Dorna wanting to scatter her father's ashes on the beach has been playing on her mind. She tells him that if you want to scatter a loved one's remains on the island you need a permit, so she went to check the council records office and Dorna applied for permission two weeks before her death. They both agree that it's odd that Dorna did this only to end up scattering the ashes at sea, and come to the conclusion that they need to reopen the investigation into Dorna's death...