Moonflower Murders episode 5 sees Atticus Pünd (Timothy McMullan) finally reveal Melissa's killer, while Susan faces fresh dangers.
The episode opens with Martin Webster digging in his garden, while his wife Joanne watches. Meanwhile, Lawrence struggles with his crossword, Lisa works out in the gym and Aiden hugs his daughter. There's creepy music as we're taken on a journey through a forest until we see Cecily's dead hand poking from the undergrowth! And the titles begin…
In the book, Madeline and Pünd are at the hotel breakfast table. Madeline is looking up train times back to London, but Pünd says he’s not leaving yet. Is she eager to leave because she has something to hide? Chubb, amazingly, has concluded that John killed himself! But Pünd says he didn’t, which seems pretty obvious. "He was murdered," says Pünd, listing the many reasons why it was highly unlikely John plunged a dagger into himself. Pünd says he knows who was looking in at the window shortly before John's death. Chubb joins them at breakfast. In the present, Susan is stuck in traffic. She goes to the garden centre to see her sister but runs into her sister’s son instead. She asks him why her sister's house is being sold. He acts oddly and refuses to answer.
In the book, Leonard tries to persuade Samantha to leave half the money to Algernon. Given his previous hostility to Algernon, she's confused and surprised. She says she'll think about it. Chubb is frustrated that Pünd thinks that not only was John murdered, but he also didn't kill Melissa. Pünd says he has an idea who Melissa wrote her love letter to. They go to see the doctor and Algernon. Algernon says he started seeing Melissa about six months ago. Chubb then asks Algernon about the hit and run. He says they found a cigarette at the scene of the crime and it's the same brand Algernon is smoking now! Algernon confesses to the hit and run but on hearing the singer wasn't killed, dismisses the crime and smugly says he'll probably only get a fine which Leonard will cover.
Pünd goes to see Samantha in the church. Pünd explains Agernon's crime. She makes the decision on the spot not to share her inheritance with her brother. She then tells Pünd about her husband's change of mind. She's further distressed when Pünd reveals her brother's affair with Melissa. Samantha is shocked that Melissa could have set her sights so low.
In the present, Susan goes to visit Derek. Before seeing him, she chats with Gwyneth. She reveals that Alan Conway came to visit her and Derek and he asked lots of questions. Derek comes down and Susan asks why Alan didn't record their conversation. Gwyneth says she refused and we flash back to see them kicking Alan out. Susan asks about the Websters, who live nearby, and they call them "the odd couple". They say that neither Joanne or Martin ever invited them in, despite the fact Martin knows them as he was always popping into the hotel. Derek reveals that Martin used to provide the laundry service to the hotel, but Cecily ended the business arrangement when they fell out. Susan goes to visit Martin. She asks him why he fell out with Cecily, but he slams the door on her. In the house, Martin says to Joanne he will make sure Susan doesn't find anything out about them. Martin looks dodgy!
Susan goes back to the hotel and heads to the room where Frank was murdered. But as she goes to go inside Lawrence appears from nowhere. Susan tells Lawrence she's trying to work something out on the night of Frank's murder. Derek was on reception when he heard the dog bark. He went to the dog and saw someone he thought was Stefan. But then when Derek went to the corridor Stefan had gone. Susan says if Stefan had gone into Frank's room why didn't Frank react to the fact a stranger had entered his room? Lawrence says Frank could have been asleep. Susan replies why didn't Stefan then just rob him and leave? And why did the dog bark?
Susan recalls Cecily saying Stefan wasn't the only young offender working in the hotel. Lawrence reluctantly tells him the other one is Liam. Susan goes to speak to Liam, who served time in Australia for supplying steroids. Liam says Stefan was exploited at the hotel and that Lisa was the worst. Lisa was sleeping with Stefan. He reveals he saw them having it away in the woods a couple of weeks before the murder. Liam thinks that Lisa accused Stefan of stealing because he'd ditched her. Liam reveals that he's now sleeping with Lisa!
Susan drives away from the hotel and someone is watching her… it's Andreas! She goes to see Katie who finally reveals that Gordon has left her. He left six months ago. She says he started staying away in London more and more. He had an affair with his secretary and lavished so much money on her that they now can't afford the house. Katie blames herself and says she's been forced to downsize. She tells Susan to make sure she doesn't lose Andreas.
She drives away from Katie’s and someone overtakes her very aggressively. It’s Martin Webster. He then doubles back and drives fast straight at Susan, forcing her to crash. He smirks as he drives off. Locke arrives at the hotel and breaks the news that Cecily's body has been found in the forest. Locke says a dog walker found the body. Susan parks up outside the hotel and an emotional Locke confronts her. He says Cecily was strangled just like that actress in the book. Rude Lisa then confronts Susan and says her all-expense trip to the hotel is over. "What is wrong with you?" demands Susan. Lisa says she's agreed with her father that Susan should leave the hotel the next day. Susan turns around and sees Andreas! He asks where she was last night as he's wondering if she wants to see him. She replies she wants to see him more than anyone.
Back in the book, Pünd gathers the suspects together in Melissa's house in true Agatha Christie style. Pünd returns to the beginning of the story as he prepares to reveal the murderer. He says Melissa was killed shortly after 6.28 pm and Leonard chips in that’s when she called him, saying “He wants to kill me”. Pünd said it might appear she was referring to her husband who’d lied about going to the opera. Pünd says Phyllis and Eric departed the house and so had Oscar.
At that point, Pünd says John Spencer returns. But we have a problem, says Pünd. All the evidence points to the telephone call taking place downstairs, where they are all now. Yet, Pünd says it's in the bedroom where the doctor discovers the body. "It does not work," says Pünd. He says it makes no sense if Melissa thought she was really in danger that she'd go to the bedroom. And, why would John Spencer allow her to make a telephone call for help, adds Pünd.
The doctor points out again that he found Melissa dead on the bed with marks on her neck. Pünd says that there were two sets of marks around her neck, why? Chubb said maybe in the struggle the killer made a second attempt at strangling her after the first effort failed. "That's exactly what I believed until the moment that you [Chubb] referred to the drama of 'Othello'. What happens in that play? Desdemona is strangled by her jealous husband and just like John Spencer, he confesses to the crime. 'She's dead'", he says. "'Still as the grave. I have no wife…'". Completing the line, Oscar says: "'But then she recovers'."
Pünd explains that John Spencer did attack Melissa and believed he'd strangled her to death, when in fact she was just unconscious. Pünd says he ran out of the house, leaving her behind. Then she woke up. The telephone chord had been pulled from the wall. So she had to head downstairs to call for help. She made the call and then returned to her bed in the 10 minutes it took the doctor to get there.
And Pünd then declares Doctor Collins as Melissa's killer! Pünd says her love letter was for the doctor and not for Algernon. Algernon lied only because he knew he could blackmail Doctor Collins about the affair and thus get his hands on his sister's inheritance. But to do that he had to lie and pretend the love letter was for him. Pünd explains that had the doctor's deeply religious wife discovered the affair she would have left him and that's why Leonard had to murder Melissa, who was threatening to tell the world about their affair. Algernon says Melissa told him about the affair.
Samantha declares her husband a "monster". The evil doctor says that he saw Melissa as his ticket out of his boring life until he realized his wife was going to inherit a huge sum of money. He adds that Chubb should also arrest blackmailing Algernon and Chubb obliges by arresting both of them. But there's still the question of who killed the husband. "The person who killed John Spencer was me," says Pünd! We’re taking it that he doesn’t mean that literally!
