Return to Paradise episode 4 sees DI Mackenzie Clarke (Anna Samson) investigate the murder of an eco-warrior.
We open with some eco-warriors walking through a wood before cutting through a fence marked "DANGER". Activist Byron Jones makes a video statement that the land is meant to be protected for kola conservation but tomorrow a timber firm is cutting the trees down. There's a bit of arguing between the activists and then they start chaining themselves to a digger.
In the morning, they awake to find Byron has been murdered! Mackenzie bumps into Daisy and Glenn by the beach. They chat about Glenn's upcoming footy game, which Mackenzie clearly finds boring. When Daisy goes off, Glenn asks Mackenzie for his engagement ring back. Wouldn't he want a different ring after what happened last time?!. OK, it's his grandma's, but still! Anyway, Glenn wants to pop the question to Daisy. But does he really?!
Philomena breaks it to Mackenzie that not only does she want her to work on patrol at the footy game, but she also wants her in uniform. At the scene of the murder, Colin says the victim was whacked over the head. They cut free the protesters. Colin is a big fan of kolas, but Mackenzie points out that most of them have Chlamydia! Lovely!
Mackenzie notes oddly Bryon was wearing only a single sock. This is bound to be key! Operations manager Fiona found the body and they speak to her. She says they have security cameras covering the perimeter. Mackenzie thinks Fiona is lying about something as she said "honestly" twice. They intereview the protestors — Bryon's husband Ken Sen-Jones, Bryon's brother Henry Jones and Maggie Mitchell. Maggie won't say a word other than a bit of singing, but the others reveal they broke in around 2 am to the site. They reveal they felt the chains shaking in the middle of the night. When Mackenzie suggests Bryon is the leader, Maggie lets slip that she founded the movement when "Bryon was still in nappies". Felix says there's no evidence of anyone else entering the site from the camera footage.
Where's Glenn's ring?!
At the station, it's revealed that Bryon was arrested over a previous protest which saw some miners get hurt when someone tampered with a bulldozer. However, Bryon was acquitted. Mackenzie asks Felix to see if any of the victims are in Dolphin Cove. Mackenzie is confused by the victim only wearing one sock.
Glenn confirms that Bryon was whacked on the head. Mackenzie seems to think one of the protestors did it but Glenn reckons it's unlikely given they were all chained to the digger. He reminds her about the ring, and she assures him she knows where it is. Does she?!
Reggie comes over to Mackenzie's to help her find the ring! Reggie wants to hypnotize Mackenzie to help her find it! Suddenly Mackenzie remembers throwing the ring off on her wedding day and they start searching the garden. She digs it up eventually!
The next day, Mackenzie and Colin discuss that Bryon's phone records show him calling only one unlisted number. They call the number and observe as Fiona picks up! Mackenzie wonders how Fiona knew to go to the exact spot where the protestors were. She claims to have heard them yelling when she reached the entrance to the site but Mackenzie says it was over 1km away from where they were so she couldn't have heard. Mackenzie has worked out that Fiona knew Byron was there. Fiona was paying Byron for information!
In a weird partnership, Byron got money to keep the group going while Fiona got advanced warnings of protests so she could contain them. On the night of the murder, she claims she was staying with her sister. Colin says her alibi checks out. Felix reveals there was a noise complaint on the night of the murder and they work out that the brothers were having an argument. But what about? At the headquarters of the group, they talk to Henry who says he and his brother were very different. He hands over some files from the mining incident. They start searching for the victim's phone and Mackenzie finds it. And she finds the missing sock! Colin finds some tablets, which turn out to be painkillers. Henry explains Byron became addicted after using them for a shoulder injury. Henry says Bryon's husband wouldn't have been happy if he'd found out. Mackenzie thinks Bryon being under the influence of drugs explains the one sock. Colin's not convinced.
At the station, Philomena gives Mazkenzie her football patrol kit! Mackenzie produces a copy of the calendar she found at the headquarters. It has colored dots on it. Why? At the timber firm, Ken Sen-Jones is kicking off. Felix bundles him into the car. Mackenzie confronts him and points out that the dots on the calendar are for an ovulation cycle and suggests they had a surrogate lined up. She says by spending all their money and taking drugs Bryon had ruined their chances of having a baby, thus a perfect murder motive. Felix goes to see Maggie, who’s refusing to talk to him. Cue the entry of Reggie undercover as an environmentalist. Maggie invites Reggie into her camper van for a cup of tea.
Bryon's killer is revealed
Glenn reveals that Bryon wasn't drugged up and so Mackenzie wonders why he then was only wearing one sock. Mackenzie goes all weird about the ring and Philomena turns up. Back at the campervan, Reggie tries to get info out of Maggie. She says that a "leech" tried to take away the protest group. The next morning, Mackenzie, Colin and Felix study the footage from Henry's head camera. It shows Bryon wearing a bandana on his wrist, but it is missing from his body. Reggie walks in and reveals Bryon proposed a motion to bar Maggie from the group and it passed. She also found Maggie's got a one-way ticket to Tasmania. Mackenzie and Colin go to speak to Maggie but she denies killing Bryon and says she's off to Tasmania for a protest.
At the station, Colin makes a discovery about the 1-7-S-K written on the file about the mining protest. The 1-7 refers to the crime act he was charged under. But what about the S-K? Mackenzie looks at a newspaper article about Bryon's trial and there's a photo of Fiona Kollos! S-R stands for Sarah Roberts, whose maiden name was Kollos. So they work out Fiona's sister was one of the victims in the mining incident.
They go to talk to Fiona, who admits she wanted Bryon to suffer. She says, though, her plan was to expose him for being on the take from a logging company. She denies killing him. Mackenzie is still trying to work out how you kill someone when you're chained to a digger. So she takes the team along, including Glenn, and chains them all to a digger! She quickly rules out the three protestors working together. As she goes to unchain Reggie, they have a whispered chat about Glenn. Reggie mentions digging for the ring and this sparks something in Mackenzie's mind! She's got it! She says she needs the bandana and she knows where it is.
She gathers the suspects. She goes back to earlier in the evening on the night of the murder. She says Henry and Bryon argued. Henry shoved Byron at headquarters and he hit his head which they know because the splinters in his wound were from floorboards. He used the bandana on the wound not realising his injury was a ticking time bomb. His head injury explains Bryon's odd behaviour such as only wearing one sock. Mackenzie says Henry must have been aware Bryon was dying from a head wound especially as he had medical training and yet he did nothing. Mackenzie says Bryon eventually had a seizure due to a bleed on the brain. She says the blood on the bandana proves that Henry was the killer. That is why Henry took the bandana. That is why when they were cut free of the chains, Henry pretended to vomit in the woods. He took the chance to dig a hole and bury the bandana!
Henry also planted the painkillers to make it look like that was why Bryon was acting oddly and to misdirect the police. He also took Bryon's money to make it look like he was spending his money on drugs. She also reveals that Henry was the one taking money from the loggers and not Bryon! He also gave the file on the mine incident to the police to make it look like Fiona was the killer. That explains why Bryon acted like he didn't know Fiona when he saw her because he didn’t know her for real! And that made Bryon realize what Henry had done. Bryon then produces her key piece of evidence — the bandana with Henry's DNA all over it. Henry tearfully admits his crime.
Back at the station, Mackenzie agrees to cover the footy game. Mackenzie, now in uniform, sees Glenn after the game and gives him his ring back. Glenn then weirdly tries to put the ring back on her finger! Mackenzie recoils but there's clearly something there still between them...
