Strike: The Ink Black Heart episode 1 recap: a gruesome murder and a long line of suspects

Strike: The Ink Black Heart marks the return of the BBC’s hit crime drama, adapted from J.K. Rowling’s novels written under the pseudonym, Robert Galbraith.

With Cormoran Strike (Tom Burke) and Robin Ellacott (Holliday Grainger) reprising their roles once again, the detective agency are approached with a rather unusual case. Edie, the co-creator of a popular cartoon turned TV show, Ink Black Heart, comes to Robin to plead for help after a barrage of abuse and stalking by an unknown online persona known only as Anomie. At first, the agency is too busy to help her, but then the case turns into a murder investigation and they must act quickly to unravel an intricate web of lies and suspects.

Here's a recap of everything that happened in Strike: The Ink Black Heart episode 1.

The series opens on Robin meeting Strike to celebrate her birthday. They share funny stories over dinner and conversation turns to Robin’s marriage falling apart. There’s unsaid words between them and as they part ways, Strike goes to kiss her, but she pulls away. Embarrassed, he helps her into a taxi and says goodnight.

A woman arrives at Strike’s office, looking to speak to Robin. She introduces herself as Edie Ledwell. Meanwhile, Strike follows another case, a couple, around an art gallery and meets up with Mitch Patterson outside tasking her with capturing a photo of them kissing.

At the office, Robin tells Edie they’re not taking on any new clients, but in desperation, she starts to explain her case. She's the co-creator of Ink Black Heart, a cartoon she made with her ex-boyfriend that is now a TV show and soon to be a film. But, someone is talking her online, making her life unbearable, and leaking really personal information about her. The police can't help because all they know is their online persona, Anomie. The only person she suspects is a man she used to live with called Pez. Still unable to take her on, she refers her to cyber specialists. Robin notices a mark on Edie's neck, but she dismisses it as being clumsy.

The next day, Mitch comes into the office and says she knows about Edie Ledwell, and that Mitch's ex-girlfriend didn't like her. Pat comes in and gives Robin the case file that Edie’s left there, on purpose. Intrigued, Robin looks up Anomie online, reads tweets, and watches an interview with Edie. She talks about the game's villian, Drek, and that Anomie and Morehouse made a game about it — Drek's Game. But she's not happy with it and says they don't understand Drek.

Robin heads to see Edie's agent, Alan Yeoman, to return the case file. In exchange, Alan gives her a picture she's left for her, knowing she'd come to return the file, it says, "Always get a ghost to do your surveillance work." Alan wonders if the abuse started after the interview that Robin watched.

In the midst of detective work, Robin buys an apartment, but when her friend asks her about Strike, she admits she didn't kiss him because she's worried he'd sober up and think it was a mistake. When asked if he's in love with him, she says she doesn't want to be.

A while after Edie approached Robin, she reads in the news that she's in fact been murdered at Highgate Cemetery — the setting of her own cartoon. Tasered and killed. The police come to speak to Robin, a woman named Angela and DCI Murphy. She tells them about Anomie and the case. They ask her about a man called Wally Cardew that she used to live with, she mentions Pez and also the bruising on Edie's neck. They inform her that Edie had a fiancé, but he's not a suspect. They also ask about Edie's political beliefs.

Robin asks what happened to Edie. She was meeting Josh Blay, the co-creator of Ink Black Heart and her ex-boyfriend in Highgate Cemetery. They were both attacked. They think she was dead when he arrived, and while he survived he's in hospital. Strike asks how to get hold of them, Angela doesn’t answer, says to go through DCI Murphy. When they leave, Strike looks up Wally Cardew, he's the voice of Drek.

Strike expresses his suspicion to Robin over Angela avoiding his question. He wonders if she's MI5 and there's a link to anti-terrorism. He says Edie sacked Wally for being alt-right.

Robin goes to a cafe and watches more videos of Robin and Josh. They’re talking to Katya, a woman who is interviewing them. At the same time, Strike is watching The Wally Cardew Show. Wally's clearly angry about being fired. He accuses Edie of sleeping with other people's boyfriends - ask Kea Niven, he says. Wally posts a lot of angry videos online, talks on accusations of racism, conspiracy theories, and doing pranks. In the comments, they’re angry at Edie, too.

