Moonflower Murders episode 6 sees Susan Ryeland (Lesley Manville) at last discover who murdered Cecily and Frank. While Atticus Pünd (Timothy McMullan) reveals John's killer... for us Moonflower Murders is easily one of the best BBC dramas available.
The episode opens with Susan and Alan at dinner discussing the draft of his book. Alan orders himself a hugely expensive bottle of wine and makes clear he's not sharing it with Susan! Susan has some potential edits. She says she found some of the characters unsympathetic, especially Peeping Tom, Eric. She complains he's even still reading comics. Alan cryptically says Eric reading a comic is an unexplained clue! Susan then mentions it's confusing when Alan mixes in the real world into the book like when there's a signed Wizard of Oz picture by the actor Bert Lahr, who played the Cowardly Lion. Alan says that’s another clue!
A frustrated Susan says he never explained that either! She has two notes about the Agatha Christie scene at the end when the doctor is revealed as the killer. Why is Oscar there? And, she asks, if he's there why not Lance and Maureen as well? But her biggest note is when Pünd says he killed John. She asks why do we have to wait another chapter to find out what happened. She reckons it all should be revealed at once. "I like the suspense," retorts Alan. "So, what do we do now?" And the titles begin…
In the book, Pünd is with Chubb and Madeline. He tells Chubb he shouldn't have taken the case. He was asked to by a man who claimed to be Melissa's agent from New York. He said the man's accent didn't fit and was the accent of someone pretending to be an American. Turning to Madeline, he says that someone was very interested in him taking the case and that person was Madeline because she was obsessed with Melissa James!
Pünd notes times when Madeline revealed deep knowledge of Melissa's films. She hired the actor playing the agent so she could enter the world of Melissa James, says Pünd. He continues that she wrote to Melissa and made a clumsy attempt to conceal one of the letters on Melissa's dressing table by fainting. Chubb, latching on, asks Pünd if Madeline killed John Spencer. Pünd affirms that's exactly what he's saying! He says it's his fault for bringing her here. Pünd reminds Chubb that Madeline had told them at their pub dinner that she thought whoever killed Melissa deserved to be hanged.
Madeline confesses saying he deserved to die, but Pünd replies that didn’t give her the right to be his judge and executioner. As to the man at the window, Pünd said that was Eric, who wanted to listen to find out if the police were talking about him. Eric quickly returned to the kitchen where his mother covered for him. But Pünd had spotted mud on Eric's shoes. With everyone distracted, Madeline took her chance to murder John. Madeline resigns from her job! And Chubb leads Madeline away in handcuffs… Pünd looks up and acknowledges Susan at an upstairs window and we're back in the present.
Susan, in her hotel room with Andreas, gets a package. It's from Craig and it's her phone. She agrees to return to Crete but says she must finish what she started with the book. Susan sees Lisa at reception and tells her she's off to see Stefan and she intends to prove he didn't kill Frank.
At the prison, Susan is taken to see Stefan. Stefan says the person who killed Frank also killed Cecily. He reveals Cecily had written to him a few weeks ago saying she knew he was innocent after reading a book. Stefan says on the night of the murder he was asleep. He said maybe he drank too much wine, but he only drank one or two glasses, so was he drugged? Locke told him to confess to get an easier sentence. Stefan says he only had slept with Lisa because she threatened him. And when he finally refused she fired him a month before the wedding. Susan doesn't understand why he then slept with Lisa again two weeks later in the woods. Stefan says he only did that because she promised him his job back.
On the way back, Susan tells Andreas she believes Stefan is lying about what happened in the woods. They stop at a pub for a drink. While Stefan goes to the bar, Pünd "joins" Susan. Pünd says she is so close and that one thing she sees can untangle the whole case. Could be anything, he says. "A magpie, a moonflower, the name of this public house, for example…". Susan grabs a menu and reads The Plough and Stars. And suddenly the name sets a spark off in her head and she says they have to go now! They go to the Websters. Susan says when she first met Martin she was puzzled by the way he kept incriminating himself. It was like he wanted her to believe he had a motive for killing both Frank and Cecily. Joanne says Martin isn't a killer. And Susan agrees. She says he's a pathetic man who wants to pretend he's a killer. He was motivated by a desire to escape his loveless marriage to a bully. Andreas asks Susan on the way out how she knows Martin isn't the killer and she says because she knows who did it. Susan tells Andreas she's been given a freelance book editing job and can work from Crete. He's pleased. She tells him she's unsure about gathering all the suspects together. Pünd "joins" Susan to give her support for the big reveal.