DCI Murphy is waiting for Robin at the office. He has an update — there’s going to be an article that’ll say a far-right group called the Halvening are claiming responsibility for the murder of Edie Ledwell, as well as pipe bombs sent to three female MPs. He thinks it’s credible. DCI Murphy is confused about Drek’s Game though, thinking the group didn’t make it, that the Halvening are more involved in using bitcoin to buy weaponry off the dark web.

Alan Yeoman, Edie's agent, calls Robin. She says she wishes she could have helped Edie, he says you might still be able to, if you meet me. Robin and Strike meet with Alan, alongside Richard Elgard of Maverick Films, making the Ink Black Heart film. Also there is Edie’s uncle, Grant Ledwell, next of kin. They tell them that Josh is partially paralysed, but Grant is angry at Josh. He says Josh treated Edie badly and he's the only one who benefits from all of this.

Richard wants them to find out who Anomie is, the creator of Drek’s Game. Morehouse has never been a problem, but he says Anomie is jeopardising the movie. Just before Edie died, they were about to close the deal, now Josh won’t go ahead while Anomie is still active. Grant says Anomie is after me already. Anomie has been accusing Grant of an affair, it’s true, but how does Anomie know these things? He also knows that Grant's ex-wife has Lupus. He's again suspicious of Josh as Anomie always seems to leave him alone.

They also reveal that Edie’s fiancee, Phillip Ormond, is trying to get paid for the script. They need Anomie’s real name. They agree that they'll help, and that they'll speak to Josh’s agent, Katya, and Josh as well.

The pair look more into Edie, Josh, and the house they lived in called North Grove. In a video they see Nils De Jung, an artist and landlord of North Grove, they see Pez Pierce, Edie’s main suspect, Katya Upcott, once both their agent, now just Josh's, and then finally, Wally Cardew. North Grove offer evening art classes, so Robin has enrolled in a class with Mariam, Nils' wife, for a way into the house.

As they list their suspects, they add Kea Niven, Josh’s ex-girlfriend, Phillip Ormond, Edie’s fiance, and Yasmin Weatherhead, Edie’s ex-assistant whom she fired. Yasmin and Kea don’t have access to personal information, so they’re low priority. But, Yasmin is writing a book about being a Black Ink Heart fan.

Strike tells Robin, Barclay, and Mitch to follow Anomie on Twitter and if they've got eyes on their suspect and they’re not on a phone or computer when a tweet goes live from Anomie's account, then you can rule them out as Anomie. Robin tries to sign up to Drek’s game, but it say the game is closed to new players. Mitch mentions her ex again, says she used to get excited when she met Anomie on there, that Anomie is on there all the time. Robin asks if they can use Mitch's ex's login. Barclay is assigned to Phillip, Mitch on Katya, and Strike on Wally.

Robin arrives at the North Grove life drawing class dressed as 'Jessica', the subject they're drawing is Pez. Meanwhile, Strike is following Wally, but he's not the only one. A large bald headed man approaches him, and as they head off together, Strike tries to follow, but his leg is in a lot of pain. He finds Wally, the bald man, and another man in a pub talking. He listens to their conversation — hears them talking about being race realists and that Wally says what he thinks, if you decide to join us, we can amplify that.

Pez talks to Robin about Edie's death as they look at an oil-painted window in the kitchen of North Grove, it mentions Anomie in a quote on the top. Back at the office, Mitch has the login for Drek’s Game. Mitch says her ex has been playing for years, people know her. They login and she says the game is a glorified chat room. Almost immediately, Anomie ascends into the game. Says to Robin, "You came back," and asks for her favorite kind of dog? Mitch says that's a trick question, her ex likes cats. Anomie says, lol welcome back. Come with me.

At the pub, Strike's leg is in pain and he falls over, causing a commotion. As he's recovering in the toilets, the man with Wally has been waiting for him and they get into a fight. Strike tries to run, but his leg won't let him. He pretends to call for back-up as a policeman, the man runs.

Back in Drek's Game, Anomie takes them somewhere. They say, ask me the question. Robin replies, "What question?" Anomie says, "You came back because you want to know. Did I kill Edie Ledwell? Anomie says, I did. And you are welcome." Anomie's character, dressed as Drek, lifts a knife and comes towards the screen.