With everyone gathered together, Susan says Stefan didn't kill Frank and Cecily's knowledge of that placed her in danger. She explains they have to start with her the night before the wedding when Stefan was framed for murder. It starts with the dog bark. Someone jabbed the dog with a brooch, making it bark and drawing Derek upstairs so he could witness "Stefan" going to Frank's room.
Susan says in fact it was Leo. Leo was a male escort and Frank was his client and Alan's book is dedicated to both of them. Susan says: "Cecily said the killer was named in the book and there it is". And we see the dedication: "For Frank & Leo: In Remembrance". She continues she knows from her conversation with James, Alan's partner, that Leo is Australian. Everyone looks at Liam who denies having anything to do with it. Susan says Leo must have been here when Alan came to the hotel otherwise why would he be in the book?
Susan continues that when she was in the pub this morning, The Plough and Stars, it occurred to her that Leo is also a star sign. And then everything for her clicked into place. Susan continues Cecily was into astrology and wore a pendant with the star sign for Sagittarius. "When was her birthday?" asks Susan. “December 10,” replies Pauline. As for Aiden’s, it’s August 16, Leo! Addressing Aiden, Susan says she also half noted he had a tattoo on his shoulder when looking at a photo in his home and later realized it referred to a lion, associated with Leo. Aiden says she's talking rubbish and he's not Australian. Susan replies that Alan's joke about Leo being in bed with jet lag after traveling from Melbourne only works because he was referring to a town called Melbourne in south Derbyshire! Lawrence chips in that Aiden's mother came from Derbyshire.
Susan says Aiden was the male escort and married Cecily for money. But in a terrible stroke of luck, Frank checked in the night before the wedding and recognized Leo/Aiden. From being unhappy about his room Frank was suddenly delighted because he knew what he was going to do. Susan says this is where we get to the opera, "The Marriage of Figaro", which Frank said he was going to see and was the opera Melissa was also originally going to see on the night of her murder. Susan explains the plot of "The Marriage of Figaro" which sees an aristocrat try to force someone to sleep with him on their wedding night and that was Frank's nasty idea.
He would do exactly the same thing to Aiden. Susan thinks Alan had worked this out and that's why he put it in his book as a clue. Susan continues Frank passed the key, which he pretended was broken, to Aiden so he could come into the room later that night. But rather than doing as Frank wished, Aiden decided to murder him and frame Stefan. Aiden drugged Stefan with Cecily’s sleeping pills. Then when it came to midnight he dressed up as Stefan and made sure he'd have a witness by making the dog bark. Then he went to room 12 and hammered Frank to death. Aiden then went to Stefan's room and planted Frank's money. He also used the fountain pen — we knew this would be crucial! — he'd stolen to drop Frank's blood onto Stefan's bed.
Aiden says he was Stefan's friend! But Susan says that's not true either. He may have been once but Aiden had found out about Cecily's affair with Stefan. Liam saw Stefan and Cecily, not Lisa, in the woods. Susan says that's the real reason Lisa fired Stefan. Lawrence says this can't be true but Susan says he should look at his granddaughter. Stefan's daughter, not Aiden's! Pauline screams at Locke that Stefan has spent seven years in jail because of him. Susan continues that even now Stefan is protecting Cecily. She adds that the name Cecily chose for her daughter refers to Stefan. "Roxana is quite a common name in Romanian. It means brightness or dawn."
Aiden at last confesses. He says he tried to love Cecily but then she saw something in the book and was going to tell. In the car park, Pünd and Susan "talk". He praises her masterclass. But, he adds although we have the dedication and the opera reference in the book, might she have missed something else from Alan’s book!
Back in Crete, Susan is looking at the book to see if she missed something. Andreas looks frustrated and says Aiden is in jail, while Stefan has been released and is with his daughter. He says she solved it all, but she insists there's something else. She wakes in the middle of the night and says: "I've got it!". The next morning she explains to Andreas that Alan wanted us to know the killer was Leo and therefore filled the book with lions. There was the pub, The Red Lion, where Pünd, Madeline and Chubb dined, then there was Oscar Berlin's script about Richard the Lionheart, then the comic Eric read was the "Lion" and then there was the signed picture of Bert Lahr, who played the Cowardly Lion. Plus the stained glass window in the church featured a lion and Algernon’s number plate was L1ON5.
Andreas says enough! He wants Susan to move on from Alan Conway. Later Andreas takes Susan to a romantic spot by a fire and they look at the stars. And Susan burns her notes on the case… as the paper burns we see that Aiden MacNeil (the killer) is an anagram of Madeline Cain (John's killer in the book)! Thus confirming Alan Conway always knew Aiden was the killer.
But this isn't the end of the story as writer Anthony Horowitz is writing a third Susan Ryeland book, "Marble Hall Murders", due for release in 2025. We imagine there will be a TV version as well...
